Yes, a few months ago, my desktop officially reached the end of its life, with a motherboard fan already defecting breaking off, and my long-time companion, the Acer aspire 4745, also entering a stage of old age, making everything quite inconvenient.
So during this spring computer exhibition, I finally got my hands on an MBPR at the Tsann Kuen booth.
Because Tsann Kuen recently had a promotion of a $500 discount for every $10,000 spent, this originally priced $41,900 item was discounted by $2,000, and I got it for $39,900.
That day, since it was almost closing time and my colleague hadn’t decided on a laptop yet, I told the salesperson not to unbox and test the machine for me. I would do it myself at home. It turned out to be a good decision because it was pouring rain on the way home, and the bag with the computer got soaked!
Luckily, I didn’t unbox it back then XD
OK, let’s start the unboxing. It was quite late, and my room light is yellowish. I was too lazy to wait until daytime, adjust the white balance, or even edit the photos (am I too lazy XD?), so today’s photos will look a bit yellowish.
Taking it out of the box, there are protective cardboard pieces on all four corners. Since it was raining heavily on the way home, they were all wet, and I’m really glad I didn’t remove the plastic wrap…
The front of the box, with Apple’s usual minimalist style, doesn’t have any brand or product name. If I only saw this side, I might not even know what it is.
A small Apple logo on the side.
The other side has the MacBook Pro label.
The back has detailed specifications. Initially, I thought about not buying the Retina version to save some money, but it seems the new MacBooks no longer have non-Retina versions (quite a mouthful).
Also, the 128G hard drive made me hesitate for a long time, but in the end, my inner devil decided to buy an external hard drive enclosure to compensate for the lack of space.
And having 8G of memory is just awesome!
Finally, the MacBook itself.
Inside the box, the small items include a black box in the top left corner containing the manual and a cleaning cloth, the power cord in the bottom left, and the power extension cord on the right. Compared to regular notebooks, the power cord is slightly thinner, which I quite like, as it usually takes up a lot of space when I carry it around to plug in.
However, the adapter is really bulky, taking up two sockets when plugged in, which is a bit inconvenient.
Opening the small box, the folding of the cleaning cloth made me think it was some high-end envelope, making me wonder why the manual was wrapped in such a fancy thing XD
The back has software license agreements and tells you to connect to the internet during setup. Since there’s no Chinese, I was too lazy to read it, so I just skimmed for keywords. It’s pretty much what it says!
Looking at the left side, from left to right, there’s SDXC, HDMI, USB 3.0.
Looking at the right side, there’s the power, Thunderbolt x2 (still not sure what it’s for), USB 3.0, and a headphone jack.
Looking at the front, there’s a small groove to help you open it.
Looking at the back, well, there’s not much to see.
When I opened the computer, I was shocked for about a second because I thought I had shattered the screen while carrying it home on a bumpy ride XDD Fortunately, it was just a protective sheet.
TADA!!
Look at the beautiful keyboard. I was probably really tired that day, as it took me a long time to find the power button, only to realize it was in such a normal place – –
The highly praised trackpad, everyone says the MacBook’s trackpad is amazing, and the gesture controls are very convenient.
After trying it, it really is as they say!
OSX operates differently from Windows; OSX feels a bit like a tablet operating mode, with multi-screen functionality, so there’s a need to switch between screens. Although it can be done with Ctrl + arrow keys, using gestures to switch (three fingers swipe left or right) is indeed more intuitive and convenient.
After getting used to it, I actually prefer not using a mouse, to be honest.
The command key that’s only on Macs.
Alright, that’s about it for the unboxing.
Using a Mac is quite different from a PC. What has impressed me the most so far is the multi-screen switching and the convenient gesture controls, oh, and the super-fast booting (sleep mode), where the screen is ready when you open it, and it shuts down when you close it. Plus, because it’s an SSD, you can shake it around without worrying about it breaking (what am I planning to do XDDD).
However, I’m not yet accustomed to the other shortcuts and input methods, as I’m quite reliant on shortcuts (I always have one hand on the keyboard while working), so overall efficiency is not yet higher than using a PC. But I believe it’s just a matter of getting used to it. Maybe after using it a few more times, I’ll get accustomed to the operating method and start improving efficiency.
That’s about it!
Want one? Ask your dad to buy it for you
Further Reading
[Unboxing] Xiaomi Power Bank 5200 Taiwan Version
[Unboxing] Significant Upgrade HTC One M8
[Unboxing] My First Laptop Acer aspire 4745G