Apple MacBook Pro 13 inch Laptop (Dual-Core i5 2.4GHz, RAM 4GB, HDD 500GB Graphics SD card slot

I've always used Windows so to go to Mac I felt I was being brave.

P&P - It came the day after I ordered it! It was so quick I actually missed the delivery but a neighbour fortunately took it in. The packaging is bombproof!

Macbook - Smooth, sleek, good looking and the perfect size for my needs (home use). Magnetic power cord is a stroke of genius.

OS X (Lion) - A slight learning curve as Im from a windows background but its so intuitive you soon find yourself trying to use mac shortcuts on your works windows cpu :P

The new lion OS X has transformed the MacBook pro into an even more intuitive experience, especially if you are familiar with the iPad. I am a new mac convert and up until now have only ever used PCs and my iPad and I have to say the transition to mac has not been daunting at all, but simplicity in itself.
I didn't know whether to go for this machine or the larger 15" i7 processor, as i would be using it for design work on the go and I use a processor heavy adobe creative suite, and I have to say I made the right choice.as it performs any task I throw at it with ease. the extra cost was in the end simply not warranted, and the bonus is, this is perfectly adequate in terms of size and ultra portable.
I purchased this with parallels software and a copy of windows which allows me to work on windows for web development and design packages for mac side by side which really is the best of both worlds and this is simply astonishing as this wasn't possible only a couple of years ago.
the MacBook looks and performs the part, and I cannot recommend this highly enough.

I have owned Apple Macs since 2001. I bought a G4 PowerMac that year and it's still running well today. Since then I've owned a number of Apple products, this Macbook Pro being the latest. As much as I love the stuff from this company, I find myself slightly resenting the fact that they used to be a bit of an alternative to the mass of Windows machines out there: there was always a feeling that by going the Apple route you weren't just following the crowd. In some ways it seems unfortunate that times have changed; what was once a company selling very well built and designed computers has turned into a corporate monster with a continuous push to dominate the world of cool with their endless product placements in movies and more and more shiny but fairly useless products. OK, rant over! This is a review of the Macbook Pro and so I will ignore my gripes with the company as a whole.

Recently I decided (basically for the above reasons) to give the competition a go for the first time since 2001. I bought a Sony Vaio Z series (I posted a review here on Amazon) in an attempt to use Linux for my day to day computing. The Z series was massively expensive and although it had its plus points I very quickly realised that I wasn't happy - Linux never really worked properly and Windows is just nasty - it's so far behind Mac OS it's laughable. So eventually I bit the bullet and sold my Z series and bought what I should have chosen to begin with - the Macbook Pro.

First impressions: the packaging is typical Apple - minimalist and thoughtfully put together, once you get the machine out of its box, you immediately feel confident that this is a quality product. Make no mistake, light-weight it is not but there's no chance that this laptop is going to suffer from the plasticky breakages that plague most Windows machines. Ports are adequate - 2 USB slots, SD card reader and a Thunderbolt port. The Thunderbolt is basically useless at the moment, unless you want to buy one of Apple's outrageously expensive displays or a very pricey storage device. However, I'm sure that products will make their way to market - when they do it will be a massively fast way of transferring data. There is also a Firewire 800 port (something I was pleased to see) and one of Apple's stupid mini display ports. These things are infuriating, why could they not have just put HDMI in there - it would have taken up no more space and meant that you could just plug straight in. Well, of course it's so that they can sell you an adaptor for £25!

The backlit keyboard is a pleasure to type on - much better than the Sony's. Battery life is extremely impressive, I've had close to the claimed 7 hours with WIFI on and a number of programs running. Screen clarity is excellent, although considering the Sony's 1920x1080 display, it would have been nice to see a slightly higher resolution than 1280x800. However, it is crisp, bright and gives excellent blacks. I could go on about the quality of this computer, it's a fantastic machine that I'm sure will last me for a number of years. I have a white Macbook which I bought in 2007; it's still working perfectly despite enduring trips to various corners of the world in a backpack and being generally overworked for most of its life so I am confident that this will be even better.

I don't want to say that there aren't PC equivalents, there are a lot of great Windows machines being made today and the glowing Apple is a bit of a coffee shop cliche these days. But for me, the usability of OS X more than makes up for this. As a useful product, I can't praise it highly enough, just beware - you might look like a bit of a fashion victim if you plan to pull it out in Starbucks!