MacBook Pro 13 inch 2.26 Ghz Review

You know, when I think back a few weeks ago when I had to choose a laptop, I cannot believe I was hesitating between a MacBook Pro and Dell XPS Studio 16z specially considering the fact that I had enough money to buy either one of them. I went with the MacBook Pro and I can tell you with pride ladies and gentlemen, I am very satisfied. Great machine, flawless design, incredible battery life but like every product there are a few things Apple could’ve done to make it better. Let’s go through a complete review shall we?

Design

The MacBook Pro offers a flawless design. A unibody aluminum chassis makes this baby slicker than any laptop could ever be. You will never have to worry about fingerprints when you open it or when you handle it inside a case or when you simply carry it around. The rigidity of the laptop is also quite impressive considering the weight, which is of 4.51 pounds. Some might find it light like me others might find it heavy compared to a Toshiba Protégé. The corners are well rounded and its edges are not as sharp as I heard some people complain about and I have pretty big hands considering the fact that my wrists sit on the edges when I type. The keyboard is magnificent but nothing revolutionary there when we take into account that it’s been the same for a while now on the MacBook and on the keyboard of the iMac. I’ve manipulated a lot of laptops before and I hate using the trackpads. When I first bought the MacBook Pro I was immediately considering buying a wireless notebook mouse. Good thing I waited just a little bit because the new Apple trackpad is a dream. The only way you could consider using a mouse is if your gaming but we’ll get to that later. When browsing on the web the trackpad makes it really simple; 2 fingers swipe to scroll up or down, 3 fingers swipe left or right to move back or forward a page and finally 4 fingers swipe down to get a view of all open windows and 4 fingers swipe up to scatter the windows to access your desktop. And let’s not forget the integrated button so that you may just press the pad for clicking. The trackpad does it all.

Performance

• Intel Core duo 2, 2,26 GHz,
• 3 MB L2 Cache,
• 2 GB DDR3 (upgraded mine to 4 GB)
• 1067 MHz Bus speed,
• 160 GB SATA HDD 5400 rpm
• NVIDIA GeForce 9400 M with 256 MB DDR3 Shared memory
• 13.3 inch, 1280×800 resolution widescreen TFT LED
• 8x slot-loading SuperDrive (DVD±R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW)
• iSight webcam
• AirPort Extreme WiFi (IEEE 802.11a/b/g/n)
• Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR (Enhanced Data Rate)
• Mini DisplayPort, Ethernet, two USB 2.0 ports, FireWire 800, Audio out and microphone in, SD-Card reader
• Dimensions : 0.95″ x 12.78″ x 8.94″ (H x W x D)
• Weight: 4.51 pounds
• Integrated 58-watt-hour lithium-polymer battery
• 60W MagSafe power adapter with cable management system
• 1299 $ (CAN) 1199$ (US)

You could probably get better for less expensive, I think that by now most people know this about Apple. The graphic card is pretty mediocre but what do you expect for a 1299$ laptop. The 3dMark 06 test gave the GeForce 9400 M 256 MB a 1,425… for those who wonder what is the highest score a graphic card got with this test it’s 15,109. So yeah… no sophisticated games ladies and gentlemen. And don’t get to excited thinking that if you buy the other MacBook Pro models you’ll get better because the best graphic card the other MacBook Pros have is the GeForce 9600 M GT which got a mere 5063 score on the 3dMark 06. Although I must precise for the record that starting with the 15 inch 2.66 GHz MacBook Pro, you have the 9600 M GT and the 9400M 256 Mb coupled together, but still don’t expect the highest quality in gaming.

Display

Leading up from the graphic card, we land on the resolution; 1280×800 makes it very pleasant to watch 720p videos and the backlight of the display is quite impressive with its uniformly distributed lighting. The huge downside of the glossy display is the reflective panel over it. I am sorry for those who think its slick, I find it annoying. When in a very lit environment, especially natural light, it is very frustrating, which leaves you with 2 options, brightening the display or adjusting the screen to a comfortable position. The first one can causes your battery to have a shorter duration and furthers you away from the famous 7 hour-duration that Apple’s been promoting.

Battery life

Speaking of which you can easily get 5 hours out of the battery life by browsing on the net, video streaming, and downloading. Just for your information, I have never charged my battery before 5 hours of use including video streaming on the web, typing texts and iTunes on. Lowering the brightness of your screen also helps to prolong your battery life. And if you are a student using this computer, you will no doubt reach the 7 hours that Apple has been talking about considering the fact that you’ll be using most of the time applications such as Word and PowerPoint. A positive point is that it takes merely an hour and a half to completely charge you’re battery, which presents an excellent usage/charge ratio.

Heating

Aluminum is a metal, and it doesn’t take a chemist to tell us that metal conducts well heat and electricity. When using video applications or any applications for that matter that use a fair amount of memory the laptop feels like a hotplate on your lap which doesn’t say much about the ventilation. It still beats the Dell XPS Studio 16z on the heating level but it can use a little tweaking from Apple.

DVD drive

Although well placed and very subtle, the DVD drive is not the best. When popping in a DVD there is a certain delay, which is pretty surprising considering how other drivers respond pretty quickly. Aside from that there are no major issues to report on the SuperDrive.

Other features

The ports on the side are pretty cool specially considering the FireWire 800 and the SD card slot but yet again 2 USB ports still seem like not enough and they are pretty crammed up together which makes it annoying when plugging 2 things at the same time. Another feature that’s pretty cool is the battery life indicator on the side. No need to open your computer when you just want to check what’s your battery life, a simple touch will suffice. The iSight webcam is very practical but now a webcam is pretty much standard in all laptop but what’s cool about this one is that it’s very discreet making the display even slicker.

The amazing thing about Apple’s computers is their lifetime. These computers are built to last and unless your planning to buy another computer in 2 years simply for the fun of having the latest thing the MacBook Pro is going to last you for years. Overall the MacBook Pro 13 inch is an excellent laptop. It outranks many others in its category in design and performance and now for 100$ cheaper (subtract another 100$ if you’re a student). Believe me you will not regret this purchase.

Pros

• Amazing battery life, actually making a proper use of the meaning portable computer
• Screen resolution very satisfying
• Trackpad: A dream
• Finally the SD card slot we’ve been bugging Apple about

Cons

• Heating
• Reflective panel on the glossy display
• Slow start-up with the SuperDrive
• Not a great graphic card