If they’d only had the printer I wanted, I’d have come home from Albuquerque with one of these!
As some of you know, I’m posting this from an original MacBook (1.83 GHz, 2 MB RAM). For three years now I’ve been doing all my Web work on this laptop with its glossy 13″ screen. I put in a 7200 rpm 160 GB hard drive last year, and it’s a dandy little machine. Working with Photoshop or trying to mock up a web page is sometimes a little frustrating, as things get lost underneath each other, but there are a lot of simple tricks to manage that. It’s all very doable, in other words, and this very capable MacBook is loaded with all kinds of cool, expensive software that I didn’t have to pay for (the benefits of being an occasional reviewer), so it’s quite a weapon in its glossy white plastic disguise.
For months, however, I’ve been thinking I needed something bigger. It’s been like an obsession, an idea I can’t let go of that seems to have no reason to exist. I can do everything I want to do right now with the equipment I have, right? And I’ve gotten used to sitting anywhere I want with a computer in my lap. Being chained to a desk is silly, RIGHT?
It was driving me batty. I decided the only thing to do was to go to an Apple Store and look at MacBooks, MacBook Pros, iMacs, and the new 24″ monitor that goes with the laptops. That’s where I’ve been today, down in Albuquerque, where I spent a full 90 minutes putting my hands on every one of them.
I can report that the new aluminum MacBooks and MacBook Pros are simply awesome, the most beautiful laptop computers I’ve ever had the pleasure to use. The current aluminum equivalent of my MacBook is a jewel of industrial design and execution. The 15″ and 17″ MacBook Pros look and feel exactly the same, only bigger. You’d have to be stone dead crazy not to be impressed with these computers, and for the life of me, I will never understand those diehards who don’t like the glossy screen. It’s GORGEOUS. In the three years I’ve had this MacBook, I’ve never once been bothered by reflected glare, and the colors are to die for.
And then I walked over to the 24″ iMac: WHOA, big fella! Geez, it made the beautiful laptop screens look almost dull. Trying to ignore the size differences, I went back and forth from the iMac to the laptops, with all of the machines showing this site you’re viewing now, in an effort to determine which total visual experience was more, well, pleasurable…
No contest for this boy: the iMac, absolutely. It’s a totally subjective thing, but here I am. I’m probably going to spend $2,200 and get this thing. Using the iMac is like driving a starship, and I need a thrill. A bigger canvas. A bigger desktop… I also spent three times that much recently on just TWO DAMN TEETH, brothers and sisters, and I didn’t get a lollipop.
One more night to sleep on it. Stay tuned.
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John, check this out. A 24″ iMac for $1100.
Thanks, Derek!
That’s a very good deal… tempting, too! That particular Club Mac deal is enough to make me question my principles, I have to admit, but I am compelled to buy the fastest and most recent model. An old Mac-buying rule for me.
Dang, though. That’s half-price!