Laptops Review

Apple MacBook Pro MB990LL-A 13.3-Inch Laptop specifications:

• 2.26 GHz Core two Duo Processor
• 2 GB DDR3 RAM
• 160 GB Hard Drive, DVD/CD SuperDrive
• Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard operating system
• 13.3 inch LED Display, NVIDIA GeForce 9400M integrated graphics

Apple MacBook Pro MB990LL-A 13.3-Inch Laptop review:
MacBook Pro brings high performance and precision design to everyone. Every new MacBook Pro features a breakthrough, long lasting battery that delivers up to seven hours of wireless productivity on a single charge and may be recharged up to 1000 timesnearly three times the lifespan of common notebook batteries. The new LED backlit display has a 60 greater color gamut than that of last generations, giving you richer, more vibrant colors. Every MacBook Pro features the NVIDIA GeForce 9400M integrated graphics processor, which gives an remaining graphics experience for everyday tasks. Power your way through the new 3D gamesincluding Call of responsibility and Quakeand enjoy improved graphics performance with iWork, iLife, and everything you do in Mac OS X. And with the new 2.26GHz Intel Core two Duo processor, its the most powerful Mac notebook ever. All in a precision aluminum unibody enclosure thats less than an inch thin.

Featuring a precision unibody enclosure crafted from a single block of aluminum, the MacBook Pro is thinner and lighter than its predecessor also as stronger and more lasting. But Apple did not stop innovating with the body’s design. The MacBook Pro also will include a new 13 inch, LED backlit glass display instead of an LCD panel also as a glass trackpad that does not include a button for bigger tracking area that features Apple’s Multi Touch technology.

The 13 inch unibody MacBook Pro see bigger version.

This 13 inch MacBook Pro model MB990LL/A also now will include Apple’s groundbreaking fitted notebook battery for up to seven hours of wireless productivity on a single charge without adding thickness, weight or cost. Using Adaptive Charging and advanced chemistry 1st presented with the 17 inch MacBook Pro the fitted battery delivers up to 1000 recharges before it reaches 80 of its original capacity nearly three times the lifespan of regular batteries.

Under the hood, the MacBook Pro is powered by a powerful 2.26 GHz Intel Core two Duo processor with three MB L2 cache and 1066 MHz front side bus, which runs applications faster and more proficiently also as helps to decrease power prerequisites and save on battery life. And video is powered by the NVIDIA GeForce 9400M integrated graphics processor, which gives an remaining everyday graphics experience with up to a 5x performance increase.

Other hardware features are a 160 GB hard drive, two GB of installed RAM which may be upgraded to eight GB, an 8x combo Superdrive for burning dual layer DVDs also as CDs, fitted Gigabit Ethernet for high speed networking, Bluetooth 2.1+EDR Enhanced Data Rate, FireWire port, Mini DisplayPort video output for DVI and VGA connections, and a Secure Digital card slot for easy access to digital photos and audio stored on SD and MMC memory cards.

It comes pre loaded with Apple’s Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard operating system, and is prepared to run the Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard operating system. It also comes with the iLife ‘09 suite of applications, as well as iPhoto, iMovie, Garageband, and iTunes.

The Unibody MacBook Pro Design
Usually notebooks are made from many parts. With the MacBook Pro all of those parts with just one part the breakthrough unibody enclosure. Every MacBook Pro starts its life as a single block of aluminum, which is exactly machined into the basic unibody design. Another pass and the unibody takes form. Another, and the integrated keyboard emerges. When you pick up a new MacBook Pro, you now notice the complete enclosure is thinner and lighter. And it feels strong and durable perfect for life inside and outside your briefcase or backpack.

Off the shelf lithium ion cells come in fixed, cylindrical shapes. The 13 inch MacBook Pro is powered by custom made, ultrathin lithium polymer batteries.

The standard aluminum electro static trackpad was replaced with a new glass Multi Touch trackpad, which gives 40 more tracking area than before. Use two fingers to scroll up and down a page. Pinch to zoom in and out. Rotate a picture with your fingertips. Swipe with three fingers to flip through your photo libraries. Swipe with four fingers to show your desktop, view all open windows, or switch applications. The complete trackpad surface is a button, allowing you to both track and click virtually anywhere on the trackpad. And you may be able to easily enable many virtual buttons in software, like right clicking.

