Apple MacBook - white (Core 2 Duo 2.0 GHz, Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard) (discontinued)

Review: Apple notebooks are good but the white 13" one now replaced by another white but thinner and hopefully better Macbook was a dud. Harddisk crash, slowness, display problem ---you name it and you had it. One commentator calls reviewer names and says film makers use these MacBooks. Idon't think any filmmaker or creative person will risk his creations with a MacBook, its always the MacBook Pro they have. This MacBook white which has now been phased out--should make Apple consider issuing an apology to so, so, so many dissatisfied users and compensating them.

Review:

Review: Love it.

Review: I purchased this laptop for the convenience of surfing the web anywhere my wireless networked reached. I certainly got much, much more. Because of the ease of use of Mac OSX, the laptop is a complete extension of my iMac and any other shared computer on my network for that matter.

I also use my MacBook as a portable DVD player for my two-year old on long car trips and for hooking up to my HDTV to watch movies. I did need to purchase a mini-DVI to HDMI cable. My wife takes the MacBook on business trips so the built in iChat is 100x better than a phone call. Although not as stable as Google Talk Video Chat, certainly usable if there is enough bandwidth. Included iLife software will change the way you take, view, organize, and display your digital media, for the better.

Highly recommend the stock MacBook. Go to www.crucial.com and upgrade to as much RAM as the laptop can take. Mac OSX will run on 1GB of RAM, but when it utilizes 2GB, everything is smoother and more stable.

Review: I'm surprised the review of this *product* is suffering because reviewers have chosen this as a forum to voice their laments about customer service. Sorry, that is a little silly. You get excellent online service for free for a year. You can buy the global "Customer Care" for 3 years. Call the number for Asia Pac support from Skype (using the Skype Out service, which is likely cheaper than your Indian phone anyway) and you will be connected to support in Australia. They know what they're doing. Apple is the ONLY hardware provider that will replace parts without too many questions. Try that with a dull HP or Acer.

I am not a Mac fanboy and I use both Mac and PC at home (PC is a 13 inch Vaio, which has its pluses and minuses), so take this for what it is worth, but this is the machine to beat. Go for the new Macbook of course, this "white" one is going to be history soon.

Updated on Nov 11, 2008

You may wish to use Skype Out and call Apple in Australia or Singapore. If you have a 3 year support warranty, trust me, there is no company better than Apple. Have you tried support from HP or Acer? Likely your local electronic shop would offer the "support", enough said. Apple hardware is fantastic, and most of the time you can find support online or if a replacement is needed, no company holds a candle to Apple.

Review: Simply the best laptop I've ever owned. As a previous Gateway and Dell owner, I switched to the iBook in 2002 and haven't looked back since. The Macbook is the best by far. I have Vista business running in bootcamp and it performs incredibly fast. Great development platform for a CS major, geek, or other power user (although there are some major benefits from moving to the Macbook Pro). Switch to mac and you will be able to let go of your PC/windows frustrations.

Review: I haven't has a single issue with my macbook since i purchased it last February. It works great, extremely stable, and it is a much more pleasant experience than my sony vaio laptop that I had prior to my macbook that literally died on my. If you are questioning making a switch from windows to mac, I can attest to the fact that I did it, having little experience being on mac computers before I bought my macbook and it was a great decision. I used windows-based computers for years and dealt with all there problems on a daily basis, not believing that macs could be that much better. well, in fact, they are, I feel much more comfortable on my mac than I ever did on my windows computers. Like I said, I haven't had a single issue at all. No more troubleshooting, crashing, system restore, error messages, etc. trust me, you'll be happy with your decision if you decide to purchase any mac, not just the macbook.

Review: This represents probably the best laptop I've had from Apple, and I can say that for a few reasons.

