A Week With the MacBook Pro

With less then a month of shipping the first Intel Mac that is a notebook, I by the grace of God got mine only two weeks after Apple started sending them out to Mac-heads everywhere. Sparring you the details on how I got it, I won’t skimp on what I’ve learned in my first week with the MacBook Pro.

In standard Apple fashion, the classy box was packaged simply yet with a touch of elegance. I couldn’t resist taking pictures as I dug deeper toward my treasure each step of the way. Once I removed the chest, I opened its lid and pressed the button of jewels, the round silver diamond that brought life to my screen. I was greeted with an assortment of tasks to do before coming to the familiar desktop I’ve used for so many months on my TiBook. It looked identical, expect for the assortment of added icons on my TiBook. Looking at my screen, no one would be able to tell if I was running Intel inside.

I first played with some of the new applications (Photo Booth is really fun!) and then started installing all my “must have” programs. I searched the vendors or authors page for Universal binaries before installing each and was excited to find many of them had indeed made updates.

Once that was done, I did a clean reboot and boy was I amazed. It was lightning fast! I was going to hack the start up screen with HAL’s eye but heck, with it bringing up my purple desktop as quick as it does, why bother? ‘What else would the Core Duo do faster for me,’ I wondered.

Truth was, I was curious how Rosetta would handle PPC built applications. Thing is, though, I just don’t have a slew of such apps on my MacBook Pro yet (I’m on vacation and only installed the essentials) but have found programs like ImageWell and SnapNDrag to be pretty fast with no lag in their function. While those are not performance intensive applications, RealPlayer would need a bit more ump and the latest version, 10.0.0.352, shows no signs of being slow either. It’s not clear in the release notes if this is a Universal binary, but the change log makes no reference to the Intel chip which I would suspect to have some mention of supporting the new chip if it did. However, when opening Word 2004 and Excel 2004, then I noticed a lag when compared to my wifes Mac mini (PPC). But unlike other emulators where every aspect of the program being emulated is in the forefront, you don’t get that sense when running the Microsoft Office suite applications.

So what about the hardware, you ask? Oh man, it’s as beautiful as the previous top-of-the-line Apple notebooks. The new MagSafe power connector is superb (but not yet tested! :) ) as is the new latch for the lid. One thing I never quite liked on my PowerBook was the release latch due to its inability to really release the lid in a way that made it easy to open. I don’t have that issue anymore. Also added to the latch is the sleep light. Very cool. Very Apple. The built-in iSight is pretty darn nifty and fun, too. While I haven’t used it for any webcam action yet, it sure came in handy to take my user account picture. :) Let’s see what other new hardware stuff is there to speak of. Mmm, the ExpressCard slot is small and cool looking…but unused at this time. :)

So, what about the famed Intel chip side effect? You know the, ‘You can fry an egg on dem chips.’ Yup, this notebook gets hot. After using it for three hours the other day, I closed the lid and picked it up and had to reposition my hand due to the heat right there next to the MagSafe connector. If you live in a cold climate place, this may be a good companion during your winter days. :)

Okay, the number one question for this unit and here’s your answer: battery life is good. Once filled to the brim, I was able to get about three hours out of my MacBook Pro. I didn’t do more then web surf, article posting, and minor graphic edits, so the use of the drives was low. But the screen was lit at full the entire time, except for the automatic dim after idle use. Still, most of the three hours was full LCD brightness.

I played with FrontRow via the remote but haven’t really done the movie or slide show thing yet. I’ll get there and I’ll be sure to let you know how that works out. I’m sure it’ll be just fine as has been my week with my MacBook Pro. It was worth the wait.

[tags]macbook pro,universal,real world feedback,good battery,great machine,rosetta[/tags]