The keyboard also has been improved, with the rigid aluminum keyboard webbing cut exactly to hold the keys, which are curved to perfectly fit fingers. And it is illuminated, so when you are in low light settings, like airplanes or conference rooms, you may be able to generally see what you are typing.

The 13 inch display is made of edge to edge, uninterrupted glass for a smooth, seamless surface and features LED backlighting for smart instant on performance that uses up to 30 less energy than its predecessor. The ultra thin displays supply crisp pictures and vivid colors which are ideal for looking at photos and movies

Long Lasting Battery
The 13 inch MacBook Pro now will include a newly engineered lithium polymer battery that that lasts up to seven hours on a single charge thanks to advanced chemistry, intelligent monitoring of the system and battery, and Adaptive Charging technology. The battery is built right into the computer, eliminating the space consuming mechanisms and housings that standard removable batteries require. This non removable battery also gives a longer battery lifespan of up to 1000 recharges meaning fewer depleted batteries and less waste, which is better for the environment.

Giving it a lifespan of up to 1000 recharges obliged breakthroughs in battery technology. Apple electro chemists developed advanced chemistry that maintains the battery’s charging potential longer than ever. And while most notebooks wear down their batteries by charging them at a constant rate, the 13 inch MacBook Pro takes a different approach. Using an Apple developed technology called Adaptive Charging, a microchip on the battery constantly communicates with the computer to find out the best way to charge its cells, adjusting the current up and down based on a range of conditions. Joint, these advancements offer a dramatic improvement in battery lifespan: more than three times the lifespan of common notebook batteries up to five years.

Intel Core two Duo Processor
Experience improved energy efficiency, extended wireless connectivity, and amazing battery life with the 2.26 GHz Intel Core two Duo processor, which has a super fast 1066 MHz front side bus FSB, and an big three MB L2 cache. An L2, or secondary, cache temporarily stores data, and a bigger L2 cache may help speed up your system’s performance. The FSB carries data between the CPU and RAM, and a faster front side bus will deliver better in general performance.

The hafnium infused circuitry which decreases electrical current leakage in transistors conserves more energy, giving you more time away from the wall outlet. With three MB of shared L2 cache, data and information may be kept close to the two processor cores, largely rising performance and allowing the complete system to work more proficiently. And, because the processor cores share the L2 cache, either can use the complete total if the other happens to be idle.

Video Processing &amp, Output
The MacBook Pro delivers both powerful graphics performance and long battery life via the NVIDIA GeForce 9400M integrated graphics processor, which gives an remaining everyday graphics experience with up to a 5x performance increase. Power your way through the new 3D games including Call of responsibility and Quake and enjoy improved graphics performance with iWork ‘09, iLife ‘09, and everything you do in Mac OS X. The power saving NVIDIA integrated graphics processor also keeps you up and running during the day, with up to seven hours of battery life.

The MacBook Pro will include a next generation Mini DisplayPort, which delivers a pure digital signal that can drive up to a 30 inch widescreen display. The Mini DisplayPort is ultra compact at just ten the size of a full DVI connector, and is matched with Apple’s 24 inch theater Display. Adapters are available for using VGA, DVI/HDMI and Dual Link DVI displays

Hard Drive and Memory
The 160 GB Serial ATA SATA hard drive 5400 RPM quickens the rate with a higher speed move of data akin to USB 2.0. The two GB of PC3 8500 DDR3 RAM two SO DIMMs of 1024 MB has an industry leading 1066 MHz speed, and the RAM capacity may be increased to eight GB.

Wireless Connectivity
The fitted 802.11n wireless networking gives up to five times the performance and twice the range of 802.11g, but it is also backward compatible with 802.11a/b/g routers, enabling you to communicate with the a large range of Wi Fi resources. It works seamlessly with the new AirPort Extreme with 802.11n. Use the fitted Bluetooth wireless technology to connect to your PDA or cell phone, synchronize addresses, or download pictures from your cell phone. You may also use a wireless headset for iChat audio chats and VoIP calls also as quickly share files with a colleague.

Video Conferencing with fitted iSight
Artfully placed in the glass display is an iSight camera, which enables easy video conferencing also as lets you to snap pictures of yourself and create video podcasts. Using the iChat AV application, video conferencing is integrated into your iChat friend list, so starting a video conference is a breeze. IChat also allows you to hold audio chats with up to ten people and gives high quality audio compression and full duplex sound so conversation can flow naturally. For video podcasting, you may be able to record a short clip using the iSight camera, then use iWeb to create a video blog entry or post your GarageBand recorded podcast.

