I have a new MacBook, but rather than regurgitating what everyone already knows about it, I am going to rundown what I liked and disliked about it after I had read other reviews.

Let’s start with the good stuff.

DISPLAY

The display is very nice - according to some websites, it doesnt have the same high viewing angles as the MacBook Pro, which is probably true, but otherwise the display is great - whites are very white and colors very accurate when compared side by side to my Dell XPS1330, which also has an LED-lit 13.3″ screen. Brighter than the Dell also. Reflective screen hasnt bothered me in my usage.

Video

The new video card is very good, and could run Warhammer Online fine, except during busy RvR battles, where things got a little choppy.

Design

The MacBook is a predictably attractive laptop. Personally I thought the all-silver MacBook Pros were much better looking, although the black border around the screen definitely makes the screen appear brighter and sharper. Yes its cut out of a solid piece of aluminum and feels sturdy - seriously I couldnt care less about this, and it makes the macbook feel a little too ‘hefty’.

What really bothers me about MacBook chassis design is the sharp 90° leading edge of the wrist rest - my arms go here, and it is really uncomfortable. It was bad on the plastic MacBook, but on the aluminum model its worse. On every other laptop I can think of the edge is beveled, rounded, or tapered - its never 90° to prevent this problem - but Apple likes the clean line it makes when its closed. Argh.

Hard Drive

The 5400 RPM hard drive is actually a surprisingly very good performer. I usually replace it with a 7200 RPM, but I think the balance of performance and battery life is very good with this drive.

Keyboard

Its quiet, it works, it doesnt flex. Not my favorite notebook keyboard in the world, that belongs to the Thinkpad, but its good.

Touchpad

OK here’s where things get ugly.
As we all know, Steve Jobs hates buttons.

The Apple mouse has always has one button, although right-clicking in MacOS is no less or more useful than it is on every other major operating system in the world, which is very. I see *alot* of Mac users with third-party 2-button mice.

Well, now the touchpad has no buttons, and yes its at the cost of usability. Most stuff works fine, trickier but everyday tasks such as right-click-dragging are annoying. The trackpad requires an inordinate amount of pressure to press down vs most trackpad buttons (to avoid accidental pushing while just sliding on it), and makes a hefty clunk that reverberates through the case. Thankfully you can configure tap-clicking, but I have found tapping relatively slow and unreliable at times for reasons I don’t understand.

The new gestures are nice.

But where the new trackpad really falls down is in Vista under boot camp. You cannot right-tap, you can only right-click, and that maneuver requires THREE fingers. Now, you may be wondering how you right-click-drag when you have THREE fingers holding the trackpad down - the answer is, as far as I can tell, you dont.

Under Vista, the trackpad is also very finicky and you can find your cursor jumping around against your will, and scrolling being way too fast to be usable. I also have a problem with the cursor moving to different parts of paragraphs while typing, which I dont understand.

Highlighting is also pretty much impossible under Vista, as when you lift your fingers off the touchpad after highlighting something, the highlighting disappears. There are long threads on the Apple Discussion Forums about bad trackpad drivers under Vista Boot Camp which go back to previous MacBook versions.

The trackpad issue is a big one, as although you can use your own mouse on a desktop, you very often cant use your own trackpad with a notebook when you’re on the go - or using it on the couch or in bed - you are stuck with it.

Ports

Just as with trackpad buttons, here is another example where minimalist design trumped usability. There are no firewire ports on the MacBook, which, considering how Apple ran with Firewire long before anyone else, is just shocking. The music and video folks, especially, are still working with mountains of firewire, and as the Mac has no expansion slot, you can’t add one either.

No VGA, DVI, or HDMI ports

Again, a shocker, but Apple decided to go with a mini displayport adapter for monitor connections - which basically doesn’t work with any monitor without an - get ready for it - accessory dongle, which they will gladly sell to you for $29-$99, and none are included with the MacBook. The dongle can connect to VGA or DVI, but not HDMI.