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Overall Rating
5 Star Review
Reviewed by: ymdone
Updated:05-05-08
Duration of ownership:2 Days
Strengths: Stylish looks, lightweight, backlit keyboard, battery life
Weaknesses: Price?
Overall Evaluation: What's there to say about the Macbook Pro that hasn't been said already? It's stylish, lightweight, runs the Mac programs incredibly fast. I haven't had occasion to use the Pro "features" (ie. the ability to run Windows programs), but I bought the Pro just in case. That and the price had dropped enough to make it almost equivalent to a comparable IBM.Things that stand out:1. In an odd touch, the screen of the 200 GB Pro is 15", not 15.4" like the 160 GB Pro. Not that you'd be able to tell any difference. What's weirder, the 15" screen looks bigger than a 17" screen on a Dell or IBM laptop. I know it's not, but it just looks larger. Perhaps it's the thin frame that accentuates the screen, which is pretty eye-popping in its own right. Clear graphics. No wonder it's the choice for graphic designers and publishers.2. The backlit keyboard is awesome. It will brighten or darken as the light in the room adjusts, and it adjusts quickly. The blue/white color is wild too.3. Battery life is magnificent. I've gotten 5 hours easily on every charge.4. Others have commented the Macbook Pro gets hot. I haven't experienced this at all. My Pro has run for hours straight and is hardly warm at all. (My wife's IBM laptop runs very hot, and she needs a fan-cooled tray wherever she brings her laptop to prevent getting "serious" burns.)5. It's a minor complaint, but as another reviewer mentioned it would've been nice to have more than two USB ports. It's moot really as a USB hub is inexpensive, but one or two more (which, yes, would have come at the expense of the design, so probably not an option) ports would be appreciated.6. Apple, where's the remote? My dad's less expensive Macbook came with a remote. Small quibble, to be sure, but a nice touch for watching movies.I cannot recommend the Macbook Pro more heartily. It's a purchase you will not regret.
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Overall Rating
5 Star Review
Reviewed by: jonlouisville
Updated:05-01-08
Duration of ownership:2 Months
Strengths: It's a Mac! It's a Mac that can run Windows faster than most Windows laptops (if you really need to, but why?). Great looks. Backlit keyboard. The best trackpad bar none.
Weaknesses: Can get a little warm on your lap, but not as much as Powerbooks. Can not run older OS9 software like older Powerbooks, but that is a very acceptable tradeoff.
Overall Evaluation: This is my second Apple laptop, an upgrade from my 3-year old Powerbook. I am forced to use a Dell at the office, but that's pretty much only an email machine. To do real work, I turn to the Mac, as I have done for 15 years. Lightweight, good screen size, can run Windows natively using Boot Camp, but I prefer to use it with VMWare Fusion, which is faster than Parallels. Excellent utility to transfer everything from old Macs (only a few apps needed to be reinstalled). The magnetic power connector is a great step-up from the problematic older plug-in unit on Powerbooks. Full size Firewire 400 and 800 ports are a plus (not those silly mini-plugs found on many Windows machines, if you're lucky to get Firewire at all), but a way to plug in an external SATA drive would be nice. It already survived one fall onto the floor from 3 feet up, so obviously the hard drive protection system works well. Very nice non-glossy screen, so annoying reflections are not a concern. Arguably a better buy than cheaper Windows laptops, as you can start using it out of the box for business and multimedia (and there's never any bloatware on a new Mac).
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Overall Rating
5 Star Review
Reviewed by: tetschan
Updated:04-16-08
Duration of ownership:
Strengths: Design, LED backlight, multi-touch pad, penryn processor, built-in isight camera, magsafe power adapter, backlit keyboard, ambient light sensor, etc.