Other Features

• Two USB 2.0 ports up to 480 Mbps, one FireWire up to Mbps, SD card slot
• Mini DisplayPort matched with DVI, VGA, and dual link DVI connectors all optional
• Dual display and video mirroring: at the same time supports full native resolution on the fitted display and up to 2560 by 1600 pixels on an external display, both at millions of colors
• 8x slot loading SuperDrive with the following write speeds: 8x DVDR, 4x DVDR DL double layer, 4x DVDRW, 24x CD R, 10x CD RW
• Built in full size backlit keyboard with 78 U.S. Or 79 ISO keys, as well as twelve function keys and four arrow keys inverted “T” arrangement
• Internal omnidirectional microphone and fitted speakers
• Combined optical digital output/headphone out with selectable analog audio line in minijack
• Kensington lock slot
• Measures 12.78 x 8.94 x 0.95 inches WxDxH and weighs 4.5 pounds including battery

Environmental Considerations
Apple worked hard to eliminate many of the pollutants that are a common part of computer manufacturing. Apple engineers removed the most of brominated flame retardants BFRs and polyvinyl chloride PVC from circuit boards, interior cables, connectors, insulators, adhesives, and more in the MacBook Pro.

Because Apple makes both the hardware and the software for the MacBook, they are intended to work together to produce a smarter product that uses less electricity. For example, to decrease energy intake, the hard drive spins down automatically when inactive. MacBook Air also decides which processor CPU or GPU is best suited to proficiently perform a task. The LED backlit display in the MacBook Pro is another feature that plays an vital part in conserving energy, consuming 30 less power than regular LCD displays. And the display is intended to dim when you enter a unlit room.

The MacBook Pro meets the stringent low power prerequisites set by the EPA, giving it ENERGY STAR certification. MacBook also meets the new efficiency prerequisites of ENERGY STAR variant 5.0 Specification for Computers before its July 2009 efficient date.

The MacBook Pro also has earned the highest ranking of EPEAT Gold. The Electronic Product Environmental evaluation Tool, or EPEAT, evaluates the environmental affect of a product depending on how recyclable it’s, how much energy it uses, and how it is intended and made.

Preloaded with Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard, you will enjoy improved productivity and a clutter free desktop thanks to the the redesigned 3D Dock with Stacks.

Preloaded with Leopard and iLife ‘09
This MacBook Air is pre loaded with the Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard operating system and it is prepared to run the Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard operating system, which is scheduled to be released in September, 2009. Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard presented a bevy of innovations over 300 new features including:

• Time Machine, an effortless way to automatically back up everything on a Mac
• A redesigned Finder that lets users quickly browse and share files between many Macs
• Quick Look, a new way to instantly see files without opening an application
• Spaces, an intuitive new feature used to create groups of applications and instantly switch between them
• A brand new desktop with Stacks, a new way to easily access files from the Dock
• Major improvements to Mail and iChat

Leopard’s desktop will include the redesigned 3D Dock with Stacks, a new way to manage files for fast and easy access with just one click. Leopard automatically places web, email and other downloads in a Downloads stack to preserve a clutter free desktop, and you may be able to instantly fan the contents of this and other Stacks into an elegant arc right from the Dock. The updated Finder will include Cover Flow and a new sidebar with a considerably simplified way to search for, browse and copy content from any PC or Mac on a local network.

Time Machine allows you to easily back up all of the data on your Mac, find lost files and restore all of the software on their Mac. With just a one click setup, Time Machine automatically keeps an up to date copy of everything on the Mac. In the event a file is lost, you may be able to search back through time to find deleted files, applications, photos and other digital media , then instantly restore the file.

It also comes with the iLife ‘09 suite of applications that make it simple to live the digital life. Use iPhoto to share complete high res photo albums with anybody who’s got an email address. Record your songs and podcasts with GarageBand. Break into indie filmmaking with iMovie and iDVD. Then take all the stuff you made on your MacBook and share it on the web in one click with iWeb.

