Well as I said in my blog post from Saturday this past weekend I traded my MacBook Pro for a MacBook (well actually TWO MacBooks). Now before you give me any sh*t about always needing the newest and greatest Mac (one friend said “No moss grows on your Macs!”)… I did not have any plans to get a MacBook… but these deals always seem to find me.

It was my intention to get my beloved a MacBook. He’s been patiently waiting for the MacBook. He’s been using our 12″ PowerBook G4 (which is about 2.5 yrs old) and although he likes the PowerBook, he’s been quite vocal on the fact he doesn’t feel comfortable with the PowerBook, he longs for the durability of the iBook’s case. We’ve been patiently waiting for the replacement for the iBook. Last Tuesday, we got our wishes… the MacBook. I was talking to a friend of mine about my plans to go and buy him one to surprise him, and he asked if I was going to get one and I said nah I have my MacBook Pro. He shocked me by asking if I’d be interested in selling it to him. I gave it some thought and after spending some time with my friend’s MacBook, I decided to do it. So I traded my MacBook Pro for not one but two MacBooks. Not too shabby huh?

So what do I think of my MacBook? Long story short, I love it. I do miss some of the features of my MacBook Pro, like my illuminated keyboard and the slightly bigger screen but all in all the MacBook really fits my needs. This might not be the case for everyone but for me… I couldn’t be happier. The wide screen makes all the difference, the resolution, although not a dense as the MacBook Pro’s is the same as my previous PowerBook 1280×800 (PB was 1280×854). Certainly acceptable. The glossy screen is fantastic. Colors are more rich, watching a DVD looks great, and I can finally see my screen in the sunlight. The keyboard is a joy. It’s not hard to type on and I actually make LESS mistakes with it. The track pad is still same wider pad as the MacBook Pro but features a new trick (as does the MacBook Pro 17″) where if you place two fingers on the track pad and press the track pad’s button it gives you a CTRL CLICK. Nice!

The speakers still suck, but on every Mac portable I’ve ever had (except my 12″ PowerBook) they’ve been not so great, They are nicely placed on the back side of the case instead of on the top case. The black case is nice. It’s a rubbery feeling MATTE finish. It looks nice very much like an older PowerBook G3.

Now the real important stuff… complaints! Is it hot? does it make any noises? Anything bad?

Well yes it gets WARM, but not HOT like the MacBook Pro. It’s not that it’s better, it’s just different design. First of all, the MacBook Pro has it’s processors across the back of the case. So the bottom gets very warm and it’s aluminum, which does conduct heat. The MacBook has it’s processors in the far left hand corner and the rubber case does a good job of insulating it.

My MacBook does make some noise… it makes a sort of whirring noise like a fan is kicking on but it does not ever start, some have referred to this as “mooing”. I’m hoping for a firmware fix for it. Also…the case does however get a lot of fingerprints on it but they’re easy enough to wipe off.

If you are going to get a MacBook make sure you get MORE RAM. The 512 is not enough with the integrated graphics card. The graphics are great, I haven’t had any issues with it but of the 512MB of RAM, 122MB is always held in reserve for the graphics. I installed 1GB of RAM and it’s amazingly faster. Everything runs smoother.

So all in all, I’m pretty freaking happy