A PC Convert!
Apple MacBook Pro MB133LL/A 15.4-inch Laptop computer reviews
By Jason Wiles (United States)
I’ve had this computer for almost a year (mine has smaller hard drive) After much deliberation I finally decided to convert to Mac after over a decade of using PCs. I remember when windows 95 first came out and how bad Macs sucked back then. However times change. The main thing that did it for me was that I could have both windows and OSX on the same machine using boot disk. The verdict, I am now a Mac man. And no I don’t have the little apple sticker on the back of my car window in case you are wondering.
Boot Disk works flawlessly and when I boot up windows (mainly for work) it is like I have a PC, (a really bad a** PC). When I first got it I thought I would be spending most of my time in windows using OSX for “fun” however after a week I realized that OS X Leopard blows windows out of the water. Every aspect is better. Let me say that again: EVERY aspect of Leopard is better than windows XP. I haven’t found one thing in windows that I like better that what Leopard has. Apple simply has the best user interface engineers on the planet working for them. Now to be fair I haven’t yet used Vista (haven’t felt compelled at all so far based on what I have seen) so I don’t have a basis for direct comparison to MS newest product.
Wireless works great, bluetooth works flawlessly. OH and the DVI out is amazing! I can plug the DVI out to my receiver and watch full screen HD video on the plasma! I tried this with my old PC, even bought a new video card to do it, but frankly it couldn’t hold a candle to the mac. Macbook pro also has Optical audio out for connection to the receiver, very nice. Speakers on the machine are better than average for a laptop but still not anything approaching audiophile quality.
The machine comes packed with software that is actually useful, fun and has no crap on it. ILife is great and easy to use. The display is crisp, clear, vivid, etc, etc. The best screen in the business.
If I had to pick a con, I’d be price, though in comparison it is really not but a couple hundred bucks more than the equivalent PC. What you get for that extra cash is a better user interface, better styling, smoother operation, faster performance. Personally I’d rather spend a few hundred bucks more and get more enjoyment, more functionality, and in the end more usefulness from the computer than to worry about saving $200 and end up with something that feels like it is just some “tool”. Of course that’s just my opinion, I could be wrong.
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10 minutes to freedom
Apple MacBook Pro MB133LL/A 15.4-inch Laptop computer reviews
By Tan Tien (SF Bay Area, California, USA)
A mere 10 Minutes after I opened my new MacBook Pro, I had it up and running and I am writing my review here with it. And that 10 min. would have been lessened had I not dawdled over the Apple screen cleaner and the user guide and so on. This is a sleek and fast machine; though it can get a bit warm on the left palm-rest I am loving this new machine. I’m adding Parallels and VM Ware Fusion as well to port over some of my Windows files. [BTW: You need Fusion only if you intend to run any 64-bit OS. And if you have XP like me Parallels supposedly runs it faster and more seamlessly according to Macworld]
I am looking forward to a low-calorie Windows life now. 
Amazon even beat out a Mac Mall an identically spec’d refurbished MacBook Pro with this deal and with far less rebate hassle too!
I could not have had a better experience with this entire purchase than through Amazon. Their tracking and quick delivery is exemplary. And this experience IMHO, is what the Mac Malls & Fry’s of the world should be shooting for.
Kudos both to Apple and Amazon.
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Happy Camper
Apple MacBook Pro MB133LL/A 15.4-inch Laptop computer reviews
By mczilla (Ukiah, CA United States)
It took me several months and a lot of research and in-store inspection before I bought this thing, and I’m happy to report no regrets so far. Actually, I’m glad I waited until the latest version came out. The new LED screen, faster processor, larger hard drive, bigger graphics card and included Boot Camp are definite pluses over the older models.
