My quick first impressions of the new MacBook Pro; I received my 2.5 model (customized with a 250gb 7200rpm hard drive) today:
– Appears thinner than my old MBP (original 2006 model) due to rounded corners, but this is an optical illusion. It’s actually the same thickness, but slightly wider and deeper.
– When open, the screen looks huge and is about 1/4″ higher than the old MacBook Pro, which will cause some issues using it on plane tray tables.
– The screen is WAY too reflective.
– The display is nicely bright and sharp under that WAY too reflective glass.
– Despite the Apple product photos, the iSight camera is not invisible behind the glass. It’s pretty much as prominent as the old version. In other words, the glass isn’t smoked in any way.
– The trackpad button is very loud when clicked. Self-conciously so. Incredibly so. REALLY loud. CLUNK. CLUNK. CLUNK.
– My old MacBook Pro had a very loud, rattling fan. So far, the new one is very, very quiet.
– The unibody construction is beautiful — no seams all over the top of it, no plastic edges to collect dirt and hand oils. It doesn’t bend or feel rickety like the old one. When placed side by side with the old version, the new one looks exactly like it is promoted: a single piece of aluminum. The old one now looks like mass of varying parts put together like an erector set; like a 1950s movie robot. The new version has no screws, plastic spacers, latches, rubber feet, or even metal surrounds in the ports. It is minimal and elegant. Even the power button and the silkscreened port logos are small and unobtrusive now. If it weren’t for the overly reflective screen, I’d say it was a piece of sculpture.
– In a break from Apple’s usual planned obsolescence, this version of the MacBook Pro can use the same power adapter as the 3-year-old version. This is wonderful news, since I bought an extra power adapter for the office.
– The all-button track pad works just like the old kind, if you don’t think about it and just use it with the muscle memory of the old track pad. But… and this is a big but: if you tend to rest your thumb on the button without thinking, like I do, the track pad stops tracking ‘cos it detects two fingers. There isn’t any issue with accidentally clicking because the pad requires you to really press down to click — at least, mine does.
– Migration assistant is kind of a pain this time: had to first do system updates on both laptops to ensure they work together. Then, I couldn’t use firewire because old one has FW400 and new one has FW800. (I didn’t have any adapter.) I used “Networking” instead, which I decoded as “Ethernet.” I don’t know if non-techy users would know this.
– Because one has to create a user in the setup in order to update Migration Assistant before transferring, you can’t copy over your old user to the same name on the new computer. Be warned: start out with a new, disposable username on the new computer.
– It took 90 minutes to transfer all my data, and happily it all work. No reinstalls of applications were necessary, even with complicated “activated” applications like Adobe Creative Suite.
– WHOA. My ENTER key is missing! I’m freaking out. I didn’t need another option key, I really want my ENTER back.
– If you pick it up while open, the display suddenly becomes loose and flops back and forth. It only seems to be rigid when it’s sitting flat on the table.
– Bonus! It has a dual layer DVD burner. I didn’t know it had that, so I choose to look at it as a bonus.
– One more time: the screen is WAY TOO REFLECTIVE. But it doubles as a mirror when off, so that’s a little extra perk.
After just a few minutes playing with it, I have to say: it’s much faster, seemingly, than my old one. Thank goodness. ‘Cos I’ve got to do a lot of freelance work on it to pay for it.
