My First Few Weeks with the MacBook Pro
Published on 15 Nov 2006 · Filed in Review · 327 words (estimated 2 minutes to read)There were two concerns I had about buying a MacBook Pro, neither of them huge concerns but sufficient enough nevertheless. The first was the heat; there were just so many reports of MBPs running hot. (Yes, I know that this was primarily early-run MBPs.) The second was the performance of non-Universal applications.
I’m happy to report that both of these concerns are unfounded. I’ve had my MBP under some fairly significant loads in the last few days; just today, for example, I had VMware Fusion running (with a Windows XP Professional VM running Visio 2002 Professional), Mail, iCal, Camino, NetNewsWire, Address Book, Terminal, Microsoft Word, ecto, and four Remote Desktop Connection sessions all running simultaneously. The MBP was very warm above the keyboard, but not any more so than my old PowerBook G4 and certainly not enough to make me really worried.
Even on previous occasions, when I’ve had Cyberduck, multiple SSH sessions and tunnels, X11, and tons of applications open, it still hasn’t gotten hot enough for me to be concerned. Warm? Yes. Overly hot? Not in my opinion.
The second concern, the performance of PowerPC applications under Rosetta, has proven not to be a real concern either. It’s true that the applications are a bit slower than Universal applications, but the non-Universal applications that I run aren’t heavy hitters like Photoshop or Illustrator. Therefore, the performance penalty isn’t really a big deal for me. If these applications were my lifeblood, then I would certainly be more concerned. Dealing with a minor slowdown in Microsoft Office isn’t enough to really be worried about (at least, not for me).
Battery life has been good, a bit less than I had hoped but I haven’t really had time to train the battery yet. The wireless range and performance is also good. I’m also really pleased with the brighter display and the higher resolution, the backlit keyboard, and two finger scrolling.
Overall, I’m very happy with the new laptop.