Macbook v Macbook Pro (My short review based on 2 hours at PC World's Apple stand)

To start I should remind everyone that i'm not a mac user. I have never owned a mac or used OSX properly before today. As such, my opinions should be taken as coming from someone who has much knowledge and experience as far as PC's are concerned, but who is a total mac n00b.

First Impressions

When I first walked over to the Macbooks I was quite taken aback. The build quality is out of this world. In fact, I immediately walked over to the latest PC laptops to compare and immediately thought "manufacturing FAIL". Really, the Macbooks are italian sports cars, and PC's are 30 year old farm tractors to use the typical "car analogy".

The Macbook

I really only had any interest in the Macbook when I first went to the Apple stand, but came away with the intention of buying a MacBook Pro. Let me explain:

The MacBook's build quality is awesome. It's solid, no creaking plastic or flexable build, completely and utterly solid. Awesome.

However, the screen is rubbish. I turned the brightness all the way up and down to varying degrees to get it right, but it was no use, the screen was of poor quality IMHO. I can't really put my finger on it other than say it was "lacklustre". Very disappointing

The speed was fine, it was very fast, the trackpad was responsive and there were no problems at all on this score. Very fast, very sleek, just as you'd expect from Apple.

The keys on the key board were thicker or taller depending on how you define it. This made for a very responsive very tactile keyboard. Certainly gave better response than any laptop keyboard i've ever used. I'm mentioning this because this wasn't the case on the Macbook Pro. Weird? I'll explain in a sec.

The Macbook Pro

TOTALLY, blew me away. I had no interest in the Macbook Pro before today, but after seeing it I can't help thinking "why the hell did I want a macbook?".

The build quality is exactly the same as the macbook, just, well bigger. Well, almost. I found the hinge controlling the movement of the screen to be a bit "looser" than on the macbook. This isn't awful, but it's certainly a negative, albeit a small one. I got the impression that I could expect the screen to move a few cm's through light touches, where the macbook screen hinge was solid. With the macbook screen i'd physically have to grab and move the screen to readjust the viewing angle, which is better in my view, and gave it a more solid feel.

The speed of the Macbook pro was about 0.6th of a second faster. Noticable to me because I was intently looking for speed differences in minute detail, but if you weren't specifically looking for speed differences you wouldn't notice a difference really. I'm just being picky!

The screen of the Macbook pro won me over. Ladies and gentlemen we have a winner. The 15" screen seemed to be "the right size" I was looking for, despite the fact I was looking for a 13" macbook. So I re-educated myself today. The quality was out of this world. Definately the best laptop screen i've ever seen. It had a higher resolution, was CRYSTAL clear, sharp and very very bright. Cant really rave over it enough. Best screen ever. Side by side the Macbook screen really was awful in comparision.

The keys on the macbook pro were shorter or thinner than the macbooks, depending on how you say it. This was a weird thing for me to notice? On the macbook the keys were taller, and gave great tactile feedback. On the Macbook pro the keys were shorter and the tactile response wasn't as good, and when typing I found myself making an error or two because of it, when that wasn't the case with the Macbook. I wonder whether the difference was that the Macbook's keys didn't have a backlight and the Macbook Pro's did? In which case, I certainly preferred the keys on the Macbook.

Overall

I went there to finally make up my mind on whether I wanted to get a mac or not, specifically whether to buy the Macbook, and left with a definate yes, but a definate yes to a Macbook pro and not a Macbook.

Thanks for taking the time to read my ramblings

 

nice read!I think they used poor screens on mb to give people more reasons to select MBA/P instead of MB!anyway,are you going to get one?

 

nice review.

Why would anyone want the Macbook? Oh probably because of the steep difference in price tags.

 

Oh boy.... this thread could be interesting.

 

Interesting comparison.

If you're looking for screens better than the Pro one, I assure you there are many out there.

The build quality you describe is... tactile. They're great to touch, and they seem so tough, but don't forget there are reasons some people will call aluminium a metalloid. It's not as tough as the tips of your fingers make it. I much prefer to drop a ThinkPad than a Macbook - maybe some plastic on the ThinkPad will crack, but it's rollcage will protect it from harm, while the Macbook will warp and bend.
It's a very nice design - just not as strong as many make it out to be.

 

^and whats the point in that?is both ways you ll have to replace it!

 

Point: The ThinkPad plastic may crack. It's good quality stuff.
Point: The rollcage will protect the hard drive and other interior components from harm. They won't have to be replaced.
Point: The warping of a aluminium unibody case can do serious damage to the internal components, which in such a situation, will have to be replaced.

Just saying, to emphasize that they aren't as sturdy as they seem to many people.

 

ok. so show me a warped unibody macbook pro.


apple designed the new line of macbooks to stabilize the construction and therefore prevent warping... i promise you that the unibody IS as sturdy as people make it seem. my PI's thinkpad fell from a two foot height and broke one of the hinges connecting the screen to the body - good quality, maybe, but still susceptible to the laws of physics. there's no point in glorifying the thinkpads when they aren't exactly head and shoulders above macbooks.