First, the device itself is topnotch. The screen is the most brilliant and crisp I've ever seen on a laptop. And everything on it just plain works. Every piece of software downloads from the web or installs from CD flawlessly. And a huge perk -- migration. The excitement and promise of a new computer is always tempered by the hassles of moving documents, pictures, applications, program settings, and everything else from old to new machine. It has never in the past gone well and usually promised several days of installing items one by one with uncertain success on getting new laptop to work like old one. Not this time. Mac OS X has "migration". It asked me, "do you want to bring over programs and data from your old laptop?" Sure, I said. And it did it! It walked me through the Firewire cable connection, the proper booting, and then it moved everything from old iBook to new MacBook. I restarted the MacBook and it was perfect. Every picture, every mp3, every piece of mail, every MS Office document, every application right where it was on the old laptop, every program option/preference just as it was before, every bookmark and browser plugin. I was stunned.

The second big plus I'll add is the support. Other reviews here seem to have trashed Apple support. My experience past and present has been very favorable. First, the Apple discussion forums online have helped me quickly and successfully for years. I've gotten far less help from Microsoft forums and I can't even find forums for Fujitsu, the maker of a tablet I own and use at work. Second, the APPLE STORE is fantastic! Before I bought this MacBook, I strolled in and reviewed all the issues I was looking for and concerned about regarding potential new laptop. The friendly eager guy probably spent 40 minutes with me and it made the prospects of upgrading so much better. I then purchased less expensively online (at Apple Store online, actually). A few days later I came back to my nearby brick-and-mortar Apple Store for a couple tips. The Apple Store provides free tech support with a live person face-to-face to anyone without regard to warranty status. That's just amazing. They helped me iron out a wrinkle and it's been perfect operation ever since. This is a tremendous plus for Apple. You can wait for hours on the phone for Dell or Microsoft tech support and hope that the problem gets solved from far away by a person who can't really see what's happening on your computer, or you can have a live friendly knowledgeable person see exactly what is going on and fix it right in front of you and explain the little technical issues involved which is so educational for the next glitch and you don't have to worry about whether the recommended fix will work because the Genius Bar tech person spends all the time necessary with you until the problem is resolved. And aside from the price of gasoline to drive to the Apple Store, it's free.

I've had Apple products ever since the IIc and PC products ever since IBM's original PC. But I keep my products a long time and don't upgrade for the heck of it, only when there's a big gain to be had which justifies spending some money. This is the best upgrade experience I've ever had. Very pleased, I think you will be, too.

Review: let me tell you that i bought my macbook refurbished ,i was
worried at first with all the negative reviews about hardrive failures and pther various problems reviewers have been saying, but am really impressed with my machine.like i said i bought this machine refurbished from apple becuase they knocked 200 dollars off the price compared to the mrsp. but the unit was checked over by a technician cleaned up and was given a warranty similiar to the new one.when i got it it came in a simple packaging box not in the fancybox the new ones came with it but i did not care the unit looked brand new. it came with all the accesories and soft ware as the new one. The macbook performance is incredible, it puts my desktop to shame.I upgraded the ram with 4gig ,which i got at a really cheap price ( compared to apple). I changed out the hard drive too, it is very easy to do as well and sata portable hardrives are very cheap and can be found at any
computer store. Apple has bee very good at software updates so all the problems people previously had with the software are fixed. This is my first mac and i am really happy with it.I don't think i will go back to windows anytime soon.

Review: Mac is the way to go these days.

Review: I have been a Windows user since the early 1990s and decided to make the plunge to Mac. Frankly, after a week of use, I have no regrets and plan to replace my desktop PC with a Mac next year. OS X 10.5 is more stable than Vista or XP. If you really must have Windows, there is the dual boot option, but it's not necessary to give up HD space for a partition given the ease of loading Windows files and the available software on the Mac.

Another advantage of the Macbook is the support for multimedia. The high def video is awesome and makes my old HP laptop seem primitive. Also, iLife, included with the Macbook, provides all the multimedia applications that I need without paying extra.

I stayed away from Apple in the past because they were premium priced compared to PCs, but no longer! The Macbook is excellent value for the hardware/software included. A comparably equipped PC would cost more.