Included Software
Mac OS X v10.5 Leopard includes iTunes, Time Machine, fast Look, Spaces, Spotlight, Dashboard, Mail, iChat, Safari, Address Book, QuickTime, iCal, DVD Player, Photo Booth, Front Row, Xcode Developer Tools

ILife ‘09 includes iPhoto, iMovie, iDVD, iWeb, GarageBand

What’s in the Box
MacBook Pro, display cleaning cloth, 60W MagSafe Power Adapter, AC wall plug, power cord, install/restore DVDs, printed and electronic documentation

Apple MacBook Pro MB990LL-A 13.3-Inch Laptop reviews:
Rating: Fantastic Laptop
This is my 1st mac, but most likely my 4th or 5th laptop. The build quality of these aluminum macbooks is great. Little flex/bend to the body and no creaks or moans after about a month of use. The small details of the laptop, like the ambient light sensor, which auto changes display light and keyboard backlight, are what make it a delight to use. After becoming accustomed to the trackpad on this computer, I find it bothersome to use any other. Besides being oversized a plus in my book, the range of multi touch inputs used to navigate are comfy and intuitive. Battery life exceeded my expectations. The computer really can last an complete day on one charge. The screen is great also. Blacks are black and whites are white. It is a TN panel, from what I have read, but it is one of the best TN panels I have had the pleasure of using.

As for hardware performance, it is almost on par with my on the job Mac Pro workstation 2×2.8GHz Xeons, 2GB RAM in the most of things I do web design/development. I will chalk that up to the fact that majority programs I require are not CPU intensive or multi threaded. As well, another 2GB of RAM over the Mac Pro most likely helps. The graphics chipset performs better than I projected also. Running Windows XP via bootcamp, I was able to play COD4, L4D, and CS:S all using medium to high settings at native resolution, all the while to get 40+ FPS in each game.

In the interest of full disclosure, I will share the not many minor issues I have had. The 1st is that the enclosure does tend to get HOT when gaming under Windows XP. When I say hot, I mean “why do my fingers feel like they’re burning?” hot. In many respect, this is most likely a good thing. The aluminum body acts like a big heatsink a good way to dissipate heat from the interior parts to decrease the risk of heat damage. Just think about that if you plan on using this as a gaming laptop, you may become uneasy rather quickly.

The other problem surfaced while using the laptop with an external display. Using a minidisplay port to DVI adapter, I was to get snow or sound or ‘dancing’ pixels on my 24in external monitor. The humorous thing is, this was only the case under OS X. In Windows XP, the monitor worked good. Supposedly, Apple knows of the issue and is preparing a driver update to fix the problem. I was able to fix this myself using SwitchResX to create a custom resolution and refresh rate. In my case, lowering the refresh rate to 53Hz did the trick. I know it may sound weird, particularly since I thought LCDs were only meant to operate at 60Hz, but seeing is believing. If you wind up having alike problems, I propose trying SwitchResX or DisplayConfigX to remedy the issue.

All around a great computer a hard buy.

Rating: Switched from Windows: More good than bad. Great hardware
This is my 1st Mac computer. My 1st four computers ran Win 3.1, Windows 95, XP, and Vista from about 1995 present. I have quite many of time spent on each of them. Switching from Windows to Mac isn’t hard, but it may be a bit frustrating for a week or so. There are Windows features that you’ll miss, but they’re usually overcome by in general benefits I believe.

I’ve spent two weeks with this machine now. If I had written this review after one day, I could have most likely stated that I regretted the switch to Mac. After to get more proficient with the machine and realizing how well it works, I could certainly recommend it to a friend.

This review is going to be a mix of my impressions of both the hardware and the Mac operating system from a new Mac user perspective.

The only difference between my machine and the one on this product page is that I ordered directly from Apple and upgraded the hard drive to 250GB from the 160GB base option. I’m using 2gb of ram and the lower end processor.

My Mac OS impressions:

The biggest thing I missed from Windows at 1st was the task bar. Mac uses the “dock” to replace the task bar. The dock is kind of like the fast launch toolbar in Windows spread out across the complete bar, with big icons. Having used windows with a task bar for the past 13 years, I missed the capability to see all open programs and switch between them with the task bar. The dock has a tiny dot below the icon on running programs, but nothing else to separate it from other program and folder icons. The dock isn’t almost as useful for multitasking as the task bar.