PS: the magnesium rollcage in thinkpads is actually made of a softer metal compound than the aluminum in the new unibody line. the reason thinkpads use magnesium: it's significantly cheaper.

 

Great job @ the OP!

 

I dropped my previous gen macbook pro about 2.5 feet onto a hardwood floor, open, about a week after I got it (a year ago).

Not a SCRATCH.

 

You got lucky masterchef! My Dad dropped his previous generation SR MBP from about a foot off of the sofa onto the vent beside the sofa and it dented and scratched it up.

 

I think the screen is getting overblown. My macbook has a fine screen even compared with my sony TZ. You might try a different color profile. The only bad thing is dark scenes in movies.

 

Great read and this is what all the prospective buyers should do. Walk in an Apple Store and see the products for themselves.

 

Nice read on the hinge. I had a pro and found it impossible to prop up in bed because the glass screen kept trying to close on its own. The MB has no such problems. The other thing that should not be ignored is the form factor. When I did my initial calculations I only worried about the way it would grow on each side. However, it is a lot bigger front to back in comparison. The trackpad on the MB takes up pretty much all the free space. The result is a very tight, compact design (that could even get better if they had the room inside to compress in a little more) that, while only a pound lighter, FEELS a lot more drastic than that, because of how the weight is distributed.

Anyway, both notebooks rule.

 

proof?link?anything?

 

Look up some pictures of dropped Airs which are made in the same manufacturing process, with the same aluminium. They look like Jell-O.

Magnesium rollcage, magnesium weaker, hmm? Well. If you're going to discuss basic physics... The case of the Macbooks is one single slab of aluminium. A proper ThinkPad case is overlapped plastic, the rollcage, along with other strengthening. I'm not glorifying ThinkPads but using them as an example. I'd think the difference between a single piece and ThinkPad construction is quite obvious. What's stronger, a pillar of pure concrete, or a pillar of reinforced concrete?
And Magnesium alloys are lighter than aluminium, while still remaining strong.

Apple designed the unibody to look good, and have a pleasant, simple finish.

Even the previous-gen Pros dented. I've seen enough dented and pitted ones... now to see a ThinkPad that is dented or pitted.

There was an excellent post in this forum somewhere explaining why the aluminium used in the unibody manufacturing process is weaker than you would expect of a normal slab of aluminium, for cost reasons.

 

I have 2 old and 1 new Thinkpad(X40(best notebook in the world IMO),T43 and x200),so I know how strong they are,but I couldn't find any review saying that apple's build quality is bad and they are easily damaged.And about scratches-that magnesium lid on thinkpad scratches even if you gently touch it

 

Just out of curiousity, are you folks playing baseball with your laptops or what? I know accidents happen, but geesh...I've been dealing with computers/laptops/cell phones/electronics a long time and it's never been to the point of "ack, dropped my laptop then kicked it, now it's scratched". I would expect signs of use in anything I own/use. To use an analogy, it's kind of like the folks that put plastic over all their furniture...why did you buy it if you weren't going to use it!

 

Not true, I had an aluminum Powerbook G4 for 4+ years along with a couple other of my friends and not a single warp ever happened to any of them regardless how hot the CPU ran.

I currently have a Macbook Air and it's very resilient. The Air is the original unibody and trust me, it IS strong. If you are going to go as far as to mention people dropping their laptops well some damage will happen with ANY computer. We're talking normal usage here.

 

Good for you OP for going out and trying the machines out for yourself first hand.

 

I think that everyone would agree that the previous generation pros were very much susceptible to warping and denting. I am firm in my position that the new unibody macbooks will not have such problems (if treated like normal).

 

Nice to come along and get comments like "you obviously hate Macs". NEEEP. Incorrect.

Of course the new ones are stronger. Once again, I am just trying to rationalize the misconception that these things are almost indestructible.

 

It is the 2nd time that you try to make things look like we are unreasonably bashing you...not a good thing to do!

Also,90+% of you posts here were just negative statements against apple.

never seen a statement saying that apples are indestructible!

From OP:

 

1. I suggest a re-read. If you pay more attention to what I wrote you can see I praise the design... Nowhere am I making "negative statements against Apple".
2. Slight exaggeration on my side to emphasize the point. The OP veered close and I have seen "indestructibility" posts much too often, not just here on NBR.

 

by here I meant apple sub-forum

it is not just OP who said that!

http://gizmodo.com/5063492/macbook-and-macbook-pro-dual-review
http://www.notebookcheck.net/Review-Apple-MacBook-Aluminium-Unibody-13-9400M.11984.0.html
http://www.notebookcheck.net/Review-Apple-MacBook-Pro-15-v5-2008-Unibody-9600M-GT-9400M.11973.0.html

 

i hope you dont take my posts as me saying that the unibody is indestructible. compared to the previous design, and compared to the majority of other notebooks out there, i think its much more well-built, but of course its not indestructible.