Apple MacBook Pro MA464LL/A 15.4" Laptop Review
Apple MacBook Pro MA464LL/A 15.4" Laptop Review from Stephen Hall books911. The Fastest Mac Notebook Ever, It’s the most stunning idea, isn’t it? This top of the line MacBook Pro is the fastest Mac Notebook ever, and probably one of the fastest Macs period.
When Steve Jobs announced the new Macs, with Intel Core Duo processors I was almost certain I wanted to buy one. Why? Macs are well known for ease of use and capabilities, but they have managed all that for years, with processors that are not always top-notch. That all changed in January 2006.
Processor in the new MacBook Pro
The Intel Core Duo processor in the new MacBook Pro is an amazing chip. What have I noticed about the speed of the machine featuring this chip? It is incredibly fast. You’d be surprised by how much faster even web browsing is, when you have a processor as powerful as the Core Duo. However, what I’ve really been impressed by is doing things such as video encoding. I’ve encoded videos in H264 as much as eight times faster than my Powerbook G4. Furthermore, the iLife applications that are included on the MacBook Pro fly, with the speed. iPhoto, iMovie, iDVD, and Garageband perform like never before. I’ve really been impressed by the speed.
The Core Duo is a great processor. It offers exceptional desktop PC performance, in a design that can fit in small computers and notebooks. It features two cores on a single die, which effectively gives you the performance of two processors. Don’t let the 2 GHZ clock speed fool you. This Core Duo Chip will outperform 3+ GHZ Pentium 4 processors. It really is an amazing breakthrough, from Intel.
Video Card
The new MacBook Pro 2 GHZ model features an ATI Radeon X1600 graphics processor using PCI Express 256 MB of GDDR3 video memory. This is the best graphic card Apple has *ever* included in a notebook. This graphic processor will work well for most gaming, and it is great for viewing back complex H264 movies, including high definition videos. You can enjoy high definition H264 videos, without drop frames.
Ports -
The MacBook Pro features 2 USB 2.0 ports, 1 Firewire 400 port, Gigabit Ethernet, audio in/out, and Expresscard (34 slot).
Display – Apple touts the display on the new MacBook Pro as bright as the cinema displays, and there is no question: these displays are bright! Depending on your lighting condition, you’ll almost certainly not turn the display to full brightness. I had to turn down the brightness, for it was hard on my eyes. However, it is nice to know the brightness is there, when needed. The native resolution is 1440×900 giving you plenty of screen real estate, to keep the applications you need visible.
Video out – The new MacBook Pro has a DVI video output. An adapter is also included to output VGA. There is an optional adapter available to output S-Video and composite video. Furthermore, the DVI video out supports up to a 30-inch Apple Cinema Display (or other comparable display). This gives you great possibilities. You can easily use your MacBook Pro on the road, but plug it into a keyboard, mouse, and huge display, when at your desk. The perfect all around system.
Memory – This Mac is a powerhouse and 1 GB of memory (thats included) will get you started nicely. However, you may consider adding even more memory at some point. The MacBook Pro supports up to 2 GB of memory. It uses PC5300 DDR2 – SODIMM modules.
Applications -
Apple includes iLife ’06, which has iPhoto, iMovie, iWeb, iDVD, and Garageband. There is the Safari web browser, the always useful iCal, AddressBook, iChat, etc. Overall, I was pleased with the included software.
iLife 06 is particularly great. I love the new full-screen photo editing, photo comparing, etc. You can now also order calendars and greeting cards made with your photos, direct from Apple, by using the iPhoto software. iMovie has new themes, which helps make professional-looking home movies, and iDVD now supports widescreen DVDs. iWeb is a brand-new applications, which makes it easy to create professional quality webpages, quickly. I can’t wait to rebuild by site using iWeb. Apple continues to make it easy to create music, manage your digital images, make movies, and create web sites.
A trial (30 day) of iWork ’06 is also included, which includes the page layout program Pages, and the presentation program Keynote (which makes presentations that blow away presentations made by rival Powerpoint).
Hard Drive -
This model of the MacBook Pro includes a 100 GB 5400 RPM hard drive. This is going to be sufficient for most people to hold their photographs, music, and some videos. However, others will need more space, so you can always use an external drive, when at your desk. It is also important that you remember to backup your important files to either another external hard drive, or DVDs. I only point this out because today with great machines like the MacBook Pro we’re storing more of our great memories on computers than ever before, so make sure you don’t lose them, if something happens to your machine. Apple includes a great backup program called Backup 3, if you subscribe to the .mac service. I use it all the time, and it simple interface helps me keep peace of mind.
Superdrive-
The optical drive included with the new MacBook Pro allows you to watch DVDs, listen to music, burn DVDs, and burn CDs. It is a slot-loading drive, so the disks slide magically in and out of the computer’s right side. There are no drawers to break off. Note – The drive does *not* burn dual layer DVDs.
Front Row Experience – Apple has included a new software title that at this time is only available on the iMac, Mac Mini, and MacBook Pro. Front Row. Front Row comes with your MacBook Pro, and a remote control is also included. Front row allows you to watch and listen to media items, on your computer, from across the room. Click one button on the remote, and bring up Front Row, for quick access to your music, movies, podcasts, DVD, and more. I like this feature, but I wonder how useful it is, since I’m usually sitting right in front of the computer and can just use a mouse, to access this content.
PowerPC Applications on Intel Machine
If you own a lot of software for Mac, then most of it is probably compiled for PowerPC. Developers are working hard to make titles run natively on both Intel and PowerPC, but many titles are not yet ready. However, many titles you can use on an Intel Mac because Apple has included Rosetta, which translates the PowerPC code into something the Intel machine can read. However, you never see Rosetta for it works quietly in the background and makes running PowerPC applications seamless. Microsoft Office, for example, works perfect under Rosetta. Intensive applications such as Photoshop will run under Rosetta, but it will be slower until Adobe has an Intel compiled version of Photoshop. Rosetta does work and if you add memory to your iMac, you may find such application somewhat equal to how it would perform on a 1GHZ PowerPC G4, from my experience.
Two titles I use EyeTV and Toast 7 are not yet compiled for Intel, but they run fine on my Intel Mac, under Rosetta. Again, you don’t have to open anything special to use Rosetta. Your Mac knows when it needs it and uses it.
Wireless- The MacBook Pro can still connect wirelessly to networks using its included Airport Card. Furthermore, it features a Bluetooth module to connect wirelessly to devices.
Design – This MacBook Pro is beautiful, and you notice the quality as soon as you begin to open the box. It is packaged with care, in beautiful packaging. The MacBook Pro is thin, and the display is beautiful. The Mag Safe Power Connector is another amazing design feature on this machine. If someone or something pulls on the power cord connected to your notebook, instead of the notebook flying, the magnet on the connector releases, leaving your MacBook Pro safe.
Overall, I am very excited about the MacBook Pro. It is incredibly fast on Intel-native applications, and it does a very good job running PowerPC applications. If you’re upgrading from a G4 Mac like myself, this machine will seem to fly. If you’re upgrading from a G5 based Mac, it will be faster on native applications, but the increase in performance will be less significant to you. The Intel machines are the future of Apple, so there is no question this is a good machine, and it is powerful enough to be a good computer, for quite some time. I’m happy with my purchase, and I look forward to continue exploring my Intel Mac in the coming days
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