This week I traded an iMac I wasn’t using for a 13.3″ Macbook. I already have a 17″ Macbook Pro, but to be honest given the price and size, I just never take it with me anywhere. I have a pretty strict “don’t use my work laptop for personal stuff” mentality. Previously I had purchased a 13″ HP laptop I used when I wanted to be super mobile, but that laptop took a header off my nightstand one night and ceased to be. 
I hadn’t bother to replace it until two events conspired in the last two weeks. I had failed at finding a useful place for the iMac in either my office or my studio, and I found a guy on Craigslist looking to trade a Macbook for an iMac. I didn’t take his deal, but it sparked my interested and I pursued and found a deal that worked for me.
The result is a 13.3″ White Unibody Macbook. It has a 2.26Ghz Core 2 Duo Processor, 4GB of RAM, 250GB HD, webcam, all the usual Mac trimmings. It also has a nice tidy form factor that can fit in my laptop bag with my work computer when I need to.
So far I am loving the computer. I am not as constrained by the 1280×800 resolution as I thought I might be, but I can thank Spaces for that. The multiple desktop feature built into OS X is my lifeline when I am not on a multiple monitor desktop.
The machine itself seems to run a little hot, but I’ve been using Apple laptops for awhile and that’s not exactly unusual. The performance is fantastic. I have installed Office 2011, Photoshop CS4, Final Cut Express, Pro Tools Essentials and tons of other smaller apps on it. They all run speedy and other than being a little small on the screen real estate forefront, it’s nice.
This computer is definitely more comfortable for casual use than the 17″, but I do really miss the backlit keys.
Next on the list is setting up Boot Camp on it and installing Windows 7. I’ll use this machine for blogging and there just is no blogging without Windows Live Writer in my opinion.
The battery has been awesome so far. I have been using it for hours and with about 1/3 of the battery remaining it’s still several hours.
I am hard pressed in casual use to notice a performance difference between the two laptops honestly. I am sure during some video compressing or heavy photoshop use I’d notice the 8GB of ram and the faster processor, but for day to day, this machine should be plenty for most people.
