Macbook Pro Review October 2008 version

So I've had my Macbook Pro for a little over 2 weeks now and I think I can give it a pretty decent review.

First off specs, I custom ordered a 15'' Macbook Pro with the 2.8 ghz Intel Core 2 Duo processor as well as the 320 gig 7,200 RPM hard drive for added performance. Included however is the 9400 M AND 512 MB 9600 GT graphics cards, 4 gigs of DDR3 memory at 1,066 bus speed, and 6MB of shared L2 cache on the processor.

Usability/Features:

The new Macbook Pro body is very well constructed, feels extremely sturdy and solid even more so than the previous generation. Additionally this Macbook Pro is acutally thinner that the previous generation although only by a tiny margin (1'' vs 0.95'' thick) still amazing.

The new key board is very nice to type on even though I'm used to the old Macbook Pro/Powerbook key boards it's still very easy and nice to use with good feeling. The ambient automatic back lit keyboard is also very nice especially when working in low light conditions. This of course can be turned off if you don't like this function. Even my girlfriend who was typing on it for the first time said it was really nice to type on, thanks Nat : )

The Glossy/Glass screen is very bright and vibrant, the colors just jump out at you when looking a photos or video. glare is a concern, however in doors it's not too much of a problem it hasn't bugged me yet at least. I haven't used it outdoors so I can't give much feedback on the glare from outside use.

The new LED back lit display is awesome instant on with no warm up time for full brightness.

The new glass track pad is also very nice. It doesn't even feel like glass it feels like a regular mouse pad. Your finger glides across the pad very nicely with excellent feed back. Working with the entire track pad as the button is very easy and almost intuitive, had a little learning curve but anyone who is savvy with computers can pick it up very easily. The new multi-touch finger gestures work very well. I especially like the new two finger tap for right click. I also assigned the bottom right hand corner of the track pad as right click as well so I have multiple options for right click.

The battery, memory & hard drive are all very user replaceable now for upgrades. Although for now the Macbook Pro is limited to 4 gigs of DDR3 memory, the Nvida chip set is capable of 8 gigs. All it needs is a software update.

One other minor down side is that the new Macbook Pro only comes with a FireWire 800 port no more 400. Although 800 is compatible with 400 I just need to get some new cables.

The integrated iSight camera is awesome, did a few iChats with my girlfriend's sister out in Missouri and the video and sound quality is awesome!

Performance:

The new Macbook Pro is extremely fast especially with the new 512 NVidia 9600 GT video card along with the new DDR3 memory and increased cache on the processor. When compared to my old 1.67 ghz G4 Powerbook, it was a quantum leap in performance, everything is just so much faster. The thing I noticed the most is in the iMovie and iPhoto perform ace. iPhoto launches very quickly and the photos render and fly on the screen very quickly. In iMovie the rendering of effects is lighting quick. Things that used to take near a minute take seconds now. I was amazed at how fast things really rendered.

When I launch Safari, it instantly pops on the screen and starts to load a page for all of you Mac people Safari launched before the icon finished it's first bounce.

So far my only complaint is that iTunes is a bit sluggish on launch. At first I thought it was my library. But I tried to launch iTunes on several other new Macbooks, Pros and Airs and they all seem to have this delay but once running it was very quick and functioned very well.

Although I do have one complaint so far, one day launching iPhoto was glitchy as it crashed on me a few times, but after I let it go it worked fine. In general everything launched extremely quickly on it. I even installed Windows on it and it runs extremely smoothly.

One of the new cool features of the ability to switch from integrated graphics to discrete graphics. This is particularly useful for battery life. If you aren't doing any intensive photo or vidoe editing or gaming you can switch off the discrete graphics card. I found that you get a little over 4 hours of battery life with the integrated graphics or the 9400 M. With the discrete graphics cared the 9600 GT you get just under 3 hours. Which are both not as good as advertised of 4/5 hours of battery life. The downside is haveing to log out and log back in to switch graphics cards, this should be an on the fly option it should be addressed in the next version of OSX. Also with the Nvidia chip set the next version of OSX it should be able to take advantage of Hybrid SLI basically using both video cards are the same time for supped up graphics performace. I'm gonna cross my fingers on that one.

Pros:

Extremely fast, solid build, dual graphics cards a plus, new track pad is awesome, beautiful display, extremely easy to use.

Cons:

No Firewire 400 port, no standard DVI port, glossy screen can be a downer, battery life is not as advertised, god damn expensive.

Overall Conclusion:

If you were looking to upgrade an old Powerbook I'd highly reccomond getting this. If you have an existing Macbook Pro you're good just sticking with that one for a while. Overall it's an awesome laptop and I would highly recommend the Macbook Pro to anyone looking for a new laptop. This laptop gets Dick's Help Desk Choice award.