Weaknesses: less cache than earlier version, easy ram access
Overall Evaluation: This is my second Apple purchase. I've upgraded to the new Penryn MacBook Pro from a TiBook, so I may be more than a little star struck. The biggest surprise for me was the LED backlight; its brightness makes me question if my TiBook or my first laptop (a Dell) even had a backlight. The Intel Penryn processor is powerful and runs cooler than the G4 I had (lap computing could become uncomfortable very quickly). The processor also makes possible booting into a windows OS which makes it a computer with greater versatility than its wintel rivals. I'm still learning the gestures, but the multi-touch pad makes for a great addition. The utility and safety of the magsafe adapter gives me solace whenever I need to visit relatives or friends who have active children that run through the house. As far as the weaknesses (which are only my opinions), I understand the concept of "trying to do more with less" but I feel that lowering the cache to 3MB wouldn't have been a choice that I would have made. That being said, if the cache wasn't listed in the specs, I wouldn't have noticed. The ram access, I feel, is too accessible. I recently changed out the default 2GB (2x1GB) memory for 4GB (2x2GB) and I won't be accessing the ram housing again, so I question the need for the easy access. It's a silly concern, I know; but I'd feel the same if someone could just knock on the hood of my car to have access to the engine. One of the earlier reviewers listed "plastic case" as a weakness for this item; as far as I can tell, the casing is mostly aluminum. Price was also listed as a weakness by some reviewers; I have to disagree. I consider myself to be a value concerned consumer who doesn't have a lot of money to throw around. Considering the price of wintel laptops with comparable hardware, the software that comes with the MacBook Pro, and the lack of headaches when I had my TiBook (compared to my colleagues who had wintel laptops during that time); I have to say the price I've paid was well worth it.
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Overall Rating
5 Star Review
Reviewed by: sylvan37
Updated:04-12-08
Duration of ownership:2 Months
Strengths: Stylish.Fast.Easy On The Go.
Weaknesses: Only 2 USB Ports
Overall Evaluation: This is without doubt the best laptop I have ever used. It has great specs. At 5.4 pounds its easy to carry with you. The back lit keyboard and track pad gestures are a nice touch. It has a great 15.4 inch wide screen display which is easy on the eyes, and the battery life is excellent at almost 6 hours. You'll never have to upgrade this puppy for a good while.
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Overall Rating
5 Star Review
Reviewed by: jmlmix
Updated:04-05-08
Duration of ownership:
Strengths: fast, expandable, comes with Leopard
Weaknesses: expensive
Overall Evaluation: I have had many Mac laptops over the years, and this MacBook Pro continues to impress me. I upgraded to 4GB RAM, which allows me to run lots of applications at once with no slowdown. The included Leopard software is fantastic -- new features like Time Machine for automatic backups are really helpful. The best thing about the Mac is it just works, and you don't have to worry about it. This laptop is very expandable, with 2 USB2.0 ports, firewire 400 and firewire 800, DVI out, etc. It is fast enough to run movie editing software and pretty much anything else you can throw at it. I primarily use it for email, photo storage, web browsing, movie editing with iMovie, and some statistical software. Synks perfectly with my iPhone. Yes, Macs are a little more (or a lot more) expensive than a cheap PC, but after spending hours and hours of frustration trying to get cheap PCs to work I took the plunge, and have not looked back!
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Overall Rating
4 Star Review
Reviewed by: sfschwartz
Updated:03-29-08
Duration of ownership:1 Weeks
Strengths: solid construction
Weaknesses: price, plastic shell
Overall Evaluation: The constructon of the macbook pro is solid for a mass-produced device. It feels very substantial, and all the pieces fit together nearly seamlessly. Compared with the MacBook, the MacBook Pro provides an additional USB port plus Firewire 800. The ExpressCard slot is useful for future expansion and services such as wireless broadband. I find the keyboard on the MacBook Pro solid and responsive. The backlighting is useful when typing in dark environments. Unlike the MacBook that shares system memory for video the MacBook Pro has a dedicated video processor. This is essential for running graphics-intensive applications. In view of the additional quality and benefits that the MacBook Pro offers, I think it is worth the higher price from the macbook.
