MacBook Pro Review (Late 2008) – Power and Prestige comes with a Price

Much of INTERNET has been buzzing over the possibility of new MacBooks over the past few months. Many rumor sites leaked images of what would be the new mobile computer from Cupertino’s finest. Some even said that Apple would release a cheaper, $800 MacBook as the sub $1,000 laptop market is growing. The sub $1,000 laptop didn’t appear, but a completely revamped MacBook AND MacBook Pro were unwrapped this past week. So, does Apple’s latest laptop revision live up to the hype or does it crash and burn?

Right now, I don’t use my Mac for actual “work” (other than to blog and find a job), but I need a desktop replacement, and I might be returning to school in the not too distant future. My original MacBook Pro (the very first model released by Apple) still gets the job done, but I need a little more of a performance. Not only the upgrade “wall” is 2GB of RAM, but I risk voiding my AppleCare by attempting to replace the hard drive. The Macbook seemed to be a very good

consideration with it’s easy to remove hard drive and similar features, but I decided to stick to the Pro line. First, I needed Firewire as one of externals needs it. Second, ExpressCard slots are null and void on the MacBook. Third, I want a good graphics processor. In the past, yucky Intel integrated graphics were standard on the MacBook which were a no-no for games, Photoshop and other graphics intensive programs. The 9400 Nivida GPU is a marked improvement, but as I stated before this purchase is a desktop replacement not a desktop supplement.

So with some mulling over it in my mind, I decided to whip out my seldom used credit card and put up my older Mac on Craigslist. I hightailed it over to the Apple Store last week to get mine. They managed to get the Pros about two days after the announcement. I picked the stock 2.53 GHz model with a 320GB hard drive and 4GB ram. Not only I have a good laptop with stacked features, but in the near future, I will be able to upgrade the RAM and HDD (Apple says that 4GB is the max, but Nivida says that the chipset supports up to 8GB. Not that I’ll need it right now.)

Upon opening the seeing the package, I knew right from the get go that Apple made some changes. The box is noticeably smaller than what came with my first MBP and what’s inside is more “green” packaging. This can be seen both as good for the environment and a marketing gimmick to make you all warm and fuzzy. No Styrofoam anymore and noticeably fewer plastic and paper to deal with. In the package, you have the MBP charger, install disks and instructions. No remote, no DVI-VGA connector but at least they didn’t cut out the Apple stickers!

The MacBook Pro itself may not win some Mac purists. Apple took a lot of cues from the original MacBook, the latest iMac and MacBook Air. From the MacBook, you have the “chicklet” keyboard. It sounds much quieter, stable and sturdy. It looks much easier to clean as well compared to the original MBP with the keys all bunched together. From the iMac, the screen has a black border and a glossy screen. People on forums like the MacRumors one has professionals stark raving mad over the lack of matte screen. Under very bright lights, reflections are pretty evident. Despite that, the MUCH more vivid color and brightness outweighs the negative. Features from brought from the MacBook Air are the tapered edges, the button-less magnetic hatch and gestures on the touchpad. Less Mechanical parts are a good thing, the tapered edges are something I have to get used to.

Apple now uses a whole new process to create their laptops. The casing that holds all of the innards is now just one part. They refer it as the so-called “brick” process because the metal is stamped out much like those Lego bricks, just in just a more complicated way. As a result, the laptop weighs a little more but it is much more sturdier. Oh yeah, let’s not forget the glass touchpad that takes cues from the MacBook Air. Only this time, the touchpad is the button (actually the lower part of the pad). Gestures like pinching two fingers to zoom in and out and swiping two fingers left and right to move from web page to page are examples of that, though I wish you could use the latter in Firefox and not Safari.

From the outputs, gone are Firewire 400 (800 is in it’s place) and a DVI port. Get used to DisplayPort, because that’s what Apple will be using on all of it’s computers in the future. If you need to hook up your monitor, you can always buy an adapter (that Apple once supplied in the box) to make up for that glaring omission. DVI and VGA dongles are $30, but if you need to run a 30-inch monitor, you’ll have to spend  $100 to hook that up since it requires dual link DVI to drive the full resolution.

Now with a 2.53 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor under the hood, how is the performance? Keep in mind, due to the time I spent transferring all of my data, I haven’t really “pushed” things on this laptop yet. About the most demanding program I have thrown toward this beast were “Second LIfe” (Stop laughing, I like SL) and “VisualHub” for encoding. The rendering in SL was pretty good…until it crashed. Maybe it’s the viewer. Maybe the OnRez viewer might yield different results. Encoding MPEGs to H.264 codec and mp4 file container on the other hand yielded dramatically different results. Keep in mind, my original MBP did it MUCH slower than it does now. Right now, I am encoding episodes of “Rugrats” for my PS3 It was an animated show they used to show on Nickelodeon before it became a horrible network. Anyway, an 11-minute episode done with two passes from MPEG to mp4 would take about  45 minutes with my 1.83 GHz MBP. With the 2.53, it takes less than 7 minutes!

Mind is blown.

DVD and HD playback is not only smooth, but not as taxing on resources. The glossy screen is also good at showing imperfections in the video. It’s a pretty bet that HD content is going to shine on this one. I wish Steve Jobs would get over the “Bag of Hurt” of Blu-Ray. Apple is apart of the Blu-Ray Association and it’s only a matter of time before people demand it in their MacBooks.

So, did Apple create the best laptop ever? If you’re a Mac fanboy, it may seem like so, but looking at what I see here is something I really enjoy working with. Looking at what Apple does with their hardware, they tend not to be the “biggest, baddest and fastest” like some laptop manufacturers who manage to put everything but the kitchen sink in their products. Apple products are designed to give people what they want. From the sounds of it, they WANT glossy screens, glass touchpads and two GPUs. Nothing more and nothing less. Still, if you REALLY, REALLY want a solid, well made machine, the new MacBook Pro does it. The only real drawback is the price. Deny it or not, Apple is a prestigious name and you will pay the price. The reliability of the MBP hardware, Mac OS and it’s higher resale value make it worth every penny.