- I just like white Apple Laptops better. The unibody aluminum models remind me too much of PC laptops
- It’s repairable. If a hard drive goes Kaput, the laptop can be opened and a new one can be installed without a hitch. Newer MacBooks seem to get harder and harder to repair and the Retina MacBook Pro, lovely as it is, has everything so glued together that I think even the Apple technicians will get nightmares trying to repair it.
- It’s upgradable - I’ve already upgraded the memory to 4GB and plan to add another 4GB soon, for a total of 8GB, which should make the laptop scream even more. I can just leave all my apps open for an “instant on” setup. I don’t think I’ll need to add the SSD (but I can if I want to)
- The Core 2 Duo 2.26gHz processor is quite adequate for the web browsing, document editing, and general day to day usage that I do. The nVidia 9400m graphics card is also adequate for the few less demanding games I play.
- It still runs the latest Mac OS X 10.9 Mavericks pretty damn well with 4GB of RAM.
- The battery still holds 91 to 92% charge, has reached about 170 cycles (out of 1000 recommended by Apple) so I guess it is going to last for a few more years. The battery lasts for over 5 hours for most routine work.
- It’s solidly built, there is minimal flexing, and the screen hinges are fantastic.
- It's very quiet and I can hardly hear the fans. During heavy workload, however, it can get loud and the underside of the laptop can get pretty warm...
- The touch pad is the best I’ve ever ever used and the cursor doesn’t keep moving around when I touch the touchpad by mistake while I’m typing (a big BIG problem with most Windows laptops)
- The screen is only mildly reflective and shows good colors.
- THE SLEEP MODE
The sleep mode is fantastic in Macbooks. After you close the lid, it goes into sleep mode with blinking LED lights (which are supposed to last for about 20,000 hours so no need to worry seeing them blink). It loses about 10% charge per day which means it would probably last 10 days in sleep mode. I know this is kind of available in Windows as well, but it doesn’t last so many days.
Another great thing about the sleep mode is that if I join the display port adapter to an external monitor, I don’t need to open the laptop to wake it up; I can just use an external keyboard and use the laptop closed, like a Mac mini / desktop. This is the setup I use at home...On my PC laptops, I'd have to open the screen, wake up the laptop, then close the screen back down and use the external monitor....
Sure I’m going to miss out on the latest processors and architecture, but the laptop is more than adequate for my uses. Here’s to a few more happy years with my laptop!!!
