MacBook Pro First Impressions
I've been using the MacBook Pro (MBP) for almost two days now. I was up until 3 am last night playing with it and used it all day at work.
The Good
The screen is for lack of a better phrase, fucking awesome, at 30% is as bright as my 12 inch PowerBook. I've let auto adjust based on ambient room light and it seems to do a good job at picking the brightness level (at most two nudges in either direction) The thing to watch out for is don't rest your hands on the speakers as that is where the luminance sensors are and it will make adjustments as if it were dark. The extra pixels compared to the 12 are welcome, but would be pretty much the same as current 15 inch models so not much of a difference there.
Performance, this fucker is fast, applications come up quickly, and even when stressing the CPU by ripping a DVD the machine is responsive, no spinning anuses [thanks Matt] Eclipse launches and is ready to go in ten seconds, the Gimp will launch and be ready to run in under fifteen seconds. Using Handbrake to rip a DVD took about the same amount of time as when using my G4 1.5 PB, but this was done via Rosetta. The iLife apps are fast as well Garage Band is also ready in less than fifteen seconds.
Battery life seems good as well I'm going into my third hour running with the Airport on, Bluetooth connected to my phone constantly (via BluePhoneElite) with apps like Eclipse, Net News Wire, Mail, iChat, iTunes and a term or two open, with the "Normal" profile.
The Bad
Universal binaries are around for everything, I'm using a milestone build of Eclipse and for some reason the iPhoto to Flickr export doesn't work, though this may just be some random thing. Running stuff through Rosetta is certainly comfortable but I'd like to see the native performance boost. The angle of the iSight is also a bit strange. First off the angle that you'll be centered isn't the most natural screen position. Additionally the from the bottom up angle is never as flattering as the from above angle, the iSight's position just won't allow for it. Lastly the track pad is too big, my thumbs seem to activate it too often. I've never had this problem before in seven years of using a laptop daily, so this is unique to the MBP.
The Ugly
The MBP won't fit in my current laptop bag EVEN THOUGH they say it will on their site. The measurements don't match up. 13.75 x 10.25 x 1.25 for the bag and 14.1 x 9.6 x 1.0 means that it is too wide. right now I'm using the laptop pouch for the other stuff and keeping the MBP in the main pouch the bag is nicely lined and has decent padding but, I'd like to find one that fits.
The other ugly thing is the squeaking it makes from the crappy fit on the front left of the palm rest. You can see a movie of the squeaking
The Good
The screen is for lack of a better phrase, fucking awesome, at 30% is as bright as my 12 inch PowerBook. I've let auto adjust based on ambient room light and it seems to do a good job at picking the brightness level (at most two nudges in either direction) The thing to watch out for is don't rest your hands on the speakers as that is where the luminance sensors are and it will make adjustments as if it were dark. The extra pixels compared to the 12 are welcome, but would be pretty much the same as current 15 inch models so not much of a difference there.
Performance, this fucker is fast, applications come up quickly, and even when stressing the CPU by ripping a DVD the machine is responsive, no spinning anuses [thanks Matt] Eclipse launches and is ready to go in ten seconds, the Gimp will launch and be ready to run in under fifteen seconds. Using Handbrake to rip a DVD took about the same amount of time as when using my G4 1.5 PB, but this was done via Rosetta. The iLife apps are fast as well Garage Band is also ready in less than fifteen seconds.
Battery life seems good as well I'm going into my third hour running with the Airport on, Bluetooth connected to my phone constantly (via BluePhoneElite) with apps like Eclipse, Net News Wire, Mail, iChat, iTunes and a term or two open, with the "Normal" profile.
The Bad
Universal binaries are around for everything, I'm using a milestone build of Eclipse and for some reason the iPhoto to Flickr export doesn't work, though this may just be some random thing. Running stuff through Rosetta is certainly comfortable but I'd like to see the native performance boost. The angle of the iSight is also a bit strange. First off the angle that you'll be centered isn't the most natural screen position. Additionally the from the bottom up angle is never as flattering as the from above angle, the iSight's position just won't allow for it. Lastly the track pad is too big, my thumbs seem to activate it too often. I've never had this problem before in seven years of using a laptop daily, so this is unique to the MBP.
The Ugly
The MBP won't fit in my current laptop bag EVEN THOUGH they say it will on their site. The measurements don't match up. 13.75 x 10.25 x 1.25 for the bag and 14.1 x 9.6 x 1.0 means that it is too wide. right now I'm using the laptop pouch for the other stuff and keeping the MBP in the main pouch the bag is nicely lined and has decent padding but, I'd like to find one that fits.
The other ugly thing is the squeaking it makes from the crappy fit on the front left of the palm rest. You can see a movie of the squeaking
posted by dan at Wednesday, February 22, 2006
by C.S. Walton
![](http://dcdan.com/images/dcbloggersbutton2.gif"/)
3 Comments:
That MBP is looking freakin sweet. I have to admit, my 15" hires PB is looking more and more plain knowing that theres a faster and brighter system out there.
What are you gonna do with the 12" PB?
My dad is getting it sorry
Get your left palm squeek fixed! mine doesn't squeek at all! I can't wait for the Neoprene case to come out for the 15 inch macbooks. I tried both the cases at the mac store and niether fit well.
Guess ill have to wait...
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