A first, quick review of my Macbook Pro 17'

By Jeremy Fain, October 11, 2006

Don’t worry, my laptop didn’t fell from any motorcycle as on the picture.

One week+ with my new laptop. It’s certainly not enough to give you a thorough productivity review, a sound comparison between Macbook Pro + Mac OS + Parallels + Windows NT + Ubuntu vs. my late HP nx7000 + Windows NT + Ubuntu.

I’ve been satisfied with the design. The design is great: everytime I pull away the laptop from its bag, I see girls taking a glance at who’s driving that Porsche. I can swear that it had unfortunately never occurred in any country when carrying my good old HP. Sitting at a terrasse in Paris last week-end, a Japanese good-looking tourist woman even asked me: “Oh, is that an Apple?”. Of course I answered “No, this is an orange juice”.

Mac OS X is pretty clean too. For instance, applications don’t mix up in a registry base, and you don’t need to go through a never ending procedure to uninstall a software: a simple drap & drop on the garbage icon and you’re on your way. Last – secondary, thing: the integrated video camera is pretty handy. I videoconference much more now that I don’t have to plug in my old Philips low-resolution device, and I enjoy looking at someone’s eyes when discussing important or more superficial matters.

One the negative side, I’m angry at Apple for announcing wrong autonomy figures. This is certainly not an “Apple only” practice, but I roughly get 2h/2h30 against 4h30 announced. Pretty frustrating: I thought I could survive my 3 hours-long programming class without plugging in my battery. The screen is definitely not as bright as my former screen, a bit disappointing. Moreover, the wireless antenna is not very powerful – but this is secondary, and it helps my brains rest from the numerous waves it already stands.

Last, but not least, THE HEAT it conveys is not a myth. Using your laptop less than 1 hour is okay. Between 1 and 1.5 hours, it’s reasonable. But then, I can really confirm that Macbook Pro really deserves its nickname: THE TOASTER. This is especially true on the left hand side of the keyboard, where the battery is located.

In a nutshell, MacBook Pro 17′ is a great multi-platform machine (I use Windows XP as much as Mac OS), a laptop of which you can be proud of. But: it is expensive, and for such a price, one would have expected the heating issues to be solved since the buzz has been dampering the image of the company for so long.

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categories Apple, Europe, MNC, Software, Video, innovation, operations, user-generated content

  • Didn't I say you that the extra RAM you put in probably will drain your battery life? Display, hard drive and RAM are the biggest drainers of battery power. Wireless probably too.
  • regardless of the ram-issue, I didn't know it drained that much battery, you should definitely treat your laptop differently while unplugged: set screen-brightness to low, minimise application-usage, turn off bluetooth and other stuff you don't use at the time, etc.



    There's also this hint, which won't help your battery/ears, but will make it use its fans more and thus make it cooler.
  • Hacking with Mac's kernel extensions is something I wouldn't go do, as it can/will break stuff in case of updates and otherwise too. That hint has its own share of voodoo surrounding it...
  • Vince, I don't think I have the guts to do such a thing, although I have to say that lowering the heat is extremely tempting.
  • Thanks Kari, you've just saved my hands. A very handy tool indeed.
  • Gutlic
    Be sure to have a look at the health of your battery.



    I was changing mine for a new one (warranty) two months after I bought my MBP (2,33Ghz - Dez 2006 - Diferent breed I guess)

    And the battery I was complaining WAS NOT on the list of faulty batteries (apple web site).

    "it just happens" the guy at apple said.



    In fact I started a thread about battery life, where people can post info about their own macbook battery experience.



    We have people with perfect batteries after 2years, and people with crazy batteries after 2 months. (using cocconut batery app)



    Every battery with a lost of more then 10% capacity under a year has a good chance of beeing exchanged at apple. (at least here in Portugal)

    By the way in Europe we have 2year warranty in every product, incluind of course bateries.

    Cheers,
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