It looks awesome !!! it has space for everything i have, very weel constructed, seems very durable. The design looks beautiful. It is very comfortable to carry even when fully loaded. The attachment for the tripod is really nice. I will definetely buy another one if need. Totally recommend.
Sony VAIO Fit Series SVF15215CXP 15.5-Inch Core i5 Touch Laptop
List Price: $829.99
Sale Price: $799.99
Today's Bonus: 4% Off
After you uninstall the bloatware and stop a few startup programs in msconfig the laptop is perfect for everyday use. The screen is amazing and the touchscreen is very responsive.
Fujifilm FinePix S4500 Digital Camera (Black) + 32GB SDHC Memory
List Price: $439.95
Sale Price: $214.59
Today's Bonus: 51% Off
what an awesome item easy to use and handle. Photos look great and professional. This item will help me with my photography hobby/business. Love that it came with so much for such a small price, Can't wait for weather to warm up.
Astak CCTV 8 Channel Video Audio H.264 Real-time Security
the astak cctv 8 channel video audio real time security surveillance dvr is great.. it was very easy to set up . I love the concept of the usb port infront . Ive had the dvr for a couple of weeks and it is working great .I would recommend this product to family and friends
Sony Alpha NEX-3 Interchangeable Lens Digital Camera w/18-55mm
I have been waiting a lifetime for this camera and it was worth the wait! It provides excellent quality shots in the smallest possible sized body. I am a point-and-shoot user who has been disappointed with the photo quality that comes from even expensive point-and-shoot cameras but who has never bought a DSLR because I knew I would never want to lug one around. If this describes you, then this is your perfect camera. Or, if you own a DSLR and use 5% or less of the features on your camera, this is also the camera for you. On the other hand, if you're a skilled DSLR user, skip this camera because you'll be frustrated the compromises that make this camera a smart choice for the average consumer.
Why is this camera "perfect" if you're a typical or even advanced point-and-shoot user?
COMPARED WITH POINT-AND-SHOOTS, you'll immediately see the following improvements:
Low light/indoor shots are dramatically better
Quicker shutter response time
Ability to do continuous shooting at 7 frames per second and other DSLR-like features
Great HD video
COMPARED WITH DSLRs, you get:
A much smaller camera than a DSLR that you can actually carry around on a regular basis
As good or better HD video because of the advanced auto-focus technology in the Sony Alpha Nex which does a better job of continuous auto-focus than the average DSLR
Photo quality that is comparable to a DSLR for the average user (again, if you're an advanced DSLR user, skip this camera)
An easier-to-use camera that was designed to make the most important features very accessible with the advanced features tucked away in the menus. The advanced features are there if you need them but if you're more likely to set the camera on the auto setting, you won't need the advanced stuff much and will appreciate how straight-forward the camera is to use.
COMPARED WITH OTHER WANNABE PERFECT CAMERAS, you'll be glad you waited for the Sony Alpha Nex because it's:
Smaller in size than the other options
Has better photo performance due to the larger APS-C sensor (12X the size of a typical point-and-shoot and also significantly larger than the competitive Micro Four Thirds sensor)
Has better video performance
Is similar or cheaper in price
Other wannabe "perfect cameras" I've considered and almost purchased have all been "Micro Four-Thirds" cameras, which owned this category of cameras before the arrival of the Sony Alpha Nex.
Panasonic Lumix GF1: Panasonic Lumix DMC-GF1 12.1MP Micro Four-Thirds Interchangeable Lens Digital Camera with 14-45mm Lens
Olympus PEN E-PL1: Olympus PEN E-PL1 12.3MP Live MOS Micro Four Thirds Interchangeable Lens Digital Camera with 14-42mm f/3.5-5.6 Zuiko Digital Zoom Lens (Black)
And I am glad I waited. The Sony Alpha Nex has better photo and video performance than both, a smaller form factor than both and is cheaper than the Panasonic (though slightly more expensive than the Olympus which cut its price when the Sony was announced).
As for the Nex-3 vs Nex-5, if you care about the dollars involved in the price difference, then you should get the Nex-3. Three key differences are not really worth the added cost if you're looking to maximize value: (1) the typical user will not see a noticeable difference between the higher 1080i video resolution in the Nex-5 vs the 720p resolution in the Nex-3 (and I have a hard time believing that home movies can even benefit from the higher resolution). (2) The Nex-5 has a metal body vs plastic for the Nex-3 which is an aesthetic nice-to-have but not a need-to-have. (3) The Nex-5 is marginally smaller in two of the three dimensions (0.2 inch and 0.1 inch). Because of the overall size of the camera with its lens, shaving a little off of the height and width just won't make a practical difference. Spend your savings on stuff that will actually impact how you use the camera like a spare battery or a larger memory card.
Other things to note:
The flash is small and detachable, and it's different than almost any other camera you're considering. PRO: you don't need it often because of the great low-light performance and you get a more compact camera as a result. CON: there's a part you can lose or forget to bring with you if you really need it.
If you're looking to own multiple lenses, there aren't many available lenses directly compatible with the camera and they're expensive compared to competing lines. But for the advanced point-and-shoot user, you don't need multiple lenses; just the 18-55mm or if you splurge, the 18-200mm when it comes out (expected fall 2010). But if you have the 18-200mm, the even larger lens starts to erode the benefit of the small body.
While this is very compact compared to a DSLR, it's not really going to fit in a pocket (though it will fit into a purse). The lens still juts out like on a DSLR so it won't be portable like an ultra-compact point-and-shoot. But for high quality shots, there isn't a smaller camera than this one.
Why is this camera "perfect" if you're a typical or even advanced point-and-shoot user?
COMPARED WITH POINT-AND-SHOOTS, you'll immediately see the following improvements:
Low light/indoor shots are dramatically better
Quicker shutter response time
Ability to do continuous shooting at 7 frames per second and other DSLR-like features
Great HD video
COMPARED WITH DSLRs, you get:
A much smaller camera than a DSLR that you can actually carry around on a regular basis
As good or better HD video because of the advanced auto-focus technology in the Sony Alpha Nex which does a better job of continuous auto-focus than the average DSLR
Photo quality that is comparable to a DSLR for the average user (again, if you're an advanced DSLR user, skip this camera)
An easier-to-use camera that was designed to make the most important features very accessible with the advanced features tucked away in the menus. The advanced features are there if you need them but if you're more likely to set the camera on the auto setting, you won't need the advanced stuff much and will appreciate how straight-forward the camera is to use.
COMPARED WITH OTHER WANNABE PERFECT CAMERAS, you'll be glad you waited for the Sony Alpha Nex because it's:
Smaller in size than the other options
Has better photo performance due to the larger APS-C sensor (12X the size of a typical point-and-shoot and also significantly larger than the competitive Micro Four Thirds sensor)
Has better video performance
Is similar or cheaper in price
Other wannabe "perfect cameras" I've considered and almost purchased have all been "Micro Four-Thirds" cameras, which owned this category of cameras before the arrival of the Sony Alpha Nex.
Panasonic Lumix GF1: Panasonic Lumix DMC-GF1 12.1MP Micro Four-Thirds Interchangeable Lens Digital Camera with 14-45mm Lens
Olympus PEN E-PL1: Olympus PEN E-PL1 12.3MP Live MOS Micro Four Thirds Interchangeable Lens Digital Camera with 14-42mm f/3.5-5.6 Zuiko Digital Zoom Lens (Black)
And I am glad I waited. The Sony Alpha Nex has better photo and video performance than both, a smaller form factor than both and is cheaper than the Panasonic (though slightly more expensive than the Olympus which cut its price when the Sony was announced).
As for the Nex-3 vs Nex-5, if you care about the dollars involved in the price difference, then you should get the Nex-3. Three key differences are not really worth the added cost if you're looking to maximize value: (1) the typical user will not see a noticeable difference between the higher 1080i video resolution in the Nex-5 vs the 720p resolution in the Nex-3 (and I have a hard time believing that home movies can even benefit from the higher resolution). (2) The Nex-5 has a metal body vs plastic for the Nex-3 which is an aesthetic nice-to-have but not a need-to-have. (3) The Nex-5 is marginally smaller in two of the three dimensions (0.2 inch and 0.1 inch). Because of the overall size of the camera with its lens, shaving a little off of the height and width just won't make a practical difference. Spend your savings on stuff that will actually impact how you use the camera like a spare battery or a larger memory card.
Other things to note:
The flash is small and detachable, and it's different than almost any other camera you're considering. PRO: you don't need it often because of the great low-light performance and you get a more compact camera as a result. CON: there's a part you can lose or forget to bring with you if you really need it.
If you're looking to own multiple lenses, there aren't many available lenses directly compatible with the camera and they're expensive compared to competing lines. But for the advanced point-and-shoot user, you don't need multiple lenses; just the 18-55mm or if you splurge, the 18-200mm when it comes out (expected fall 2010). But if you have the 18-200mm, the even larger lens starts to erode the benefit of the small body.
While this is very compact compared to a DSLR, it's not really going to fit in a pocket (though it will fit into a purse). The lens still juts out like on a DSLR so it won't be portable like an ultra-compact point-and-shoot. But for high quality shots, there isn't a smaller camera than this one.
Nikon EM 35mm SLR Film Camera
I bought Nikon EM camera about a year ago to learn film, and it has worked great all this time. It's a perfect film camera for what I need. I never planned on shooting sports with it. I loaded it with all sorts of old expired film that I could buy and got perfectly adequate results! This camera almost never mistakes in measuring the light.
I also like it that the camera is so light and small, you can take it anywhere.
The only thing this camera doesn't have is the option to set shutter speeds manually, which I hardly ever needed before I signed up for a class. Then I got Nikon FG (or maybe FG-20?)... one of those, which is almost like EM, but has an auto exposure and the manual settings.
I also like it that the camera is so light and small, you can take it anywhere.
The only thing this camera doesn't have is the option to set shutter speeds manually, which I hardly ever needed before I signed up for a class. Then I got Nikon FG (or maybe FG-20?)... one of those, which is almost like EM, but has an auto exposure and the manual settings.
HP Color Laserjet CP1518NI Printer Entry Level Color Laserjet
The Good:
1) The Price it is on sale for 299.00 in a number of places. A network printer at that price is a steal.
2) Image quality is sharp and crisp. Colors are fairly accurate.
3) No problems were encountered installing printer on computer running Vista. However, there is a lot of stuff (optional programs) on the installation so a typical install can take a long time (in my case well over a half hour) during which time I did wonder why it was taking so long. I guess, in this age of "bloatware", this may expected.
The Bad:
HP does not make high yield toner cartridges for this series of printers (this one and HP Color Laserjet CP1215 Printer). High yield cartridges are a great money saver since they typically give you 2-3 times more pages while typically costing only 20-25% more than standard cartridges. So unless HP comes out with high yield toner cartridges for this printer in the future, you will be trapped into paying about twice as much per printed page than you would if you purchased a printer that can use high yield cartridges. At about $280.00 for a replacement set of cartridges, the low printer price savings could easily be overcome by higher printing cost if you intend on doing a lot of color printing.
The Product Description doesn't list the replacement toner cartridges. Here they are:
CB540A Black print cartridge with HP ColorSphere toner
CB541A Cyan print cartridge with HP ColorSphere toner
CB542A Yellow print cartridge with HP ColorSphere toner
CB543A Magenta print cartridge with HP ColorSphere toner
1) The Price it is on sale for 299.00 in a number of places. A network printer at that price is a steal.
2) Image quality is sharp and crisp. Colors are fairly accurate.
3) No problems were encountered installing printer on computer running Vista. However, there is a lot of stuff (optional programs) on the installation so a typical install can take a long time (in my case well over a half hour) during which time I did wonder why it was taking so long. I guess, in this age of "bloatware", this may expected.
The Bad:
HP does not make high yield toner cartridges for this series of printers (this one and HP Color Laserjet CP1215 Printer). High yield cartridges are a great money saver since they typically give you 2-3 times more pages while typically costing only 20-25% more than standard cartridges. So unless HP comes out with high yield toner cartridges for this printer in the future, you will be trapped into paying about twice as much per printed page than you would if you purchased a printer that can use high yield cartridges. At about $280.00 for a replacement set of cartridges, the low printer price savings could easily be overcome by higher printing cost if you intend on doing a lot of color printing.
