Our notebook includes the following specs:
- Mac OS X v10.5.5 Leopard and Windows XP SP3 (Boot Camp)
- Intel Core 2 Duo P8600 2.4GHz (3MB L2 cache, 1066MHz frontside bus)
- 2GB 1066MHz DDR3 SDRAM
- 250GB 5400rpm Serial ATA hard disk drive
- 15.4" glossy widescreen LED backlit display (1440 x 900)
- Integrated Nvidia 9400 graphics (256MB of shared memory) and Discrete Nvidia 9600M GT (256MB of shared memory)
- iSight webcam
- AirPort Extreme WiFi (IEEE 802.11a/b/g/n)
- Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR (Enhanced Data Rate)
- Mini Display port, 2 x USB 2.0 port (480Mbps), Audio out, mic, ExpressCard, FireWire 800
- Dimensions : 0.95 x 14.35 x 9.82 inches (H x W x D)
- Weight: 5.5 lbs
- Integrated 50-watt-hour lithium-polymer battery
- 85W MagSafe power adapter with cable management system (6.5oz)
- Price: $1,999 ($1,899 with education discount)
Build and Design
Out of the MacBook Pro's myriad new features, the most radical change is the build and manufacturing process. Apple now machines every aluminim notebook casing out of a solid "brick" of aluminum, thereby reducing weight and size of components, but increasing structural strength. While the new MacBook Pro weighs just hair more than the previous MacBook Pros, 5.5 pounds compared to 5.4, they offer a much sturdier build quality and a thinner profile, at 0.95 inches compared to 1 inch thick, but also slightly wider and deeper. The new MacBook Pro's solid exoskeleton allows virtually no give: We tried to bend and warp the case, but short of a world champion Phonebook ripper, our efforts were for naught. Similarly, the screen panel cannot be twisted or shifted without considerable effort, and now locks into place with a magnetic clamp instead of a mechanical latch.
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Another ancillary benefit to the unibody design is that Apple has rearranged the notebook's innards for easier access and user upgradability. Removing the battery cover underneath the notebook will grant you access to both the battery itself and a 250GB 5400 RPM Hitachi hard drive, which is held in place by four screws and connected via standard Serial ATA. Removing the entire under panel offers even more opportunity for the intrepid DIYer, granting access to an Optical SuperDrive, and 2GB of RAM.
Screen
The new MacBook Pro's 15.4 inch LED screen is the same 1440 x 900 resolution as its predecessor, and still displays pristine color fidelity, although, as you can see in the photos below, viewing angles leave a bit to be desired. In a dark or moderately light indoor setting, we found that only 30-40% brightness was necessary. The main complaint that most users will have is that Apple has discontinued the matte screen option. While the glossy glass screen is great while viewing in the dark, it can be quite reflective under broad daylight, even at 100% brightness.
Keyboard and Touchpad
Below the screen you'll find a new black, backlit chicklet keyboard, derivative of the Macbook Air. We preferred the older keyboard on previous Macbook Pros and PowerBooks, as the new keyboard is slightly more audible (sometimes even squeeky) and 'clackier' than the older keyboard, but sufficiently tactile. After a few minutes we adjusted to the new keyboard just fine, so we're confident most other users will too.
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Another significant change is the new MacBook Pro's larger glass trackpad, which does away with buttons altogether (sort of). The trackpad itself now functions both as a single tactile button as well as a multi-touch surface supporting various gestures: two figured rotation, zoom, and left-clicking and four fingered swipes to activate Expose. In OS X, these gestures are both incredibly responsive and useful, but running Windows under Boot Camp, decidedly less so. Boot Camp drivers currently offer little more than tap to click, which is disappointing, but we're hopeful that Apple remedies this with a future update.
Input and Output Ports
Around the left edge of the notebook you'll find the MacBook Pro's assortment of inputs and outputs, now all conveniently arranged on one side. Of course, one of the trade-offs of such a thin casing is that older ports must make way for the new. Case in point, the new MBP tosses FireWire 400 into the recycling bin and provides only a single FireWire 800 port. DVI-out has also given up the ghost for a new mini-DisplayPort jack, capable (in theory) of carrying both audio and video signals.
Unfortunately, mini-DisplayPort is a nascent standard so mini-DisplayPort to DVI/VGA ($29) and mini-DisplayPort to dual-link DVI ($99) adapters will only be available from Apple for a time. We would have preferred the addition of the more prevalent HDMI standard, but Apple was unwilling to license the technology. Other than those two exceptions the MacBook Pro offers a standard if rather spartan offering with two audio jacks, two USB 2.0 slots, Gigabit Ethernet, and ExpressCard slot.
