New Apple Macbook Pro 13 inch Laptop (Intel Core i5 Dual Core 2.3GHz, 4GB RAM, 320GB HDD, Up to 7 hrs battery life) - Launched February 2011

 

 

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As my first home computer was an Amstrad 1512 I have used computers for many years but I have to add I am literally a 'user' and would get totally lost in any in depth technical detail so this review is definitely not for those of you looking for impressive data specifications etc.

I have purchased numerous PC's over the years and as technology advanced it seems the PC's lasted for a shorter and shorter period of time. So when my most recent PC became ever more sluggish, having been impressed with my iPod etc, I decided to take the plunge and go for a MacBook Pro. As I'd been told a new version was due, I diligently checked each day so I could promptly order the i5 Dual Core 2.3GHz, 4GB RAM, 320GB HDD as soon as it hit the market.

I can happily say that I have never so easily set up a computer - usually a few days have to be set aside to ensure I can connect to Wifi, transfer email contacts, music, etc onto any new PC. It was certainly not the case with the MacBook Pro! It definitely outshone any operating system I have used so far and the sleek aluminum casing is shiny and very attractive too!

In a very short time it was connected to the wireless hub, email account was set up and email contact addresses were moved over. My next step was to move my extensive iTunes collection over. This did take me a little longer to work out but was more a case of 'Operator Error' than the system being at fault! Once I realised I could achieve the transfer quite easily via my iPod, it was accomplished within seconds. The sound quality is excellent.

It recognised my printer without any trouble as well.

The transition from using Word to iWork (Pages, Numbers etc) to compile documents was not a problem either and there is no difficulty in opening documents previously created on my PC.

The speed with which the MacBook Pro undertakes everything is awesome. We do not have a fast broadband speed but internet pages appear to load a great deal faster.

If you are reading this because you are contemplating changing from a PC to a Mac, I can only say it would be a move you most certainly will not regret.

As far as I'm concerned, it lives up to all the hype. Maybe it is slightly dearer than a PC but it is worth every penny!

Let me start by stating as many other people have done so whilst reviewing this product that I am a long time PC user (about 20 years or so), and have never really used an Apple computer before, except during college a few years back to briefly do some music production where I only used the expensive software and not the computer or OS itself.

Windows to Mac - I was put off getting any Apple computer because I thought I'd have to learn how to use a whole new OS!! I must tell you what I realised after using this OS very early on. It's easy!!! Apple are not stupid, they know that pretty much all of their new customers that they want to entice on to their products, come from a Windows back round. If they didn't make the transition smooth and their OS easy to use for those people, they'd never get any new customers coming over from Windows to them. I have to say that my experience with Snow Leopard OSX has been very smooth and productive. I still can't get over how fast everything is. The computer boots up in a few seconds, as a Windows user that is impossible. It is extremely stable and has not crashed on me at all. The best thing about getting this out the box for the first time is I get no crappy software clogging up my desktop that I have to uninstall like I have had to do with every single Windows machine I have owned and on top of that there is no need for me to install any kind of anti-virus software! I got it out the box, I turned it on, I quickly and easily set up my computer following the prompts given to me and hey presto; I was ready to go!! Any files I had on my computer that I needed were quickly transferred via a USB HDD. NTFS files are read with no problem and I can write them back on to my HDD for my main PC to use with some free software I downloaded (you can Google it and there are videos all over youtube on how to do this, piece of cake). I transferred my iTunes library from my PC to my Mac as iTunes is much faster on a Mac and this was easily but slowly done through home sharing (I have a lot of music so it was bound to take ages)!!

Build quality and design - This without a doubt, is the most well constructed piece of computer hardware I have ever seen. It feels so solid when you use it and aesthetically, it's just gorgeous to look at. There is no creaking, or plasticy crunches coming from this machine even the keyboard is very quiet and solid sounding when you're typing away on it! The layout of the keyboard is perfect and very nice to type on, even for long periods of time. I cannot stress how handy having a backlit keyboard is (well for me that is), I'm sure I'm not the only one who has to use their laptop in low light conditions, it comes in handy nearly every evening; I feel all laptops should come with this feature. The display on the MacBook Pro is one of the best I have seen to date. The contrast is astounding, with vivid colours and HD movies look just fantastic on it. The Mac runs very quietly and even when the fan kicks in a bit faster, it is still far quieter than my previous laptop and than my current PC. It stays very quiet and cool whilst surfing the internet and watching HD movies, which is were most of my time is spent.