The Product Description doesn't list the replacement toner cartridges. Here they are:
CB540A Black print cartridge with HP ColorSphere toner
CB541A Cyan print cartridge with HP ColorSphere toner
CB542A Yellow print cartridge with HP ColorSphere toner
CB543A Magenta print cartridge with HP ColorSphere toner
Nikon D7100 Digital SLR Camera Body with 18-200mm VR Lens + 32GB
The whole package is great for me. I'm new to photography so I can't provide a decent review on the camera or the lens. However, two things I dislike are: 1the LCD screen protector is not practical. It didn't last one day on the LCD screen and 2The memory card bundled in this package is not among Nikon's certified list. I got it working for an hour before it stopped working. The reseller offered me a replacement card but I guess I'll ask to pay the difference and get a SanDisk as it is among the certified Nikon memory cards.
Olympus Evolt E420 10MP Digital SLR Camera (Body Only)
I have used nearly every OLYMPUS dSLR (exception being the E-300 & E-400). I use the Olympus E-3 for my paid work and find it a superb camera. But like many of you, I want a camera with SLR quality to carry around minus the weight of my workhorse E-3. Enter the E-420, an absolute jewel of a camera whose IQ is top notch especially when compared to its market segment (Canon Rebels, Nikon D40/D60/D80, Pentax K200D, etc.). The gradation is fantastic, rivaling even my E-3. And coupling this, the world's smallest dSLR body with the new Pancake lens (25mm f/2.8, equivalant to 50mm in Full Frame) and you have a near 'pocketable' (depends on the size of the pocket) dSLR capable of taking phenomenal photos. Now, is it a world beater? No. But it isn't meant to be. It is meant for folks who want SMALL, but for whom Image Quality MATTERS. And here, it scores a perfect 10 (or 5 STARS in this case). As to the negative comment about focus points (you want 51 focus points, go spend 5K on the Nikon D3... truly a great camera, but marketed to a different segment of shutterbugs). And I have no idea what the reviewer was talking about poor performance in low light (this is much more of a lens issue on any camera), all I can say is NONSENSE. It does fine. No better and certainly no worse than any of the other 20+ dSLRs I've shot with. In fact, I used it as a 2nd camera during a 50th wedding anniversary party I was hired to shoot. Used it Indoors. It did great. I got great photos and the client doesn't know what came out of the E-3 or the E-420. The images are that good. So if you want 'pocketable', but you do want to compromise on Image Quality, then go ahead and pick this baby up. The likelihood of Buyer's Remorse is far smaller than this camera. After that, You just do one thing more. ...Enjoy.
Rokinon 800mm Multi-Coated Mirror Lens with 2x Teleconverter
We have been having fun playing with the Rokinon 800mm Lens. Used it at a Civil War re-enactment earlier this month and got some wonderful shots. We were very pleased with the way the lens has performed so far. It takes just a little work to get it focused but once you do the results are great. It is manual focus and we knew that when we bought it. In short it does exactly what I expected it to do and the 2x Teleconverter just makes it even better.
Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8G VR II AF-S ED-IF Zoom-Nikkor Lens + UV
This is the best lense anyone can ever ask for. It gives you the perfect shot every time. You don't have to be a pro to use this lense. I'm able to take action photos in dim light, action photos in bright light, photos in about anywhere and they turn out perfect. One draw back is that I have to use a mono-pod all the time because it gets kinda heavy.
Apple MacBook Air MC503LL/A 13.3-Inch Laptop (OLD VERSION)
I have owned many Apple laptops and computers over the years, and without a doubt think that the 2010 13" Macbook Air is one of the strongest offerings the company has ever had. I am a 'power user' and use my laptop for heavy photo and video editing. I frequently have Photoshop running simultaneously with many other memory-intensive programs, including Windows 7 (through Parallels), and use my laptop for hours every day.
I purchased the 13" Macbook Air (which I'll refer to as 'MBA' for simplicity) directly from Apple, and added 2GB of RAM to make the set-up 4GB total. I do not know if Amazon allows you to customize it this way, so if it doesn't consider buying it directly from Apple or another store which does allow this upgrade. From what I understood, due to the MBA's construction the RAM is soldered onto the motherboard you won't be able to add RAM yourself later. If you're a light user, you should probably be fine with just 2 GB of RAM, but if you plan to intensively multi-task, consider upgrading the RAM.
This laptop is expensive, but is worth every penny if you can afford it. While it lacks an optical drive and certain ports which can at times be inconvenient it makes up for that by offering great performance and a stunning design.
DESIGN
I thought my 2010 13" Macbook Pro (which I'll refer to as 'MBP') was sleek and stylish, but this is just amazing. The MBP looks sleeker in some ways since its keyboard is backlit and its display has a nicer black trim to it, but in overall design, the MBA just can't be beat. You won't truly appreciate the Macbook Air's portability and stylish design until you physically play with it in person. The Macbook Air is very thin, but because it employs a tapered unique design it's not uniformly thin throughout the device.
The 13" model features 2 USB ports and an SD card reader (the 11" model doesn't have the SD card reader). The USB ports are cleverly located on opposite sides of the laptop so that you can have even bulky peripherals plugged in simultaneously. The built-in SD card reader is incredibly convenient (more on that below). What's more important to read here is not what connections it does have, but what it doesn't. The most important things missing on the Macbook Airs, in my opinion, are the optical disc drive and an Ethernet port. While I don't necessarily use and therefore, miss either of those too much, there are times when Wi-Fi is problematic or when you need to use a disc for something. Still, the Macbook Air has a great portable design that should offer more than enough for most people's daily use.
PERFORMANCE
Even with my heavy use, this has been very reliable for my daily multitasking. While some of that speed might result from my expanded RAM (mentioned above), the bulk of it comes from the Air's use of a Solid State Drive (SSD). While SSD technology is relatively expensivewhen compared to traditional hard drives on a per-Gigabyte basis, it is worth the money! You can find many comparison videos on YouTube showing how much faster Solid State Drives are when compared to traditional hard drives. The SSD really shines when cutting down the time when launching a program, or when turning the system on or off.
DISPLAY
The high-resolution display of the Macbook Air is great. The 13" Air features a 1440x900 resolution (like that of the 15" Macbook Pro), which is better than the 1,280x800 resolution of my 13" 2010 Macbook Pro. It is very sharp and crisp!
LIFE WITHOUT AN OPTICAL DRIVE
Some people have argued that the lack of an optical drive makes the Macbook Air impractical for daily use. Honestly, I have for the past several years used my optical drive very rarely, and knew I wouldn't miss it too much on the Air. That being said, you usually don't appreciate something until you no longer have it, and I have since noticed that there are times when having a built-in optical drive is convenient.
Since thumb drives and external hard drives are becoming very affordable, digital distribution of software and games is rapidly growing, and many videos are now available through streaming services as opposed to hard copy DVD forms, a lot of the inconveniences associated with lacking an optical drive can be worked around. That being said, there are times when an optical drive is necessary, especially when it comes to installing software (i.e. Windows).
While the MBA doesn't have one built in, you can 'Share' the optical drive of another computer wirelessly. That is understandably less convenient than having an optical drive physically connected to the same computer, so you can instead plug in an external CD/DVD drive through the USB port. The major inconvenience of doing this is that you have to buy an external drive. That being said, you do not need the Apple brand 'Superdrive', and can instead get a 3rd party external optical drive for a considerably cheaper price.
HAVING A BUILT-IN SD CARD READER IS VERY CONVENIENT
The SD card reader is very convenient, and helps compensate for the relatively small hard drive found on the Macbook Air. While my largest SD card is only 16GB, I find SD cards to be even more convenient than using a thumb drive. Without the built-in SD card reader you could always plug in an external SD card reader, but having it built into the system frees up a USB port.
BATTERY LIFE
If you've ever felt that your cell phone, laptop, or other battery-based device doesn't hold nearly as long a charge as it should, it's not just you. Battery life is something that a lot of electronics manufacturers frequently distort the truth about. Amazon often omits external links from reviews and replace it with a so I can't paste the link, but on the Apple website's section on Macbook Pros, for example, they state in the fine text: 'The wireless productivity test measures battery life by wirelessly browsing various websites and editing text in a word processing document with display brightness set to 50%.' In other words, their battery life claims are based on situations many more intensive users don't find themselves in...
For the 2010 Macbook Air, Apple has supposedly changed their battery testing method from the aforementioned Pro testing, and used improved technology to prolong the battery life. The Macbook Air's battery is rated to last for around 7 hours, but you might get less than that with heavy use. I have been pleased with the battery life so far, but I have had less than 7 hours of battery life when I was using the computer intensively. While the battery life isn't the strongest of all of Apple's offerings, the 30-day standby time is very impressive. I believe that the impressive standby time is a result of the SSD drawing less power in sleep mode than a traditional hard drive.
COMPARED TO PREVIOUS AIRS
I was really intrigued by the Macbook Air when it was first announced in 2008, but couldn't justify the high price tag. Since with this generation prices have gone down considerably, all models employ Solid State Drives, and there are 2 USB connections (instead of just one), now is a much better time to buy a Macbook Air than ever before. The only thing changed for the worse is that this model does not have backlit keys not such a big deal for fast typers, but probably inconvenient for people who 'hunt and peck'.
COMPARED TO THE 2010 11-INCH MACBOOK AIR
Prior to deciding on the 13" Macbook Air I considered the 11-inch model. While the 11-incher is lighter and smaller than the 13-inch model, I decided against it because I felt that the screen was too small to be reasonably effective for my intended use. Additionally, the 11-inch model lacks a built-in SD card reader not a huge deal since external USB-based SD card readers are cheap and also employs a weaker 1.4 GHz processor (as opposed to the 13-inch model's 1.86 GHz processor). You lose half a pound in weight going from the 13" and 11" models, but I decided a slightly heavier laptop was more worth it for the screen real estate. You will have to play with the models in store to see what works best for you, but if you like opening multiple windows side-by-side, you will more likely than not also prefer the 13" model.
COMPARED TO THE 13-INCH MACBOOK PRO
Due to the similar price points between this and the 13" Macbook Pro, the two computers naturally lend themselves to head-to-head comparison, which I'll focus the rest of the review on.
Comparing a 2010 13" 128GB 1.86 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo Macbook Air with 4 GB of RAM (again, upgraded, the default configuration is 2 GB) with my 2010 13" 250 GB 2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo Macbook Pro with 4 GB of RAM, I definitely felt the Macbook Air was faster. This is not an official comparison with benchmark tests official benchmarks actually rated the Pro to be a faster machine but for my use I felt things were noticeably faster with the Air's SSD in spite of its weaker processor.
Advantages Compared to Base Configuration 2010 13" Macbook Pro
Lighter (2.9 pounds vs 4.5 pounds)
Thinner (0.11 inches at its thinnest point and 0.68 inches at its thickest vs 0.95 inches)
Considerably faster in spite of a weaker processor (see below) due to its use of a Solid State Drive (SSD)
Higher resolution display (1440x900 vs 1280x800)
Disadvantages Compared to Base Configuration 2010 13" MacBook Pro
Slower Processor (1.86 GHz vs 2.4 GHz)
Smaller Hard Drive (128 GB vs 250 GB)
No backlit keys (Not a big deal for most, but some might find this inconvenient)
Fewer ports (the lack of an Ethernet jack can be a big inconvenience if you don't have secure Wi-Fi available)
No optical drive
FINAL THOUGHTS
The speed of a Solid State Drive is one of the selling points of the Macbook Air, but its ultra-portability is its stronger selling point (keep in mind prior to 2010 only the higher-end Air models featured SSDs). That being said, think of what's important to you. For students and business professionals who travel frequently, I think the Air is an ideal solution.
To those for whom speed is more important than portability, consider purchasing a Macbook Pro and upgrading its hard drive to a SSD yourself. You can also upgrade the Pro's RAM on your own, up to 8 GB (Air maxes out at 4GB, and you can't upgrade it yourself).
Think about what your primary use for the machine will be. If you don't have reliable access to Wi-Fi networks or need a CD/DVD drive regularly, you might find the Air constraining. For most people, however, the 13" 2010 Macbook Air is a great purchase that will offer a very powerful computer in an incredibly portable and sleek package.
I purchased the 13" Macbook Air (which I'll refer to as 'MBA' for simplicity) directly from Apple, and added 2GB of RAM to make the set-up 4GB total. I do not know if Amazon allows you to customize it this way, so if it doesn't consider buying it directly from Apple or another store which does allow this upgrade. From what I understood, due to the MBA's construction the RAM is soldered onto the motherboard you won't be able to add RAM yourself later. If you're a light user, you should probably be fine with just 2 GB of RAM, but if you plan to intensively multi-task, consider upgrading the RAM.
