MacBook A1181: overview of the classic computer from Apple

Apple can be treated differently. Someone hates the corporation for excessive pathos and huge investments in marketing. Some people worship for the creation of unique products and involvement in the premium market. But one thing to deny is pointless - Apple makes the best computers from the existing ones.

One of these will be discussed in this article. This is a MacBook A1181. Review of the cult "machine" of 2006 issue read on.

Device design, ports

Today it's hard to imagine a laptop made by Apple, not made of aluminum, but 10 years ago in California they did not disdain with plastic. It was from such snow-white plastic that this device was made. In general, the design is similar to a series of computers MacBook Pro - the same strict and ascetic.

The laptop is equipped with a solid set of ports and wired interfaces. Among them:

• Two standard USB-A ports.
• A proprietary FireWire port for connecting exclusive peripherals.
• A port for connecting additional displays in VGA format.
• Infrared port for working with remote control Apple Remote.
• Audio Input.
• Audio output.
• Port to connect to the Internet.

Also on the edges of the laptop you can find a hole for the Kensington lock and an optical drive.

Controls

The computer is equipped with a full keyboard: 79 keys, 12 function keys and 4 arrows. Buttons have a soft and fairly short stroke. Each key has a small groove in the working area for more accurate positioning when "blind" input. The letters are engraved in the center. The Russian layout is indicated separately in the corner of each key. There is no backlight, just like the light sensor. Under the keyboard is the company's trackpad Apple. The touch panel is able to recognize single touch, double, as well as scrolling (drag gesture) and scrolling (scrolling).

Display

At the time when the MacBook 13 ', A1181 was released, there was no such thing as a Retina display, so laptops were equipped with conventional TFT-IPS matrices. The display diagonal is 13.3 inches, and its resolution is 1280 x 800 pixels (114 dots per inch). The display of the MacBook A1181 is not of high quality. A grainy picture, an unrealistic color rendering, a color inversion when tilted - a full set of flaws, haunting displays of those times.

At all thus the display has a glossy surface that negatively affects use of the computer at a daylight (despite of a decent stock of brightness). Anti-reflective coating is not available.

Productivity and autonomy

The MacBook A1181 runs on an Intel Core Duo processor. This is a dual-core processor from the Yonah series, the frequency of each of the cores reaches 2000 megahertz (with acceleration). The processor is built on a 32-bit architecture, which limits the ability to expand memory and update the software.

Also under the hood of the laptop you can find a set of GMA 950 chips, responsible for graphics performance, two gigabytes of RAM, a hard drive up to 120 gigabytes (hard disk speed - 5400 rpm) and a battery capacity of 55 watts.

The power of "iron" is enough for a smooth and stable operation of the operating system and most of the built-in programs. When working with professional software, you may experience problems (drop in frame rate or short hangs). The battery capacity is enough to work for a laptop for 6 hours.

Software

The latest supported version of the software on this Mac is Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard. In addition to the classic Aqua desktop, the user receives an iLife application suite and the opportunity to work for free in iWork for 30 days. ILife is a suite of applications for creative people, which includes programs for photo processing and music creation. IWork is a direct competitor to Microsoft Office, developed by Apple, which includes programs for working with text, tables and presentations.

Feasibility of purchase (instead of conclusion)

So, before us MacBook A1181, the characteristics of which have long been outdated morally and physically, and the external design is not impressive at all. Should I buy it? Yes and no. If the choice is between a modern Windows-based device and a used Mac laptop, you can almost certainly give preference to the second option.

Of course, if it is a low budget. The fact that the MacBook A1181 can be purchased for a miserable 10-12 thousand rubles (or even less). Finding for such a price a good Windows-based computer is a problem with an asterisk, most often impossible. Therefore, it is worth giving preference to the device, which was created as the best in the market, rather than being exchanged for something new, but made after the sleeves.