12-Hour impressions: $1099 MacBook Airport Range (Score 2, Informative)

I am a professional programmer by day, and I've had a G4 TiBook for 5 years now and have been waiting for the MacBook to upgrade to a MacTel. I picked it up last night from my local Apple store and have spent a few hours with it:

* One of my first tests was the Airport range: the range on the MacBook surpasses other laptops I've seen. The TiBook has notoriously poor WiFi range, and my wife has a 12" AlBook which has better, but not great range. I have an Apple Airport base station in the basement, and my bedroom is 1 level above. I always got dodgy reception with the AlBook, and virtually no reception with the TiBook . . . the MB gives a rock-solid signal from the bedroom, and all throughout the rest of the main level of the house. Fantastic.

* The "glossy" display looks like the displays I've seen on Sony and Toshiba laptops at Best Buy. The screen is nice and sharp and, IMHO, quite bright (esp. compared to my old TiBook). Looks great reading text, web pages, etc.

* This was my first experience with Apple's system migration tool. I booted the TiBook in firewire mode (reboot and hold 'T') and connected it to the MB . . . * Keyboard: I never really liked the TiBook keyboard, and I never liked the feel of my wife's AlBook keyboard either. The MB keyboard seems a little on the flimsy side, but it is certainly usable. I like it better than the iBook keyboard which I though to be really flimsy. I haven't noticed any problems with keys in weird positions or things like that. I saw an earlier post griping about the lack of PageUp/PageDown keys, but I've always found that the Fn key (at the bottom-left of Apple keyboards) coupled with the inverse-T keys in the bottom-right give me great cursor control.

* Speed: This thing is fast compared to the G4.

* iSight: The camera works great, although it's not going to take any studio quality portraits.

* Front Row: I don't really care about the remote much, but it is nifty, and works as advertised.

* MagSafe: I was going to get a G4 PowerBook, but the Intel compatibility and MagSafe were enough for me to wait for the MB. MagSafe needs to be seen to be believed.

Verdict: For me, the price was right, the CPU performance matches the 1st MacBook Pro (and blows away G4s), and the Airport range is great. I'm glad I waited.