Another big advantage is security. With Windows, I had to buy an expensive security package with daily online updates to protect my PC from attacks. While the Mac is also prone to viruses/attacks, it's more secure than a PC. The Mac comes with a firewall and there are antivirus packages available.

Review:

Review: This was my first Mac and and I sure am glad I made the change. The display on it is wonderful for the money you pay. Leopard works like a charm and is very user friendly. Bootcamp is good, but I prefer to just use Parallels. Word of advice, don't upgrade the memory through Apple. It is way to expensive. You can buy a 4 Gb upgrade off newegg for around $100 or so. If you are looking for a good quality budget laptop I highly recommend this. If you have a little more to spend, go with the Macbook Pro. Both are great choices.

Review: The iLife software suite is just brilliant. The integration between apps makes life very easy - especially for producing home movies that look professional. The MS Office platform works better on Mac than PC (List Manager in Excel rocks) - although Office 2008 might change that. OS X is fantastic - easy to use at first, and yet with the full power of UNIX when you get more confident.

BUT,,, keeping that white case clean is a pain in the bum.

Overall, I enjoy working on the Mac.... which can make working fun.

Review: All the other reviews seem to be rather drastic for what seem to be minor issues, besides the gentleman from India. There have been hard drive issues which were reported by Apple, and can be replaced (though I don't know if this applies in India):

http://www.news.com/8301-13579_3-9823370-37.html

As for the power adapter, I have owned my MacBook for over a year and have not had any problems with it. The MagSafe design is quite clever, and it has averted near disaster on occasion.

This is a quality laptop with great features and fantastic looks. I would recommend one to anyone who was looking for a new notebook.

Review: I live in NJ and my 3 month old MacPro broke. After waiting 15 minute (literally) for a phone teck he told me to make an appointment at my local store where they would help me... i tried for 1.5 weeks and the appointments were booked each time i went online to make an appointment.

The store explained to me that although i had paid $249 for an extended care plan i was not a priority repair customer. I was only able to book an appointment 2 days in advance. People who had paid another $99/yr could book an appointment 14 days in advance. I was told that these premier customer were booking up all of the repair appointments before I could even get a chance at them... finally the store helped me to get an appointment but they told me that "they could only help me this one time"... I am not sure what i will do if it ever breaks again??

Review: I am an IIT Delhi graduate and an entrepreneur based in Delhi, India.
Early last year, I started my 2nd venture and along with my two
partners, I bought an Apple MacBook.

The main reason for which I bought Apple MacBook was its reliability.
I was very happy and excited when I started using Apple MacBook and as
expected Mac's design fascinated everyone around me. However, within
the first few months, its battery broke suddenly. The same happened
with one of my partners. It was shocking but we got the battery
replaced.

Although we were not expecting any more failures, we were not so much
worried about any potential failure as we paid for 3 years protection
plan. Unfortunately, within next few weeks, I lost my address book and
contacts due to a sudden data corruption on my Mac. It was a big loss
in terms of the time and lost contacts but somehow I survived.

But, the real horror started after that. One fine day, my partner's
MacBook's harddisk suddenly crashed and he lost all the data, except
the one's he had already backed up. The lost was irreparable and huge.
Moreover, he wasted many days getting his MacBook's hard disk replaced
due to false promises and repeated delays on the service center's
front.