This laptop is expensive, but is worth every penny if you can afford it. While it lacks an optical drive and certain ports which can at times be inconvenient it makes up for that by offering great performance and a stunning design.
DESIGN
I thought my 2010 13" Macbook Pro (which I'll refer to as 'MBP') was sleek and stylish, but this is just amazing. The MBP looks sleeker in some ways since its keyboard is backlit and its display has a nicer black trim to it, but in overall design, the MBA just can't be beat. You won't truly appreciate the Macbook Air's portability and stylish design until you physically play with it in person. The Macbook Air is very thin, but because it employs a tapered unique design it's not uniformly thin throughout the device.
The 13" model features 2 USB ports and an SD card reader (the 11" model doesn't have the SD card reader). The USB ports are cleverly located on opposite sides of the laptop so that you can have even bulky peripherals plugged in simultaneously. The built-in SD card reader is incredibly convenient (more on that below). What's more important to read here is not what connections it does have, but what it doesn't. The most important things missing on the Macbook Airs, in my opinion, are the optical disc drive and an Ethernet port. While I don't necessarily use and therefore, miss either of those too much, there are times when Wi-Fi is problematic or when you need to use a disc for something. Still, the Macbook Air has a great portable design that should offer more than enough for most people's daily use.
PERFORMANCE
Even with my heavy use, this has been very reliable for my daily multitasking. While some of that speed might result from my expanded RAM (mentioned above), the bulk of it comes from the Air's use of a Solid State Drive (SSD). While SSD technology is relatively expensivewhen compared to traditional hard drives on a per-Gigabyte basis, it is worth the money! You can find many comparison videos on YouTube showing how much faster Solid State Drives are when compared to traditional hard drives. The SSD really shines when cutting down the time when launching a program, or when turning the system on or off.
DISPLAY
The high-resolution display of the Macbook Air is great. The 13" Air features a 1440x900 resolution (like that of the 15" Macbook Pro), which is better than the 1,280x800 resolution of my 13" 2010 Macbook Pro. It is very sharp and crisp!
LIFE WITHOUT AN OPTICAL DRIVE
Some people have argued that the lack of an optical drive makes the Macbook Air impractical for daily use. Honestly, I have for the past several years used my optical drive very rarely, and knew I wouldn't miss it too much on the Air. That being said, you usually don't appreciate something until you no longer have it, and I have since noticed that there are times when having a built-in optical drive is convenient.
Since thumb drives and external hard drives are becoming very affordable, digital distribution of software and games is rapidly growing, and many videos are now available through streaming services as opposed to hard copy DVD forms, a lot of the inconveniences associated with lacking an optical drive can be worked around. That being said, there are times when an optical drive is necessary, especially when it comes to installing software (i.e. Windows).
While the MBA doesn't have one built in, you can 'Share' the optical drive of another computer wirelessly. That is understandably less convenient than having an optical drive physically connected to the same computer, so you can instead plug in an external CD/DVD drive through the USB port. The major inconvenience of doing this is that you have to buy an external drive. That being said, you do not need the Apple brand 'Superdrive', and can instead get a 3rd party external optical drive for a considerably cheaper price.
HAVING A BUILT-IN SD CARD READER IS VERY CONVENIENT
The SD card reader is very convenient, and helps compensate for the relatively small hard drive found on the Macbook Air. While my largest SD card is only 16GB, I find SD cards to be even more convenient than using a thumb drive. Without the built-in SD card reader you could always plug in an external SD card reader, but having it built into the system frees up a USB port.
BATTERY LIFE
If you've ever felt that your cell phone, laptop, or other battery-based device doesn't hold nearly as long a charge as it should, it's not just you. Battery life is something that a lot of electronics manufacturers frequently distort the truth about. Amazon often omits external links from reviews and replace it with a so I can't paste the link, but on the Apple website's section on Macbook Pros, for example, they state in the fine text: 'The wireless productivity test measures battery life by wirelessly browsing various websites and editing text in a word processing document with display brightness set to 50%.' In other words, their battery life claims are based on situations many more intensive users don't find themselves in...
For the 2010 Macbook Air, Apple has supposedly changed their battery testing method from the aforementioned Pro testing, and used improved technology to prolong the battery life. The Macbook Air's battery is rated to last for around 7 hours, but you might get less than that with heavy use. I have been pleased with the battery life so far, but I have had less than 7 hours of battery life when I was using the computer intensively. While the battery life isn't the strongest of all of Apple's offerings, the 30-day standby time is very impressive. I believe that the impressive standby time is a result of the SSD drawing less power in sleep mode than a traditional hard drive.
COMPARED TO PREVIOUS AIRS
I was really intrigued by the Macbook Air when it was first announced in 2008, but couldn't justify the high price tag. Since with this generation prices have gone down considerably, all models employ Solid State Drives, and there are 2 USB connections (instead of just one), now is a much better time to buy a Macbook Air than ever before. The only thing changed for the worse is that this model does not have backlit keys not such a big deal for fast typers, but probably inconvenient for people who 'hunt and peck'.
COMPARED TO THE 2010 11-INCH MACBOOK AIR
Prior to deciding on the 13" Macbook Air I considered the 11-inch model. While the 11-incher is lighter and smaller than the 13-inch model, I decided against it because I felt that the screen was too small to be reasonably effective for my intended use. Additionally, the 11-inch model lacks a built-in SD card reader not a huge deal since external USB-based SD card readers are cheap and also employs a weaker 1.4 GHz processor (as opposed to the 13-inch model's 1.86 GHz processor). You lose half a pound in weight going from the 13" and 11" models, but I decided a slightly heavier laptop was more worth it for the screen real estate. You will have to play with the models in store to see what works best for you, but if you like opening multiple windows side-by-side, you will more likely than not also prefer the 13" model.
COMPARED TO THE 13-INCH MACBOOK PRO
Due to the similar price points between this and the 13" Macbook Pro, the two computers naturally lend themselves to head-to-head comparison, which I'll focus the rest of the review on.
Comparing a 2010 13" 128GB 1.86 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo Macbook Air with 4 GB of RAM (again, upgraded, the default configuration is 2 GB) with my 2010 13" 250 GB 2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo Macbook Pro with 4 GB of RAM, I definitely felt the Macbook Air was faster. This is not an official comparison with benchmark tests official benchmarks actually rated the Pro to be a faster machine but for my use I felt things were noticeably faster with the Air's SSD in spite of its weaker processor.
Advantages Compared to Base Configuration 2010 13" Macbook Pro
Lighter (2.9 pounds vs 4.5 pounds)
Thinner (0.11 inches at its thinnest point and 0.68 inches at its thickest vs 0.95 inches)
Considerably faster in spite of a weaker processor (see below) due to its use of a Solid State Drive (SSD)
Higher resolution display (1440x900 vs 1280x800)
Disadvantages Compared to Base Configuration 2010 13" MacBook Pro
Slower Processor (1.86 GHz vs 2.4 GHz)
Smaller Hard Drive (128 GB vs 250 GB)
No backlit keys (Not a big deal for most, but some might find this inconvenient)
Fewer ports (the lack of an Ethernet jack can be a big inconvenience if you don't have secure Wi-Fi available)
No optical drive
FINAL THOUGHTS
The speed of a Solid State Drive is one of the selling points of the Macbook Air, but its ultra-portability is its stronger selling point (keep in mind prior to 2010 only the higher-end Air models featured SSDs). That being said, think of what's important to you. For students and business professionals who travel frequently, I think the Air is an ideal solution.
To those for whom speed is more important than portability, consider purchasing a Macbook Pro and upgrading its hard drive to a SSD yourself. You can also upgrade the Pro's RAM on your own, up to 8 GB (Air maxes out at 4GB, and you can't upgrade it yourself).
Think about what your primary use for the machine will be. If you don't have reliable access to Wi-Fi networks or need a CD/DVD drive regularly, you might find the Air constraining. For most people, however, the 13" 2010 Macbook Air is a great purchase that will offer a very powerful computer in an incredibly portable and sleek package.
Pocket Wizard 801153 Flex Transceiver TT5 Kit With MINITT1
I found that the Pocket Wizard equipment is of the highest quality and well documented. I love not having to use line of site to trigger my remote flashes.
HTC EVO LTE, White (Sprint)
This is a reply to Sarah. I just got this phone, so I haven't completely tested everything about the phone. A small disclaimer I've upgraded from a blackberry so I'm not really qualified to go in depth with the apps, htc or smart phones in general.
Its sleek, sexy & very couture. I find the white version more aesthetically appealing, that its black counterpart. The 4.7" screen is enormous with a very crisp display! The 1.5 dual core snapdragon is extremely fast & can run any of the latest games available in google play & is preloaded with ICS. Its smooth, responsive & very accurate with texting(big plus)! One thing that's particularly attractive is the weather app, its really immersive when you switch to full screen & I get lost staring at the animations it plays.
Voice commands are responsive as long as you don't eat your words. One thing car mode! Now I must get a dock for this, it changes the GUI for ease of use when driving. The 8 megapixel camera takes, stunning photos with a couple of customizations for your photos. Video recording at Full HD 1080p, 1.3 megapixel front facing camera & beats audio! Not that I'm a big fan, but that extra addition adds a lot of value to a phone that's already packed with a ton of features & it also comes with an extremely sturdy kickstand.
For all its pluses, there are two quirks about the phone. The first being to get to the micro sd slot you need to remove the back paneling (seems that htc had put this late in the phone's design). The second is the inability to battery swap.
Aside from those two quirks, the phone will do everything you want it to, while looking good at doing it. I bought this phone primarily for aesthetic reasons, though it was a difficult decision at first; I had considered the galaxy s3 & the photon q (qwerty keyboard) as well. But I'm really happy I got this, after I saw the the s3 & the q in store, I wasn't overly impressed by both.
I have ordered a ballistic case, since the phone looks way too good to get dings & scratches on it.
Edit* The reason why it's so cheap is because the promotional campaign for the one x over shadowed it & not enough interest was generated for it (forgot where I read that fact). Turns out that this is the better phone of the two. Also its $29.99 only for new sprint customers, I paid $99.99 since I'm an existing customer(still a great deal!).
Its sleek, sexy & very couture. I find the white version more aesthetically appealing, that its black counterpart. The 4.7" screen is enormous with a very crisp display! The 1.5 dual core snapdragon is extremely fast & can run any of the latest games available in google play & is preloaded with ICS. Its smooth, responsive & very accurate with texting(big plus)! One thing that's particularly attractive is the weather app, its really immersive when you switch to full screen & I get lost staring at the animations it plays.
Voice commands are responsive as long as you don't eat your words. One thing car mode! Now I must get a dock for this, it changes the GUI for ease of use when driving. The 8 megapixel camera takes, stunning photos with a couple of customizations for your photos. Video recording at Full HD 1080p, 1.3 megapixel front facing camera & beats audio! Not that I'm a big fan, but that extra addition adds a lot of value to a phone that's already packed with a ton of features & it also comes with an extremely sturdy kickstand.
For all its pluses, there are two quirks about the phone. The first being to get to the micro sd slot you need to remove the back paneling (seems that htc had put this late in the phone's design). The second is the inability to battery swap.
Aside from those two quirks, the phone will do everything you want it to, while looking good at doing it. I bought this phone primarily for aesthetic reasons, though it was a difficult decision at first; I had considered the galaxy s3 & the photon q (qwerty keyboard) as well. But I'm really happy I got this, after I saw the the s3 & the q in store, I wasn't overly impressed by both.
I have ordered a ballistic case, since the phone looks way too good to get dings & scratches on it.
Edit* The reason why it's so cheap is because the promotional campaign for the one x over shadowed it & not enough interest was generated for it (forgot where I read that fact). Turns out that this is the better phone of the two. Also its $29.99 only for new sprint customers, I paid $99.99 since I'm an existing customer(still a great deal!).
Motorola DROID MAXX (Verizon Wireless)
[updated Nov 11th 2013; OS update 12.15.15 applied -increased my rating to 5 stars (from 4) -see paragraphs marked with >> for my edits]
I didn't intend to buy a Droid Maxx on launch day; at least, not until a few minutes before 10am, when I read on Droid Life it would *really* be in stores that morning. I would only stop in to check it out in person. Then... it just happened. If you're like me and coming from a Samsung Galaxy Nexus, I'm betting this latest batch from Motorola caught your eye, too. I fully intended to wait for the first reviews, maybe check out the oversized Note III and HTC One Max, and see what LG was bringing to the table, but...
