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MacBook Pro Reviewed
phaedo00 writes "Ars Technica has an in-depth review of the MacBook Pro that compares performance with a Dell Inspiron running a hacked version of OS X 10.4.4: 'Yes, you read that right. We at the Orbiting HQ were able to have some benchmarks run on an acquaintance's Dell Inspiron 9100 with a 3.2GHz Pentium 4 HT chip running OS X 10.4.4, and decided that including the benchmarks from this machine would prove to be both interesting if not illustrative of what non-Apple x86 machines may be capable of if they could run Mac OS X (legally). Please keep in mind that the data from the Dell laptop is for illustrative purposes only and that no one at the Ars Orbiting HQ hacked a machine. As David Letterman says, this is not a competition. No wagering.'"
David Pogue has his review of the new Apple MacBook Pro in the New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/02/technology/circu its/02pogue.html
I just got back from the Apple Compatibility Labs in Cupertino, and I was able to put my code on a MacBook Pro to do some build comparisons. On my current PowerBook G4, with a 7200 RPM drive, 1 GB RAM and a 1.67 G4, it takes about 20-25 minutes to do a full Release rebuild of my code (Universal Binary). It took around 5 on the MacBook Pro. Thank God my boss was with me to help test because that's the easiest convincing that I need a new laptop I ever done.
Bottom line : if you're a developer and you have long compile times on your code (AND you have the need/desire to be mobile), you NEED one of these machines.
And as it was, the Dell did beat them barely in a few tests, it was just a shit and giggles example, NOT a lets prove the Macbook is better, cause for one thing the Dell would always be fighting with one arm tied behind it thanks to the fact you DO have to hack OS X to work on it.
"Slashdot, where telling the truth is overrated but lying is insightful."
2. the power brick's connector goes green when plugged in to the laptop, and then the light goes brown. This isn't very intuitive.
The light is green when the battery is fully charged, and orange/brown when it is charging.
It takes a few seconds to begin charging the battery, I guess.
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Frankly, I'm quite surprised that it appears that the Dell was the best choice for the consumer who wants to encode quicktime.
to be fair, quicktime encoding is a CPU intensive operation, and the dell laptop had over a Gig of processor power over the macbook. perhaps osx wasn't taking adsvantage of the HT on the dell, but even so, that's a formiddable lead and I'm quite surprised the macbook kept up so well.
I bet the macbook is alot thinner too.
dave
You must me using a computer from some other Apple Computers. I've never had a repair take longer than 3 days from shipping the box to getting it back, and the philosophy has always been "anything questionable gets replaced." By far the best support experience I've had with any company, ever.
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The iBook G4 most definitely has a fan in it - consider yourself hopeless if you've never got it to switch on. It's LOUD. ;-)
... there.
I'm typing this with my spangly new MacBook Pro on my lap, so it's time for a mini-review!
Observations: the aluminium case means that if it's been in a cold van for a bit, it's COLD. Cold like ice!
It does get fairly warm in use, but is pretty quiet. Slightly louder than my iBook, but way quieter than an average machine. It makes a slight high-pitched hissing sound, which seems to cut out for a moment every so often. No idea what that is. It's not distracting, just
Keyboard needs some getting used to from my iBook- it's got loads of travel. It's more like a clacky desktop thing than a laptop one, so I'm busy typing this as loudly as I can. Tappety clack! (Where on Earth do the keys go when pressed? The machine's already ridiculously thin...)
No evidence that it's an Intel-based thing beyond the description in 'About This Mac'. No prehistoric BIOS startup screen, no 'Intel Inside' logos, nuffink. Instead, it just feels like an astoundingly speedy Mac. It's FAST. Applications often open before a single bounce of their icons. Rosetta seems completely transparent (and even while emulated, mission-critical applications seem faster than on my iBook) - most of the software I use is Universal already, and I've no idea which applications haven't been recompiled yet.
Screen is very bright, the sound is rather nice, the built-in camera seems pretty high quality (although I definitely need a hair-cut - it ain't flattering), and generally it's all rather special. Only complaints - the keyboard is a bit shiny silver, and the keyboard illumination keys get in the way of the default Expose shortcut keys. Needs a fiddle.
Oh, and there are no wireless networks for me to connect to here. LUDDITES!
Complaints? Not a lot. It gets fairly warm underneath while in use, and the battery life estimates are generally around 3.5 hours, which is still about 2.5 hours better than my iBooks duff battery. It's best not to fight the automatic screen and keyboard brightnesses - just go with the flow, and it's much less annoying.
Oh. I've got a complaint. I don't like the shade of green used on the LEDs. Too blue-ish!
Tedious Bloggy Stuff - hooray?
"What, you have a problem with your mac? Sorry, i'm all thumbs. Speaking of which did they figure out how to put in a second mouse button yet?" *grin*
Yes they fucking did, will you stop your trolling now?