another macbook pro review

ok i was waiting to use the macbook more before i write a thorough review.

i got the macbook pro 2.0 ghz
i also installed another gig of ram from newegg for eighty six dolalrs - the first stick was DOA but the second is working great so far. thats the only upgrade i got for this - the rest is stock. oh and it took like 2 minutes to install.

i ve had the MBP for about 2 weeks since april 10th and i ordered on april 5th. the revision i got was W8612 - so i assume this is the 12th week revision - and i literally carry it all over the place with the best case ever - i really suggest the incase sling pack - if you really only want to carry a slim book and your macbook. its perfect if you really want to carry it all over the place because it is so slim and doesnt bump into things and has enough pockets to be useful and very affordable.

this laptop is much faster than i thought it was going to be. the screen is bright and i think it is the perfect resolution 1440 x 900 - since alot of notebooks this size has 1280 x 800 whereas others have it in the 1600's whic makes it almost too small to read ( though some might appreaciate the extra real estate on that resolutions). it is a very bright screen and i dont have any of the low light flicker even at one block brightness that some users have reported. so you can not bend the screen as far back as i would like - and i think that is due to the vents and rubber attenna on the rear. speaking of vents and heat this laptop does get this hot. BUT i dont really think it gets that much hotter than my acer ferrrari 3200, but i bought a vantec laptop cooler for when i use it on the bed and that works fine.

ok and i havedo have a very very very tiny whine and i only noticed it when i was working alone in a completely silent room, otherwise i dont notice it at all. it makes less whine than when i charge my bluetooth headset that's for sure.

my favorite part ofthe laptop so far is the keyboard it self. it has large buttons and is flat. it was really hard going back to my desktop after using it. i acutally type better on this keyboard. the trackpad is huge and i love the two finger scroll - it make it so you dnt even really need a mouse unless you are playing games.

i tried installing boot camp but had an issue to where i had to erase the whole harddrive due to an error - but once i did it worked smoothly. the only issue was i was unable tyo use my eject key even after installing all the mac drivers - and then i realized - do i even really need windows? so i took it off and i am really happy with the speed of word on this - i mean i am not manipulating any large files so it works fine for me. photoshop on the other hand is slower - but i really started using iphoto more and came to the conclusion that i really do not need much more that iphoto since i only am an amatuer photographer at this point in time - i got aperture 1.1 from a friend but haven't really had achance to use it yet - so i ll edit this later if i end up using it. it seems more like a professional iphoto from my initial impressions. iweb is also very usable especially if you dont have time to upkeep - and it looks fairly nice for a site that takes less than 30 minutes to set up. no .mac account since you CAN use iweb on other servers/domains and i didnt want to pay for it.

oh and i can not forget front row. this is gREAT! especially since it comes with a remote. use handbrake , i have several movies on here and at 1000Kb they are roughly 500-700 megs - so i can fit plenty on movies on here.

gaming? well the only game i have intalled us WOW nad it runs great at medium/default settings. i get about 30 FPS in ironforge and actually jumps to 45-60 FPS while flying so its works fine. i know its underclock and have been looking for something to change the clock speed to at least normal speeds / i've heard that it doesnt actually make that much hotter - but im happy with it so far.

the magsafe has been great - i did receive a bad power supply so had to take it to the apple store to exchange it - but now it works fine. it has saved my laptop more than once - even in the 2 weeks i 've had this - i work on my bed alot and it has unplugged itself before it fell off =).

the wireless has been good even from one room over - i played WOW for like 6 hours ( i know i know) and had no issues with disconnection.

the battery life has been good - i havent stressed it but it looks like it can last about 2-3 hours easily on normal settings -

in conclusion - i really like this laptop - i have owned several and my last was the acer ferrari 3200 - which i thought had better vents but that was about it -
i really think if you plan to carry your laptop everywhere - this is a great one because of its light weight and size ratio - i really dont know how people can use the 12 inch one - the screen is soooo small for me - and the 15.4 inch is perfect in size -
the new dell xps 1710 is a much better gaming rig for about the same price as my 2.0 MBP. so i would get that for gaming - but then you are carrying a 10 lb (total with power brick) and it is 17 inch screen so is pretty big
for casual gaming and everything else - i really think the MBP is perfect - expecially with bootcamp.
the only thing i would add is a larger hard drive but i m waiting for next year when i can get the 200 gig one - and maybe install the new mac os x on it.


ok well if you have any other questions please feel free to ask.

 

Great mini-review Fookwin! I have a question about Front Row though - can you use it when the laptop is powered down, like Dell's Media Direct, or do you have to have the notebook booted into OS X?

 

alas , i didnt event think of that and shut down my MBP to test it. and no it doesnt turn it on=( so i guess you have to turn it on first - but seriously it takes like 30 seconds to turn on - even less - as fast as media direct from what i ve read on the forums - -

and front row is still cool =)

 

Before I bought the macbook pro I was looking at the MSI 1039 and the alienware 5500 both of which have "instant on" I believe. When I went to look at the macbook at the apple store I asked them if it was possible to load up front row or some dvd player without loading up the operating system. But, it is impossible from what I have figured out.

 

ok so i installed bootcamp and it seems to work great so far -
issues that i have
1. the eject button doesnt work - and i did everything apple said to do - so i have to manually click eject each time - not a huge deal but bothersome
2. using the isight crashes my computer
3. it doesnt reroute the sound when you out in a head set - really annoying since i instaleld boot camp to learn spanish - haha - and when i started the program i didnt know that and the speakers boomed out "THE BIRD IS RED" to the dismay of surrounding patrons at barnes and noble

otherwise
i installed a few things including daemon tools (so i can copy the CD's to my hardrive without carrying a bunch of disks around) and it works great - didnt run any benchmarks to compare - but i really think as long as its usable - who really needs numbers? there's faster stuff out all the time - and i am seriouls satisfied with everything this laptop has to offer so far -