Apple and My Experience 😒
Disclaimer: everything written in this article is my opinion and based on my experiences using a Macbook. If you have had a different experience (and Ifully expect that you have) good for you…
October 2020, on a bright and sunny day in Lekki, Nigeria, I got my very first apple product — A MacBook 2019, this was my official laptop given to me. What did I feel? absolutely nothing, for one I just wanted everyone to stop saying how much I will love it and hate my windows system.
Ok so back story, I have always been a windows (for laptops) and android (for mobile devices) loyalist, (as a matter of fact, I'm writing this from my Asus Zenbook😎). To be honest, it has never really been because of the specs — although I loved how versatile and customisable androids were… the real reason was simple... I’m a non-conformist so naturally if everyone is raving about something I am more than inclined to go the opposite direction. However, this article is not a rant or just about my prejudices with Apple (and I have a lot) but after using this device for about 8 months now, I do believe there are some real usability/UX issues with the device that I’d like to point out and share...
Let’s start with the good, Apple does have a great design. the look, feel and build of the MacBook makes you feel automatically like you were doing something important (lori iro). I cannot for the life of me fault how solidly and well built it is, and don't get me started on the interactions — delightful!!! I truly enjoyed simple things like booting up in seconds (literally), and the finger gesture interaction with the trackpad. Being able to swipe between screens with ease, pinch to zoom in, two-finger swipe to go back (although this particular gesture is frustrating while on google meets because you accidentally leave meetings constantly 😂) really made using my MacBook enjoyable.
The screen display as well is very impressive and miles away from what I was used to on windows, it no wonder it’s a designers dream, adjusting was awkward at first, having window control buttons on the left rather than right, notifications displaying at the top right rather than bottom right etc. But in no time I was using this seamlessly and for months never even opened my windows laptop.
Now on to the tea ☕;
Did I remember my Zenbook — no
Did I love my mac, well love is a strong word 😶, I liked the experience and enjoyed using it but the first frustrations came up not even 5 days after I started to use it
Expensive Accessories: so day 5, I mistakenly stepped on the cord, I know what you are thinking — I’m careless bah 😑. Here I was, USB C cord broken and I needed a new one, so I asked a friend to buy me one from the apple store. He then calls me from the store and says ‘it's N18, 000 o’. My head was like ‘ehn! how?’ Now as an android user, I had been using a USB C cord since 2018, so it was nothing new… I constantly bought cords from Miniso for just N1000 so what is it about this apple cord that makes it almost 18 times that price. I then had to look for a computer store to buy this same rubbish cord for about N10, 000. Chai!
Ever since, I had to pay special attention to my Macbook — like a child 🙄. You see I'm not a very high maintenance girl, so having to treat this device with this much care was baffling. Anyway, right now I found out that my charger is faulty and have to buy a new one 😢. I don’t even want to imagine how much this one will cost. Riddle me this please, why are apple accessories so expensive 🤷♀️. I don’t think it's a good experience when
Exclusive features and accessories: this one shocked me ooo, I can't lie. so after getting the mac, I needed a mouse to improve my usability, especially when on design applications like Figma. I went to Miniso and bought a cute wireless mouse (and even matched colours sef), bought a pack of Duracell AAA batteries and went home, smiling. I set up the mouse and then wanted to plug in the Bluetooth USB and then I was stunned…. all the four ports on this huge 15'’ laptop were USB C, My first question was WHY? why on earth don’t we have a variety of ports — HDMI, USB A, SD card etc (I almost felt lucky to have a 35mm headphone port).
I sometimes like to use wired accessories because I hate having multiple devices that need to be charged. It’s partly why a headphone port will always be part of my top 5 requirements for a new phone. It just seemed that to make regular accessories work for Apple (when you can't afford the expensive compatible accessories) is just a lot of extra effort… and still expensive because you are going to be buying other accessories solely for compatibility 😣
Ok so this is a hardware issue only right — heck no, guess what happened when I needed to open a doc. file sent by a colleague, that's right no Microsoft office suite! I know there are alternatives for this but it was just alot of work.
p.s. I really hate that certain applications are exclusive only to Apple. This is why apps like Clubhouse will always be a no-no 😤
Little Accessibility Features: so you may say everything I have mentioned so far is based on personal bias, and I will agree with you. But let's have a look at this for instance — No Charge indicator, so if my laptop is switched off and I plug it in, the only way I can know its charging is from the charge alert sound… what happens when an individual with a hearing disability wants to do the same thing?
I am pretty sure, there will be others that I may have not noticed as well.
All prejudices aside, the MacBook is a well built machine and functions optimally. No device/brand is perfect, if they were, there will be no room for innovation or improvement, and we can agree that the anticipation & excitement of a new feature is a highlight of owning any tech device. Plus there’s no product that’s meant for everyone, hence, I have concluded that I’m definitely not their target market… and that’s totally fine😁
