2011 15" MacBook Pro Review

I had always been a PC user, until recently. 2 years ago, I bought a top of the line Dell XPS 15. Worked great for 18 months, then started doing "blue screen of death" consistently, about once a month. First it was the HD, then the motherboard, then the RAM, then the fans, one thing after another. When it came time to buy a new PC this fall, I went for Toshiba. Within 6 weeks, HD and motherboard failed, took them 6 weeks to repair.

I finally made the leap to Mac. I knew it was more expensive, but thought I'd take the gamble. So far, in 3 months owning this machine, I have been absolutely blown away. I'll start with the pros:

PROS:
1. Screen. I bought the standard glossy 1440 x 900. On a 15", this is the perfect size for me. I can have two Word documents open side by side and work on both of them easily. The colors and the sharpness of images and movies is also amazing. Much better than on my Toshiba or Dell! Looks like I'm typing on a miniature HDTV.
2. Battery. I can get 6 hours out of this puppy, with screen on almost full brightness (one click down from full), while surfing Facebook, periodically checking Gmail, studying professor's lectures in Powerpoint, and doing homework assignments in Word. I can get 4 hours watching Netflix or DVDs with volume at max, and brightness 2 clicks down from full. Very impressed.
3. Performance. Snappy! Boots in about 15 seconds, apps open almost instantly; granted, I upgraded to a 7200 RPM HDD and 8GB RAM, so that's probably part of it. Unlike Windows 7, though, OSX Snow Leopard has very few background processes running to bog it down. Mac OSX also comes with very little bloatware, which I love. Runs WoW at 60 FPS in Stormwind Harbor, and Starcraft II at Med-High in single player, and Med for online play. Never gets hot or laggy. Very impressed.
4. Construction. VERY solid laptop. You can tell it's built to last. There's no lid or keyboard flex, and it just feels like quality. It's like upgrading to a Mercedes from a Honda. It's NOT a lightweight laptop, it's as heavy as my old PCs, but it is very sturdy and rock-solid.
5. Tech and sales support. Every time I have called or online chatted with Apple, I have gotten a rep based in Canada or the USA. No more talking to Rapush from India, and spending unnecessary time trying to understand his accent, making him repeat himself over and over. Very refreshing to have US-based tech support. Plus, I can take it in to the local Apple Store, and they are always incredibly helpful.

What's not so hot:
1. Price. A similarly specced PC laptop will run about $500 less.
2. Keyboard. Backlighting is awesome, and keys are very comfortable and responsive. The keyboard lacks conventional Page Up/Down and Home/End keys, which takes some getting used to. The trackpad can do some of those functions, but when working with large documents, it's nice to able to select an entire line or page with Home/End and Page Up/Down.
3. Upgrades. You have to take off the entire underside of the unit in order to access the HDD or RAM. Screws are superman-tight at first and you have to be careful not to strip them, as I almost did.
4. Speakers. While decent, they are nothing in comparison the Harmon Kardons on my old Toshiba. High and mid-range frequencies sound fine, but bass is lacking. Maximum volume is only about 70% that of my old Dell and Toshiba. Still sounds pretty good, just could stand to be a tiny bit louder.
5. Defragmentation. Apple claims that OSX automatically defrags its files , but I have found this to be a partial truth. I bought a 3rd party Defrag program, which I run once a week. It usually finds about 4% - 8% system fragmentation. While lower than in PC systems, for the most part, OSX does NOT do a FULL defrag. I found this irritating, that I had to buy $50 software just to defrag.

Overall, I think this laptop will last through my PhD program and then some. So far, seems like it was worth the extra $500. Would not hesitate to recommend to friends or family, as I have in fact already done.

 

defragging is far far less important than most people realize... most files systems store data blocks and just link them all together (more or less) so defraying isn't a big deal.

anyway glad to see that your happy! my 15MBP is great, but I'm gonna sell it... the 17inch is calling my name...

 

I have to say boot time and shut down time (especially) is faster than windows, though I turned on my lenovo after a week and it gave me apple like startup times as well. It could be the tune up utility that i got that is doing the intelligent start ups.

I have the older 2008 one and I can relate to the screws. This one screw would not come out by the front and I think it got bent in the process so I have to press a little to shut down my lid (make sure magnetic latches hold). The lid sometimes does unlatch in the backpack now.


PS I have looked up in activity manager and found there were like 88 processes. I think antivirus is a drag as well, though I have it on the mac as well but it is very light here. Mcafee has gone better but never get something like norton / CA crap on your pc, though MSE is not bad either.

 

Nice review! Glad to hear that you're enjoying your 15-inch MacBook Pro.

I have the 2010 15-inch MacBook Pro and absolutely love it, and coming from a background where I've used Windows-based computers for several years I can relate. No more headaches to deal with.

 

Great review,rep added

 

if you have some extra cash drop a SSD in there... your Lenovo won't stand a chance, even if you put a SSD in there as well...

 

sometimes have to pay for that extra quality.. like the glass trackpad, pretty screens... case construction, as well as it just being Apple.

no dedicated keys for this gets pretty easy after you get used to it. You can use different keys to do different things, but they are key combos. Like fn+Up is page up and fn+Down is page down.. you can also use fn with the left and right arrows, as well as Cmd with the arrows to move around quickly too. Not quite as easy as a single button, but when you get used to it, it doesn't really slow you down much.

 

I still haven't gotten over the deletion of the 'del' key.

 

It took me a while to figure out that fn+delete does the same thing.

 

But that is so annoying. They could have gotten rid of one of the extra command keys and instead have a delete key, as it wouldn't be that redundant instead of that extra key.

 

Really? I read everywhere and many many people said it got 90C in just a couple minutes watching a video . Thats the reason i am reluctant to buy one.
I am not saying i dont believe you, but can you confirm about the heat when the laptop under normal use? Can i use it on my lap?

Thanks

 

why do people assume heat is some gradual build up thing... people are surprised it only takes seconds to go from 60 to 90... thats pretty normal for electronics, when its hit hard, it gets hot FAST. This isn't anything to do with it being a Mac, thats just computers for you.

People somehow getting them to 90 just playing a video? Well that seems absurd, as a video shouldn't be that tough, and I surely never have problems watching videos, flash, or otherwise and staying in the 70s max.

 

Thank you doh123. Your temperature is nice, is it a 13 or 15 inch macbook?

 

I have a 13" 2010, a 15" 2008, and a 17" 2011....

yes they can hit in the 90s if its pushed hard.. maybe watching a video while SpotLight is indexing, or whatever... or people doing a lot of things all at once. Under normal operations though they all say pretty cool.

If I am going to push them hard, I like to keep them under 90, and not let the fan control go on its own, waiting til 90+ temps to spin the fans up fast, so I use SMCFanControl with presets for server fan speeds, and manually up them before hand if I know I'm about to do things that will make it hot. Is this really needed? no... but makes me feel better.

 

The SSD would also solve all your defrag problems.

 

Nice comments guys.

I guess my only question is, will this be sufficient for me, to last 3-4 years? I don't PC game (except the occasional Wow, and SCII, NotDoppler.Com, nothing intense). I mostly use for internet, MS Word, Powerpoint, Excel, email, storing photos and music, setting up my iPod, and using iCal.
I'm wondering if I should have gone with the 2.3Ghz instead...?

 

I also use DropBox quite a bit, since my professors all use it, and Carbonite, for backing up my crucial docs and photos.

 

Hotkeys for such basic functions are annoying, but eliminating a command key nullifies having a key for the left and right side of the keyboard (ie, for left/right handed users). The latter demand among users is greater than the demand for a dedicated 'delete' and 'backspace' key!