Almost 2 months on: The Good and The Bad about the MacBook Pro 2.4Ghz 15.4".

Ahhh, that wonderful day in October when I got my hands on my 2.4Ghz MacBook Pro, and was finally rid of my XPS M1330 once and for all.....

So what has changed since then? Well, my attitude toward the frustration of having a Windows PC has been replaced with.....the frustration of OS X!
Well, it's not as bad, but of course OS X isn't perfect.

So, onto the good!

1.) The MBP hardware is pretty stunning. Such a simple design yet so elegant!

2.) I really like Leopard. It's a very simple OS yet so powerful at the same time.

3.) Time Machine is a life-saver. Just a great application.

4.) Spaces is really cool, probably? I admit I've not used it nor had any use for it. But it's good, right? Right?

5.) The light-up keyboard is lovely.

6.) The mag-safe power adapter is superb. I know people have had issues with theirs in the past, but I have two and love them to pieces.

7.) The Apple Bluetooth keyboard is fantastic. Perhaps it could have a number pad, but even without it, it's so nice. It almost makes me wish the actual MBP had the same keyboard, but only the MB gets it.

8.) The screen is really nice, as close to perfect as a screen can get. It's still not 100% uniform, as no screen is, but it doesn't have anywhere near the light leakage my XPS M1330 (and several replacements...) had.

9.) The two-finger trackpad is genius. Originally I hated there not being a right click button exclusively, but now I've gotten so used to the large one button and two-finger clicking, I'm not sure I could go back to two buttons!

10.) The dual-screen software is excellent. I connect my 24" to the DVI port, and it just automatically works. In Windows I had to click the nvidia tool and click things to make it work.

11.) Expose is super cool, as are widgets. Vista Sidebar pales in comparison.


And now, the bad (yes, nothing is perfect....)

1.) The light-sensor for the screen is poop. If a finger or two strays over the speakers (where the light sensor is), the screen will dim for a second and then brighten up. This drives me nuts, so I turned off the light-sensor. Boo!

2.) The MBP keyboard isn't "quite" right. It's nice, but you can push a key and have nothing happen if you don't push it firmly enough. You can literally push a key in gently and have it not register over and over again. Definitely needs an upgrade there.

3.) Runs HOT. It's NOT comfortable on your lap at all. My XPS M1330 ran so much cooler, and that was a smaller system! Perhaps by making the MBP so thin you lose some of the heat movement. Whatever the reason, the MBP is one of the hottest laptops I've EVER owned, and that's no exaggeration.

4.) My trackpad is a "little" funny. Nothing major, but the right edge of my trackpad isn't raised like the left, so sometimes when I'm looking at the screen and using the trackpad, my finger goes over the right edge onto the actual palm rest without my noticing. Very strange. The left side has a proper ridge onto the palm rest, but not the right. I'm pretty sure my system is an anomaly since the display model at my Best Buy had no such "issue." Not a huge deal, but since I'm being honest, it's an imperfection.

5.) Windows XP runs very sweetly, but runs even hotter than OS X because for whatever reason Apple doesn't run the fans properly in Windows. Why? Who knows? I know there are workarounds, but it's definitely something that should be addressed.

6.) Some bugs in Leopard: my hard drive parks its head every few seconds when idling. It did it with my 160GB Fujitsu original drive, and with the replacement 200GB Hitachi 7200rpm drive. I had to use some 3rd-party tools to work around this, but it's a definite bug.

Another bug is my screen going dim, no matter what I set my times to in system preferences. After 4 minutes on AC, and 2 minutes on battery, my screen dims. And yes, I'm sure it's a bug and not a setting. There are a ton of people complaining of the same thing after they switched to Leopard.

7.) The slot-loading drive is loud when loading a disc, and I feel like it spins too fast when playing a DVD.

8.) I wish PC games would run in OS X. *sigh*

9.) I wish the hard drive hadn't been a pain in the arse to replace.

10.) Sometimes when coming out of sleep mode, my mouse is herky-jerky all over the place and I have to reboot. Pretty annoying, though it doesn't happen often.

11.) I wish it hadn't been quite as expensive. I only got the 2.4Ghz model over the 2.2Ghz model because the video card is the one thing that couldn't be replaced. I wanted 256MB. Do I regret paying that extra $500? Perhaps....

12.) Scared of scratching my MBP. I BABY it and definitely don't put it down anywhere without brushing off dust or bits on the table.

13.) It makes me want an iMac. Why? I have no idea!


Ah yes, in general, my conclusion (ahem Sam), is that I love my MBP. I'm just scared I'll want the latest Apple laptop when one is announced possibly in January!

And to Apple: I have an iPhone on T-Mobile. Yes, I hacked my iPhone and I love it. You say you don't want people hacking iPhones for networks other than AT&T, but I say you do. Because of my iPhone, I got a MBP. There! Hacked iPhones sell Apple laptops!

 

And in general, your conclusion is?

Anyways, thanks for your thoughts, WilliamG! And yes, its really important that others understand this: Mac OS X is not perfect. Nothing in the world is perfect. But personally, I find OS X to be better than Windows, that is why I use it.

 

The keyboard issue you mentioned isn't a hardware problem, but a Leopard bug Doesn't happen to me on my Vista partition Good to know you like the thing though! Personally I never had a problem with the light sensor, since the way I type doesn't make my fingers move over the speakers.