Internet - I have used a lot of different computers over the years to surf the internet, but nothing can compete with the experience you get whilst using a MacBook. It was so easy to get it connected to my home network, and any other network I must add!! Using the two finger scrolling is something my previous laptop had tried to take on, but in comparison to this; it failed miserably!! The scrolling on the MacBook Pro's trackpad is very smooth and extremely responsive. Safari has many traits similar to Internet Explorer, which is brilliant for me coming from Windows. You have tab browsing, google search bar and a the toolbar is customisable. Safari also has Top Sites, which a nice feature and one I find myself using more and more as time goes on. This is like bookmarks in a way but it has an image of each website and opens up nice and clearly, which is a quicker way in recognising your websites rather than reading them from a bookmark list.

Software - The software you get with the MacBook Pro is brilliant. iPhoto and iMovie are very good editing tools for a person like me with no experience in these fields. I can create some excellent results with minimal effort. I love having my external mail client directly linked to the mail application on the Mac, it is so much quicker and easier just clicking on a tab and there it is. I have my mail updated every minute so I never miss out on any important emails. Some people have moaned about there being no word processing application on this machine for free. I do not need this as I do it on my desktop, but after a minute or two on Google I found a couple which sounded good at no cost.

The battery - This is a huge plus!! I do not know of any Windows based laptop or netbook that the manufacturer boasts a 7 hour battery life!! I have been using this a while now and the battery easily surpasses 7 hours whilst doing a mixture of web browsing, HD movie watching and uploading photos from my camera. Some of the new netbooks coming out are getting good with around a 5-6 hours battery life, but for a machine of this power to offer such superb battery life means it's way ahead of the competition in this area.

The price - This is the real debating point with many people in purchasing an Apple computer. I can only speak from my experience with this MacBook in particular. Laptops that are available with similar or slightly better sounding specs that are a lot cheaper than this computer are so for a very clear reason. They are put together cheaply with tacky looking plastic moulds, the are far more bulkier, they have poor components that do not work was well and we all know the saying that "you get what you pay for". Windows based manufactures have began to produce better quality laptops using aluminium shells, thinner overall designs, better components and guess what? Those new laptops are nearly in the same price bracket as this one. We are now talking about £100 difference instead of a third of the price. It just goes to show that once manufactures start trying to build their products to the same standards as a MacBook Pro, the prices shoot up!! Now with a smaller price difference people can really start to think about the software and if they are willing to pay slightly more for Apple or if WIndows is what they are used to, then stick with that. For the stability, speed, ease of use and general user experience I will happily pay the extra money for an Apple.

Are there any cons - To this day I can't find anything that is justifiably a con to buying this machine. Everything that I have had trouble with was my fault in trying to use it incorrectly and after a minute on Google or Apple support I found the solution. I feel the price may still be a con for some people, but as I said previously try to find a computer with the same specs and build quality, you will see that there is not that much of a difference. There are only two USB ports but to be fair I can pick up an adaptor giving me the extra ports I need for a couple of quid, so this can't really be something to stop me purchasing it. Others have said that the battery is not external and will be a pain to swap. Let's be fair here, I have no desire to hot-swap the battery given it's longevity (mentioned in the battery section). The battery is said to be good for around 1000 cycles, which will be anywhere from 3-5 years of usage, before it drops to 80% efficiency. At the rate technology is going and has been going, this laptop will be way out of date in that time and if I was keen to keep it, it would still run strong at 80% which would be around 5 hours of battery life (still very respectable by anyones standards). Any other battery would have been dead long before that and probably replaced at least once already.

Conclusion - Everybody has their own preferences for using a computer and everybody has their own opinion; this is mine. The cons I read about before purchasing this product that I thought would affect me have had a very easy answer or solution to them. I am extremely happy that I took the plunge and switched to an Apple laptop, I still use my desktop PC for my home entertainment system, word processing and I do not see that ever changing. The MacBook Pro is a fantastic internet tool with software I use to edit and store my travelling photos and videos whilst being able to watch HD movies. I am constantly between places and this laptop enables me to do these things on the go with it's ease of use and amazing battery life. The user experience is far more enjoyable than what I get from my Windows PC and it really is a joy to use. If you are stuck in your choice, go into an Apple store and try it out for yourself, ask questions to the very knowledgable staff and most importantly, do your own research. The snobbish stigma that is associated with Apple computers is very quickly fading away and people are buying these products because they work whilst offering ease of use, superb build quality and excellent components. Come to your own decision as both Windows and Apple offer some excellent products tailored for different types of users just make sure you come to an unbiased conclution. Oh and finally, my advise is if you're a gamer I'd stick with a PC as it has far more titles and will be a cheaper solution rather than dual booting your Mac. Me personally, I use my Playstation for games. :) I hope this review helps.