The saving grace that rescues the Mac from uncomfortable app switching while multitasking is called expose. Expose is activated by either pressing a key or using a multitouch gesture four finger swipe. Expose uses the complete screen to display all open windows and let you to switch between them. It is like alt+tab on steroids. Having used the machine for a couple weeks, I miss using expose when I use my Windows machine. As much as I hated the dock at 1st, I have to give the advantage to the Mac for managing many windows while multitasking.

The controls for open windows are quite different than in MS Windows. In Mac, there’s a resize, hide, and minimize button instead of maximize, minimize, restore, and close. To shut an app on the mac you have to use a menu command or keyboard shortcut. The Mac resize button kind of works like restore/maximize, only it is a bit more uncomfortable. A commenter here pointed out that it resizes the window for ideal looking at without using the complete screen. I find myself resizing windows by dragging corners more than I ever did on a Windows machine. I really miss the capability to maximize, if for no other reason but to avoid distractions. The green resize button can be better on an huge monitor, but not on a 13″ notebook. When you minimize or hide an app on the Mac, it’s only available from the dock and is hidden from expose. I will give the window size management advantage to Windows in this contest. The windows system is just easier and more logical I believe. It is not a deal breaker, but I do miss the Windows “window controls.” If you’re a recurrent user of the F11 key while web browsing in Windows you will have to kiss that feature goodbye. Neither Firefox nor Safari will go full screen.

Windows Explorer is “replaced” with an app called Finder. Finder is kind of like the start menu and an explorer window all rolled up into one. Compared with older variants of Windows, finder is adequate but Vista’s explorer is a pretty bit easier and more logical to use. I favor Vista’s preview pane to Mac’s coverflow. I miss the “up folder” button. I have found myself usually using the view that puts files, folders and apps into a column view for simplest computer browsing, and it just is not as elegant as Windows Vista. The lack of a maximize button caused frustration particularly in the finder, because the finder likes to stay in a small window unless you drag the corners.

The Safari web browser is nice and fast and has a decent security repute. I have been switching back and forth between Safari and Firefox. Firefox crashed a couple of times and I really like being able to use multitouch gestures with Safari, so I am leaning toward making Safari my major web tool. Reading RSS feeds, and the bookmark toolbar are really well done in Safari. Browsers are so personal that it is hard to recommend one over the other, but as a Firefox user in Windows I think I have high standard and Safari has met or exceeded them.

I totally hate the iPhoto app. Iphoto doesn’t let you to manage and browse your photos in folders. It imports your pictures and kinds them itself depending on time/date stamps on the photos. This works good for personal vacation snapshots but it totally mixed up the rest of my pictures. Folders that were neatly organized for work projects, and fun web clippings, and adult stuff were all shuffled into one big mess after I imported my image collection. I ended up just deleting all of them and not using iphoto at all. Now I am just using Finder to browse my photos and the preview app to view them. Light editing work is not possible in the preview app and I still have not decided what to use for a basic photo editor still. Vista’s photo app is junk but it is still superior to iPhoto if you like to keep your photos organized using your folder system. I know people who love iphoto. It comes down to if you want the capability to manage your collection yourself. If you have a big mess of photos, you will love iphoto’s capability to manage them via event and face recognition.

I haven’t used Garage Band or iMovie still. I will update afterward when I get a chance.

The mail, calendar, and address book apps are basic but work very well.

Everyone has an opinion about iTunes. I am a big fan of it. It is exactly like the windows variant only it runs a bit faster without the bugs.

Time machine is the Mac’s backup app. It’s amazing and simple. I am using an external drive plugged into my Apple Airport wireless router, as a backup disk. My wireless disk showed up on my desktop instantly once I plugged it into the router. Time machine noticed the external drive now and went to work backing up my files after asking permission of course. Now my machine automatically backs up any changes every hour as long as I am in range of my wireless access point. Time machine is a big load off my mind. If I ever have a drive failure or my computer is destroyed I have an exact backup of everything without remembering to backup my files. Vista will backup as indicated by a set schedule, but it lacks the capability to easily look through backups for particular files. Time machine is great and make wireless backup effortless.

The Mac disk utility is nearly as good as the one in Vista and it is easier to use. It is far superior to the one in XP. I used it to format my external wireless drive because the Mac router could not read NTFS formating although the computer can read NTFS drives via USB for many reason.

The graphics control software is a delight to use. When I plug in my external monitor it now extends my desktop to the new monitor. Adjusting everything from resolution to rotation could not be any easier.

