01 August 2011

Mac Book Pro 13 inch


My macbook pro from over 4 years ago finally got to be too much for me. Overall it still works very well. Some dead pixels, a little slower than I’d like, not enough ram, typical stuff for an older computer. It had one terrible defect that presented itself awhile ago that finally get the better of it and made replacing it a must. It seems this model, after several years, wears down the connection between the keyboard and the rest of the computer and the only way to get it working is to smack the battery area really hard. You can imagine how professional that looks.

Since I might have some hard core work to do while I am away on a trip coming up, I bit the bullet and bought a bottom of the line macbook pro. I am pretty surprised how much I like it and how much improved it is over the older (but higher end model) I had.

The screen: is simply incredible for a laptop. there some falloff but for a portable, I’m really liking it. Going from 15 to 13 inches was no big deal either. In fact I hardly notice it.

The body: The new macbook pro is literally as thin at my old one, minus the cover. The one piece design is pretty easy to hold and the smaller form is preferable, to me anyway. I like a portable to be... portable. This is a “while I’m not in the office” computer, not a replacement for a desktop. Not having a million dollars lying around I didn’t try any of the new “thunderbolt” connections or external drives. I’m not lacking anything I need to connect to my current devices.

Operation: The transfer from old to new was so simple, even by Apple’s standards it was sort of surprising. A couple of software issues that were easily fixed by re-installing. In use it’s much, much faster than the older one, starts up extremely fast and opens software, even slow pokes like Photoshop and IN design much more rapidly than my Mac Pro tower does. The trackpad... which in general I don’t like in principal, has little odd glitches I find annoying. It’s hard to click on things sometimes or open software from the dock, instead you get the pulldown menu. Might be me not using it right but it’s not as intuitive as I’d like. The faster graphics card, 5 gigs of ram and larger hard drive help a lot.

Overall a great new tool to take on the road with me.

3 comments:

T' said...

Congrats, Vince! I had to replace my 6 year old iMac in February with an i7 27" iMac. In some ways, it works just like the old one. On the other hand, not only is the screen HUGE, but I can run nearly everything at once and not have slowdown. I love me some Apple product. Always have. Glad to know that it's doing well for you, too.

Behemoth media said...

Same here, it doesn't work in any different sort of way... just faster and better. An d the screen is amazing. I am going to P-town today and will take many photos. I am also working on a new American Experience episode about runner Jessie Owens and will need the laptop to work in after effects and retouch some photos as well for them while away.

I did not install Lion yet... afraid.

T' said...

Ha, I didn't install Lion either as it would require that I update both Illustrator and Photoshop, which is an extra $300.