Given that we together lost the battery, I immediately took complete
back up of my data. Although not desired but consistent to my
expectations, my machine started showing symptoms of crashing; it
started slowing down and hanging up in between. Since I didn't want to
waste more of my time, I called another service center, UC Infosys,
one of Apple India's service centers in Delhi. Having discussed the
symptoms with them over the phone, I was told that I send my laptop to
them and they will rectify it within 2-3 days. It was Dec 5, 2007.
After confirming the time with them I sent my person with the laptop
to them. Having reached there, my guy was told to wait for 2 hours. I
called them and confirmed with them that they will diagnose the
problem after 2 hours. After two hours he was told that he should come
again tomorrow, as their technical guy was not available. The guy went
to them again the next day (Friday) and finally they diagnosed it and
found that my MacBook's harddisk is in trouble. They called me and
promised to deliver the laptop by Monday. Since I didn't receive any
call from them I called them and I was told that the harddisk is in
its way to Delhi from Bangalore and is stuck due to flight delay. I
was told that my laptop will be ready to pickup on Tue by 2 pm. Again,
in absence of any communication from them, I called them and I was
told that I will need to wait for some more time. Being frustrated, I
called their manager/founder and he told that we are expecting the
MacBook's harddisk and you may need to wait for a day or two more. I
realized that these people are not taking the responsibility and for
them their promise didn't matter. As expected, once again, there was
no communication from UC Infosys even after 3 days and moreover, the
founder stopped picking my calls. So, I called Apple's US office and I
was told that I need to contact Apple's support center in Bangalore
only. I called the Bangalore center in Delhi and I spoke to a
gentleman from Apple's support in Austria. This guy told me a
different story; he told me that 160 GB harddisk for MacBook is not
available with them but they will deliver 200 GB harddisk as a
compensation for the delay. I was promised the job to be done in next
3 days and I was promised that I would not need to make any call.

Having wasted so much of my time and energy, I was finally expecting
the job to be done. At this point, I knew that Apple's service sucks
but I didn't expect them to treat their customers as people on the
road. Contrary to my expectations, I didn't receive any responsef. I
again called them and escalated the complaint to a senior manager. I
wanted to talk to the head of Apple India but I was not given any
details and was told that I am already talking to the key decision
maker. She promised me to get back to me with exact status and
committed to sort the issue immediately. But the bug didn't stop
there... even then I didn't receive any communication.

At that point I decided to take this route of going through the social
media. As part of my organization, I had to work on a critical, 2 week
long assignment. So I had to be silent for that period. Today it is
Jan 16th; 42 days have passed and no communication from Apple. I am
anyways not interested in their machine and Apple's service. But I
will do everything it takes on my end to get compensated for the loss
Apple made to my organization and to me. More important, I don't want
some other Apple's fans and users to fall in the same trap. I am sure
that someone responsible (who cares for his customers) at Apple will
hear it and take appropriate actions. Till then I am not going to
stop... My Apple CaseId is 88611361 & I can be reached at chopra.pradeep
(at) gmail (dot) com.

Review: Apple continues to produce flimsy power adapters that not only fall apart, but now apparently catch fire on occasion as well. Why is this so difficult for them?

Review: this is by far the best computer i have ever used. Mine originally came with OS X Tiger (10.4), and upgraded it to Leopard (10.5), and it runs even better. My only 2 gripes are i want more ram for the price ($1199 and only 1 GB!?!?) and more usb ports would be nice. Also, the fan layout should really be thought out better. I often after a couple of hours find that the bottom is hot enough to fry and egg on, and there is only 1 fan (right at the base of the display), and it get inadequate airflow so that it can cool off the computer, and its a definite battery hog. But Apple anything right now is such a better buy across the range than anything running Vista. All i know is that all my friends who went off to college bought macs, and i did too. i fail to see why anyone would buy anything else.

Review: I was very happy with my MacBook (my first Mac) until I had problems with the power adapter. The cable next to the box area simply started to break apart after less that 1 year of use and now it is useless. I thought it was an isolated case but reading the reviews in the apple site it seems that the problem is quite frequent http://store.apple.com/1-800-MY-APPLE/WebObjects/AppleStore.woa/wa/RSLID?mco=701C0CBE&fnode=home/shop_mac/mac_accessories/power&nplm=MA538LL/B

Apple products are not particularly cheap. By choosing this brand (and its price), customers look for good design and quality. On my opinion the power adapter does not have this characteristics.
Apple should find a way to avoid creating frustration on its customers, specially if the are aware that a new adapter can cost up to US$80...