I have, since December 2006, been the proud owner of an Apple Macbook.

My purchase of this machine was specifically timed to coincide with Christmas. Not as an indulgent, juicy present for yours truly (though it was that ;) but because I wanted to have the machine in time for traveling back to see my family for the holidays.

If you think this was a poor motivation, then think again. The reception the machine had at the various Christmas family events was dynamite (a story for another time, perhaps).

In making sure I had the machine at this time, I did, perhaps regrettably, choose to sacrifice hard drive size (I got the standard 80GB, instead of the 120GB - and no, I did not want the black model which would have provided this). Nonetheless, storage notwithstanding, this was the machine I wanted.

In the event, what did I conclude about the machine as a whole? I had paid a penny or two short of a grand for it... how did it shape up?

Well, I have had this machine for four months now. I thought it was about time I looked hard at that purchase, and decided for myself: was it worth it?

This is a summary analysis of the pros and cons of the purchase. I may at some point in the future, go into more depth about the machine - but for now, an easy to read (but deeply-considered) list of points:-


Pros

- Very nice indeed Core 2 Duo processor
- Good power usage for the speed of the machine (and fan management seems good overall)
- Dual boot (or virtualise) to Windows - Bootcamp makes this effortless to install
- OS X runs superbly on the machine (as does Windows in general, for that matter)
- Great quality built-in web cam
- Very compact, generally good looking machine
- MagSafe power connector
- Bright, easy to view screen
- Fast boot up time (especially to OS X)
- Great bundled software, iMovie, iWeb, and especially Garageband are fantastic

Cons

- Poor graphics chipset, works fine for desktop but very poor for 3D acceleration in games, etc. (unless they are old, or World of Warcraft ;)
- No right mouse button on the track pad (double finger pad then click works, but is cumbersome)
- No choice of a matt screen, stuck with glossy (though reflection is better than most laptops I have seen with glossy screens)
- Default hard drive 80GB is too small if you plan to use Windows (and have 30GB of music like me)
- Keyboard lettering looks somehow childish
- Max RAM expansion of 2GB
- Battery gets quite warm after running the machine for a while


Conclusion

In spite of the noted flaws, this is still a great buy for the price, especially with that processor. The only real complaint is the graphics card - most laptops do better in this regard at a similar price point.

Great for all round use, and even video editing, etc. but don't expect to play the latest, most demanding games on it (at least not at particularly great frame rates).