The Maxx's oversized battery is only part of the attraction. My Nexus had become fickle -I weeded out a few apps that were absolute battery hogs on that device. While I didn't expect the full two day battery life promised by Verizon, the Maxx had to be at least 2x better than the Gnex, based alone on double battery capacity. But better! After my first 100% charge, I ended my day at 7% after 16 hours off the charger, heavy "first day with a new phone" usage, 1.5 hours video, 1+ hours audio streaming, 45 minutes unplugged Nav, forum browsing & posting, futzing with apps, editing this review, Bluetooth headset use, switching between wifi and 4G about 50/50, lots of screen on time, etc. I've since repeated this with up to 23 hour days, 5-8 hours screen time, video & nav, completely off the charger. I've bumped my screen timeout to 5 minutes, and don't bother switching off WiFi or GPS. And if that's not epic enough (for me, it is), there's a "Battery Saver" slider on the settings menu -I haven't bothered to flick that On to see what it affects.
Amazingly, the extra battery doesn't come at the expense of size. Held back to back, side to side, end to end, these two phones are close to identical in size. You can get the numbers from the spec sheet, but the Maxx is about 3-4 millimeters taller and wider than the Gnex, and more or less identical in thickness. According to my straight edge, the Maxx's screen even has a slight curve to it, ala the overly-hyped curved glass of the Galaxy Nexus.
But it's definitely shaped differently. I ran my Gnex without a case for the past year, and I'm starting out caseless with the Maxx. I don't see it visually, but the Maxx has a "wedge" feel to it, where the top end of the phone is thicker, and it slims down towards the bottom. The top end is also heavier. What this means is that, when I'm holding it in one hand, most of that weight is concentrated on my index finger. I'd prefer it the other way around -with that weight and thickness at the bottom -where it's resting more on two fingers. I know, I know... we're only talking about 164g according to my scale, but the phone feels more comfortable and balanced when I hold it flipped around like that. Despite the very similar size to my old phone, the Maxx has a definite chunky feel to it, not UNcomfortable, but -lesscomfortable than my previous phone.
The phone's back is interesting. It's not the shiny, hard plasticky finish of the Droid Ultra. Instead, it's a very lightly textured ("rubberized") but smooth finish, with the appearance of a fiber weave. This finish wraps around the bottom edges of the phone and even around the chin to the face, down by the mic. The bottom corners are all rounded, so they're somewhat comfortable -not squared off, though not as rounded as the Galaxy Nexus. The back is smooth enough that it -doesgets smudged with fingerprints, but matte enough that they're not easily noticeable. The Verizon and Droid labels are modestly sized, and rather than bright white, are of a dark gray hue that is easy to ignore.
All together it creates a package with a hefty, high-quality feel. I never minded the durable all-plastic construction of my Nexus and Samsung's Galaxy lineup -something many reviewers and forum posters dismiss as "cheap." But the Maxx feels anything but, possibly belied by its flat slab appearance.
Interrupting the smooth Kevlar wrap are the power and volume buttons -all stacked on the right side -that project from the device perhaps a little more than necessary, and with very square edges and textured surfaces. The buttons don't really jive with the carefully crafted, smooth-to-the-touch backside finish, but then again, there's no mistaking when my fingers are resting on them -even lightly -so hopefully no accidental presses.
>> Boot is about 45 seconds to home screen and signal lock [post 12.15.15 update; original boot time was 30 seconds]. That's still pretty quick. The busy (and noisy) Droid boot animation, followed by the default red home screen, put me off at first -it all just feels very "angry" -but as I'm sure you're aware, that's all easily changeable with a good selection of included live and static wallpapers (a soothing blue relaxed the feel of the phone for me; I wonder if the default aggressive red tone -VZW's Droid branding -turns off would be buyers at the in-store display).
While looking for my next phone, I've been really intrigued by the front-firing speaker on the HTC One. My previous phone (like practically every other phone) was rear-firing, but with speaker placement at the bottom of the phone, where my hand tended to cup it and muffle the volume. Not to mention it was a pretty weak speaker. The Maxx? Surprisingly good, by comparison. The speaker is at the top of the phone, co-located with the camera. It's loud. Even when facing into my passenger seat, the Google Nav directions come through crisply. I've tried to muffle the sound with my hand, like for instance when holding the phone in landscape mode to watch a video, and it comes through loud and clear. The sound is still projecting to the rear, which means the phone is projecting away from me and toward the rest of the room that I'm facing, but it's so much improved over the Gnex that I'm now only partially envious of the HTC speaker.
I recall quite a bit of forum debate over the 3.5mm audio jack placement on the Nexus -some folks absolutely HATE the bottom placement (I, for one, was a fan). The Maxx puts that jack up on the top of the phone, where many users think is its rightful place. I suppose I'm indifferent since I tend to use bluetooth headphones when I'm out. But at home, laying in bed and catching up on some YouTube while plugged in to my charger, I've now got to contend with cords coming out of both sides of my phone.
One other design niggle -wnen using the phone on a flat surface, screen presses anywhere within a half inch of the edges causes the phone to rock. The back runs flat for a few inches from top to bottom (down the spine), but is curved side to side all the way across.
Let's talk about the Super AMOLED (RGB) screen. The quality is great. Really, I'm don't feel deprived without 1080p. But, don't hate me for this, I preferred some aspects of the Galaxy Nexus Pentile (non-RGB) AMOLED better. Here's what I'm noticing with the Maxx:
whites look slightly gray, particularly in a dark room
blacks have sort of a reddish tinge to them, particularly in dark
in general, pictures look underexposed (for instance when browsing a news website)
in video playback, the black and darker areas of the screen have better overall consistency than on my Gnex (less noise)
in bright sunlight, the screen brightness can't meet the challenge (so what's new?)
but in dark rooms, it's almost as though the screen can't dim enough (but just slightly so)
the active notifications appearing on the screen aren't ever-present -the phone needs to be jostled / disturbed for the blank screen to briefly light up and display the current notifications, BUT the phone does not need to be flipped over to activate this (a light tapping of the face-up phone causes the Active Display to light up)
>> the capacitive buttons now dim during most video playback [as up 12.15.15 update] -nice; they were originally full bright, which was distracting in a dark setting.
there's just the slightest amount of light leak from between the screen and capacitive buttons, over the Back button -but only noticeable in a dark room
the Maxx pixels per inch (PPI) display density works out to 296 PPI across the 5" screen. The Gnex screen was slightly smaller (4.7" -less if you consider on-screen buttons took up some of that space), so despite it being the same resolution, would have been 316 PPI -except for its shared-pixel Pentile display. I've seen the case made that the Pentile display dropped the effective PPI down to the 200 range. I can't say I ever took issue with that screen by Samsung, but I could see jaggies on certain websites, and those just aren't present on the Maxx -this display, overall, appears sharper.
There's going to be an adjustment period for me, no doubt, but despite some of the negatives I've listed, I don't consider any of these to be deal breakers.
I mentioned the capacitive buttons. Versus the on-screen buttons found on the Moto X and Gnex, these ones are ever-present. Accessing Google Now takes a slightly paused press of the home button before swiping up, vs. the simple swipe motion (no hold) of an on-screen home button. And some older apps still call up the 3-dot menu button which takes up a whole 'nother row (a black "menu bar" across the entire bottom of the display). On phones with the virtual buttons on-screen, the main three (Back, Home, and Task) would simply make room for the skinny 3-dot -making it all the more obscene that when it appears on the Maxx, it takes up its own row. To get around that, I can go into Settings and enable a "long press of task switcher" option. That gets rid of the wasted screen, but now I have to remember which apps use this long press to access the menu (and some apps only do this on certain screens). This should be less and less of a problem as developers update their apps, as I believe the standard for the OS v4.0 and higher is to display the menu ellipses at the top right corner of the application.
>> Speaking of OS, the phone does come with Jelly Bean 4.2.2. If you're coming from a Gnex, it's basically the same, only snappier. If you're coming from Ice Cream Sandwich or Gingerbread, I guarantee you'll be impressed with the smoothness and overall look/feel of this operating system. [The current 12.15.15 build is still Android 4.2.2, but Motorola has indicated via social networking that Android 4.4 Kit Kat is imminent for this device.]
I'm still setting up my various apps and checking them for compatibility. I'm not going to attempt to generate a comprehensive list of what does / doesn't work, but here are some quick notes:
>>> As of 11/12/13, FoxFi is compatible for tethering. It *requires* a PIN-enabled lock screen (not pattern) due to some VPN nonsense that I admittedly don't completely understand (FoxFi was great on the Galaxy Nexus, and didn't require this)
>>> Google Wallet tap-to-pay isn't **yet** supported -as expected -an app I've been running on the Gnex since about week one. There's some hope it will work in Android 4.4 KitKat. Cruel irony, the Maxx was my last Google Wallet NFC purchase (Verizon clerk: "Oh, I've never seen THAT before!" as I swiped my Nexus across her payment terminal)
YouTube updated me to version 5.0, which I was not yet able to access on the Play Store from my Gnex or my TF700T tablet
Swype keyboard is working A-Ok, and pops up nearly instantly when called
Nova Launcher is working A-Ok; mic icon in "persistent search bar" (shortcut to Google Now) calls up the voice recognition screen nearly instantly
Sound Profile app by Corcanoe is A-Ok without any of the problems / workarounds experienced by Galaxy S4 users
The stock Jelly Bean dialer app has been enhanced to allow dialing by first or last name, or partial phone number -nothing new for users of skinned versions of Android (Touchwiz, Sense, Motoblur) or other OSs, but a feature requiring an aftermarket app for stock Nexus users
"OK Google Now" is quick, responsive, and so far pretty awesome ... but less so with a lock screen
"Set alarm for ten a.m." used to take me directly to the stock clock app, even though I had alternate alarm applications installed. No longer; I'm now given the option to default to whichever one I choose (tested with Timely and Alarm Clock Xtreme); no such luck with "set timer for three minutes", which still just sets an alarm for whatever time is closest to 3 minutes from now
As expected, logging in with my Google credentials automatically downloaded all my apps and contacts, with the exception, oddly enough, of Facebook
Not exactly an app, but the brightness slider from the main pull-down menu is very picky, doesn't like switching back to "Auto," and times out quickly -but works fine from Power Control widget
>> There's a bug in the task switcher where not all open apps appear -including the app I'm currently using (this originally was the same with the Gnex, but was changed in a recent OS update). [This was not addressed in the 12.15.15 update, but other users have reported it, too. Exiting the task switcher then re-entering it usually resolves this.]
>> The Camera [with 12.15.15 update installed]: I'm now super happy with the camera. Images were always as sharp as can be expected from a cell phone, with good, natural colors. There's no longer a problem with highly contrasted scenes (original firmware couldn't handle bright backlighting, such as under a canopy of trees with a bright sky in the background). I'll continue to rely on my compact camera outfitted with an Eye-Fi Mobi when I'm looking for best clarity and dynamic range, but the Maxx's results are definitely suitable for everyday, in-the-moment type shots. Tap to focus is implemented quite well, and is the next logical step beyond "tap anywhere on the screen to shoot." Holding my finger press captures a multiple exposures at a rate of one frame per second (and displays a convenient counter), great for automatic GIF animation by the magic behind Google Plus (which I have set up to auto-upload my pics). The updated camera UI moves the mode dial to a large arc along the left edge, and utilizes that nifty "twist yer wrist" technique to pop directly into camera mode from sleep, like the Moto X. There's also a half-decent slo-mo video mode, which is fun for well-lit scenes of fast moving objects, or just a honey bee landing on a flower. The HDR mode is improved with the new update -still not on par with true 3-frame HDR post-processing, but an acceptable substitute for scenes where compromised lighting would otherwise challenge these rinky-dink sensors. With the 12.15.15 update, the camera software now appears to be updated as an app in Google Play, which ought to mean no more delays waiting for Verizon to vet the software via their "slowest in the biz" OS update process.
The flash is dimmer and yellower than what I've become accustom to on my Nexus, but this is only evident when I'm using it as a flashlight. In flash-filled photos, the camera's white balance is adjusted appropriately for the non-exactly-white LED, and as long as my expectations aren't too high (i.e. subjects are within 6-10 feet of the camera and I'm not trying to light a whole room), the photos seem to be adequately focused, and in a matter of only a second or two. But don't expect you're going to freeze any poorly-lighted motion with this shooter, and expect to see a good amount of noise at full rez. This isn't a Nokia, after all!