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Overall Rating
5 Star Review
Reviewed by: placebo
Updated:03-29-08
Duration of ownership:7 Days
Strengths: Great performance, bright display, multi-touch trackpad, backlit keyboard, nice and quiet
Weaknesses: Light sensors too sensitive, sleep mode takes long to enter
Overall Evaluation: I upgraded to the MacBook Pro (MBP) from a PowerBook G4. The MBP offers a few new features, like the built-in iSight and the multi-touch trackpad, but the feature set largely remains the same. Still, Apple has refined the design. The MBP has a larger trackpad, which recognizes gestures more consistently. The battery life is excellent, and if you want to swap batteries, it is more easily accessible on the MBP, no longer requiring a coin for removal. The MBP has more screen real estate than the PowerBook, thanks to a higher resolution screen. The screen is also much brighter. Still, there's room for improvement. The light sensors are too sensitive, so the light from the display will affect its brightness, resulting in the display dimming or brightening in dim surroundings depending on what's on the screen. Putting the computer to sleep takes a lot longer, though, if you know how, this can be disabled. Apple, unfortunately, doesn't provide a way to do this via the GUI. The keyboard sports a number of differences. It, thankfully, has an option key on the right now, replacing the enter key. All of the function keys now have some function assigned to them, including play/pause, fast forward, and rewind, and Apple reassigned the volume and keyboard lighting controls, Expose, and Dashboard to different keys. The keyboard lacks support for the numeric keypad, but I never used that feature on my previous laptops. The increase in performance makes for a smoother, more enjoyable user experience. One bounce on the dock and an application is open. Obviously, the faster processor helps, but it's also the inclusion of an SATA hard drive in the MacBook Pro and the resulting increase in disk performance. Despite the better performance, the MacBook Pro seems to run cooler than the PowerBook. Everyday activities, like decoding and watching an H.264-encoded video, which might tax the PowerBook's G4 processor require only a small fraction of the Intel processor's power, so while the PowerPC G4 had to run flat out, the Core 2 Duo Intel CPU barely breaks a sweat.
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Overall Rating
4 Star Review
Reviewed by: jackm2211
Updated:03-27-08
Duration of ownership:
Strengths: Display color; powerful image processing; beauty
Weaknesses: Price; easy to get scratches; light sensors; battery life; Keyboard
Overall Evaluation: I switch from IBM T42 to Macbook Pro since my T42 has died on me after 3 years of faithful service. The other reason is that I am turning myself to photography. Processing picture on the T42 takes almost forever. The color reproduction of Macbook is a lot better than the T42. After calibration, the color on the screen is exactly that I see on the print. This is the reason why photographer use Mac. I also use bootcamp to run Windows since my CS3 is in Windows version, and I use Fusion to run Windows on Mac. It works great for small program, but I have a little problem with CS3. It runs kind of slow even I allocate 1 GB for Windows. I recommend using bootcamp to run Windows if you need application like CS3. It will run faster without the Mac OS. Keyboard needs some getting used to if you switch from IBM, especially "Caps lock" and "a" and "control" and "command". Battery life is said to last up to 5 hours, but it only lasts 2 hours when I use it even with dimmed screen. I wonder how you can manage to make it last for 5 hours. Maybe just turn it on and leave it without touching anything. Macbook Pro comes with light sensors that dim display and illuminate all the key on keyboard, but the sensors are placed in such a way that your hands can block the light and make the display goes dimmed unintentionally. Overall, it is great buy. I like it even some flaws exist.
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Overall Rating
3 Star Review
Reviewed by: stevenray76
Updated:03-26-08
Duration of ownership:
Strengths: Looks
Weaknesses: Price, overated
Overall Evaluation: Decided to try a Mac after several classmates recommended the switch from windows. I first purchased a black Macbook which I liked very much however, the DVD drive failed and had to be returned. I then chose to go with a Macbook Pro. The Pro is well designed with numerous bells and whistles although, I yet to understand why Macs are so expensive. My previous laptop I purchased in 2003 (Dell 8600 Inspiron XP Pro Pentium 1.6 2 GB ram) for work. I have used the Dell everyday since I purchased for work, school and surfing. Maybe someday I will find happiness as Mac follower.
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Overall Rating
5 Star Review
Reviewed by: tobeste
Updated:03-26-08
Duration of ownership:
Strengths: Very clean, runs much cooler and feels so nice!
Weaknesses: Key shortcuts got changed a bit
Overall Evaluation: This laptop is by far the best computer I have bought in the past. It comes with plenty of hard drive space, runs very fast with 2gb ram, is sleek looking, runs much cooler then previous models and runs a great operating system. I have absolutely no complaints so far and I definitely recommend the glossy screen! The keyboard feels really good and responsive and the trackpad multi touch is very fun to use. Great purchase!