Boot camp is a utility that lets you to create a partition and install Windows as a secondary boot system you have to own or purchase a legal single disk 32bit copy of either Windows XP or Windows Vista. When you start up the boot camp utility, it gives you a choice between using either five or 32 GB of space for the Windows partition. I learned the hard way that Windows XP SP3 will not fit into 5GB. You have to give it at least the 32 GB which left me with nearly exactly 200GB on my “250″ GB drive. Installing Windows using the Boot Camp utility is very easy. Once you get Windows loaded, your OSX install disk makes fast work of installing drivers for your laptop’s hardware. It is too bad that Nvidia and HP are not as good at putting together easy Windows driver packages as Apple. To boot into Windows, you simply press the “option” key throughout bootup and it lets you to decide which OS to run. Windows XP totally screams on this hardware.

The hardware:

The hardware is where this computer really shines.

The biggest advantage is stability. My last computer buy was a vista machine. To say that I had stability and hardware compatibility issues with my HP Vista desktop is an understatement. The major reason I turned to mac for this buy was the fact that the hardware, drivers, and software are made for each other. This machine has ran flawlessly for the past two weeks. I did have two crashes of the Firefox browser while watching Flash video, but only the browser went down rather than the complete system.

I connected an external monitor, camera, ipod, USB drive, and router to this machine. All of the drivers were already installed and everything has “just worked.” The hardware is a delight to use if it just works. It’s hard to put into words how happy I’m with the lack of effort in using this machine.

The speed is not blazing fast but it runs well, with many many apps and windows running. My Vista desktop has alike specifications, but my new Mac feels somewhat faster.

One remaining productivity feature of this machine is the touch pad. I honestly favor it to using a mouse for office and browsing tasks. I can not say enough good things about the multitouch gestures. Two finger scrolling, two finger right click, three finger forward and back in Safari, and four finger expose make this machine feel like like it’s part of you. Having the complete surface of the touchpad as the button is smart, particularly for drag and drop functionings. The big size of the touchpad makes it exact.

The keyboard is really nice. At 1st I thought the keys were a bit soft and the travel was too shallow, but I quickly got used to it and now favor it to my more “clicky” desktop keyboard. I do not know how I lived this long without a backlit keyboard. The backlight is far more useful than you most likely think it’s.

The display is beautiful. It has a large looking at angle and is plenty bright for any environment. I could favor that the screen was not glass, but the reflections are not as bad as I feared.

The DVD drive is a DVD drive. It feels slow and makes many of sound. I have never owned an optical drive that I considered fast and calm, and this one is not any exemption. It works well, but is not anything special.

The battery life is unbelievable. I have never ran it past about 40 but the seven hour battery life isn’t an exaggeration if you’re using the computer for light browsing and office apps. Expect about 4 5 hours if you are using it to stream lots of video and heavy web browsing. Listening to music with the display off could easily last over the advertised seven hours.

The size and weight are ideal for portability. 4.5lbs does not exactly feel light till you compare it to likewise spec’d machines that weigh a full pound 20 more. I would not want a much bigger machine if I had to lug it around much.

The speakers are quite good for a small light machine. The sound is clear and the speakers are plenty deafening enough to listen to podcasts or music in a semi quiet medium sized room or office. I will not have to pack external speakers for use in my hotel room when I travel, like my last laptop.

The “magsafe” power adapter is more than just a gimmick, and more than just a way to avoid tripping and breaking your machine. The “power brick” itself is many smaller than my last dell laptop. It is exactly the same size as the USB wall adapters that used to be included with ipods. The cord is 6ft long and the brick will include fold out wings to wrap the cord around. It’s well thought out for travel. With the cord wrapped up and the plug folded into the body, the power brick only takes up about 2.5″ x 3″ x 1″ in your bag. When you’re using it at home or at the office there’s an included 6ft extension cord for the power brick so you are not as tethered to your desk.

The computer runs cool in comparison to most laptops. As well, there aren’t vents where super heated air blows out. While I am sure it uses a fan, I have never audibly really heard it run or felt a stream of warm air from it. I think it may vent through ports and the keyboard but it runs cool enough that you do not notice it.

The only disadvantage to the hardware in comparison to Windows machines is the fact that there’s no choice to hibernate when closing the cover. It sleeps when you close the cover but it still is using a small total of power. If you are only going to be away for a couple hours this is not an issue, but you have to totally shut down when on battery power if you are going to be away much longer.