The operating system is pretty dang close to stock Jelly Bean. Motorola threw some extras in there for the camera and photo sharing, plus a widget or two, and of course there's a whole bevy of Verizon bloat including NFL, MyVZW, visual voicemail, VZW nav, etc... even a caller ID service that sneakily activates, then tries to enroll the user for monthly billing. But with 32 gigs of memory on board, a little attention paid, and the ability to quarantine these apps, they're hardly a bother. The phone's interface is pure Google.
In that list of apps up above, I pointedly mention the delay-free call-ups of the Swype keyboard and the Google Now microphone icon. I've been seeing these getting increasingly bogged down on my Nexus, I believe due to memory management issues. I had hopes Android 4.3 and its TRIM memory management would resolve this, but hadn't yet flashed it. That's to say that this could become a similar issue on the Maxx as I install & update more apps, but I'm also banking on Verizon/Motorola/Google having this phone on Android 4.3 in not too many months, if not Kit Kat 4.4. Fingers crossed -VZW is known to be slow with their rollouts.
The "OK Google Now" voice wake (well, really, it works when the phone is already awake, too) is shaping up to be more than a gimmick. After an initial "voice training" session in a quiet place, I OK Google Now'd my phone where it sat on the passenger seat cushion. "Navigate to work" (work already being defined in my Google Now account) and, bingo, I'm hearing Google's familiar, clear directions. Same with text messages to my wife, and setting an alarm. One step closer to hands free. Except, of course, that pin or pattern unlock if it's active -that puts the brakes on touchless commands.
Although regarding pin/pattern unlock, the Maxx offers up a cool option (excuse me if this is old news -new to me) to recognize trusted Bluetooth devices, and gives the option to leave the phone unlocked as long as it remains in range. Think car, smartwatch, a generic USB dongle in a home or office PC, etc. -the phone will only lock down when it "walks away" out of signal range of one of these trusted Bluetooth devices.
Oh... face unlock makes a reappearance, too. I actually used that a bit on the Gnex.
I can't post this review without mentioning the all-important connectivity. The radios are great -both 4G & wifi.
In my basement, where I've struggled to pull a 3G signal on the Gnex, I maintained a 4G connection on the Maxx, which allowed me to download apps (initial phone setup) while watching an HD video on YouTube
On the main floor of the house, where my signal would flip between 3G and 4G on the Gnex, the Maxx operates decidedly in 4G territory
At work, one room in the office far removed from the wifi antenna would consistently go to zero bars (yet, frustratingly, not lose it completely and therefore would not switch over to the strong 4G signal), I now have at least one wifi bar accompanied by a usable flow of data
Overall, switching between wifi and 4G on the margins seems improved vs. what I had before, though even with "ignore weak wifi connections" checked, the Maxx at times seems indecisive about switching from one to the other. If I have one wifi bar that's trickling data, and a 3-bar 4G signal available, the choice should be obvious
No problem with Bluetooth connections; I'm stoked that I now have full integration with my Ford's Sync system, with artist/track tagging from Pandora, and read-out-loud messaging with canned replies
Voice call quality overall is excellent. This is one of Motorola's strong suits, I hear. I'm impressed.
Do you remember the iPhone 4's "death grip" problem? It seems that in marginal 4G areas (like that signal-quashing basement I mentioned), turning the Droid Maxx to landscape mode and holding it with both hands causes it to show a drop of 5 to 10 dBm off the signal strength meter (Settings > More > Mobile Networks > Network Type and Strength). If I'm already in the (low strength) -115 to -120 range, this results in me completely losing 3G and 4G connectivity. Releasing one hand brings the signal back to life. Where my 4G signal is strong, the signal drop is there, but my connection remains intact.
I've taken GPS accuracy for granted for a few years, so I was surprised to notice the Maxx's sense of direction may be slightly off. I use Google Nav frequently, and on a couple of occasions, the Maxx seemed to think I strayed off course onto the streets vs. getting on the freeway on-ramp, or exited when I really stayed on the highway, and as such gives me a fast re-route and impossible directions. It (well, Google Nav) then quickly corrects itself. I'd chock this up to accepted errors in compacted urban driving environments, except that the Gnex, previous Garmin devices, and Ford GPS simply don't exhibit this behavior. It would only be a problem if I already screwed up and missed a turn, but this nevertheless results in confusing instructions. Though other than those relatively minor blips, location setting is fast and mostly accurate, even in many indoor settings.
Another point to mention: Heat. My Galaxy Nexus often ran hot. When it did, I knew it was busy with something that was burning through the battery. This phone has run even hotter, both times in the car plugged in. The first was just downloading apps, the second was also running Nav with the screen on the whole time. But I've yet to see it run this hot outside of the car, and in fact, in the car running Nav but not plugged in, and not downloading apps, is was perfectly cool (and only lost 4% of the charge over about 20 minutes of Nav + screen-on time). So I'm guessing the heat comes from the 4G radio and processor working overtime switching cell sites, transferring data, and unpacking / installing applications, though again, this isn't the case when it's doing those same tasks sitting still in the house (and on 4G).
Check back. I'm sure I'll have some more detail to add to this already too-long review as I get to know this phone, particularly with respect to battery life, application compatibility problems & successes, and more observations on the radio switching & possible "death grip" issue.
But in summary, I'm sticking with my title -this phone may have some issues here and there, and it may not be the fastest/biggest/most beautiful/polished specimen out there this late summer and fall, but in my opinion it's the first suitable contender to supersede the Samsung Galaxy Nexus, and betters that phone in a number of key areas. I have a great deal of confidence in Motorola at this time -both in their tie to Google, and their strong affiliation with VZW. Thankfully, if you're tied to Verizon, you've suddenly got a few good choices after a long drought.
I didn't intend to buy a Droid Maxx on launch day; at least, not until a few minutes before 10am, when I read on Droid Life it would *really* be in stores that morning. I would only stop in to check it out in person. Then... it just happened. If you're like me and coming from a Samsung Galaxy Nexus, I'm betting this latest batch from Motorola caught your eye, too. I fully intended to wait for the first reviews, maybe check out the oversized Note III and HTC One Max, and see what LG was bringing to the table, but...
The Maxx's oversized battery is only part of the attraction. My Nexus had become fickle -I weeded out a few apps that were absolute battery hogs on that device. While I didn't expect the full two day battery life promised by Verizon, the Maxx had to be at least 2x better than the Gnex, based alone on double battery capacity. But better! After my first 100% charge, I ended my day at 7% after 16 hours off the charger, heavy "first day with a new phone" usage, 1.5 hours video, 1+ hours audio streaming, 45 minutes unplugged Nav, forum browsing & posting, futzing with apps, editing this review, Bluetooth headset use, switching between wifi and 4G about 50/50, lots of screen on time, etc. I've since repeated this with up to 23 hour days, 5-8 hours screen time, video & nav, completely off the charger. I've bumped my screen timeout to 5 minutes, and don't bother switching off WiFi or GPS. And if that's not epic enough (for me, it is), there's a "Battery Saver" slider on the settings menu -I haven't bothered to flick that On to see what it affects.
Amazingly, the extra battery doesn't come at the expense of size. Held back to back, side to side, end to end, these two phones are close to identical in size. You can get the numbers from the spec sheet, but the Maxx is about 3-4 millimeters taller and wider than the Gnex, and more or less identical in thickness. According to my straight edge, the Maxx's screen even has a slight curve to it, ala the overly-hyped curved glass of the Galaxy Nexus.
But it's definitely shaped differently. I ran my Gnex without a case for the past year, and I'm starting out caseless with the Maxx. I don't see it visually, but the Maxx has a "wedge" feel to it, where the top end of the phone is thicker, and it slims down towards the bottom. The top end is also heavier. What this means is that, when I'm holding it in one hand, most of that weight is concentrated on my index finger. I'd prefer it the other way around -with that weight and thickness at the bottom -where it's resting more on two fingers. I know, I know... we're only talking about 164g according to my scale, but the phone feels more comfortable and balanced when I hold it flipped around like that. Despite the very similar size to my old phone, the Maxx has a definite chunky feel to it, not UNcomfortable, but -lesscomfortable than my previous phone.
The phone's back is interesting. It's not the shiny, hard plasticky finish of the Droid Ultra. Instead, it's a very lightly textured ("rubberized") but smooth finish, with the appearance of a fiber weave. This finish wraps around the bottom edges of the phone and even around the chin to the face, down by the mic. The bottom corners are all rounded, so they're somewhat comfortable -not squared off, though not as rounded as the Galaxy Nexus. The back is smooth enough that it -doesgets smudged with fingerprints, but matte enough that they're not easily noticeable. The Verizon and Droid labels are modestly sized, and rather than bright white, are of a dark gray hue that is easy to ignore.
All together it creates a package with a hefty, high-quality feel. I never minded the durable all-plastic construction of my Nexus and Samsung's Galaxy lineup -something many reviewers and forum posters dismiss as "cheap." But the Maxx feels anything but, possibly belied by its flat slab appearance.
Interrupting the smooth Kevlar wrap are the power and volume buttons -all stacked on the right side -that project from the device perhaps a little more than necessary, and with very square edges and textured surfaces. The buttons don't really jive with the carefully crafted, smooth-to-the-touch backside finish, but then again, there's no mistaking when my fingers are resting on them -even lightly -so hopefully no accidental presses.
>> Boot is about 45 seconds to home screen and signal lock [post 12.15.15 update; original boot time was 30 seconds]. That's still pretty quick. The busy (and noisy) Droid boot animation, followed by the default red home screen, put me off at first -it all just feels very "angry" -but as I'm sure you're aware, that's all easily changeable with a good selection of included live and static wallpapers (a soothing blue relaxed the feel of the phone for me; I wonder if the default aggressive red tone -VZW's Droid branding -turns off would be buyers at the in-store display).
While looking for my next phone, I've been really intrigued by the front-firing speaker on the HTC One. My previous phone (like practically every other phone) was rear-firing, but with speaker placement at the bottom of the phone, where my hand tended to cup it and muffle the volume. Not to mention it was a pretty weak speaker. The Maxx? Surprisingly good, by comparison. The speaker is at the top of the phone, co-located with the camera. It's loud. Even when facing into my passenger seat, the Google Nav directions come through crisply. I've tried to muffle the sound with my hand, like for instance when holding the phone in landscape mode to watch a video, and it comes through loud and clear. The sound is still projecting to the rear, which means the phone is projecting away from me and toward the rest of the room that I'm facing, but it's so much improved over the Gnex that I'm now only partially envious of the HTC speaker.
I recall quite a bit of forum debate over the 3.5mm audio jack placement on the Nexus -some folks absolutely HATE the bottom placement (I, for one, was a fan). The Maxx puts that jack up on the top of the phone, where many users think is its rightful place. I suppose I'm indifferent since I tend to use bluetooth headphones when I'm out. But at home, laying in bed and catching up on some YouTube while plugged in to my charger, I've now got to contend with cords coming out of both sides of my phone.
One other design niggle -wnen using the phone on a flat surface, screen presses anywhere within a half inch of the edges causes the phone to rock. The back runs flat for a few inches from top to bottom (down the spine), but is curved side to side all the way across.
Let's talk about the Super AMOLED (RGB) screen. The quality is great. Really, I'm don't feel deprived without 1080p. But, don't hate me for this, I preferred some aspects of the Galaxy Nexus Pentile (non-RGB) AMOLED better. Here's what I'm noticing with the Maxx:
whites look slightly gray, particularly in a dark room
blacks have sort of a reddish tinge to them, particularly in dark
in general, pictures look underexposed (for instance when browsing a news website)
in video playback, the black and darker areas of the screen have better overall consistency than on my Gnex (less noise)
in bright sunlight, the screen brightness can't meet the challenge (so what's new?)
but in dark rooms, it's almost as though the screen can't dim enough (but just slightly so)
the active notifications appearing on the screen aren't ever-present -the phone needs to be jostled / disturbed for the blank screen to briefly light up and display the current notifications, BUT the phone does not need to be flipped over to activate this (a light tapping of the face-up phone causes the Active Display to light up)
>> the capacitive buttons now dim during most video playback [as up 12.15.15 update] -nice; they were originally full bright, which was distracting in a dark setting.
there's just the slightest amount of light leak from between the screen and capacitive buttons, over the Back button -but only noticeable in a dark room
the Maxx pixels per inch (PPI) display density works out to 296 PPI across the 5" screen. The Gnex screen was slightly smaller (4.7" -less if you consider on-screen buttons took up some of that space), so despite it being the same resolution, would have been 316 PPI -except for its shared-pixel Pentile display. I've seen the case made that the Pentile display dropped the effective PPI down to the 200 range. I can't say I ever took issue with that screen by Samsung, but I could see jaggies on certain websites, and those just aren't present on the Maxx -this display, overall, appears sharper.
