News, info, and opinion by Mac users, for Mac users.

April 14, 2006

hardware

Summations on the MacBook Pro

Posted Apr. 14, ’06, 5:05 PM PT by Scott Silverman
Category | Hardware

Macbook.jpgI had to do a very sad and painful thing yesterday. If you remember correctly, I had received a loaner MacBook Pro a little over a week ago to use while Apple was repairing my iBook. Now that the machine has been returned, I can sum up my experience with it and let you know what I thought during my weeklong use of the 2.0 GHz MacBook Pro.

First off, I’ll start with the use of two essential applications via Rosetta: Word and Photoshop CS2; both were fine. Microsoft Word presented absolutely no problems for me. Even in 25 page documents I was able to easily scroll, search, type, print, and do everything I needed to do. While everyone seems to be concerned with Microsoft getting out a Universal version of Word, after using Word on the MBP for a week, I am no longer concerned about Microsoft’s speed in releasing a Universal version. Click below to keep reading.

Photoshop CS2 is similar in its performance, for small files. Obviously, since you’re working with much larger files in a more CPU-intensive environment, performance will not be as great when compared to Word. Photoshop was fine when working with small files, average-sized digital photos, and fixing color problems. The biggest performance problems I saw were when I whipped out a 50+ MB file and starting rendering effects to it. I was doing this simultaneously on my PowerMac Dual 2.0GHz in CS2 to compare performance. Photoshop was significantly slower than the PowerMac, but it’s still nothing to write home about. The difference between the PowerMac and the MBP was 7 seconds when applying a spherize filter to the 50 MB document. Far faster than anything my iBook could have done in CS2. Not too shabby for running via Rosetta.

Lastly, are some overall observations on the performance of the machine. First is AirPort reception. The AirPort reception is definitely improved over the PowerBooks, but it still doesn’t compare to my iBook. Me and my friend (who owns a 12” PowerBook) were sitting next to each other and I had view of four wireless networks. He only had two.

The one other thing I noticed about the computer was concerning the screen. It really was amazing, so bright that I could easily use it outside in broad daylight (which I did). My only qualm with the screen is viewing angles. From side to side, the angles are great, but up and down leaves something to be desired. When moving up and down while looking at the screen, it becomes dimmer in some spots. I’m not sure what happened here, but my iBook has better viewing angles on its screen.

Overall, my experience with the MacBook Pro was a positive one. The speed of the computer, combined with the Front Row/remote, the iSight, and the screen all make one nice computer. I’ll probably be buying one to replace my iBook & PowerMac sometime in the next 6 months.


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