I’m a graphics professional migrating from Windows and an old CRT, so the glossy screen doesn’t present me with any new problems, and I find the rich colors and crisper text to be an advantage over the matt, but I admit this is a subjective call. The keyboard has a very easy and positive feel; lack of a numeric pad is no problem since I rarely used it when I had one. Serious design & bitmap work is done with an Intuos tablet anyway. The OS boots so much faster, and adapting to Leopard after Windows has not been difficult at all. Replacing the big monitor and brain-box with something this small had me wondering at first, but I now consider it to be a revelation. Once the display is on it seems more than adequate. And there’s always the satisfaction of Apple’s “slickness factor” - beautiful industrial design, and an operating system that just makes me want to say “cool”.
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Ideal desktop replacement
Apple MacBook Pro MB133LL/A 15.4-inch Laptop computer reviews
By DC Machead “DC Machead” (Washington, DC USA)
I purchased this computer to upgrade an older MacBook Pro (MBP). It is indeed a very significant upgrade to my 1st Generation MBP. I won’t get into nitty gritty tech specs, as most people I know buy Macs because they want to use their computer, not the other way around.
The screen is a lot crisper. My understanding is that it’s an LED-based screen, which results in increased battery life. On the topic of battery life, out of the box I’m getting 4.5-5.0 hours worth of battery life–dramatically better than the 3 hours max I got out of my 1st gen MBP.
The processing power is dramatically increased, as well. I never had trouble running anything on the old MBP until I got Parallels–I had to upgrade the old machine to 2 GB of RAM to get performance to an acceptable level and even then it was sluggish. Not the case with the 2.4 Ghz MBP with 2 GB of RAM.
Boot up time is significantly increased with this machine and the wireless seems to have extended range versus the prior version. I attribute part of this to using an 802.11n base station, but I also notice that I pick up more WiFi access points near me, as well and some of them are Belkin 802.11g.
The one thing that I do find annoying is that Apple changed the assignments for the function keys. Having used Mac laptops for ~5 years, I found this to be very annoying. I was able to work around this by changing the key assignments back to what I know.
In all, a phenomenal upgrade in terms of what you get out of the box, raw processing power, boot time, and increased battery life. I recommend this laptop without hesitation.
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From PC: Macbook Pro blew past my expectations
Apple MacBook Pro MB133LL/A 15.4-inch Laptop computer reviews
By K. Jung “K. Jung” (CA, USA)
Coming from PC, I never thought I’d dish out the extra bucks for a Mac. The new Macbook Pro is by far the best laptop I’ve ever used. I absolutely love the Leopard OS, build quality, and speed of this machine! Noise is a BIG issue for me as I planned to use it in bed and it is not silent as my iPhone of course but as far as laptops go I don’t think there is anything quieter on the market now except perhaps the Macbook Air which I almost bought. The functionality of the OS and bleeding edge technology packed into this thing far exceed anything I thought was possible with a portable computing platform. I plan to dual boot Windows XP to be able to use all of my Windows software on this aluminum beauty. Absolutely loving it.
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This machine is simply PERFECT
Apple MacBook Pro MB133LL/A 15.4-inch Laptop computer reviews
By physicistjedi (Cambridge, MA)
I am looking at this machine and thinking hard, but just can not find anything negative. OK may be it might be more convenient if it accept usual headset microphones in the inline plug or display can be opened a little bit further. You see after a week of heavy use, these are the only things I can think of.
It is cool, it is fast, and it is silent (I am very picky about fan noises). Multi-touch trackpad (amazing two finger scrolling), backlit keyboard, LED backlit gorgeous display (best blacks I’ve ever seen in any computer monitor), great audio output (with no hiss at all), mini iSight with superb image quality, all top quality. And of course the best operating system on the planet, you can’t get anything better even if you are a billionaire (think about it).
PS: I have the 15.4 inch, 2.4 GHz CPU, 200 GB 7200 RPM HDD, 4 GB RAM model.