HDTune results:
XBench is a comprehensive benchmarking solution for Mac OS X commonly used to compare the relative speeds of two different Macintoshes. XBench 1.3 summary results:
Model Overall Score MacBook Pro 2008 (2.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo) 121.07 MacBook 2008 (2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo) 126.23 MacBook Air (1.6GHz Intel Core 2 Duo) 50.76 Mac Mini (1.83GHz Intel Core 2 Duo) 94.58 MacBook (2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo) 95.89 MacBook Pro (2.2GHz Intel Core 2 Duo) 106.05 PowerBook G3 Pismo (500MHz G3) 18.47
XBench (version 1.3) Detailed Results (using 9400M graphics)
- Results: 121.07
- System Version 10.5.5 (9F2088)
- Physical RAM 2048 MB
- Model MacBookPro5,1
- Drive Type Hitachi HTS543225L9SA02
- CPU Test 141.14
- GCD Loop 246.83 13.01 Mops/sec
- Floating Point Basic 123.44 2.93 Gflop/sec
- vecLib FFT 95.86 3.16 Gflop/sec
- Floating Point Library 173.70 30.25 Mops/sec
- Thread Test 253.00
- Computation 382.23 7.74 Mops/sec, 4 threads
- Lock Contention 189.07 8.13 Mlocks/sec, 4 threads
- Memory Test 180.71
- System 204.13
- Allocate 263.25 966.75 Kalloc/sec
- Fill 170.16 8273.33 MB/sec
- Copy 199.17 4113.74 MB/sec
- Stream 162.11
- Copy 154.67 3194.60 MB/sec
- Scale 153.51 3171.50 MB/sec
- Add 172.40 3672.50 MB/sec
- Triad 169.65 3629.21 MB/sec
- Quartz Graphics Test 169.53
- Line 156.78 10.44 Klines/sec [50% alpha]
- Rectangle 202.78 60.54 Krects/sec [50% alpha]
- Circle 166.23 13.55 Kcircles/sec [50% alpha]
- Bezier 162.58 4.10 Kbeziers/sec [50% alpha]
- Text 166.18 10.40 Kchars/sec
- OpenGL Graphics Test 144.97
- Spinning Squares 144.97 183.90 frames/sec
- User Interface Test 273.05
- Elements 273.05 1.25 Krefresh/sec
- Disk Test 40.35
- Sequential 70.61
- Uncached Write 106.73 65.53 MB/sec [4K blocks]
- Uncached Write 80.13 45.34 MB/sec [256K blocks]
- Uncached Read 37.33 10.93 MB/sec [4K blocks]
- Uncached Read 124.77 62.71 MB/sec [256K blocks]
- Random 28.24
- Uncached Write 9.61 1.02 MB/sec [4K blocks]
- Uncached Write 74.13 23.73 MB/sec [256K blocks]
- Uncached Read 66.72 0.47 MB/sec [4K blocks]
- Uncached Read 110.52 20.51 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Heat and Noise
One of the biggest and most welcome changes we noticed is how the new MacBook Pro handles heat dispersion. From our time testing older MacBook Pros, MacBooks and PowerBooks, they all become uncomfortably hot even during simple productivity use. After two plus hours writing this review with the late '08 MacBook Pro on our lap we're not even singed. iStat reports a comfortable 32 degrees Celsius within the enclosure, 38 degrees in the GPU, 32 degrees in the hard drive and 44 degrees within the CPU in Better Battery Life Mode. Even while gaming the MacBook Pro disperses heat well. The discrete GPU is now located in the upper left corner of the chassis, which can get hot to the touch after a while, but the palm rests are barely luke-warm. Under load during multiple hours of gaming the GPU hit a ceiling of 78 degrees Celsius. At this point the fans spin up audibly, but well within an acceptable noise level.
Battery and Power
The new MacBook Pro includes a slightly less capacious battery at 50-watt-hours, down from 60 in the previous version, although this should be somewhat mitigated by switching to Better Battery Life Mode which utilizes the 9400 Chipset's integrated graphics for less strenuous tasks like HD video. It should be noted that in order to switch between these modes you'll need to log out of OS X. While it can be annoying to have all your windows closed the actual process only takes about four to five seconds. Unfortunately, Windows disables GPU switching entirely, though.
Running in Better Battery Life Mode with 40% brightness, Wi-Fi turned on, Bluetooth off, a couple of restarts and some intermittent audio and video streaming we were up and running for three hours and thirty-eight minutes, so under the right conditions it's certainly within reason to expect between four to five hours of battery life that Apple advertises. The battery charged up to full again in under two hours.
Conclusion
The new MacBook Pro is unquestionably Apple's most revolutionary notebook to date, the build quality is simply unmatched, while its size and weight to performance ratio is excellent; allowing you to multi-task and game comfortably (just don't expect desktop level performance.) As with all Apple products, price is the most significant barrier to entry and while the MacBook Pro did get some significant spec bumps it still loses out to other PC models on specs alone. That being said, you are mostly paying for compact size, elegant design and, of course, OS X, and with that in mind the new MacBook Pro is easily worth the price.
Pros:
- Elegant, sturdy, environmentally sound design
- Compact size and weight
- More user accessible components
- Very capable gaming performance
Cons:
- Expensive
- Lower specced than cheaper models from Dell, Sager, Lenovo
- Skimpy on accessories
- Few ports
- No matte screen option
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