Black MacBook User Reviews

First of all, I'm no stranger to the Mac, I've owned 4 Apple Laptops (2x G3 PowerBooks, 1x G4 PowerBook and now this lovely C2D MacBook) and 3 Apple Desktops (1x G3 iMac, 1x CD iMac, 1x Mac Classic). In addition to the 7 Macs I have/do own/ed, I was also a Lab/System Administrator at a University computer lab full of Macs (mostly G4 iMacs and G5 PowerMacs) for many years. My experience thus far has been that the Black MacBook C2D is impressive to say the least.

I use the machine as both a personal and work computer. I am a web programmer in my work life and just a nerd in my personal life. The machine more than meets my needs for personal stuff which usually includes web browsing, chatting, email, the occasional CD/DVD rip/conversion. I'm not a gamer so I can't fairly com....Continue Reading

Overall this is a nice computer, though it has significant flaws in terms of design.

POSITIVES:

Power and Speed

• Display quality (bright, crisp and reasonable viewing angles)
• Sleek overall design
• magnetic latch is great
• great feeling keyboard
• nice size and solid weight
• Ability to run windows

NEGATIVES:

• Lack of dedicated graphics chip - not a problem for most people, but definitely a weakness for some.
• Smudging surface. Ridiculous to use a plastic that is so sentivie to fingerprints. It's not average - much much worse! It's really a magnet for finger prints and greese
• Very sharp edges that cut into your wrists - crazy to let som....Continue Reading

How would you rate the Black MacBook? (On a scale of 1-10, with 10 being the highest)

8.5 to a 9. I'll try and explain my reasoning with the next question.

What are your likes and dislikes?

Likes:

• Core 2 Duo, 2.0Ghz. I put it through its paces with FCP5 and it performed flawlessly. World of Warcraft runs fine on it too, under medium settings.
  
• Size & portability
  
• Black case (a little more rugged than MBP, imho)
  
• Battery life. I was able to watch a near 3 hour movie while on a flight, which is more than my old PBG4 could handle.
  
• runs Windows XP just fine, performance wise.
  
• Does everything I need it to do, without crashing.
  
• Quiet. I almost never hear the hard driv....Continue Reading

Totally enjoy my macbook,surpasses my expectations, having swapped over from pc. 2Meg of ram really makes
all apps run smoother without the lag initially found with 1Meg.
Civ IV runs great at full animation and screen res., even though it always boots with warning saying
it won\'t run on this machine. hear is where the low mem of the video comes into play,
and the message doesn't change even with lowest vid settings.
Often civ IV crashed for the first fifty rounds, but fixed itself and now I have no problems with it.

All around a great machine, really appreciate the built in wifi, and bluetooth,
i highly recommend a bluetooth mouse , love the right click and wheel scroll,
look at the logitech V270 works great and gets rid of obsructive usb rf adapt....Continue Reading

This is my first mac but I've used them for years. Compared to my 2Ghz laptop pc it's so slow! Five hours to compile 1000 photos and burn a dvd slide show, iphoto takes forever to load, move or edit photos. Itunes, mail, safari are apps that work well but Office 2004 is very, very slow, but bootcamp and xp is great and fast. Go figure. Airport is great and seamless to use. Going to add more ram and see if that helps.

Based on my experiences so far and that I could have a windows pc for half the price I cannot say I would recommend a mac over a pc.

I have had my macbook since the summer and I've had absolutely no problems with it whatsoever. This machine runs like a tank. I have read and hear all these stories about problems with them and such. I guess I was lucky enough to get a perfect model b/c like I said its worked flawless. I have recommended the macbook line to many friends thinking of switching back to mac. I have also recommended mac's in general to my family b/c of spyware problems with their PC's.

If I could change anything about the black macbook I would probably change the video out port. Why does Apple have to make an extra adapter that you have to buy in order to use an external monitor? That's just one more thing I have to buy. Or if they want more people to use and buy mac's include the adapter s....Continue Reading

I give 10 for great service, and 1 for reliability. I bought my first macbook in feb. 2007. It gave me nothing but trouble, the display hinge kept making noise, got it serviced and it was still making the noise. Harddrive fails after 1 month getting serviced, went back to apple store for repair second time. 2 months later, LCD screen starts flickering and still have that hinge noise problem. Brought it back to the store to be diagnose again, they decided to exchange me a brand new CORE 2 Duo 2.16 ghz black macbook. So i guess that was a good thing. Overall, apple quality is not all that great, but they sure do have good warranty policy and service.

