In this month’s article, let’s look at the pros and cons of buying a Mac in Cambodia.
In October, I bought myself a sexy 13″ MacBook Pro. The reason? More and more of my clients are using Mac. And since I can run both Windows on a new Mac laptop with gorgeous graphics, I have decided to switch to learn and enjoy hanging out with the ‘glowing apple’.
The first week, I struggled a little while switching between open programs or windows as a Windows user is used to task bar clicks. Switching between programs was ok but confusing when trying to switch between open documents in the same program. Yes, I know… you can set up Expose (hot corners) which allows you to display everything at a glance on your screen by just moving your mouse pointer to one of the 4 ‘hot’ corners of the screen. Khmer font is not easy to work out if you need to type Khmer script and read documents typed in different Khmer font versions. Connecting to a shared printer on a Windows machine is not too easy. Connecting to an LCD projector needs a converter which costs you $30 extra. Microsoft Outlook is a big loss in Mac. Microsoft has an email program for Mac, Entourage, but it is slow and does not have the same options as Outlook. Synchronizing with your Nokia or Windows Mobile phone is not available unless you use Microsoft Exchange server system or an iPhone.
On the other hand, the new Macintosh laptops are very well designed for better mobility, multimedia and great for web browsing. And Mac is a sexy computer. It has very cool features that you will love like the multi-sensor touchpad for better cruising and smooth preview and zooming of pictures. Once you get used to the new Mac, it’s actually very easy to navigate. The auto screen brightness adjustment is break-through technology which helps your eyes avoid confronting a bright screen while in a dark room. Instead, the screen dims when it’s dark and brightens up in brighter light. The backlit keyboard is just brilliant. Previewing pictures, PDF files and office documents is fast and makes sense as the program is already built-in with the latest Mac Operating System. Less chance of a virus infection is for sure a big advantage over a Windows machine. You also don’t need to worry about accessing your work files on a Windows server anymore. It’s fully compatible.
All in all, I would recommend that a Windows user should not waste time trying to fiddle around with the new Mac, whereas a new user should check out Mac as an option if you can afford it. There are great Windows laptops out there that have cool features expecially with Windows 7. If you are still interested in getting a Mac, the Geek’s tip on buying a Mac in Cambodia is to really investigate online which local shops are authorized resellers and also authorized service providers. Some shops like iOne only sell but cannot repair which can lead to a huge headache. For example, I had to go back and forth to iOne five times until they finally decided to change the hard drive which was frustating and wasted weeks of my time. The 1 year warranty does not make any difference in this situation.