There's going to be an adjustment period for me, no doubt, but despite some of the negatives I've listed, I don't consider any of these to be deal breakers.
I mentioned the capacitive buttons. Versus the on-screen buttons found on the Moto X and Gnex, these ones are ever-present. Accessing Google Now takes a slightly paused press of the home button before swiping up, vs. the simple swipe motion (no hold) of an on-screen home button. And some older apps still call up the 3-dot menu button which takes up a whole 'nother row (a black "menu bar" across the entire bottom of the display). On phones with the virtual buttons on-screen, the main three (Back, Home, and Task) would simply make room for the skinny 3-dot -making it all the more obscene that when it appears on the Maxx, it takes up its own row. To get around that, I can go into Settings and enable a "long press of task switcher" option. That gets rid of the wasted screen, but now I have to remember which apps use this long press to access the menu (and some apps only do this on certain screens). This should be less and less of a problem as developers update their apps, as I believe the standard for the OS v4.0 and higher is to display the menu ellipses at the top right corner of the application.
>> Speaking of OS, the phone does come with Jelly Bean 4.2.2. If you're coming from a Gnex, it's basically the same, only snappier. If you're coming from Ice Cream Sandwich or Gingerbread, I guarantee you'll be impressed with the smoothness and overall look/feel of this operating system. [The current 12.15.15 build is still Android 4.2.2, but Motorola has indicated via social networking that Android 4.4 Kit Kat is imminent for this device.]
I'm still setting up my various apps and checking them for compatibility. I'm not going to attempt to generate a comprehensive list of what does / doesn't work, but here are some quick notes:
>>> As of 11/12/13, FoxFi is compatible for tethering. It *requires* a PIN-enabled lock screen (not pattern) due to some VPN nonsense that I admittedly don't completely understand (FoxFi was great on the Galaxy Nexus, and didn't require this)
>>> Google Wallet tap-to-pay isn't **yet** supported -as expected -an app I've been running on the Gnex since about week one. There's some hope it will work in Android 4.4 KitKat. Cruel irony, the Maxx was my last Google Wallet NFC purchase (Verizon clerk: "Oh, I've never seen THAT before!" as I swiped my Nexus across her payment terminal)
YouTube updated me to version 5.0, which I was not yet able to access on the Play Store from my Gnex or my TF700T tablet
Swype keyboard is working A-Ok, and pops up nearly instantly when called
Nova Launcher is working A-Ok; mic icon in "persistent search bar" (shortcut to Google Now) calls up the voice recognition screen nearly instantly
Sound Profile app by Corcanoe is A-Ok without any of the problems / workarounds experienced by Galaxy S4 users
The stock Jelly Bean dialer app has been enhanced to allow dialing by first or last name, or partial phone number -nothing new for users of skinned versions of Android (Touchwiz, Sense, Motoblur) or other OSs, but a feature requiring an aftermarket app for stock Nexus users
"OK Google Now" is quick, responsive, and so far pretty awesome ... but less so with a lock screen
"Set alarm for ten a.m." used to take me directly to the stock clock app, even though I had alternate alarm applications installed. No longer; I'm now given the option to default to whichever one I choose (tested with Timely and Alarm Clock Xtreme); no such luck with "set timer for three minutes", which still just sets an alarm for whatever time is closest to 3 minutes from now
As expected, logging in with my Google credentials automatically downloaded all my apps and contacts, with the exception, oddly enough, of Facebook
Not exactly an app, but the brightness slider from the main pull-down menu is very picky, doesn't like switching back to "Auto," and times out quickly -but works fine from Power Control widget
>> There's a bug in the task switcher where not all open apps appear -including the app I'm currently using (this originally was the same with the Gnex, but was changed in a recent OS update). [This was not addressed in the 12.15.15 update, but other users have reported it, too. Exiting the task switcher then re-entering it usually resolves this.]
>> The Camera [with 12.15.15 update installed]: I'm now super happy with the camera. Images were always as sharp as can be expected from a cell phone, with good, natural colors. There's no longer a problem with highly contrasted scenes (original firmware couldn't handle bright backlighting, such as under a canopy of trees with a bright sky in the background). I'll continue to rely on my compact camera outfitted with an Eye-Fi Mobi when I'm looking for best clarity and dynamic range, but the Maxx's results are definitely suitable for everyday, in-the-moment type shots. Tap to focus is implemented quite well, and is the next logical step beyond "tap anywhere on the screen to shoot." Holding my finger press captures a multiple exposures at a rate of one frame per second (and displays a convenient counter), great for automatic GIF animation by the magic behind Google Plus (which I have set up to auto-upload my pics). The updated camera UI moves the mode dial to a large arc along the left edge, and utilizes that nifty "twist yer wrist" technique to pop directly into camera mode from sleep, like the Moto X. There's also a half-decent slo-mo video mode, which is fun for well-lit scenes of fast moving objects, or just a honey bee landing on a flower. The HDR mode is improved with the new update -still not on par with true 3-frame HDR post-processing, but an acceptable substitute for scenes where compromised lighting would otherwise challenge these rinky-dink sensors. With the 12.15.15 update, the camera software now appears to be updated as an app in Google Play, which ought to mean no more delays waiting for Verizon to vet the software via their "slowest in the biz" OS update process.
The flash is dimmer and yellower than what I've become accustom to on my Nexus, but this is only evident when I'm using it as a flashlight. In flash-filled photos, the camera's white balance is adjusted appropriately for the non-exactly-white LED, and as long as my expectations aren't too high (i.e. subjects are within 6-10 feet of the camera and I'm not trying to light a whole room), the photos seem to be adequately focused, and in a matter of only a second or two. But don't expect you're going to freeze any poorly-lighted motion with this shooter, and expect to see a good amount of noise at full rez. This isn't a Nokia, after all!
The operating system is pretty dang close to stock Jelly Bean. Motorola threw some extras in there for the camera and photo sharing, plus a widget or two, and of course there's a whole bevy of Verizon bloat including NFL, MyVZW, visual voicemail, VZW nav, etc... even a caller ID service that sneakily activates, then tries to enroll the user for monthly billing. But with 32 gigs of memory on board, a little attention paid, and the ability to quarantine these apps, they're hardly a bother. The phone's interface is pure Google.
In that list of apps up above, I pointedly mention the delay-free call-ups of the Swype keyboard and the Google Now microphone icon. I've been seeing these getting increasingly bogged down on my Nexus, I believe due to memory management issues. I had hopes Android 4.3 and its TRIM memory management would resolve this, but hadn't yet flashed it. That's to say that this could become a similar issue on the Maxx as I install & update more apps, but I'm also banking on Verizon/Motorola/Google having this phone on Android 4.3 in not too many months, if not Kit Kat 4.4. Fingers crossed -VZW is known to be slow with their rollouts.
The "OK Google Now" voice wake (well, really, it works when the phone is already awake, too) is shaping up to be more than a gimmick. After an initial "voice training" session in a quiet place, I OK Google Now'd my phone where it sat on the passenger seat cushion. "Navigate to work" (work already being defined in my Google Now account) and, bingo, I'm hearing Google's familiar, clear directions. Same with text messages to my wife, and setting an alarm. One step closer to hands free. Except, of course, that pin or pattern unlock if it's active -that puts the brakes on touchless commands.
Although regarding pin/pattern unlock, the Maxx offers up a cool option (excuse me if this is old news -new to me) to recognize trusted Bluetooth devices, and gives the option to leave the phone unlocked as long as it remains in range. Think car, smartwatch, a generic USB dongle in a home or office PC, etc. -the phone will only lock down when it "walks away" out of signal range of one of these trusted Bluetooth devices.
Oh... face unlock makes a reappearance, too. I actually used that a bit on the Gnex.
I can't post this review without mentioning the all-important connectivity. The radios are great -both 4G & wifi.
In my basement, where I've struggled to pull a 3G signal on the Gnex, I maintained a 4G connection on the Maxx, which allowed me to download apps (initial phone setup) while watching an HD video on YouTube
On the main floor of the house, where my signal would flip between 3G and 4G on the Gnex, the Maxx operates decidedly in 4G territory
At work, one room in the office far removed from the wifi antenna would consistently go to zero bars (yet, frustratingly, not lose it completely and therefore would not switch over to the strong 4G signal), I now have at least one wifi bar accompanied by a usable flow of data
Overall, switching between wifi and 4G on the margins seems improved vs. what I had before, though even with "ignore weak wifi connections" checked, the Maxx at times seems indecisive about switching from one to the other. If I have one wifi bar that's trickling data, and a 3-bar 4G signal available, the choice should be obvious
No problem with Bluetooth connections; I'm stoked that I now have full integration with my Ford's Sync system, with artist/track tagging from Pandora, and read-out-loud messaging with canned replies
Voice call quality overall is excellent. This is one of Motorola's strong suits, I hear. I'm impressed.
Do you remember the iPhone 4's "death grip" problem? It seems that in marginal 4G areas (like that signal-quashing basement I mentioned), turning the Droid Maxx to landscape mode and holding it with both hands causes it to show a drop of 5 to 10 dBm off the signal strength meter (Settings > More > Mobile Networks > Network Type and Strength). If I'm already in the (low strength) -115 to -120 range, this results in me completely losing 3G and 4G connectivity. Releasing one hand brings the signal back to life. Where my 4G signal is strong, the signal drop is there, but my connection remains intact.
I've taken GPS accuracy for granted for a few years, so I was surprised to notice the Maxx's sense of direction may be slightly off. I use Google Nav frequently, and on a couple of occasions, the Maxx seemed to think I strayed off course onto the streets vs. getting on the freeway on-ramp, or exited when I really stayed on the highway, and as such gives me a fast re-route and impossible directions. It (well, Google Nav) then quickly corrects itself. I'd chock this up to accepted errors in compacted urban driving environments, except that the Gnex, previous Garmin devices, and Ford GPS simply don't exhibit this behavior. It would only be a problem if I already screwed up and missed a turn, but this nevertheless results in confusing instructions. Though other than those relatively minor blips, location setting is fast and mostly accurate, even in many indoor settings.
Another point to mention: Heat. My Galaxy Nexus often ran hot. When it did, I knew it was busy with something that was burning through the battery. This phone has run even hotter, both times in the car plugged in. The first was just downloading apps, the second was also running Nav with the screen on the whole time. But I've yet to see it run this hot outside of the car, and in fact, in the car running Nav but not plugged in, and not downloading apps, is was perfectly cool (and only lost 4% of the charge over about 20 minutes of Nav + screen-on time). So I'm guessing the heat comes from the 4G radio and processor working overtime switching cell sites, transferring data, and unpacking / installing applications, though again, this isn't the case when it's doing those same tasks sitting still in the house (and on 4G).
Check back. I'm sure I'll have some more detail to add to this already too-long review as I get to know this phone, particularly with respect to battery life, application compatibility problems & successes, and more observations on the radio switching & possible "death grip" issue.
But in summary, I'm sticking with my title -this phone may have some issues here and there, and it may not be the fastest/biggest/most beautiful/polished specimen out there this late summer and fall, but in my opinion it's the first suitable contender to supersede the Samsung Galaxy Nexus, and betters that phone in a number of key areas. I have a great deal of confidence in Motorola at this time -both in their tie to Google, and their strong affiliation with VZW. Thankfully, if you're tied to Verizon, you've suddenly got a few good choices after a long drought.
Nikon D5100 Digital SLR Camera with AF-S DX NIKKOR 18-55mm
To be direct, I love this camera. I am just getting back into photography as a serious hobbiest (the last time was 35mm so much has changed). Others can review with fine detail, I will state my experience as a DSLR newbie.