This machine is many costly than likewise spec’d Windows machines but I feel that it is worth the money. I am a pleased Mac switcher.

Rating: Not sure why all of the haters keep griping about Compact Flash.
I just got my brand new 13.3″ Macbook Pro in the mail. I customized mine with 4GB of RAM and a 250 GB hard drive, but with the entry level 2.26 GHz Intel processor. I unboxed it in front of my mother and sister, and they were both oohing and aahing about how beautiful and thin it was. They also loved the magnetic connector on the end of the power adapter that snaps the power cord into the computer almost by itself. I powered the computer up, went through the Leopard setup screens, and inside minutes has been logged in. While starting up, the light sensor powered on, the screen dimmed, and the keyboard lit up automatically. Everything about this computer suggests ingenious design and engineering, with great attention to every detail. It’s light, and since I’m using this for school, I’m happy with the size and form factor, especially the charger. Switching from a big Dell that sported a charger that may be used to bludgeon somebody to death, the small white charger that’s about the size of a wallet is a breath of new air. This laptop will be a pleasure to travel with.

Are there things this computer lacks? Yes, there’s no Blu Ray player, which could have been nice, but for me wasn’t a deal breaker. I suspect that the next gen MBP’s will phase out the rotating hard drives and switch to hard state as the standard, and will all have Blu Ray players. Till that time, this little laptop is more than enough.

If I had to create a gripe about this computer, there’s really only one and this is true for most of Apple’s products the iPod, iPhone, and MBP’s I wish that they could not coat movable merchandise with textures that are so easy to scratch. It’s obvious that after some months of toting this to class, it’s going to have many scuffs on it. It looks like some a paradox that a company that puts so much value on aesthetics looks only to care about how the product looks when it’s taken out of the original packaging. That said, this laptop feels very tough, and separately from normal wear and tear marks, I’m not fearful that it’ll fall separately, which is a whole lot more than I can say for my last part of crap plastic Dell.

In reading other reviews, people seem to be unable to understand that this qualifies as an ultra portable laptop. It’s simply not going to have a peripheral hookup for each kind of flash card and five USB hookups. Are people serious with lambasting Apple for merging the audio jack in/out ports into one single port? Really, who gives a rat’s a$$? This is a movable computer, not a media center. If you’re a user who favors those things, then you’re free to go out and buy the needed adapters, but I could rather have a lightweight computer that I can tote around. If you want a laptop that’s prepared for any occasion, go purchase an eight lb. Dell desktop substitute, and have fun. I for one think people just want a reason to moan or find something to complain about. The fact is that for the money, you aren’t going to find a better laptop than this one. It costs a bit more than competing PC merchandise, but I owned Dell’s and HP’s, and I can tell you, you get what you pay for. If you use your laptop for at least a couple of hours a day, I think it’s worth a couple hundred extra to get a really high quality product that makes you happy, and that’s why I upgraded to the MBP.

Rating: A great Laptop
So we newly received our new MacBook Pro 13.3″ laptop. It’s a big upgrade over our older white iBook. I bought the laptop from Apple.Com and received it inside two days with free shipping. The laptop was up and running in less than an hour, with all our data brought over inside some hours. We couldn’t be happier with it. The speed is great, the display is bright and crisp, the backlit keyboard is a nice touch and the in general design is simply stated: beautiful. If you’re in the market for a new laptop or unsure if a Mac is the right fit for you, I certainly recommend this new offering.

Rating: Not too bad, but not too good
Pros

It’s beautiful

Cons

The cursor control is hard to use I keep rising or decreasing font size accidently or invoking the right menu accidently. It’s also harder than it should be to control the motion of the cursor

Not as high performing as I had hoped

The preloaded software iLife 09 is becoming more PC like in the number of annoying dialog boxes, and lack of seamless integration between itunes, iweb, iphoto etc

Found the packaging materials cheap

Overall, I’m not dissatisfied, rather just a little disappointed. I had high expectations for this model and the real product did not meet them. As well, the firewire port is , not 400. This is great from the standpoint of speed, but also means you will have to purchase another cable to connect with your present firewire devices.

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This entry was posted on Friday, July 10th, 2009 at 9:02 am and is filed under Notebooks. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments. Both comments and pings are currently closed.