Hard to say whether you want reviews on OS X or the hardware itself. Hardware-wise, it's a nice machine. New owners will likely immediately notice the fact that the black finish will quickly appear as if you have owned the machine for several more months than you actually have. Put simply, it shows grease and finger prints more vividly than the white model. Personally, I prefer black, regardless. The keyboard is quite nice, although not nearly as nice as the offerings from Lenovo/IBM. Nonetheless, I can type fairly easily on it and have gotten used to it over the past 6 weeks or so. The screen is nice - I have had no issues with glare on the glossy screen.

A few 'buyer beware' items. First is the well-known processor whine. I have a Core 2 Duo model running at 2Ghz. ....Continue Reading

I bought my Macbook for school because I needed a more compact laptop than my old PC plus I was getting sick of Windows. So far it has been up to the task of serving me in school.

Specs: 2GB ram, 80GB hd. Software: amsn, firefox, parallels.

I like

• Battery life: Somewhat better than on most other laptops around me.


• Processor Power: Handles everything very smoothly, including multiple virtual machines in Parallels.


• Screen: Bright and smooth.


• Internal gadgets: Bluetooth, WLAN, iSight work well, no problems so far


• Virtualization: Parallels performs very well for all my Windows specific needs. No need to multiboot.
Continue Reading

This is the first APPLE machine I've owned and I'm really blown away so far. What finally got me to go to "the other side" was the Windows Vista laptop which crashed right in front my and salesman's eyes as the latter was showing it to me to demonstratehow fantastic Microsoft's new OS is. Ah, the irony. That being said, the Macbook is not without its faults. I've picked up a tendancy in right-wing Mac users to denounce everything Microsoft! Microsoft is the evil empire which tries to sucker consumers with their evil products.Come on guys! Remember, Apple is not some benevolent "organisation" committed solely to making great products. They're a business, too. Just look at those hilariously funny "I'm a PC/I'm a MAC" adverts for the proof. Commericial competitiveness aside, though, the blac....Continue Reading

I've owned by Black MacBook for 2 weeks now, since then I've had a few minor issues. It's crashed 3 times, two on Firefox and one while I was running Safari and Firefox the same time. I called Applecare and they suggested I uninstall Firefox, I then paid a visit to the store where I bought my Black MacBook and they never heard of a Mac crashing, I just rolled my eyes and said okay, sure..

So I investigated it on my own through Mac Forums which was more helpful, it said to disable a security feature on Firefox and that should solve the problem, so I did just that and it solved the problem for now..

I then installed the new beta version of Safari, after that everytime I closed a window on MSN Messenger for Mac it would crash Messenger. So once again I investigated it on my ....Continue Reading

Hi, First Of All, I'm a Switcher :P
But My Black MacBook actually is not my first apple :P

I was a regular windows user but last time i ever own a mac when i was in uni, it was the iMac , but i only use it for school work like design or etc. I still very much use windows at that time.

Last Year i took a plunge and bought the MacBook Pro 2.0Ghz Core Duo ,Ati Radeon X1600 256MB model. Cause the fact that i may be able to use it for Windows if i don't like OS X. But like most of the majority, i ended up using the OS X more and finally i get rid of boot camp and parrarel on my MBP. The MBP was a nice machine but ihas some flaws , like running too hot, the casing does not align properly, very hard to change the Hard Drive and i get "electrocuted" a lot . And also i don't r....Continue Reading

i recently purchased a black macbook for school. I got it for my b day and so far i have had no problems. I love it. i was a long time pc user but i was tired of my computer getting infected amd crashing and other problems. It has a core 2 duo,2 gigs of ram,2.16, 160 hard drive. im a 14 year old boy so of course i love games but i was slightly dissapointed but thats what i have a pc for. i bought a mac for photoshop and school work. call of duty runs very well amazingly halo is a bit laggy when i have it on high but i am very satisfied with it. my only serious complaint is how its a magnet for finger prints and smudges. i love the ilife software and adobe photoshop works like a wonder. i think the macbook has the best screen ever on a laptop. i thin k i will use this laptop till it breaks ....Continue Reading

great ,fast ,sexy computer
the computer whine is annoying- fix it apple! i have a C2d
slow startup even with 1gb of RAM
the features are awesome! perfect for the typical uni student who does not want to worry about crashing!
no virus,no adware!

