First Hour with MacBook Pro

Maybe I was seduced by the eerie presence of of the Intel commercials that Apple ran, but something told me to get a MacBook Pro. I chose the higher-end stock model running at 2.0GHz with 1GB of RAM and 256MB video card. My point of reference for all comparisons here is the early 2005 15" PowerBook, which I bought nine months ago.

In the Beginning

First, I think it's worth pointing out that Apple has continued to refine the experience of actually purchasing and opening a Mac. It's a bit of a turnoff to spend a couple thousand dollars and then fight with the packaging to get to the thing. The MacBook Pro box is not just smaller, it's leaner. There's less stuff to wade through inside.

Just like the iPods and current-generation Apple products, there's a very compact, non-intimidating manual that stands a chance of actually being read by the average owner. One of the first pages of the manual says:

Your MacBook Pro is designed so that you can set it up quickly and start using it right away.

Seems rather obvious, doesn't it? It's funny how often this extremely basic concept is missed in the consumer experience. It takes something more than a hardware company to put all the pieces together. Even the Apple Store itself is part of the Mac experience.

Anyway, moving on.

Design and Display

Compared to the early 2005 PowerBook, this machine is both less deep and thinner. It's simply nicer to hold. The keyboard is just slightly softer and looser. The clasp mechanism is smoother when being closed. The MagSafe power is something that's just nice to have. For a person who tends to be around dogs a lot, it's just a little bit of reassurance.

The display is unquestionably brighter than my PowerBook, but it's not a complete replacement for a high-quality desktop display. The viewing angle doesn't seem as good as a Cinema Display and the top of the screen is (for me) noticeably darker than the bottom.

Either the combination of these two things or a separate issue makes the screen not ideal for reading or color composition. I'm not sure what word characterizes the effect I have in mind, but it's almost as if the colors are a bit "shiny" or simply unbalanced. This isn't unique to the MacBook Pro, by the way. My midrange ViewSonic VG710b has the same attributes.

Don't take this the wrong way. I'm really, really picky about displays. I spent more time looking at displays at Fry's than any sane person would, and really couldn't find anything I liked for $400. I simply settled on the ViewSonic because I had to choose.

In other words, this is a very good display for a laptop, and above and beyond what my PowerBook has. It's very bright and crisp. It's just not a Cinema Display.

Two tweaks made it better for me, though. First, I think the full brightness setting is too high for most purposes. It's like staring at a light bulb. Four steps down from the max feels comfortable. Second, I highly recommend color calibrating the display. The default one is washed out and a little too warm.

I also found it helps a bit to tilt the display slightly more upright than I did with the PowerBook. This seems to leave the brightness more balanced.

The Whining Sound

Now the big question. What about the whining sound? This sound is very real on this particular unit. I'm told my hearing is more sensitive than most people, so it might be that some could sit in front of the same machine and not be bothered by it. Unchecked, though, this sound would make it impossible for me to work. The quieter the environment, the more noticeable it is.

I look forward to Apple coming up with an OS or firmware-level fix, but in the meantime, there are a few observations and workarounds that I think are worth mentioning. I think that topic deserves its own space though, so take a look at the Notes on MacBook Pro Whining Sound post.

There's one workaround there that I haven't seen anyone else mention, and running Photo Booth in the background is another technique for instant relief. There's no excuse for a $2500 Mac laptop to be so noisy, so Apple needs to jump on this.

Performance

I haven't done in-depth benchmarking or anything of that nature. There are people that get positively giddy over the idea of running such tests and there are some good posts about that already, so I'll defer to them for now:

Rich Siegel: MacBook Timings One
Rich Siegel: MacBook Timings Two
Wolfman on Interesting Time


One interesting tidbit is that applications open crazy fast in some cases. At times it's hard to tell if an application was already running when I launch it.

Bottom Line

It's a bit hard to give an overall review on this machine until the whining sound is silenced. Not only is it possibly a deal breaker for some, but it's hard to focus on the experience of the machine for evaluatin purposes while under audio assault.

My preliminary feeling is that other than the one issue, this is a very solid dual processor machine, much faster than the PowerBooks and lighter and brighter than the early 2005 PowerBook that I already own. I'll have to give a more complete look later.

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