Laptops : Apple MacBook Pro

Very nice laptop. Pretty darn speedy compared to what else is out there. Can run Macintosh OS X, which is a very stable, virus-free OS. Also can run Windows if necessary.



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I have been an avid PC user for years, but I have grown tired of the constant need to down load patches for XP. When it came time to buy a new lap top I compared many models. Eventually I settled on the MacBook Pro 17".



The price was a little high. After using it I totally understand the price. What i don't understand is why Apple doesn't advertise ALL of the features this thing has over its competition. In a way there is really no good way to compare it to its competition because it has features I've never seen anywhere else. For instance,



The screen auto darkens when the lights go out so you don't strain your eyes.



The wireless card automatically links with any available network without your input or having to fiddle with it.



The keyboard has a soft back light which makes the keys glow when the room gets dark.



The screen auto changes the colors of the screen to match the type of light you are under so colors are always presented to the best clairty on screen.



The batter pack has a small button you can push to check battery level without having to turn the thing on.



Slot load superdrive, no dumb tray that ejects.



It can load and operate basically any operating system you give it. With parallels (a program) you can load Windows XP. When you press the apple button and the option button the screen switches to XP. Not a fake copy of XP but a real version; I'm running Windows XP Pro on it.



The screen magnetically locks to the keyboard so you don't have to fumble around when trying to leave a class or meeting trying to close it and make sure it latches shut.



The best part, the power cord connects magnetically to the lap top so if someone walks by and trips on your power cord it simply falls off instead of taking the laptop with it. This has saved my computer more times that i can explain!!!!



Even the power cord has little features. Like, it has a built in prongs that allow you to neatly and safetly wrap the cord around the wall plug so you don't have a tangled mess of cables to deal with.



And best of all, when you buy the thing there is no loading software. You just press the power button and away you go.



I really wish I had ditched XP sooner than I did. I also wish I had some negative things to say about this machine. After reading my post it sounds a little too good to be true. But it's been 6 months and I've yet to find a problem. I will post a comment if or when I do run across something though. Hide Full Review

I've always been a hardcore PC guy, and the only experience I've previously had with Macs were old, clunky ones I had to use back in high school when I worked on publications. Since everyone says that once you go Mac, you don't go back, I checked one out to try for a week.

My first impressions were very positive. Superficially, the machine looks slick. It has a sleek design and is very thin. The screen seemed bright and dandy. I thought that the OS took a bit of time to boot, but having no experience at all with OS X, my guess is that it's normal. When I wanted to connect to my wireless internet connection, it was quick and painless. OS X definitely seems a bit more user-friendly than Windows.

Continued use throughout the week, however, brought some irritations. My first major one was that this machine gets HOT. I had it on my lab while I was sitting on a couch, and the thing burned me when I shifted around and the bottom of the machine came into contact with my bare knee. I've had some PC laptops (Pentium 4 and a Celeron M) that got warm, but nothing compared to the heat getting pumped out by this MacBook. I don't know, this might be a concern, depending on where you plan to use it most.

Another irritation I ran into was not having the option of a second mouse button. I know I know ... I can hook up a USB mouse and get two-button functionality. However, when I'm on-the-go, I don't have a mouse with me, and am then stuck with the single button that the MacBook offers. Personally, I think it's time for Mac to give up the one-button idea because the second button adds so much functionality.

Besides what I mentioned, nothing else really made a huge impression on me. Sure the Mac offered some neat looking transitions when screens were minimized, etc, but really, who cares about that? Software seemed to load very quickly. I didn't really get a chance to test drive some of the iLife software, but it seemed to offer some good options.

In summary, I guess I had an overall good impression of the MacBook, but nothing really wowed me to the point where I'd spend 2-3 times more on a Mac than a PC. This is a fine machine with some very nice capabilities, but I think I can safely say it is not for me. Hide Full Review

I decided to make the switch to a Mac because of all the great reviews and all the features they include. My case is probably one of the isolated few but this is what happen after ording my MacBook pro. First fedEx didn't keep the tracking info up to date, i called and they told me when it would arrive, it arrived a day early but no one was there to sign for the package so they left my $2000 laptop on the front porch. I called apple and they didn't seem to care. The first time i turned my MacBook on it crashes and i spend 2 hours reinstalling the Mac Operating system and it finally starts to work. After installing the software i find the the included Microsoft Office for Mac is only a 30 day trial not the full version. This was after i asked their online sales chat if it came with a full version and i was told the full version was included. I also checked the web site to see that they have changed the website and it now states the Office for Mac is a trial version. I called apple and they told me that i misunderstood what was included and offered me $75 of the $300 Office for Mac Software.



That was just my software problems, the third day i had my MacBook pro it began locking up and then telling me i had to restart. Then i found that if i turned off the laptop when i turned it back on it would lock up while loading and tell me to restart. After contacting apple for 3 strait days about the issue they tell me that most likely it was a problem with the Ram and because i upgraded mine from 512mb to 1gb that was most likely the issue and that i could send my laptop back for repair or replacement. I told them i wanted a refund and after a couple of phone calls they finally agreed.



And just as a last note when looking at the box my MacBookPro came in i noticed that it says Assembled in China, and so while yes you can upgrade the memory and hard drive and lots of other options i don't believe these are custom made computers. i would have been better off going to CompUsa (there is no apple store were i live and i ordered mine online)



As i said mine is probaly a isolated case but my MacBookPro was a horrible, slow laptop. I hate to not give another MacBookPro and chance but the experince with apple was horrible and after i get done writting this review i will be boxing it up and shipping it back to them for my refund.



I may give Apple another chance down the line becuase they are very attractive and supossedly very fast computer and the creative software really is amazing but they are about $500 higher than similar Gateway or Dell laptops and if i pay that much for a computer i want nice customer service that doesn't lie to me. Hide Full Review

PC's are way behind in build quality. The one thing apple has is great build quality and MAC OS X never crashes, at least mine has never crashed and gave me the dreaded "send or don't send" message box. I was a hard core PC user. my card reader doesn't work under windows for whatever reason, but I hooked it up to the MAC and it worked perfectly in seconds. It's a gemplus secure ID card reader and I can't get it to work under windows. MAC OS is more stable than Windows. I can do my picture and AV better under MAC. The only complaint is the upgrading the hardware can be time consuming. The hard drive is buried under everything. memery upgrade was easy. Under bootcamp I can run windows XP and battlefield 2 runs at medium settings. Which is really the only game I do play. Overall the MACbook is great but expensive I think I paid around 2100 for the intel dual 2 @ 2.33 Ghz on sale otherwise it would have been 2400 for all the option I got. Hide Full Review