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2 weeks into the switch
Apple MacBook Pro MB133LL/A 15.4-inch Laptop computer reviews
By Software Craftsman (VA)
There was no reason for me to switch to a Mac product. I’ve always have been intrigued, but XP was doing it for me day in and out. My current Dell Latitude was on its way out and I wanted something high quality. I couldn’t find anything that comes close in build quality/finish to the Macbook Pro. Asus makes some nice notebooks but I didn’t want Vista, with all of its assorted issues and XP doesn’t seem like a sound choice given its looming end of life.
So now I have my Macbook Pro. As a software developer I was drawn to the idea of a UNIX shell as a first class citizen (sorry Cygwin). The toughest part is learning the keys. In XP I could move around an IDE effortlessly, with keys: home,end,ctrl-arrow etc.; not so on the Mac keyboard. This proved the most frustrating. The lack of the forward delete is also a disappointment but I hear there are keyboard mapping solutions.
I installed VMware Fusion and XP for initial comfort and to ease the transition off windows. BTW, Fusion is amazing. It feels like it’s native, and it’s definitely faster than XP on my current Dell. With Fusion, I can map drives, cut and paste and access servers between the two — it’s all very fluid. Full screen your Fusion in a different Expose window and you can quickly swap back and forth between Mac and XP.
Now the downside. In the first few days I experienced no less than 4 crashes, where it had to be power cycled. I haven’t had any issues since, so I’m going to conveniently forget. Firefox crashes still, but no more than it did on windows, and maybe less.
So in conclusion, Mac was the right choice for me. High quality in and out and at a decent price. The interface is pure eye candy and orders of magnitude superior (usability-wise) than XP. While there will be some pain points in learning, it will hopefully be worth it. Get VMware Fusion and install Windows for when there is no Mac alternative.
*UPDATE* I have now had the macbook pro for 2 months. I’m really enjoying some of the UI features, such as expose and spaces more and more. The hotkeys are awesome (e.g. show desktop, lock/start screensaver).
There are however a few recurring problems that I have been experiencing. I’m going to detail the top two. The first issue is the screensaver hotkey stops working at times. This is a huge issue because it is also the mechanism for locking my computer, and I cannot leave my desk w/o locking it, so I must either close the lid (sleep) or restart, which fixes the issue.
Now for the second issue: often when I try and restart/shutdown, it does nothing, then a minute later tells me that Finder failed to quit and I should quit Finder then try again — great suggestion Apple, given that you CAN’T QUIT FINDER!! So now I have to hold the power button down for 10 seconds to kill it or run “sudo shutdown -r now” from Terminal.
So in my latest conclusion, my mac is not living up to my expectations of reliability. I was led to believe, by many in the mac community/stupid commercials, that Mac was the panacea from XP. The Mac user interface is *unmatched* and that along with the UNIX foundation were and still are my original reasons for choosing Mac. My previous XP Pro notebook however was significantly more stable. The reliability issues are getting more and more annoying and I just hope Apple is able to resolve and restore my faith in their product. Lastly, I would change the star rating to three but it won’t seem to let me.
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Great Performance, Poor Display
Apple MacBook Pro MB133LL/A 15.4-inch Laptop computer reviews
By Joseph Romana “Photographer” (Cerritos, CA USA)
As my second Apple purchase (first being an IPOD Touch 16GB) I am quite upset. This is my first Macbook and I am Impressed with several things. Performance, Build, Style, Sound, Touch pad responsiveness and Overall quality get perfect 10’s in my book. However, the reason for the 2 star rating was the quality of the display.
Do a little researching on YELLOWING and you will know what I’m talking about. The first MBP I received from amazon had about 2 inches of yellow (stained) pixels at the bottom of the screen. I brought it to the apple store and the guy noticed it and offered a replacement, warning me that if I take the replacement I am risking getting a worse display. He opened a brand new box for me and the display had no yellowing but had BRIGHT SPOTS all over the place. This affected more of the middle of the screen so I went back a second time for my third replacement. This MBP has also disappointed me because it also has YELLOWING on about the bottom third of the screen.
