Need Macbook feedback.

[Entity_Razer]

Ok so my current Toshiba Laptop is in DIRE need of replacement, so I was looking about, and the likes of dell etc are not what I need anymore, I don't need, nor want, Dell's or toshiba's with kickass graphics cards etc etc etc.

What I need/want is:

- Ease of use
- LONG battery life (and I mean LONG)
- Fast on the draw
- good at watching/editing movies, hardware support for h.264 and alike

Now I know the macbook does most of these things except the last thing, thats one I don't know about.

This laptop will be used as just that, laptop for agenda, outlook, documenting, programming etc etc and as such i'm looking for info on the Macbook's.

Now I was looking at the mid range macbook (so not the black one and not the $1000 one, but the middle one which is like $1200 iirc) and am looking for info/feedback on it from curent owners.

Hows the battery life? Hows the case? Is it properly scratch protective? cause this laptop is going to be going EVERYWHERE with me and as such, a good hard cover is always good. does Mac OSX happen to have support for the microsoft .NET Framework? (hey they do Office so I might as wel ask)

Also, how's the performance when viewing a high res, high quality H.264 encoded vid? My current rig (the Dual Xeon) is actually having some troubles with those since it doesn't have any hardware acceleration, so its quite important for me, since i'll be doing quite a bit of vid. Editing and viewing.

Any and all feedback appreciated

[furrylemmings]

i have an old macbook with 954m chipset and it plays 720p movies fine, the new ones have the x3100 and shouldd even run games fine in windows. No problems with battery life, case scratches a little bit on the bottom, but its not too noticable, id reccomend 2gb ram tho, its my only regret. As for editing, you could try final cut for mac, works fine for me.

[Entity_Razer]

well for editing I have my Adobe CS3 Master Collection lisence so no worries about that (F*gging payed enough for it so i'll dam well use it :D )


and the new ones do come with 2GB standart

[furrylemmings]

Then go for it man! Ive had absolutely no problems with mine!

[hotwaxisbad]

I don't know if this will help but i have an iBookG4 that seems to have the same case as the macbook and it just gets a little scratched but no huge gashes.
Hope that helps

[Rmrdr13]

I've had no problems with mine. As soon as I got mine I went to newegg and bought 4gb of mushkin ram for about $90 shipped. It really helps and it's ALOT better than the hundreds apple with charge you for it.

[Entity_Razer]

I've had no problems with mine. As soon as I got mine I went to newegg and bought 4gb of mushkin ram for about $90 shipped. It really helps and it's ALOT better than the hundreds apple with charge you for it.

How easy is it to install it yourself? Because I know my toshiba is easy to open and swap stuff out, just pop 4 screws and wedge a flat screwdriver under something and your good to go.

As long as it doesn't leave tamper marks its good ;)

[MooCow2]

it's really easy on a macbook. requires only the removal of the battery. unscrew a hatch. then u pull a lever which ejects the old memory. then you shove in your new stuff and ur just about done! :)