First I chose Nikon as my product line. this is important for anyone to think about before jumping into a camera like this. Choose which brand of lenses and which camera layout, menus, etc make sense to you. You will own this camera for a very long time. Even if the body eventually is replaced the lenses if cared for will last a lifetime and fit on other Nikon cameras. Like Nikon glass, good
Next, are you professional? see other reviews, if not, are you upgrading or jumping in? Upgraders should consider their starting point and choose accordingly. Jumpers, this is the camera for you. If you can afford more, ok, but if you are not a pro do you need more? I've taken wonderful photos and blown them up to 30x20. Awesome quality, but you have to know what you are doing to really get that awesome shot. Study the craft not just purchase the toy.
All the features a hobbist is going to need. Intuative menus. Serious power in the software. I do make 2 suggestions for companion purchases. Buy a large fast storage card~ continuous shots are so fun, and a good book. I found From Snapshots to Great Shots series on the D5100 to be excellent. The manual isn't horrible, but if you want to see what this baby can really do spend few extra $.
First I chose Nikon as my product line. this is important for anyone to think about before jumping into a camera like this. Choose which brand of lenses and which camera layout, menus, etc make sense to you. You will own this camera for a very long time. Even if the body eventually is replaced the lenses if cared for will last a lifetime and fit on other Nikon cameras. Like Nikon glass, good
Next, are you professional? see other reviews, if not, are you upgrading or jumping in? Upgraders should consider their starting point and choose accordingly. Jumpers, this is the camera for you. If you can afford more, ok, but if you are not a pro do you need more? I've taken wonderful photos and blown them up to 30x20. Awesome quality, but you have to know what you are doing to really get that awesome shot. Study the craft not just purchase the toy.
All the features a hobbist is going to need. Intuative menus. Serious power in the software. I do make 2 suggestions for companion purchases. Buy a large fast storage card~ continuous shots are so fun, and a good book. I found From Snapshots to Great Shots series on the D5100 to be excellent. The manual isn't horrible, but if you want to see what this baby can really do spend few extra $.
Apple MacBook ProMB991LL/A 13.3 Inch Laptop
This is my first Mac computer. My first four computers ran Win 3.1, Windows 95, XP, and Vista (from about 1995-present). I have quite a lot of time spent on each of them. Switching from Windows to Mac is not difficult, but it can be a bit frustrating for a week or so. There are Windows features that you will miss, but they are mostly overcome by overall advantages in my opinion.
I've spent two weeks with this machine now. If I had written this review after one day, I would have probably stated that I regretted the switch to Mac. After getting more proficient with the machine and realizing how well it works, I would definitely recommend it to a friend.
This review is going to be a mix of my impressions of both the hardware and the Mac operating system from a new Mac user perspective.
The only difference between my machine and the one on this product page is that I ordered directly from Apple and upgraded the hard drive to 250GB (from the 160GB base option). I am using 2gb of ram and the lower-end processor.
My Mac OS impressions:
The biggest thing I missed from Windows at first was the task bar. Mac uses the "dock" to replace the task bar. The dock is kind of like the quick launch toolbar in Windows spread out across the entire bar, with large icons. Having used windows with a task bar for the past 13 years, I missed the ability to see all open programs and switch between them with the task bar. The dock has a tiny dot below the icon on running-programs, but nothing else to separate it from other program and folder icons. The dock is not nearly as useful for multitasking as the task bar.
The saving grace that rescues the Mac from awkward app-switching while multitasking is called expose. Expose is activated by either pressing a key or using a multitouch gesture (four-finger swipe). Expose uses the entire screen to display all open windows and allow you to switch between them. It's like alt+tab on steroids. Having used the machine for a couple weeks, I miss using expose when I use my Windows machine. As much as I hated the dock at first, I have to give the advantage to the Mac for managing multiple windows while multitasking.
The controls for open-windows are quite different than in MS-Windows. In Mac, there is a resize, hide, and minimize button instead of maximize, minimize, restore, and close. To close an app on the mac you need to use a menu command or keyboard shortcut. The Mac resize button kind of works like restore/maximize, only it's a bit more awkward. A commenter here pointed out that it resizes the window for ideal viewing without using the entire screen. I find myself resizing windows by dragging corners more than I ever did on a Windows machine. I really miss the ability to maximize, if for no other reason but to avoid distractions. The green resize button may be better on an enormous monitor, but not on a 13" notebook. When you minimize or hide an app on the Mac, it is only available from the dock and is hidden from expose. I'll give the window size-management advantage to Windows in this contest. The windows system is just easier and more logical in my opinion. It isn't a deal-breaker, but I do miss the Windows "window controls." If you are a frequent user of the F11 key while web browsing in Windows you'll have to kiss that feature goodbye. Neither Firefox nor Safari will go full-screen.
Windows Explorer is "replaced" with an app called Finder. Finder is kind of like the start menu and an explorer window all rolled up into one. Compared with older versions of Windows, finder is adequate but Vista's explorer is quite a bit easier and more logical to use. I prefer Vista's preview pane to Mac's coverflow. I miss the "up folder" button. I have found myself mostly using the view that puts files, folders and apps into a column view for easiest computer browsing, and it just isn't as elegant as Windows Vista. The lack of a maximize button has caused frustration especially in the finder, because the finder likes to stay in a very small window unless you drag the corners.
The Safari web browser is nice and quick and has a decent security reputation. I have been switching back and forth between Safari and Firefox. Firefox has crashed a couple of times and I really like being able to use multitouch gestures with Safari, so I'm leaning toward making Safari my main web tool. Reading RSS feeds, and the bookmark toolbar are really well done in Safari. Browsers are so personal that it's difficult to recommend one over the other, but as a Firefox user in Windows I think I have high standard and Safari has met or exceeded them.
I absolutely hate the iPhoto app. Iphoto does not allow you to organize and browse your photos in folders. It imports your pictures and sorts them itself based on time/date stamps on the photos. This works fine for personal vacation snapshots but it completely mixed up the rest of my images. Folders that were neatly organized for work projects, and fun web clippings, and adult stuff were all shuffled into one big mess after I imported my image collection. I ended up just deleting all of them and not using iphoto at all. Right now I'm just using Finder to browse my photos and the preview app to view them. Light editing work isn't possible in the preview app and I still haven't decided what to use for a basic photo editor yet. Vista's photo app is junk but it's still superior to iPhoto if you like to keep your photos organized using your own folder system. I know people who love iphoto. It comes down to whether you want the ability to organize your collection yourself. If you have a big mess of photos, you'll love iphoto's ability to organize them via event and face recognition.
Edited to add: you can organize your photos into "albums" after you import them into iPhoto, but be prepared to spend a lot of time reorganizing everything. Even after you organize into albums, the main library screen gives you views of your entire collection (perhaps things you don't want everyone to see).
I have not used Garage Band or iMovie yet. I'll update later when I get a chance.
Edited to add: I played with garage band a bit and it's pretty powerful. It allows you to import and export AAC and MP3 tracks and record sound in multiple tracks. Very easy to use. The only other audio app i've ever used is audacity and I much prefer Garage Band. I haven't used any of the music lessons it offers yet but plan to soon.
I played with iMovie for a few minutes and it seems pretty nice and very intuitive. I actually don't mind Windows Movie Maker, which is included with Vista. I would not consider it a big step up from Win Movie Maker, but it's a nice app.
The mail, calendar, and address book apps are basic but work very very well. The address app will import common file types easily. It will sync with yahoo out of the box. Address book will only sync with Google contacts if you own an iPhone or iPod Touch.
Everyone has an opinion about iTunes. I'm a big fan of it. It's exactly like the windows version only it runs a bit faster without the bugs. If you have an iPhone or iPod touch, the Windows-iTunes bug with time/date being wrong after the computer sleeps is not an issue on the Mac.
Time machine is the Mac's backup app. It is amazing and very simple. I'm using an external drive plugged into my Apple Airport wireless router, as a backup disk. My wireless disk showed up on my desktop instantly once I plugged it into the router. Time machine noticed the external drive right away and went to work backing up my files (after asking permission of course). Now my machine automatically backs up any changes every hour as long as I'm in range of my wireless access point. Time machine is a big load off my mind. If I ever have a drive failure or my computer is destroyed I have an exact backup of everything without remembering to backup my files. Vista will backup according to a set schedule, but it lacks the ability to easily look through backups for specific files. Time machine is wonderful and make wireless backup effortless.
The Mac disk utility is almost as good as the one in Vista and it's easier to use. It's far superior to the one in XP. I used it to format my external wireless drive because the Mac router couldn't read NTFS formating (although the computer can read NTFS drives via USB for some reason).
The graphics control software is a joy to use. When I plug in my external monitor it immediately extends my desktop to the new monitor. Adjusting everything from resolution to rotation couldn't be any easier.
Boot camp is a utility that allows you to create a partition and install Windows as a secondary boot system (you need to own or buy a legal single-disk 32bit copy of either Windows XP or Windows Vista). When you start up the boot camp utility, it gives you a choice between using either 5 or 32 GB of space for the Windows partition. I learned the hard way that Windows XP SP3 won't fit into 5GB. You need to give it at least the 32 GB (which left me with almost exactly 200GB on my "250" GB drive). Installing Windows using the Boot Camp utility is very very easy. Once you get Windows loaded, your OSX install disk makes quick work of installing drivers for all of your laptop's hardware. It's too bad that Nvidia and HP aren't as good at putting together easy Windows driver packages as Apple. In order to boot into Windows, you simply press the "option" key during bootup and it allows you to choose which OS to run. Windows XP absolutely screams on this hardware.
The hardware:
The hardware is where this computer really shines.
The biggest advantage is stability. My last computer purchase was a vista machine. To say that I had stability and hardware compatibility issues with my HP Vista desktop is an understatement. The main reason I turned to mac for this purchase was the fact that the hardware, drivers, and software are made for each other. This machine has ran flawlessly for the past two weeks. I did have two crashes of the Firefox browser while watching Flash video, but only the browser went down rather than the entire system.
I have connected an external monitor, camera, ipod, USB drive, and router to this machine. All of the drivers were already installed and everything has "just worked." The hardware is a joy to use when it just works. It is difficult to put into words how happy I am with the lack of effort in using this machine.
The speed isn't blazing-fast but it runs very well, even with many many apps and windows running. My Vista desktop has similar specs, but my new Mac feels slightly faster.
One outstanding productivity feature of this machine is the touch pad. I honestly prefer it to using a mouse for office and browsing tasks. I can't say enough good things about the multitouch gestures. Two finger scrolling, two finger right-click, three finger forward and back in Safari, and four finger expose make this machine feel like like it is part of you. Having the entire surface of the touchpad as the button is brilliant, especially for drag and drop operations. The large size of the touchpad makes it very precise.
The keyboard is really nice. At first I thought the keys were a bit soft and the travel was too shallow, but I quickly got used to it and now prefer it to my more "clicky" desktop keyboard. I don't know how I lived this long without a backlit keyboard. The backlight is more useful than I thought it would be.
The display is beautiful. It has good color, a wide viewing angle, and is plenty bright for indoor environments. I would prefer that the screen wasn't glass, but the reflections aren't as bad as I feared. If there is a bright light source behind you, you'll need to angle the screen to reduce the glare but it's workable.
The DVD drive is a DVD drive. It feels slow and makes a lot of noise. I've never owned an optical drive that I considered fast and quiet, and this one isn't any exception. It works well, but isn't anything special.
The battery life is incredible. The seven hour battery life is not an exaggeration if you are using the computer for light browsing and office apps. Expect about 4-5 hours if you're using it for heavy web browsing and a bit of media. Listening to music with the display off would easily last over the advertised 7 hours. Streaming high definition video on netflix using wireless will knock it down to at or below three hours. I haven't watched DVD movies on battery power but I expect it to barely get you through a single two hour film with a bit left over.
The size and weight are ideal for portability. 4.5lbs doesn't exactly feel light until you compare it to similarly spec'd machines that weigh a full pound (20%) more. I wouldn't want a larger machine if I had to lug it around much.
The speakers are quite good for a small light machine. Don't expect much bass, but the sound is very clear with good mids and highs. The speakers are plenty loud for listening to podcasts or music in a semi-quiet medium sized room or office. I won't need to pack external speakers for use in my hotel room when I travel, like my last laptop.
The "magsafe" power adapter is more than just a gimmick, and more than just a way to avoid tripping and breaking your machine. The "power brick" itself is a lot smaller than my last dell laptop. It's exactly the same size as the USB wall adapters that used to be included with ipods. The cord is 6ft long and the brick includes fold-out wings to wrap the cord around. It is very well thought-out for travel. With the cord wrapped up and the plug folded into the body, the power brick only takes up about 2.5" x 3" x 1" in your bag. When you are using it at home or at the office there is an included 6ft extension cord for the power brick so you aren't as tethered to your desk.
