Review: ‘The MacBook kicks ass!’

Brian Sullivan reviews the MacBook on Nintelligent News. Although it's a very positive review, Brian has a couple of gripes:
'There are two issues I have with the MacBook, and while neither are a deal-breaker, they're annoying enough to mention. The first is the 'whine'. You may have heard about it; but the MacBook makes a high-pitched whining noise when idling. It's almost unnoticeable, but once you hear it you can't un-hear it. You can circumvent the issue by running PhotoBooth or any other app that uses the iSight camera to give the CPU a bit of a workout, but i'd rather Apple just fix it in a firmware update (please!). My second issue lies within Front Row, Apple's version of Window's Media Center Edition. The interface is beautiful and all, but it's not without some problems. For example, when watching a movie, there's no way to exit the Front Row layer and quickly resume the movie; you have to back-track through menus, do whatever it is you wanted to do in OS X, then enter Front Row and select the video file you want to watch again. While it allows you to resume a movie, it's a bit of a hassle. Front Row is also a little bit buggy; it crashed on me on two or three occasions from doing the same thing: removing headphones while watching a movie. It hangs up sometimes as well, but this issue is (mostly) solved with additional RAM.'

And there are several things he really likes:

'Firstly, it has much better sound output than the iBook it's replacing. While the speakers themselves are simply NOT loud enough, they are of higher quality. The really great thing, though, is the addition of optical audio in/out ports. You can connect your MacBook to a surround sound setup or any receiver that takes optical audio and enjoy richer sound. Analog output (headphones or external speakers without digital support) is more than adequate as well. Secondly, the glossy screen is a godsend. I was not an advocate of it when it was first announced, simply because all of the HP laptops I have seen with a glossy finish look disgusting. The MacBook screen, however, is absolutely gorgeous. Colors just pop out, and the screen is incredibly bright. Viewing photos is an experience -- they really benefit from the glossy finish. I don't find any sort of reflection annoying at all, but then again i've never used my MacBook under direct florescent lighting. Then we've got the MagSafe power adaptor and magnetic lack-of-latch. Apple's implementation of magnets in the MacBook should be applauded. The MagSafe is completely symmetric so you can't insert it the wrong way, and it's finally on the same side as all the other ports. When you close your MacBook, magnets snap it shut. There's no unsightly metal pieces or any sort of latch whatsoever. It really helps the overall polish of the MacBook's already gorgeous design.'

Read the full review here.

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