Apple MacBook Pro 13inch 2.26GHz/2GB/160GB/GeForce 9400M/SD

You'll love the machine; it is powerful, slim, oozes quality, light, great to work with and Mac OS X is a good operating system. It is good value for money for the spec (pardon - is this Apple?), until you see the extortionate extended warranty cost. Take care of it - get a neoprene sleeve to keep it in.

Here is the detail in comparison to any windows machine in this price territory (I looked hard). The good:
- Slim, weighs 2 kg, around 0.5kg less than most
- Fast processor and 1066 MHz DDR3 RAM. Its 2.53GHz pricier sibling is a touch faster but I would only go for that for photo/video work with its extra RAM and disk.
- Excellent design and finish - it should get an award
- Reliable, secure, small footprint OS
- Excellent battery life, LED backlit display
- Low noise - essentially silent in operation until the noisy DVD drive spins up.

The not so good:
- Battery is not user replaceable.
- The aluminium casing is "form over function". It can be scratched and, being metal, it can be dented too; I have seen this at work. The white polycarbonate MacBook is your "student" option. Don't let that "hewn from a block of solid metal" appearance fool you.
- Mini-DVI monitor output will ALWAYS require an adaptor at extra cost. Why not HDMI out? Only 2 USB, no eSATA, but does have fast Firewire.

The terrible (one star off ...I can't divorce this from the machine; applies to its 2.53GHz sibling too):
- Extortionate, £195, AppleCare warranty extension; twice the price of most notebooks. AppleCare costs just £50 for educational use. Which is it? Will it fail badly (screen or motherboard) or are Apple overcharging?

I've been waiting for the unibody Macbook Pro line to be updated since early this year, it was worth the wait! This update really has put the 13" machine into the pro line, and even though I was worried that the lack of the dual-graphics cards you get with the higher price models might be a problem I needn't have worried. The screen is amazingly bright with very vivid colours, and it handles games at high quality settings with fps at around 20-50 depending on the game and what it's doing, usually smooth and clear.

This machine does get rather hot, as the aluminium body is used to transfer heat out of the interior, I wouldn't want to use this on my lap. And it would be nice if Apple would start putting Blu Ray in their computers.

I can live with those two problems, and for me this machine is simply fantastic!

Like most people here, I made the big leap from PC to Mac. To everyone reading these reviews who are contemplating it...Just do it! They're actually not a lot different from a PC in most ways, just a LOT better and surprisingly easy to use.

~ MacBook:
Apple want you to enjoy your product right from the start. So before tearing all the packaging off, take a moment to just look at how they've done it. Once your mac is out in the open, admire it for a second. It's a lot more aesthetically pleasing then your average laptop, with smooth casing, everything very minimal and compact. The all-in-one aluminium casing tops the whole thing off to a tee. The keyboard is revolutionary in its design, again being very easy on the eye with its adequate spacing between the keys, making it a lot easier to type. Another plus on the keyboard is the backlight, very useful when using in lowlight conditions. The screen again is the sharpest yet which makes a huge difference whether it be DVDs or general use. Makes everything on the screen look 10x better then a PC screen. On the screen is a built in camera (iSight) meaning no splashing out on a webcam. Can be used for general camera, webcam and is the sensor for the backlight keyboard and screen brightness. Those clever people at Apple have come up with an amazing glass trackpad. So smooth when gliding over it with your fingers, and so big as well. Also can be used for magnification, twisting, bring up applications and scrolling up/down and left/right web pages. The bods at Apple are all about the minimalistic approach to their products, so no CD Drive popping out (juts a slit to put it in) a headphone AND microphone plug in one, no visible cooling vents or speakers. Unfortunately, with this frame of mind they've cut down on the input ports. For instance, no HDMI port. Therefore if you require it, you have to buy an adapter. Everything on this has been thought about carefully, not just shodily thrown together. Example like the charger lead is magnetic into the MacBook, hence if trip over it, it just pops out. No harm done. So simple yet so effective.

~ Operating System/Software:
All new Macs come with the new OS: Snow Leopard. With this being my first Mac, I'm unable to compare it with the older versions. But I have to say it is pretty amazing compared to Windows. To start with everything just looks a lot better, smoother and more polished. A lot faster to, 10 secs maybe to start up, while about 2 secs to shut down. Click on an icon and it will come up immediately as well as l lot of things are easier to find and more compact overall. It is also deathly quiet at all times. Only time it starts whirring is when a DVD is being read, once being played it will shut up again. Also comes built in with iTunes and Safari (which are pretty self explanatory) It's these little things make the whole Mac experience more enjoyable. Blue Tooth is also amazingly built it, so no cables or leads between phone to laptop.

The MacBook comes with built in iLife. An interesting little package of GarageBand, iDVD, iMovie, iWeb and iPhoto. In the months that I've had my MacBook, I've only ever used iPhoto (which is actually a good and useful piece of software) and GarageBand (which I've only ever used just playing around when I've got a minute here or there). Unfortunately I have no intention of using the others which is a shame. iWorks is available for the peeps that want Word, Excell and Powerpoint. I personally don't really see the need as the MacBook comes with Text Editor (a basic Word). So unless it's really needed, then don't bother. A worry that I had was about opening and transferring files from Windows to Mac (ie Word doc. to a Mac). But they've even thought of that, with the MacBook capable of opening Word doc./docx. files in Text Edit.

Now, those big wigs over in the US of A have cleverly come up with a way to install Windows on a Mac! This is where Boot Camp comes into play. A clever little bit of software that lets you install your own version of Windows alongside OS Snow Leopard. Choose how much diskspace you wish for it to take up, then when starting up decide which OS to go with and bobs your uncle. This has the benefits of if you decide to install Microsoft Office having Word, downloading and opening programmes (ie MSN and the like) and various other tasks that are just a pain in arse to try and do in SL.

I honestly can't praise this machine enough, it looks beautiful, acts super-fast with an intelligent OS System, and most importantly is a joy to work with.

Once you've gone Mac, you'll never go back!