Still, I am debating of going back to the Apple store to replace or just simply return this laptop and go with something else. Keep in mind I have owned this for 7 days total. This is a very valid issue and for a $2000 plus investment it is something to consider.
This is a known problem since the SR MBP’s and I thought they would have fixed it in quality control but no. I will give Apple credit for great quality service, but they should really spend more money on quality control!
I have the Macbook Pro 15.4″ 2.4GHz 200GB.
The displays affected were the 9C81, 9C81 and 9C83… two had yellowing, one had uneven bright/dark spots.
Apple MacBook Pro MB133LL/A 15.4-inch Laptop computer reviews
Finally, the perfect desktop replacement
Apple MacBook Pro MB133LL/A 15.4-inch Laptop computer reviews
By Jason (NC, USA)
Short and Quick Review
This model is worth the 500 difference between the entry level. The screen is beautiful, the new LED Displays are great, better color depth, more color, the laptop doesn’t get as hot as previous versions. Everything works, it is very fast, and this laptop replaced 2 high end workstations + 2 high end laptops (A dell with workstation class graphics card, and 17 inch macbook pro). I can edit 1080p high def video in real time with no slow down, edit my 12mp raw files in real time with no slow down. I can play the latest games like Call of Duty 4 maxed out on windows vista at native resolution with no slow down online.
With the beefy 250gb HD, ability to upgrade to 4gb of ram, the 512 graphics card, and 6mb cache, this machine is a complete replacement for me, and revolutionizes my life, work style, and workflow.
It is worth buying, and definitely better than the 2k version, by leaps, read my longer review for more.
Longer Fuller Review. Read more
Apple MacBook Pro MB133LL/A 15.4-inch Laptop compter reviews
By J. Shea (Boston)
In March 2008, I decided it was time to upgrade from a G4-based laptop to one of the new Intel models. I deliberated back and forth whether the lower priced MacBook would be sufficient or whether to pay the premium for the “Pro” model. Ultimately, I decided upon the MacBook Pro for these reasons.
Construction quality
The aluminum case of the MacBook Pro reminds me of a product made by the Swiss. The build quality is outstanding for a mass-produced device. It feels very substantial, and all the pieces fit together nearly seamlessly. The MacBook’s case, however, is made from a high-grade plastic rather than metal. It’s nice … but I found the front edge of the MacBook’s case a bit sharp on my wrists as I typed.
Ports
Compared with the MacBook, the MacBook Pro provides an additional USB port plus Firewire 800. The latter is desirable for people who work with video and external drives that have Firewire 800 connectors. The ExpressCard slot is useful for future expansion and services such as wireless broadband (EVDO).
Keyboard
Keyboard experiences are subjective; but I find the keyboard on the MacBook Pro the most comfortable of any laptop I’ve ever used. It feels solid and responsive. Plus, its backlighting is helpful when typing in dark environments.
Dedicated video
Unlike the MacBook that shares system memory for video (integrated graphics), the MacBook Pro has a dedicated video processor. This is beneficial for driving large external displays and running graphics-intensive applications.
Is the MacBook Pro worth the $700 price differential over a MacBook? That depends on whether you are a general home computer user (i.e., e-mail, web browsing, iTunes, word processing) or someone who uses their laptop for more advanced purposes. My user profile is more in the second category. Also, since I intend to keep this computer for three years, I figure that the premium breaks down to about $233 each year. This seems reasonable to me for something I use every day.
In view of the additional quality and benefits that the MacBook Pro offers, I think its higher price brings with it commensurate value. It’s hard to imagine even finicky laptop users being disappointed with the MacBook Pro.
P.S. — There are two 15-inch MacBook Pro models. I bought the 2.4 gHz “entry level” model. It is the better value. I do not feel the 2.5 gHz MacBook Pro is worth the extra $500.
Also, people who care to add system memory (beyond the stock 2 gigabytes supplied by Apple) ought to purchase it from a third-party vendor and install it themselves. It is a simple process.
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