Macbook Pro - "like a rhinocerous on speed" (Apple MacBook Pro MB990B/A)

Member Name: danieljamesphoto

Product:	Apple MacBook Pro MB990B/A
Date:	10/09/09 (70 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: fast processor and a sleek design, whopping 8gb of RAM capacity, good size hard drive

Disadvantages: froze a few times but recovered itself every time

Another one bites the dust....

After 2 and a half (around) years my old MacBook started having issues, not reading CDs, screen only working in certain positions etc and basically, knowing Apple, I saw it would be a pricey job to fix and seeing as it was slowing down and getting more and more use I decided to cut my losses and invest in a MacBook Pro.

--- Design ---

The design is sleek, modern, "hip" and any other 'funky' word you want to use. The ultra thin aluminium body is a beautiful design choice in terms of finish however it does scratch easily and so I suggest spending $20 or so on a 'skin' for it from www.wrappz.com or www.uniqueskins.com to protect it.

The black keys and black screen surround really set it off nicely and give it a very professional look whilst the clever backlit keys and light sensors adjust the screen brightness and backlighting according to the surroundings (simple yet nice touch).

--- Trackpad & Gestures ---

No the gestures I mean don't involve any middle fingers! Gestures are used heavily on the iPhone allowing users to zoom by placing two fingers together on the screen and spreading them and then 'pinching' them together to zoom out again. This has been adapated and used on the MacBook Pro for rotating and zooming with images and other objects.

These really frustrate me, though i've heard they can be turned off in Snow Leopard. Although I can see the point in them, as a designer/photographer I find it frustrating in photoshop to accidentally zoom or rotate an image.

--- Speed & Overall Performance ---

I have to say that when this Macbook Pro seems to be like the little girl with the curl.... when it's good it's very very good but when it's bad....well....it freezes. Ok so not very often and 99.9% of the time it freezes for around 30 seconds and then springs back to life though it's still something that niggles a bit. It may be that i'm pushing it too hard and a RAM upgrade may help it but still worth mentioning.

As a general rule though, this laptop flies!, super speedy loading and copes well (usually) with high power programs such as Dreamweaver and Photoshop (at the same time).

--- Battery Life ---

As I sit here now I have 40% battery (I don't keep it charged all the time to save money) I have photoshop, dreamweaver, firefox, anti virus scanner, word and excel open and a few others and it states 50minutes remaining which I find impressive.

--- Temperature ---

So it's been running on-off all day and is now on my desk and running at 33 degrees (Hard drive) with the CPU at 67 degress, not too toasty though being aluminium it can get a bit warm after prolong use on your lap.

--- New/Changes ---

Backlit keyboard - maybe not brand new but new compare to my old one and a welcome addition

SD Card reader - nice addition, an SD card reader....though a CompactFlash card reader would have been more welcome for my SLR but beggers can't be choosers

Return of the Firewire - Firewire port is returned to the Macbooks finally, see they do listen to customers...sometimes.

--- Weight ---

Wafer thin and lightweight (not quiet a Macbook Air but it's as thin as it'll probably get to keep the DVD drive)

--- Upgrades/Storage ---

A good chunky 120gb of space as standard and 2GB of RAM though this can be upgraded to up to 8gb of RAM to really boost performance!

--- Overall ---

Apple have done it again, stylish and sexy, more powerful than a rhinoceros on speed and with all the nice little Apple touches we've come to expect like a light sensitive keyboard and screen.

This is still a Macbook at its heart though it feels a bit more grown up and intelligent in the way it responds and its overall design.

Summary: Apple have done it again, stylish and sexy.

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