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- Average user rating: 4.0 stars out of 92 reviews Back to product review
- My rating: 0 stars
Full user review
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8 out of 8 people found this review helpful
5.0 stars
"BEST COMPUTER IVE EVER OWNED!!!!!!"
Pros: only 4.5 lbs, aluminum structure beautiful and sturdy, built in camera, backlit keyboard, screen colors are AMAZING, long battery life, touchpad like second nature, no bloatware :D
Cons: cant think of any...
Summary: Ok, starting out, this is my first Mac. I have wanted one since freshman year of college (2006). My first college computer was a 15 inch Dell inspiron clunker that got almost no battery life and was slow and huge, and well, a PC. I never realized how annoying PC's were until using Macs, and finally found the time, money, and model combination that fit me. I bought my Macbook Pro 13 inch aluminum unibody model in late july. It has the baseline specs as I saw no need for a larger hard drive when I have an external already and 2.25 ghz is almost twice the speed of my dell. The operating system was familiar to me through playing with my friends' macs every chance i got. After playing with this baby for 4 days, I am hooked...here's my initial comments :D
~THe backlit keyboard is so awesome and comes in much handier than you think. It makes it so easy to see in the dark, and the ambient light sensor turns it on/off, but the amount of light is adjustable with the F5 and F6 keys.
~The design is absolutely gorgeous. I initially liked the all aluminum design of the previous generation MBP but i like the feel of the non aluminum keys better and the black accents look sharp.
~The glossy screen is not as bad as some people make it out to be. The glass looks really sharp if you keep it clean, but it does get smudgy easily, so don't touch the screen if you can avoid it.
~The light sensor also adjusts the screen brightness to lower levels in lower light (also manually adjustable with the F1 and F2 keys, but this is one less thing you have to worry about and also helps save battery life)
~Speaking of battery life, this thing is phenomenal. Apple boasts 7 hours of battery life on a charge, but as I sit here typing this review with iChat, Entourage, iTunes, and 3 Safari windows going, the battery meter in my menu bar shows 7:59 after I have already been working on battery for about 30 minutes. My old Dell got 2.5 hours on a good day with no wireless on and only typing notes in class.
~Some people stressed concerns about the aluminum getting warm under heavy use. I used this machine on battery for about 3-4 hours this morning on my lap with shorts on and noticed no detectable heat at all, let alone burning hot aluminum. This machine keeps its cool under a lot of pressure :D
~The new glass trackpad is a breeze to use. Older Macbook users may or may not like the removal of the button at the bottom. The bottom of the trackpad physically clicks down (the middle somewhat, no movement near the top) and the entire thing clicks with the tap of a finger much like PC's if you select this option. Finger swipe options are incredibly accurate and so handy. Two fingers scrolls up and down, side to side. Three fingers swipes pages and photos, etc. side to side. 4 fingers up or down activates expose and to the side switches between applications that are open but may not be showing. Hot corners can also be assigned in System Preferences.
~Some people may find that the edge of the notebook is a smidge "sharp" compared to older models for the sake of aesthetics. I have small hands so this is not an issue with me as the edge sits halfway down my forearm, but for some with larger hands, this may sit uncomfortably at the wrist joint.
~Microsoft Office 2008 does not come standard, but a trial version can be downloaded for 30 days with no obligation to buy at the official product site. I found this software easy to use and Outlook users will find the switch to Entourage easy and pleasant. My Day is a desktop staple that acts as a mini Palm Pilot and is very useful.
~No bloatware comes on Macs!! I uninstalled NOTHING on this machine and have not even had enough time to learn how to play with GarageBand and iMovie. Also, the Apple site has thousands of Freeware and Shareware programs under "downloads" that make your Mac your own.
~Dashboard is so much fun and keeps your desktop clear of all the widgets which Google Desktop and Vista cram into one sidebar. Again, thousands of widgets available with more added every day. Pops open upon a click or a press of F4.
~All the function keys work without any of the applications clicked. I can have iTunes skip a song when the screen is nowhere in sight and Expose can be popped up anytime via F3 or 4 finger swipe up.
~Mac OS is such a breeze to use. It's pretty, fun to use and very intuitive. Things go where you think they should be and if they aren't, search for it in Spotlight. Time Machine i have yet to set up but is an awesome feature and is more useful in case you delete something more so than if the Mac crashes since Macs rarely crash (no viruses or virus scans!!)
~All in all, this is worth the upgrade from the Macbook. It's beautiful, it works hard and plays hard and seems like a hefty price tag if you are coming from the discount PC world where you get what you pay for if you buy a $400 model. This functions as a desktop replacement computer with a thin and light chassis. I will never go back to PC:D
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- 1 reply to this review
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You do know they split it in 2.. and basically this is what most PC makers do.
Actually many pc users have gone away from this and now use lghter carbon products so it isnt a BRICK!
But hey, Apple users are in their own disillusion dream.
Where to buy
Apple MacBook Pro Summer 2009 (Core 2 Duo 2.26GHz, 2GB RAM, 160GB HDD, Nvidia GeForce 9400M, 13-inch):
$1,149.95 - $1,199.00
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