 

What did you use to keep your HD from parking the heads every couple seconds while idling. I have noticed my MBP doing the same thing since I installed leopard.

 

Good read. Highly informative for a possible switcher (first time).

Is the extra 500 for just the 256 mb 8600 worth it? Games like TF2, Crysis (of course at resolutions lower than 1440x900), Supreme Commander, World in Conflict run at acceptable framerates (~30 FPS)?

Where do you guys buy your Apple machines in the US? Canada? I reside in Canada. The 2.2 GHz, 128mb 8600 goes for 1999.99 with student discount and the 2.4 ghz, 256 mb 8600 goes for 2599.

Yay or Nay?

 

Depends on the settings you have for those games. Crysis will play pretty well if Shadows/Shaders are set to Low, a little choppy at Medium. Setting them to High will require 800x600 and even than you'll have to mind single-digit frame rate during busy scenes. If you want a gaming computer, dare I say look elsewhere. I'd wait for the Alienware with the 8800m GTX, or any Compal/Sager equivalent. Maybe if we're lucky, the MBP update will feature an 8800m GT, GTS, or GTX.

I bought mine at an Apple store in Memphis, Tn with 30 $100 bills, since I didn't have a credit card with a high enough limit. It was fun watching the sales lady mark each one with that special "counterfeit" pen detector.

 

Good info william.

Just want to mention, realize that the heat's overall average is actually only 1 degree higher than Dell laptops (in general). It just seems warmer because it's more concentrated.
But good info!

 

I have a macbook pro too, the 15 inch model, and I also found the problem of heating. When I use this long enough, the area under the lcd made me very uncomfortable because of the heat.

 

I'll have to try in XP again. I'm pretty sure it's just the keyboard, since if I push harder it ALWAYS works.

 

I use a program called APMTool.

http://mckinlay.net.nz/hdapm/

Get this application, and in Terminal run this command (see below - just copy and paste it), AFTER you copy the files to the right place as described in the Readme. I suggest you ignore how to permanently install the application in his Readme, and use my command below, since it works in Leopard and his line doesn't:


sudo mkdir /usr/local/bin && sudo cp /Volumes/hdapm/hdapm /usr/local/bin/ && sudo cp /Volumes/hdapm/hdapm.plist /Library/LaunchDaemons/ && sudo /Volumes/hdapm/hdapm disk0 max;

Let me know how it goes.

 

Thanks for that, that was fun to read, you are a funny guy.

 

In regards to heating, it's normal for that area above the keyboard to get really hot. It gets very hot especially when playing games and isn't anything to worry about. If the temps get too high the fans speed up to 6000 rpm and you will notice that area will get much cooler in about a minute. Macbooks are made of metal so the case retains more heat than normal plastic notebooks, and thus people noticed it more. If you check the temps of the internal components on any other performance laptop they will be about the same temperature under the same load. Also since there is no other large vents around the MBP or Macbook and it's such a thin case, the heat is vented out through that hinge so it heats that area up.

 

Is the extra 600 bucks worth it for just the 256 mb version oft he 8600?

 

T'is a very good question, and one that I cannot answer.

 

If you're planning to do anything graphics intensive then yes, definatley worth it.

 

I agree. There's a lot of space available on the MBP but Apple decided to keep the minimalistic look for it. If only the MBP had the same style keys as in the MB's I'd be truly in heaven. The keyboard is the only downside to the MBP in my opinion.

 

Depends on your tasks. If you ask me, I don't think its worth the $600...if I need any more graphics power, I'd just get a desktop.

 

Thank you William!

1000th post

 

If they did what you want where would they put the speakers though? Ever thought of that one?

 

#2 is true and I hate it. #10 is your MBP looking for a wireless network. It goes away within a minute, or you could just turn off your Airport if you're not using it, manually select a hotspot, etc. So hopefully I've solved one of your issues. =p

 

Yes, most of the time #10 is my MBP looking for a wireless network. However, occasionally it does this forever, literally. My mouse was jerking all over the screen for over 10 minutes before I gave up and just rebooted the system. It's not the same thing as the system looking for a network for a few seconds and the mouse goes a little haywire.

 

Oh yeah, the speakers...

They don't necessarily have to be that big to get good sound from them (at least I think).

I do wish the keys were like the Sony CR/MacBook style... that would be cool. Even the Sony FZ series has a cool setup for how the keys look (the flat top look, that is).

 

Yep, exactly how I feel. The graphics memory is the only real difference, I don't think .2GHz and 40GB of hard drive space is a problem, since I think it's only $50 to upgrade the hdd on the 2.2 model.

 

Yep, I have the same thing, also on a 2.4 SR MBP.

Agree with pretty much all your other observations, though I've not yet used Time Machine or the Bluetooth keyboard.

I've been delighted with my MBP and OS X Leopard. In comparison my desktop, which I upgraded to Vista in February, is a nightmare. There's terrible driver support, and even with SP1 RC installed I can't get WoW and Ventrilo to behave consistently. If my Guild would swap their Vent codec to Speex the Windows box would be heading for the scrapheap.

 

Oh, and not really an OS X issue, but something that needs addressing. When using Windows XP via Bootcamp, pushing the caps lock key makes the Bluetooth keyboard completely lock up for about a minute. Totally frustrating when playing a game and to hit caps by mistake only to have the keyboard lock.

My buddy just got a new iMac 2.4Ghz 20", and his BT keyboard does the same thing in XP Boot Camp.