Review of my new 17" MBP
Hey everyone! Just wanted to share my initial thoughts on the new 17" MBP. I received mine last Thursday from Shanghai, and I finally got to play with it Monday and last night. I tricked it out with 2 gigs of RAM, and a 100GB 7200 rpm hard drive. I have turned away from the Dark Side, and I am a brand-new Mac convert from Windows. Here are my initial impressions:
PACKAGING: As far as the packaging is concerned, leave it to Apple to come up with packaging that is da shizzle! Very cool, indeed. The computer is well-protected in the box it comes in, with plenty of styrofoam protecting it. I was worried about how beat up the box might be, but Apple ships it in a sturdy container with styrofoam around it. Also, FedEx did a GREAT job in handling the box...no dings or dents.
BUILD QUALITY: I know there have been some issues with the latches and screen, but mine is FLAWLESS. I opened and closed the MBP several times to test out the latches, and they seem to hold up pretty well. The lid stays closed and I do not have any issues with the latches at all, so far. With respect to the screen, there were no scratches or marks on it whatsoever. I do not have any dead pixels (save for one that is darker than the others, but it's not "dead"), and the screen lighting is completely even for me. I do not have any dark edges around the corners, as some have reported. My screen is evenly lit and beautiful. The Superdrive also works well as far as loading and ejecting discs. I have not burned any CDs or DVDs yet, but I imported a CD into iTunes without incident.
SPEED: Pretty freakin' fast. Every application I launched had about a 1-second delay, which is pretty fast for me. I was able to surf Safari while burning a CD into iTunes without any hang-ups. I haven't really put it through any rigorous paces yet (such as burning DVDs), but I'll try that soon.
WHINE: Ahhh, yes...the infamous whine. Non-existent on mine. Completely silent. Deadly silent, save for the faint whirring of my fan.
HEAT: I messed with it for about five hours last night, imported a CD into iTunes, installed Office 2004 for Mac along with the updates, configured my Mail account, and messed with Safari. After all that, my MBP was only slightly warm. It rested comfortably in my lap, and I was able to rest my fingers above the F-keys without any discomfort whatsoever. Likewise, what little heat there was seemed to be well-dissipated throughout the entire MBP...in other words, it was not centered in one particular area.
OFFICE 2004 and ROSETTA: I was able to install the Student/Teacher edition of Office 2004 and test it out for a little while. First of all, the installation process itself was super-fast...I was really impressed with the installation speed. After I set it up, I opened each application and could not detect anything more that a 1-second delay. The programs seemed to open up under Rosetta just as fast as native applications.
Anyways, these are my initial impressions. I'll give you guys a sit-rep once I get to play with it a little more. Overall, I'm definitely loving this computer so far and am thoroughly impressed with my first-ever Mac experience outside my iPod. Hope this helps those of you on the fence!
PACKAGING: As far as the packaging is concerned, leave it to Apple to come up with packaging that is da shizzle! Very cool, indeed. The computer is well-protected in the box it comes in, with plenty of styrofoam protecting it. I was worried about how beat up the box might be, but Apple ships it in a sturdy container with styrofoam around it. Also, FedEx did a GREAT job in handling the box...no dings or dents.
BUILD QUALITY: I know there have been some issues with the latches and screen, but mine is FLAWLESS. I opened and closed the MBP several times to test out the latches, and they seem to hold up pretty well. The lid stays closed and I do not have any issues with the latches at all, so far. With respect to the screen, there were no scratches or marks on it whatsoever. I do not have any dead pixels (save for one that is darker than the others, but it's not "dead"), and the screen lighting is completely even for me. I do not have any dark edges around the corners, as some have reported. My screen is evenly lit and beautiful. The Superdrive also works well as far as loading and ejecting discs. I have not burned any CDs or DVDs yet, but I imported a CD into iTunes without incident.
SPEED: Pretty freakin' fast. Every application I launched had about a 1-second delay, which is pretty fast for me. I was able to surf Safari while burning a CD into iTunes without any hang-ups. I haven't really put it through any rigorous paces yet (such as burning DVDs), but I'll try that soon.
WHINE: Ahhh, yes...the infamous whine. Non-existent on mine. Completely silent. Deadly silent, save for the faint whirring of my fan.
HEAT: I messed with it for about five hours last night, imported a CD into iTunes, installed Office 2004 for Mac along with the updates, configured my Mail account, and messed with Safari. After all that, my MBP was only slightly warm. It rested comfortably in my lap, and I was able to rest my fingers above the F-keys without any discomfort whatsoever. Likewise, what little heat there was seemed to be well-dissipated throughout the entire MBP...in other words, it was not centered in one particular area.
OFFICE 2004 and ROSETTA: I was able to install the Student/Teacher edition of Office 2004 and test it out for a little while. First of all, the installation process itself was super-fast...I was really impressed with the installation speed. After I set it up, I opened each application and could not detect anything more that a 1-second delay. The programs seemed to open up under Rosetta just as fast as native applications.
Anyways, these are my initial impressions. I'll give you guys a sit-rep once I get to play with it a little more. Overall, I'm definitely loving this computer so far and am thoroughly impressed with my first-ever Mac experience outside my iPod. Hope this helps those of you on the fence!
