Sunday, November 30, 2008

MacBook Pro

Finally, after more than five months without Mac I have finally managed to get my hands on the latest MacBook Pro.

Unpacking brand new gadgets is always fun and in this particular case Apple have made it even better with their artistic and unique designs inside and out. The box is wrapped up with a plastic bag that looks like a sports bag with two strings on the side, the box itself looks great and the parts are well organized inside with the unibody MacBook Pro lying on top.

So it looks good from the outside, what's good on the inside? And what makes it better than it's smaller, yet very identical looking, brother the Macbook?

For starters this true wide-screen 15" monitor is mind-blowingly clear. Performance-wise the MacBook Pro is the best there is for portable Macs. This one has a 2.53GHz processor, 4GB DDR3 RAM, 6MB cache, accessible 320GB hard drive (easy to replace/change), two NVIDIA GeForce chipsets (9400M and 9600M GT) reaching 512MB VRAM for video output; gamers and designers dream machine on the go. Internal speakers are now much louder. New big button-less trackpad is made of glass for silk smooth tracking with up to four fingers gestures.

The downside however is limited to high-gloss screen which may appeal to some people while others would do anything to get rid of it. Although there still is a FireWire 800 port, the loss of FireWire 400 port is without doubt a setback. Button-less trackpad is awkward and needs a lot of work to get used to.

Bottom line:
The new MacBook Pro is the Porsche of portable computers. It's fast with great performance specs, agile with its relatively light weight compared to other laptops of its league, unique with its aluminum unibody design, and in my case very price worthy (no shipping fees + VAT refund = way cheaper than what it costs here in Kuwait).

Accept nothing less than this piece of art.






17 comments:

Ruby Woo said...

Even though I hate Windows, I've been trying to get my hands on Mac but I just can't. It's too hard!!

Qa6Wa said...

hot!!!!!!!!!!

mabrook!

tkasra bel 3afya :D

KWT23 said...

OK, i must admit that is one good LOOKING machine right there, but I still hold my personal opinion: lack of a torrent client with respectable speeds and no hi def drive = overhyped piece of technology.

Anonymous said...

I am thinking of getting one as soon as I finish the project I am working on. All my files in this laptop and it works fine but I am want to take a step forward:)
Mabrook

Anonymous said...

OMG tadre i dont know anything about the GB KM madre shino hathela ;p

and im still discovering, aku shay isma Radio2iPod! SO COOL!!!!!!!!!! @@

btw i just finished my review ;p lol

shamma aldabal said...

keeeeeewlness !!

Anonymous said...

Congrats. So is this your first intel-based Mac?

MacaholiQ8 said...

Ruby Woo:
Hard if you're aiming for the most expensive and/or don't have someone abroad to bring it to you. ;)


BLaSha:
heh, thanks. :D



KWT23:
I use Transmission and xTorrent. Both have great speeds with me. HD drive as in Blu-Ray? Well blu-ray is overrated. ;p



ge0:
Allah ebarik feek. Good luck o keep me updated. :)



fayirr:
You need to know these stuff. I'll check your review now. :)



libro anima:
7adda! :D

MacaholiQ8 said...

3baid:
Thanks. Yes it is though I would rather be found dead than install Windows on it. ;p

Ruby Woo said...

La I mean I have access to it bas the thought of having to operate on Mac is hard ya3ni wayid m3aqad! They say that once you get used to it, it gets easier, so not sure about that yet!

MacaholiQ8 said...

Once you get used to it you'll know it's more user friendly and much easier than Windows. Everything will come out easy with practice. :)

Anonymous said...

I came to ur blog today to leave u a message if u think i should get the new Macbook Pro or the Old 17" Macbook pro? :D

I was weighing the larger screen with the greater performance of the 15", ide rather have the 17" cuz that glossy screen is a bitch and the black keyboard 7ada eww.

Ishrayik? Why did u go for the new one and not the old?

MacaholiQ8 said...

It's not about the looks, and I think it's a matter of taste cuz personally I see the black keyboard and high-gloss black screen frame is very attractive. Take away the reflection of course but still it really is astounding.

The only advantage of the 17" is the large matte screen.

To me 17" is too big for laptop. Hence I went for the 15" which has better performance overall and the screen size is perfect for me.

If you're not in a hurry and willing to wait then there's a great chance that we'll see a brand new 17" by 2009.

Shelley said...

I've had the new Macbook Pro for 5 days and I'm liking it. I'm coming from PC-land so there is a bit of a learning curve, but there are already things that I prefer about macs.

On the other hand... I don't think the Microsoft office for Mac is as good as it is for a PC. I don't like Preview because I can't scroll through all the pictures in a particular folder with it, but maybe I just need to tweek some things.

MacaholiQ8 said...

Microsoft Office for Mac is nothing compared to the one on PC. Hence I use Apple iWork. It's much more user friendly and much easier to handle once you get used to it.

Preview has some limitations but you can get over those by either viewing the pictures using "Quick Look" by simply pressing Spacebar after selecting a set of pictures, or for better navigation and the advantage of editing the pictures, use iPhoto.

Anonymous said...

Mabrook :-) have fun Macin' , don't forget to download the latest firmware upgrade

MacaholiQ8 said...

Thanks man, I'm lovin' it. :)

I have had it running for two days downloading all applications and latest updates.