Apple MacBook Pro Notebook Review

After using MS Windows for over 15 years, I switched to a Mac—and I'm not going back. OSX is fantastic. The MacBook Pro comes with a host of extras: lit keyboard, built in video camera, video card that can drive a 30" display, fast processor, and easily upgradable memory. The 15" form factor is pretty much perfect for a work laptop - just enough screen real estate for screen hog programs such as Dreamweaver or Photoshop but small enough not to be bulky to carry around (I think the 17" Macbook Pro tips the scale on the too bulky side).

The glide pad is the best of any laptop computer I've used (IBM ThinkPad T41, Dell Latitude, Toshiba Satellite). One worry that I had was losing the use of the right mouse button (I use it all the time!)—well it was an unfounded fear. Turns out with the new trackpads, putting two fingers down on the pad and then clicking the large single button gets you your right click - it is much more intuitive and natural than choosing which button to click when you have two to choose from. Furthermore, moving two fingers on the glide pad will scroll whatever window you are in—no more mousing over to the scroll bar! When I started using the MacBook Pro, I was also using a Dell Latitude laptop, and found it very frustrating when upon returning to the Dell I couldn't scroll with my two fingers on the glide pad. As a side note, the IBM ThinkPad had a third button (between the left and right mouse buttons by the glide pad) which you could hold down to scroll with one finger on the glide pad. I found this was better than not having a scrolling option (as on the Dell), but more often than not it felt like a game of Twister with your fingers - the MacBook two finger solution is far superior!

Moving on to the keyboard—it has a very good feel to it. I would put it on par with the IBM ThinkPad keyboard that had been my favourite to this point. Where the MacBook Pro surpasses the IBM is in the backlighting. The backlighting is adjustable—for that matter it will automatically adjust to best match the ambient light (or lack of it). This is a much better solution than the keyboard light that was housed at the top of the ThinkPad screen. The ThinkPad's light's intensity was not adjustable and would case glare when looking at the screen.

The 15" screen on the MacBook Pro is exquisite—the best screen that I've used on any laptop. Being a creative professional, colour fidelity, contrast and image brightness are of paramount importance and the MacBook Pro does not disappoint. I have grown accustomed to the wide aspect ratio of the screen so much so that my external monitor had to be a wide aspect ratio as well (I currently use a Dell 20" monitor—Model #2007WFP).

The Bluetooth connectivity is also superb. I use a bluetooth mouse and keyboard in addition to my phone. I have yet to encounter any problems with any of the devices maintaining their connection to the Macbook. On the the WiFi end of things, 802.11g works great. Also make sure you max out your memory (I have 2GB and wouldn't mind a gig or two more) if you are using the Adobe Creative Suite

There are several improvements that could be made to the MacBook Pro:

• add a FireWire 800 port (that now exists on the latest version)
  
• add a harddrive activity light
• increase battery life (I get an average of 2.5 hours on a charge)
• create a dock (having to plug in 5 cords every morning when I arrive at work is not ideal)
• support more than 2GB of RAM (on the latest version you can install up to 3GB)

One final observation, the overall integration of programs is far superior on OSX when compared to Windows XP. The mac is less a collection of disparate apps and more of a computing environment. There seems to be more thought put into usability and integration on a Mac than a Windows machine. More often than not, less is more on a Mac. Less stress and more enjoyment. Less useless bells & whistles and more focus on getting things done. Less repetitive entry of data and more integration.

Having intensively used the Microsoft platform (staring with DOS back in the good old days) for more than two decades, and now having used a Mac for 5 months, I have reached a simple conclusion...

Do yourself a favour—get a Mac.