Apple MacBook Pro Winter 2011 (2.3GHz Core i5, 13-inch)

Pros: Apple Trackpad is the best, bar none; quite speedy; solid chassis (no flex or creaking); Mac OS X; Migration Assistant; backlit keyboard

Cons: Smallish hard drive; integrated graphics; no traditional delete or home keys;

Summary: Three laptops in 9-years. Each suffering from a variety of hardware failures all by their third years of ownership. Ownership which saw me treating them very kindly (home use only, everyday computing needs). And when it came time to replace my latest dying laptop I considered going Mac seeing how I've been very much enjoying my 2009 iMac (but I still use my home-built desktop with XP Pro weekly).

But $1,200 for a 13-inch entry level laptop just seemed crazy. And so I bought yet another $650 laptop and promptly returned it. Sure, it was competently powerful, but it felt and sounded so cheap I was certain this one too would die far sooner than it need.

I opted to spend more money hoping I might gain an additional couple of years of ownership. Looked carefully at a $1,000 Sony and $750 Toshiba. Both nice. Especially the Toshiba (tiny keyboard was irritating though).

But I soon noticed that while the extra money bought more power, hard drive, etc. it didn't seem to purchase a better made product, and while Windows 7 is fine... it still isn't as nice, in my opinion, as OS X.

And so I opted to spend the extra money and go with this new MacBook Pro. And thus far I'm not regretting it at all.

The Apple trackpad is one of the single greatest inventions in computing. Period. It's size makes working around the screen so much easier. It's multi-gesture capabilities are simply brilliant. It makes the mouse and trackball seem almost barbaric. I fell in love with it when I purchased one for my iMac and moving to the MacBook only reaffirms my beliefs in this matter.

The battery life is unlike anything I've ever had before in a laptop. Just going through everyday activities I have been able to obtain 7-8 hours of battery life (using the appropriate setting). And I might add that with the screen brightness reduced it's still far brighter than any of my previous laptops utilizing the same battery saving technique. Far brighter.

I had expected the update to bring the 13-inch entry level MacBook Pro into Core i3 territory, but the i5 and i7 were unexpected, but welcome. I love this processor. It's quick. Damn quick for everyday basic computing needs. It will serve me well, well into the future.

The 320GB hard drive is not as pleasing. I still think it ridiculous I do not get a 7,200rpm hard drive in this price range and 500GB should be the minimum. Granted, I can, for an additional $50, order this laptop from Apple with the 500GB hard drive option, but I really think it should be the standard size at this price point.

The Thunderport is a nice addition, but only if something comes of it in the market.

The keyboard is most excellent. The only other keyboard I auditioned which came close was the one found on many of the Sony laptops. I cannot praise it highly enough, especially in comparison to many of the cheap-feeling, cheap-sounding keyboards out there (and undersized keys on some of the other 13- and 14-inch laptops out there)

I really cannot speak to the graphics. As I'm not using this for anything graphics intensive they appear to be just fine for my needs. Of course, I might be inclined to say that at this price point discreet graphics would seem more appropriate even if it were only 256-500MB.

The issue of viruses, etc. aside, I can say I have come to like better OS X over any iteration of Windows I've used in my life (3.1, 98, XP Pro, Vista and 7). In addition, OS X and Apple computers in general come with an awful lot of very helpful software for no additional charge. Heck, the simple program Preview does far more than one would expect if one is willing to do a bit of reading and discover what it's capable of.

I'm pleased Apple continues to offer FireWire 800 on their MacBook Pro line as I prefer using it over USB 2.0 for attaching hard drives (for Time Machine and running a virtual environment of Windows). I would, however, admonish Apple for making the two USB ports too close together. With some USB cords the heads are too large such that you cannot have two devices plugged in at the same time.

Granted, Apple tends to keep the heads of their USB plugs small so the design works well for them, but not everything you will plug in will be from Apple.

And while I've heard much being made of the lower resolution of the screen I for one don't find this to be an issue. I think the quality of the screen, it's brightness and colour saturation are spot on. I'll forgo a few extra pixels in this area.