This is my second Mac computer and has proved to be yet another impressive tool. Boasting the Intel Core i5 processor running at 2.3 GHz, it is appreciably faster than the old Intel Core 2 Duo. The FaceTime camera and software is equally slick. The principle difference between the old iSight camera and the FaceTime HD camera is, yes you guess it, high-definition viewing at 720p.

In shape and form the MacBook Pro 13-inch i5 is identical to its predecessor with Intel Core 2 Duo. Beneath the bonnet however we find a few important differences namely; processor; the Intel Core i5 Sandybridge processor with integrated HD 3000 graphics built into the processor itself, a larger HDD drive with 320 GB, the afore-mentioned FaceTime HD camera, SDXC SD card reader reading cards up to 64GB and the revolutionary Thunderbolt interface which is also the same MiniDisplay port offering great potential for future high-speed storage devices. The data transfer rate is said to be 10 Gigabits per second making FireWire 400/800 almost redundant. Curiously, battery power is less than what the predecessor offered but still very good compared to what other models offer.

This computer is an excellent choice for those migrating from PC to Mac, the entry-level professional or "prosumer" and the Mac OS X devotee. I use mine to run UNIX® programs through MacPorts ( Mac OS X is a certified UNIX® operating system at its core based on BSD UNIX) and Linux distributions in a virtual machine. if you're looking for something fast, well-made, beautifully designed for general aswell as creative/productive computing; the MacBook Pro isn't a bad choice.

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1.0 out of 5 stars WARNING - don't buy if you want to use it with Windows 7
I have really loved the iPhone 3GS and various iPods that I have owned over the years. So when my 7 year old Windows laptop packed up last year, I started looking into the Mac... Read more

Published 17 days ago by Sharkmad8

5.0 out of 5 stars Superb, but avoid the 3rd party warranty.
The Macbook needs no introduction, and this is a fantastic incarnation. I've own them since they started and Apple computer equipment since 1978. Read more

Published 1 month ago by S. D. Spicer

5.0 out of 5 stars Macbook pro 13'
Just moved over to apple from microsoft, first macbook pro. One word SUPERB !, this is how computers should be , easy to set up, excellent to use, pure quality start to finish and... Read more

Published 1 month ago by angusclyde

4.0 out of 5 stars A big bite of the Apple
I found myself unexpectedly looking for a laptop for our AV shows, I am well versed in both Windows & Mac Platforms
I initially started looking at the range of windows... Read more

Published 2 months ago by nigel blacker

5.0 out of 5 stars Apple Macbook Pro 13
The way Safari deals with web pages on the Macbook has to be seen to be believed, swipe the pages using the touch pad and they open in the same way as pages on your iPhone... Read more

Published 3 months ago by Danny

4.0 out of 5 stars Could do with a manual for former PC users
This is my first Apple product and whilst the Macbook Pro is beautifully made and functions well it really does need a better instruction manual, especially for former PC users... Read more

Published 3 months ago by Sunray

5.0 out of 5 stars New Mac Book Pro
Fantastic product. As usual with all Apple products you have a great design that look good and is bomb proof. Read more

Published 3 months ago by DeanB

5.0 out of 5 stars This is a GREAT computer
Having used PCs since they were invented, I was quite nervous to change to a MAC, but after only a couple of weeks, I don't know what I did without one. Read more

Published 3 months ago by Great Expectations

1.0 out of 5 stars Empathy for the Devil
My previous Apple Macbook had a "catastrophic failure" of the logicboard two months out of warranty. Read more

Published 3 months ago by J. Mcgregor

5.0 out of 5 stars bliss
Excellent purchase to bring happiness to a loved one. Good delivery service to loved one who is thoroughly enjoying using it.

Published 4 months ago by pen name

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