Tuesday, March 25, 2014

How do I right click?

Last year June I boldly claimed that I was thinking of getting a Macbook as my next laptop. It took me quite some time to figure out what I wanted. I have been using a Dell XPS 13'', which is a nifty, good looking machine that performs very well. But it still Windows. And Ubuntu is not quite there yet as a full time desktop OS.

I considered a few Apple options:

  • 27'' iMac: I would have chosen this one, if not for the lack of a decent backup laptop, which would mean I lost all portability. 90% of the time I am at my desk, so this would have been ideal, as supposed to using a laptop with a large external screen
  • MacBook Air: The entry price is quite good, but the specs are too low. If you bump the specs up to the maximum, then the cost of drastically prohibitive. I suppose such a small light body comes at a cost.
  • Various MacBook Pros - 13'' and 15''. The late 2013 refresh models are quite good, but the Retina screens come at a cost. There are quite a few different options to consider when ordering: RAM, SSD or HDD size, CPU size - i7, Dual or Quad core.
In the end, I chose a MacBook Pro 13'' with the following specs: 
  • 13.3 inch
  • 2.8 GHz i7 Dual Core
  • 8GB RAM
  • 256GB SSD
Even though I only got it this morning, in hind-sight I should have gotten 16GB RAM, even by downscaling the CPU a bit.

The comparative Dell XPS 13'' or even 15'' would have been cheaper, although I did not look at the touch screen versions.

This is a very neat machine, and my first Apple product. I think its the small touches that Apple pay attention to that win people over. Some things are over done though:
  • The clunky charger - c'mon, Chromebooks use USB now to charge
  • The aluminium body - the Dell XPSs have a plastic body which is perfect. I have seen a guy that has a dent in his MacBook's body simply because he held it too tight.
Multiple desktops have been setup, Hot Corners as well....now where is that right click?