MacBook Pro First Impressions

By this date, any interested parties have had more than ample opportunity to read about the MacBook Pro. You’ve read about the speed, the dock bounces, seen performance comparisons and been troubled by the unfortunate, but necessary, use of Rosetta for older applications. Good news everyone, you get to hear it all one more time. Fortunately, there is a difference this time around. Previous articles of this sort have been written by either journalists or those who simply must live on the bleeding edge. Since this author fails to make the cut in the aforementioned categories, you can look forward to the first impressions of someone who simply needed a new laptop.

The box arrived via Fed Ex and, in my case, was left with an unceremonious drop and subsequent whap on the front porch. Apparently, Apple was too cheap to put a “fragile” sticker on the plain cardboard box, or they have a lot of faith in either the packaging or the inherent gentleness of Fed Ex delivery drivers.

After busting the plain brown box open, I found the more stylized box of the MacBook pro. I was stunned by the small size of the box and wondered, “Aside from pure gold or weapons-grade plutonium, what could be in a box so small that is worth two grand?” Still, the creditcard has been billed, so there’s no turning back. Upon opening the MacBook Pro box, I noted it folds open not unlike a MacBook, inside was a layer of Styrofoam with the words MacBook Pro stamped into it.

Once finished preserving the foam for later repackaging, I, the lucky MacBook Pro recipient, was forced to tease the laptop out of the confines of a surprisingly tough and tight-fitting sleeve. Then came the point where most people gush a little about Apple’s packaging and, honestly, the packaging is nice. Yet, it is such a minor thrill over the lifetime of the computer that I can safely eschew an in-depth discussion of the wonders of Apple’s foam-and-box department.

With the laptop finally freed from the confines of Cupertino-designed packaging, I could take a hard peek at the computer. The machine looked, as anyone who has seen a picture of the laptop online knows, precisely like a G4 with minor port changes. Steve Jobs said the reason that the MacBook Pro retained the looks of the PowerBook is because that the PowerBook was perfect. If one wanted to use a polite sounding word to describe that statement, they would call it a prevarication. The more earthy among us would note that Steve was full of…well, family site and all. The looks are good but they are not the pinnacle of perfection Steve would have us believe. One might guess that with the rush to get Intel based laptops out the door there wasn’t time for a case redesign.

Newly minted Macbook Pro owners realize good looks only get you so far (ask Pia Zadora). Hence, after I was done ogling the machine, it was time to get it into a useable state. Those who already own FireWire capable Macs have a treat in store for them. After the computer snapped my photo with the included iSight (nice touch), it guided me through a series of prompts to transfer my old data to my new machine. The system worked like a charm, and multiple Mac owners will go from a new, mostly empty MacBook, to a machine that seems precisely like their old one in a positively speedy manner (the timing algorithm isn’t the most exact so don’t be dismayed by the “time remaining” estimate). The migration assistant is a veritable boon for personal productivity but one that takes some of the computer setting up “fun” out of the process.

Which leads me directly to a discussion on performance. Rather than list the number of dock bounces to launch a particular program, or use a stop watch to time how fast the machine boots up, suffice it to note that the included applications all seemed plenty zippy and the machine, as a whole, was responsive. Microsoft Office X took a while to launch, but once running performed without any noticeable delays. Photoshop pros and heavy Final Cut users likely won’t find the machine as amenable, but for your average Joe the computer is more than adequate.

All in all the MacBook makes a favorable impression. but it doesn’t rush portable Macs headlong into the future. Rather, it puts the laptop Macs more in line with their less mobile Mac brethren. Now, for a little whining (by the time this is published the complaint you’re about to read will likely be rendered moot). The remote is simply ridiculous and, unless I left it downstairs, already lost. It is hard to even see the point of the thing, the screen is 15 inches measured diagonally meaning optimal viewing distance is some forty inches away. Who is so incredibly lazy that they can’t reach forward to run the MacBook from a chair? Likely, the inclusion of the remote has less to do with the MacBook Pro than some part of an larger overall Apple strategy.

Is the MacBook worth the $2,000 price tag? Well, it is the only Intel powered laptop that runs OS X for now, so the answer is an unequivocal: yes. If Intel inside doesn’t mean anything to you then an iBook might be a tempting option. As an owner of both types of machines I will opine that while the specs probably won’t bear out a $1,000 price differential now or when the Intel iBook (MacBook Plain?) is introduced, the machine is $1,000 nicer than the iBook. Everything from the lighted keys on the superior keyboard, the brighter sharper screen, and the better build quality says that this is one instance where throwing the objective numbers out the window and splurging for the MacBook Pro is a decision you won’t regret. At least until the MacBook Super Ultra Elite is released.