I'm not a gamer, so this review can not be helpful for those who want a computer to play games.
I've been a professional developer / architect for 17 years. I started with MSDOS 2.0 and Microsoft has ridden the wave all the way Vista 64 and I had a couple of years with UNIX. I have personally owned or worked with computers from Dell, HP, Compaq, IBM. I have heard about Apple products, but mostly rejected them as more toy than tool. (I was not alone in this perspective.) I like Microsoft, but after working with it for most of 20 years, I decided to look at something else.
I never thought I would buy an Apple but here it is. I am impressed to say the least, and I see Apple as a serious tool that also makes a cool toy.
Advantages:
Easy - probably the lightest notebook I've ever worked with or owned
Solid - Normally when you get laptops at 15.4 or higher, the chassis flex clear as you can see them bend and creak. But because of its one-piece construction and lightweight aluminum, the MacBook feels good when you carry it. I do not creak, and there is no noticeable bend when lifted.
Battery life - It just keeps going and going and going ... Actually, I look up to 4 hours of life when fully charged. My previous computer never exceeded 1.75 hours.
Size - It is very thin and transporting it around is very convenient. I had a 17 "and while I like the large display its uncomfortable to wear as a book.
Magnetic - When you close the lid, the owner is rewarded with a very solid container instead of a "creak" "heel" as you hear from so many other laptops that use a plastic display and mechanical lock. Open the screen is just a nice. You place your thumb under the lip and lift. The laptop can slide a bit on slippery surfaces, but the lid comes up smooth and controlled.
Keyboard - This is a good job. Has the "Home", "Page Up", "Page Down", the legendary "All" key? No, do not need it. A little research and practice and you will find that these "missing" keys, the keyboard function keys, and I would not miss them at all. Other keyboard "key-float" (that rattle you hear when you can easily stroke your finger back and forth over a laptop keyboard) is almost nonexistent. So when you write it sounds like your ball up the mug plastic, and you need not bother your neighbors. Key throw is short but very nice. Another thing I like about the keyboard is that you do not want, you will break your keyboard, if your touch is a bit heavy.
Display - The display is a work of art. That not only looks good, but flex has been reduced to almost nothing. It feels very solid and you do not feel you need to worry about tilting the screen from the corner. The glass cover over LED-backlit LCD display is awesome. You can actually clean the screen without the LCD screen colors distort competition. Not to mention that automatically slow down in low light and key lights aboard the same low light conditions. it is a nice touch. Screen brightness is at least as bright as my desktop LCD screen in bright light.
Touch Pad - Anyone who has tried to use the touch pads on other computers (I hate them in general) will love this touchpad. It seems that the iPhone (except the scroll is reversed for obvious reasons - you're not actually touching the screen). Touch is light and very smooth. Make the entire touch pad button is brilliant, it took me almost no time to use it and now I just shoot a hole through the Dell touchpad before I realize I have to click the buttons. I have no problem with accidental contact, move my cursor away from where I write.
Quiet - I have yet to hear the fans. It makes me wonder if they ever work.
DVD SuperDrive - Finally! No cup holder will slide out from the side of my laptop. Just slip the disc in and your done. It serves as the CD player in a car. It is easy to slide from the screen or a key on the keyboard.
Fit and finish - the best I've ever seen. The only thing I've seen is a very small shift of the Express Card/34 castle door. But you really have to look close to see it.
Operating System - WOW. Fast, no anti-virus stable: It just works. I will not go into too much in the Olympics but I will say that when I realized how Apple likes doing things OS X is very appealing. Not to mention that it sleeps and wakes up faster than anything I've ever worked with. Open the screen and it sits there saying "come on, I'm tired of waiting for you."
Built-in accelerometer - Not sure what they are good, but they are cool. Like the iPhone MacBook Pro has three accelerometers. There is a Stanford Laptop Orchestra MacBook Pro to make music using these accelerometers.
No fresh air vents - I do not like fresh air ports in the bottom of laptops. They are easily connected and they suck fuzz and dust in the cooler. With my previous computer the fresh air ports were on your computer right where it puts on the legs. The result was that they ran a great risk of overheating the computer. MacBook Pro draws cooling air through the keyboard, and therefore has a flat bottom makes it much better to invest in your lap.
Cons:
Chassis - Although it is an ingenious piece of engineering there are some very minor problems.
A: Always pick up your computer with both hands. While this is true for all laptops, you want to last, is there something more important with this. The metal around the Ethernet port is processed very thin, which was needed to fit the large end of the rather narrow side of the laptop. So if you have the screen open and snatch the laptop with you left hand and the thumb of Jack, you can dent the metal around it. It does not warp or twist the chassis, it is too strong, but you can see a small indentation in an otherwise flat piece of metal.
Two: The metal in the battery / HDD Cover is very thin and even seem to hang below the lip of the chassis. You have to really look to see it and it's not all the time. I do not think it is warped or bent, but simply the natural flexibility of aluminum.
Trackpad Click - While I absolutely love the touch pad (actually I just use a mouse anymore when I'm programming it because of the type of software). If you try to click on the top of the plate (closest to the screen), the force required to click goes up a lot.
Price? - Not really a Con. Some have complained about the price. Three and a half ago I paid $ 5,700 for a Dell 9100 laptop (all the bells and whistles, Windows XP Pro, Office Pro, it works). There has been a great computer that is set on grass and my family uses it. I've only had two problems with it. The dreaded Mexican jumping keys (a key fly off the keyboard when you press it while typing, AKA broken key) Dell replaced the keyboard with no problems and the hard drive crashed and should be replaced. Dell Computer when new cost more than twice the MacBook Pro is doing today, and the only thing you have Mac (old age and the technology not withstanding), it is 1920 x 1200 pixels compared to the Mac is 1440 x 900 screen. If I would order the most powerful 15.4 notebook Apple sells today, I would still pay half the price of Dell and Apple has a lot more and have better overall quality.
In summary, this is a performance that the engineers should designers and developers feel proud. There is some room for improvement, but these improvements are at a level that other laptops have to improve a lot just to get Apple's shortcomings.
I could go on but I think that's enough. Apple has really developed a good product in both hardware and software, and I recommend it highly.
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