The computer runs very cool compared to most laptops. Also, there are no vents where super-heated air blows out. While I'm sure it uses a fan, I've never audibly actually heard it run or felt a stream of warm air from it. I think it may vent through ports and the keyboard but it runs cool enough that you don't notice it. Edited to add: it does get rather warm when watching high resolution video, but stays quite cool when web browsing or using normal office apps. Even when very warm, the fan is still quiet (the only way to actually hear the fan is to hold it near your ear).
The only drawback to the hardware compared to Windows machines is the fact that there is no option to hibernate when closing the lid. It sleeps when you close the lid but it still is using a small amount of power. If you're only going to be away for a couple hours this isn't an issue, but you must completely shut down when on battery power if you're going to be away much longer.
This machine is a lot more expensive than similarly spec'd Windows machines but I feel that it's worth the money. I'm a very satisfied Mac switcher.
I've spent two weeks with this machine now. If I had written this review after one day, I would have probably stated that I regretted the switch to Mac. After getting more proficient with the machine and realizing how well it works, I would definitely recommend it to a friend.
This review is going to be a mix of my impressions of both the hardware and the Mac operating system from a new Mac user perspective.
The only difference between my machine and the one on this product page is that I ordered directly from Apple and upgraded the hard drive to 250GB (from the 160GB base option). I am using 2gb of ram and the lower-end processor.
My Mac OS impressions:
The biggest thing I missed from Windows at first was the task bar. Mac uses the "dock" to replace the task bar. The dock is kind of like the quick launch toolbar in Windows spread out across the entire bar, with large icons. Having used windows with a task bar for the past 13 years, I missed the ability to see all open programs and switch between them with the task bar. The dock has a tiny dot below the icon on running-programs, but nothing else to separate it from other program and folder icons. The dock is not nearly as useful for multitasking as the task bar.
The saving grace that rescues the Mac from awkward app-switching while multitasking is called expose. Expose is activated by either pressing a key or using a multitouch gesture (four-finger swipe). Expose uses the entire screen to display all open windows and allow you to switch between them. It's like alt+tab on steroids. Having used the machine for a couple weeks, I miss using expose when I use my Windows machine. As much as I hated the dock at first, I have to give the advantage to the Mac for managing multiple windows while multitasking.
The controls for open-windows are quite different than in MS-Windows. In Mac, there is a resize, hide, and minimize button instead of maximize, minimize, restore, and close. To close an app on the mac you need to use a menu command or keyboard shortcut. The Mac resize button kind of works like restore/maximize, only it's a bit more awkward. A commenter here pointed out that it resizes the window for ideal viewing without using the entire screen. I find myself resizing windows by dragging corners more than I ever did on a Windows machine. I really miss the ability to maximize, if for no other reason but to avoid distractions. The green resize button may be better on an enormous monitor, but not on a 13" notebook. When you minimize or hide an app on the Mac, it is only available from the dock and is hidden from expose. I'll give the window size-management advantage to Windows in this contest. The windows system is just easier and more logical in my opinion. It isn't a deal-breaker, but I do miss the Windows "window controls." If you are a frequent user of the F11 key while web browsing in Windows you'll have to kiss that feature goodbye. Neither Firefox nor Safari will go full-screen.
Windows Explorer is "replaced" with an app called Finder. Finder is kind of like the start menu and an explorer window all rolled up into one. Compared with older versions of Windows, finder is adequate but Vista's explorer is quite a bit easier and more logical to use. I prefer Vista's preview pane to Mac's coverflow. I miss the "up folder" button. I have found myself mostly using the view that puts files, folders and apps into a column view for easiest computer browsing, and it just isn't as elegant as Windows Vista. The lack of a maximize button has caused frustration especially in the finder, because the finder likes to stay in a very small window unless you drag the corners.
The Safari web browser is nice and quick and has a decent security reputation. I have been switching back and forth between Safari and Firefox. Firefox has crashed a couple of times and I really like being able to use multitouch gestures with Safari, so I'm leaning toward making Safari my main web tool. Reading RSS feeds, and the bookmark toolbar are really well done in Safari. Browsers are so personal that it's difficult to recommend one over the other, but as a Firefox user in Windows I think I have high standard and Safari has met or exceeded them.
I absolutely hate the iPhoto app. Iphoto does not allow you to organize and browse your photos in folders. It imports your pictures and sorts them itself based on time/date stamps on the photos. This works fine for personal vacation snapshots but it completely mixed up the rest of my images. Folders that were neatly organized for work projects, and fun web clippings, and adult stuff were all shuffled into one big mess after I imported my image collection. I ended up just deleting all of them and not using iphoto at all. Right now I'm just using Finder to browse my photos and the preview app to view them. Light editing work isn't possible in the preview app and I still haven't decided what to use for a basic photo editor yet. Vista's photo app is junk but it's still superior to iPhoto if you like to keep your photos organized using your own folder system. I know people who love iphoto. It comes down to whether you want the ability to organize your collection yourself. If you have a big mess of photos, you'll love iphoto's ability to organize them via event and face recognition.
Edited to add: you can organize your photos into "albums" after you import them into iPhoto, but be prepared to spend a lot of time reorganizing everything. Even after you organize into albums, the main library screen gives you views of your entire collection (perhaps things you don't want everyone to see).
I have not used Garage Band or iMovie yet. I'll update later when I get a chance.
Edited to add: I played with garage band a bit and it's pretty powerful. It allows you to import and export AAC and MP3 tracks and record sound in multiple tracks. Very easy to use. The only other audio app i've ever used is audacity and I much prefer Garage Band. I haven't used any of the music lessons it offers yet but plan to soon.
I played with iMovie for a few minutes and it seems pretty nice and very intuitive. I actually don't mind Windows Movie Maker, which is included with Vista. I would not consider it a big step up from Win Movie Maker, but it's a nice app.
The mail, calendar, and address book apps are basic but work very very well. The address app will import common file types easily. It will sync with yahoo out of the box. Address book will only sync with Google contacts if you own an iPhone or iPod Touch.
Everyone has an opinion about iTunes. I'm a big fan of it. It's exactly like the windows version only it runs a bit faster without the bugs. If you have an iPhone or iPod touch, the Windows-iTunes bug with time/date being wrong after the computer sleeps is not an issue on the Mac.
Time machine is the Mac's backup app. It is amazing and very simple. I'm using an external drive plugged into my Apple Airport wireless router, as a backup disk. My wireless disk showed up on my desktop instantly once I plugged it into the router. Time machine noticed the external drive right away and went to work backing up my files (after asking permission of course). Now my machine automatically backs up any changes every hour as long as I'm in range of my wireless access point. Time machine is a big load off my mind. If I ever have a drive failure or my computer is destroyed I have an exact backup of everything without remembering to backup my files. Vista will backup according to a set schedule, but it lacks the ability to easily look through backups for specific files. Time machine is wonderful and make wireless backup effortless.
The Mac disk utility is almost as good as the one in Vista and it's easier to use. It's far superior to the one in XP. I used it to format my external wireless drive because the Mac router couldn't read NTFS formating (although the computer can read NTFS drives via USB for some reason).
The graphics control software is a joy to use. When I plug in my external monitor it immediately extends my desktop to the new monitor. Adjusting everything from resolution to rotation couldn't be any easier.
Boot camp is a utility that allows you to create a partition and install Windows as a secondary boot system (you need to own or buy a legal single-disk 32bit copy of either Windows XP or Windows Vista). When you start up the boot camp utility, it gives you a choice between using either 5 or 32 GB of space for the Windows partition. I learned the hard way that Windows XP SP3 won't fit into 5GB. You need to give it at least the 32 GB (which left me with almost exactly 200GB on my "250" GB drive). Installing Windows using the Boot Camp utility is very very easy. Once you get Windows loaded, your OSX install disk makes quick work of installing drivers for all of your laptop's hardware. It's too bad that Nvidia and HP aren't as good at putting together easy Windows driver packages as Apple. In order to boot into Windows, you simply press the "option" key during bootup and it allows you to choose which OS to run. Windows XP absolutely screams on this hardware.
The hardware:
The hardware is where this computer really shines.
The biggest advantage is stability. My last computer purchase was a vista machine. To say that I had stability and hardware compatibility issues with my HP Vista desktop is an understatement. The main reason I turned to mac for this purchase was the fact that the hardware, drivers, and software are made for each other. This machine has ran flawlessly for the past two weeks. I did have two crashes of the Firefox browser while watching Flash video, but only the browser went down rather than the entire system.
I have connected an external monitor, camera, ipod, USB drive, and router to this machine. All of the drivers were already installed and everything has "just worked." The hardware is a joy to use when it just works. It is difficult to put into words how happy I am with the lack of effort in using this machine.
The speed isn't blazing-fast but it runs very well, even with many many apps and windows running. My Vista desktop has similar specs, but my new Mac feels slightly faster.
One outstanding productivity feature of this machine is the touch pad. I honestly prefer it to using a mouse for office and browsing tasks. I can't say enough good things about the multitouch gestures. Two finger scrolling, two finger right-click, three finger forward and back in Safari, and four finger expose make this machine feel like like it is part of you. Having the entire surface of the touchpad as the button is brilliant, especially for drag and drop operations. The large size of the touchpad makes it very precise.
The keyboard is really nice. At first I thought the keys were a bit soft and the travel was too shallow, but I quickly got used to it and now prefer it to my more "clicky" desktop keyboard. I don't know how I lived this long without a backlit keyboard. The backlight is more useful than I thought it would be.
The display is beautiful. It has good color, a wide viewing angle, and is plenty bright for indoor environments. I would prefer that the screen wasn't glass, but the reflections aren't as bad as I feared. If there is a bright light source behind you, you'll need to angle the screen to reduce the glare but it's workable.
The DVD drive is a DVD drive. It feels slow and makes a lot of noise. I've never owned an optical drive that I considered fast and quiet, and this one isn't any exception. It works well, but isn't anything special.
The battery life is incredible. The seven hour battery life is not an exaggeration if you are using the computer for light browsing and office apps. Expect about 4-5 hours if you're using it for heavy web browsing and a bit of media. Listening to music with the display off would easily last over the advertised 7 hours. Streaming high definition video on netflix using wireless will knock it down to at or below three hours. I haven't watched DVD movies on battery power but I expect it to barely get you through a single two hour film with a bit left over.
The size and weight are ideal for portability. 4.5lbs doesn't exactly feel light until you compare it to similarly spec'd machines that weigh a full pound (20%) more. I wouldn't want a larger machine if I had to lug it around much.
The speakers are quite good for a small light machine. Don't expect much bass, but the sound is very clear with good mids and highs. The speakers are plenty loud for listening to podcasts or music in a semi-quiet medium sized room or office. I won't need to pack external speakers for use in my hotel room when I travel, like my last laptop.
The "magsafe" power adapter is more than just a gimmick, and more than just a way to avoid tripping and breaking your machine. The "power brick" itself is a lot smaller than my last dell laptop. It's exactly the same size as the USB wall adapters that used to be included with ipods. The cord is 6ft long and the brick includes fold-out wings to wrap the cord around. It is very well thought-out for travel. With the cord wrapped up and the plug folded into the body, the power brick only takes up about 2.5" x 3" x 1" in your bag. When you are using it at home or at the office there is an included 6ft extension cord for the power brick so you aren't as tethered to your desk.
The computer runs very cool compared to most laptops. Also, there are no vents where super-heated air blows out. While I'm sure it uses a fan, I've never audibly actually heard it run or felt a stream of warm air from it. I think it may vent through ports and the keyboard but it runs cool enough that you don't notice it. Edited to add: it does get rather warm when watching high resolution video, but stays quite cool when web browsing or using normal office apps. Even when very warm, the fan is still quiet (the only way to actually hear the fan is to hold it near your ear).
The only drawback to the hardware compared to Windows machines is the fact that there is no option to hibernate when closing the lid. It sleeps when you close the lid but it still is using a small amount of power. If you're only going to be away for a couple hours this isn't an issue, but you must completely shut down when on battery power if you're going to be away much longer.
This machine is a lot more expensive than similarly spec'd Windows machines but I feel that it's worth the money. I'm a very satisfied Mac switcher.