I finally broke down and ordered a new Mac. I really love the small size of my full powered PowerBook 12’, but finally Apple had something to replace it: The new Macbook 13’, with a real graphics chip and a decent processor.
I watched every day for the box to arrive from FedEx. Finally, on Tuesday, the doorbell rang, and there was the FedEx guy standing outside. I opened the door, he said he had a box from Apple, and asked me to sign. Then he handed me a small little box.
OK, I knew that Apple was cutting down on packaging, but this box was only 10’ long, 7’ wide, and 3.5’ high. Was some assembly required on the new computers? 
Unfortunately, this was not the computer, only the update to MobileMe I had ordered, that for some reason, they shipped separately. SIGH!
But around 11 AM on the next day, the doorbell rang again, and there was the same Fed Ex guy, and he said, ‘I have a box from Apple, please sign.†So I did, and he handed me a larger box this time.
Ok, so this was much better as this box measured 17†by 13.5†by 5.5â€. Yea, a computer might fit in here. I am impressed; Apple has indeed made the packaging smaller. This is the smallest box I have every received from Apple that had a computer inside. Time to open it up.
Inside the outer box you could clearly see the product box. It was held “suspended†in the middle of this box by 4 very large, very rugged corner pieces of cardboard.
I removed the corner pieces, and then removed a layer of shiny plastic that protected the inner box from mars or scratches. Cool. Here is the top side of that same box, box handle facing away at this moment. This box measures only 14.5†x 10.5†x 2.75†in size. Quite small indeed!
After removing the plastic around the box, and cutting another piece of tape holding the box closed, I opened it up. Very slick packaging I must say.
Inside the product box, the fist thing you see is your new Macbook, snuggled firmly in a shiny piece of black cardboard. The computer itself was also wrapped in a shiny piece of plastic to protect it from fingerprints and scratches. The top of the box had a soft piece of foam glued to it to hold the computer firmly in place inside the product box.
I removed the computer, and here is the inside of the product box under the computer.
You lift out the computer “tray†and underneath are the power supply, power cord, a black envelope that contains three items: A small white booklet labeled “Everything Macâ€, a small white booklet labeled “Everything Else†(which contained the install and applications DVDs, and a small black cleaning cloth, which has a small black apple printed on the corner. Underneath this black envelope was the DVI monitor adapter I paid extra for.
That is it. This computer is beautiful (happy to take pictures if someone wants them) and an amazing piece of engineering. Wow.
I am charging it up now, and then will figure out how I migrate my old 12†PB which has a Firewire connector to this machine, that does not. Maybe that will be an article all its own. Now the fun really begins.
email – MyMac Magazine – Twitter – Advertise – Reviews Archive – Podcast
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.