It Is a Great computer, the best i have ever owned. I also love Front Row, The apple remote, isight camera, the glossy screen, the keybord and that u can run both OS X and Windows

I got a black Macbook in May and have pretty much loved it ever since. It performs like a champ, handling whatever I have thrown at it with alacrity and style. I try to find universal binaries for any app I want to use on a regular basis, as I notice a performance difference in rosetta apps. The edges of the Macbook are a bit sharp on the wrists, though I find when I hold my hands and arms correctly for typing it's not a problem. The screen is just a tad on the small side, but it is top quality. I really expected it to be more of a hassle to switch from Windows to Mac on my laptop but with Parallels installed, I have both at the same time. I find myself using more and more Mac software to replace things I did on Windows with a 'native' app. I can safely say it has been the best note....Continue Reading

By far the best computer I have ever had the pleasure to own. It starts up in about 30 seconds (that is the time from me hitting the power button to the time the computer is ready to use). It can handle everything I have thrown at it. I switched from using Windows and have not looked back. The OS was easy to learn and is truly better than Windows. I have not had a single problem with my macbook. I have been able to find Mac software (usually Intel native too) to replace and do everything I did on my PC. The battery lasts about 4 hours with normal use and 3 hours with relally intensive use. The WiFi has worked perfectly and has connected networks effortlessly. I am in love with my macbook.

The only flaws are that the black one does show fingerprints and oil easily, the edges ar....Continue Reading

My new Core 2 Duo Macbook has been with me for a couple of weeks now, I have been very busy using it to make interesting things that I can hopefully put in my portfolio soon. I was very excited to have it arrive. On the whole my experience with it has not been as great as I would have hoped. This will only serve as a mini review, simply pointing out what I love about my new toy, and also what has let it down.

Top three likes

• The remote: The little remote is great, Front Row is a bit of a let down and I suggest getting hold of some other software to help make the most of it.
• Boot times: I have not actually ti....Continue Reading

First off...I was also a pc user...but i grew up on Apple...
The MacBook surpasses all notions of "Mac" or "Apple" to be bad in my mind...
Being a power user and recording music this laptop passes duties with flying colors...
The best part about the whole idea is if you really need to use "Windows XP" or even "Vista"...the macbook takes care of it all...
Quality always surpasses Quanity... and in this case it has gone the extra mile...

If you are looking for a computer that can do it all...and still travel...and still get excellent battery life...and still have the ability to watch a movie...and still be able to listen to music...you get the picture...

Setup:
Black MacBook
2.0 ghz
2gb ram
200gb hdd w/ sms (hard drive motion sensor)*this com....Continue Reading

I waited a long time for the Core 2 Duo MB's to be released. There was a time when I was locked on a MacBook Pro because of the added video. After playing around with the Black MacBook, I just loved the form factor and feel. My main rig is a Mac Pro, so the video card issue was pushed aside and I realized that this machine made more sense. I saved about $1000 by going with the MacBook.

One thing I would note: There were key print marks left on the screen, so I found that the Shaggymac Screen Protector and cleaner was a perfect add-on. I recommend this little thing to all MB users: http://www.shaggymac.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=3_4&products_id=82

Believe me I tormented myself for days trying to figure out whether to buy the Macbook or the Macbook pro. After much consideration I finally decided to buy the 2nd generation of the Black Macbook. Here are the specs:

Black MacBook
2.0Ghz Core 2 Duo
120GB Seagate Mommentus 5400.3
2GB of RAM (2x1GB)
Logic Express preinstalled
Apple 3year coverage plan

I pimped it out a bit. Upgraded from 1GB of RAM (2x512mb) to 2GB's of RAM (2x1GB). It costed an extra $157 dollar's but it was money well spent. Overall it speeds up the performance all around and is especially useful since I will be using multiple applications at once, like the revolutionary technology to run Windows and Tiger (Leopard soon) at the same time. I would have just bought the extra GB ....Continue Reading