After finally saving enough cash to replace my foreced-into-retirement-iBook, I invested in a brand new MacBook Pro 13″. Even though MBP’s value for money decreased considerably doe to the recent MacBook-upgrade, I still wanted the aluminum enclosure and the backlit keyboard.
Initial impressions of the laptop were rather positive. I really like the aluminum casing, and especially when compared to my 2005 model iBook, the new MacBook Pro is pretty compact. The CPU is only a bit faster than on my Mac Mini, but overall the laptop still feels much faster. Plenty of thanks to the improved integrated graphics and total memory of 4GB, I would assume.
The glass trackpad feels excellent, even better than on my old iBook. That’s a big deal, since in my opinion many PC laptops are still struggling to get to that level of comfort iBook had to offer (Here’s looking at you Asus and your EEE-series). The trackpad takes some time to get used to though. The gestures and customizations offer many possibilities, but learning a new way of doing things is always a time-consuming process.
Jury is still out on the battery life. Apple claims it’s “up to 10 hours”, but all I’ve gotten yet is around 6-7 hours on light usage such as web browsing. It should be noted that WLAN and bluetooth have been enabled on all cases, so the battery should last a bit longer when you switch them off. It’s still a new battery and it takes a while to see what the actual capacity will be in the long run.
Despite of all the good qualities, it was soon time for the laptop to depart as the biggest drawback ended up overwhelming. Every time audio was turned on, the machine emitted a high pitched whine from below the keyboard area. This was extremely annoying especially in a silent environment. That being said, it was time to send the laptop to be repaired. I suspected that the problem was on the speakers, but they ended up replacing the entire logic board. A little bigger issue than I had originally expected. After a few days in repair, I got the MacBook Pro back and everything is once again smooth and shiny.
With new laptop in hand, my productivity is soaring. Hopefully that translates to me getting the new layout finished soon.