MacBook Pro Reviewed 336
phaedo00 writes "Ars Technica has an in-depth review of the MacBook Pro that compares performance with a Dell Inspiron running a hacked version of OS X 10.4.4: 'Yes, you read that right. We at the Orbiting HQ were able to have some benchmarks run on an acquaintance's Dell Inspiron 9100 with a 3.2GHz Pentium 4 HT chip running OS X 10.4.4, and decided that including the benchmarks from this machine would prove to be both interesting if not illustrative of what non-Apple x86 machines may be capable of if they could run Mac OS X (legally). Please keep in mind that the data from the Dell laptop is for illustrative purposes only and that no one at the Ars Orbiting HQ hacked a machine. As David Letterman says, this is not a competition. No wagering.'"
NY Times Review (Score:5, Informative)
If you use Xcode, you want one of these (Score:5, Informative)
Bottom line : if you're a developer and you have long compile times on your code (AND you have the need/desire to be mobile), you NEED one of these machines.
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Re:good review... (Score:3, Informative)
The light is green when the battery is fully charged, and orange/brown when it is charging.
It takes a few seconds to begin charging the battery, I guess.
Re:Head to head against Winders and *nix (Score:3, Informative)
to be fair, quicktime encoding is a CPU intensive operation, and the dell laptop had over a Gig of processor power over the macbook. perhaps osx wasn't taking adsvantage of the HT on the dell, but even so, that's a formiddable lead and I'm quite surprised the macbook kept up so well.
I bet the macbook is alot thinner too.
dave
Re:Now all we need is a company that stands behind (Score:1, Informative)
Comment removed (Score:3, Informative)
Re:What about the noise? (Score:4, Informative)
I'm typing this with my spangly new MacBook Pro on my lap, so it's time for a mini-review!
Observations: the aluminium case means that if it's been in a cold van for a bit, it's COLD. Cold like ice!
It does get fairly warm in use, but is pretty quiet. Slightly louder than my iBook, but way quieter than an average machine. It makes a slight high-pitched hissing sound, which seems to cut out for a moment every so often. No idea what that is. It's not distracting, just
Keyboard needs some getting used to from my iBook- it's got loads of travel. It's more like a clacky desktop thing than a laptop one, so I'm busy typing this as loudly as I can. Tappety clack! (Where on Earth do the keys go when pressed? The machine's already ridiculously thin...)
No evidence that it's an Intel-based thing beyond the description in 'About This Mac'. No prehistoric BIOS startup screen, no 'Intel Inside' logos, nuffink. Instead, it just feels like an astoundingly speedy Mac. It's FAST. Applications often open before a single bounce of their icons. Rosetta seems completely transparent (and even while emulated, mission-critical applications [btinternet.com] seem faster than on my iBook) - most of the software I use is Universal already, and I've no idea which applications haven't been recompiled yet.
Screen is very bright, the sound is rather nice, the built-in camera seems pretty high quality (although I definitely need a hair-cut - it ain't flattering), and generally it's all rather special. Only complaints - the keyboard is a bit shiny silver, and the keyboard illumination keys get in the way of the default Expose shortcut keys. Needs a fiddle.
Oh, and there are no wireless networks for me to connect to here. LUDDITES!
Complaints? Not a lot. It gets fairly warm underneath while in use, and the battery life estimates are generally around 3.5 hours, which is still about 2.5 hours better than my iBooks duff battery. It's best not to fight the automatic screen and keyboard brightnesses - just go with the flow, and it's much less annoying.
Oh. I've got a complaint. I don't like the shade of green used on the LEDs. Too blue-ish!
Energy saver presets are editable (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Head to head against Winders and *nix (Score:1, Informative)
Yes they fucking did, will you stop your trolling now? [apple.com]