The BBC recently reported that laptop computers will become the dominant form of computer by 2011. Before my new MacBook I would have thought that impossible, but after a few weeks blogging, composing, recording, surfing, editing video, recordings CDs and DVDs, there’s no reason for me to consider keeping that big old desktop around unless I just like having a big bulky screen to work on.
Several weeks ago, I bought a new laptop to replace the old titanium G4 Apple that is almost four years old. I’ve been using Apple notebooks since my first 540c several years ago. Since then my home and office are laptop museums with the 540 (it still works fine), a 5300c, a G3 and the G4. They all still boot up perfectly and other than wrestling with the slower speeds these computers are still functional.
I fretted about the issue for several weeks, because it’s usually my desire to have the top of the line, but over the holidays, I was exploring some of the new laptops at Best Buy and fell in love with the slimmed down notebooks with small screens. I like the small size, because big laptops are too bulky. They get in the way in presentations and their cases are not that practical either. That’s why I decided on the Mac Book.
The MacBook has a compact 13 inch screen and sleek black plastic casing and has suprsing stealth and when I slip it in the black and electric green neoprene case, it really looks like nothing more than a small notebook. The high-rez screen and convenient keyboard make typing feel much easier than the desktop and the head room in memory and hard disc space seems to have no limit. Last week, I edited video, processed photos, composed and recorded a song in GarageBand, made a DVD, CD and surfed the web all at the same time. The Airport Wireless functions of the computer are hot too. Almost every airport and city I’ve been to lately as enabled me to connect to an Internet connection and around the house, let’s keep it quiet, because someone has a good wireless connection that keeps me online free 24/7.
The laptop is sturdy, doesn’t heat up as much as the titanium and has a surprising battery life. There’s a great little Isight camera mounted right on the screen that’s perfect for Skype and the console although small it still feels comfortable. This thing even runs Windows having the Intel core, but for some reason, I can’t subject my new laptop to that much abuse so soon.
The only downside is the fact that the black case seems to attract lots of fingerprints along the way. In addition to the physical and functional assets, this computer is cool and I’ve found that I enjoy working on this keyboard much more than a desktop and will probably continue to look for a computer in the future that is small and powerful. Small is the new cool.