Now it has been a little over two weeks since I received the MacBook Pro 15.4", equiped with a Core 2 Duo at 2.16GHz and the 2 GB of RAM, 160 GB hard disk updates. It has been enough time to get a decent impression of the machine, so let me post a little review.
The laptop is great overall. It is fast, full of features and tiny details, and has an excelent look (highly subjective ;-). Compared to the iBook G4, which had a 12" 4:3 screen, this one is noticeable bigger (15.4" 16:10) but is thinner and weights almost the same. Sincerely I don't care too much because it was also replacing the desktop PC I had, so I really wanted to have a large resolution to work comfortably (plus a decent video card, only available in the Pro model).
As regards performance, the Core 2 Duo is certainly faster than the processors in the other machines. For example, the old PC needed between 5 to 6 hours to build a full NetBSD release, while the C2D takes less than 2 (1.45, if I recall correctly). Games also behave appropriately, even at the highest available resolution (1400x900). Unfortunately, the hard disk (which does 5400RPM "only") is a bottleneck for my typical development (or gaming) tasks, as I outlined in a previous post.
Somewhat related to the previous post, the hardware virtualization available in these new microprocessors is awesome. Anyone who deals with cross-development should consider getting one of them: it's impressive to see two (or more!) different operating systems working at the same time at native speeds.
Aside that, the machine is full of tiny details. You probably know most of them: the MagSafe connector, the keyboard's backlight, the integrated webcam and microphone or the Apple Remote. I kinda like this last item, although it does not shine as it could if it was in an iMac.
However it has its problems too. When the fans spin up, it becomes very noisy... and this happens as soon as you start building any piece of software or launch a game. On another order of things, I've been attempting to install Windows XP on a partition that is not at the end of the disk and haven't been successful, which means it is restricted to the slower part of the drive (a pity for games, specially). But well, not that I can blame Apple because Boot Camp is still beta.
Not much more I can say. These machines have been reviewed in depth all around already.
And to conclude, a shot of my current desktop :-)
10 comments:
Wow, where can I get that amazing desktop background?
>Wow, where can I get that amazing >desktop background?
That is exactly what I want to say :)
Julio,
Congrats for getting such a great laptop. I have exactly the same one.
Some words regarding virtualization. There is a very amazing piece of software called parallels. I have never purchased any software, but in this case it was worth it to make an exception. 85US is a good price.
And they have a feature on it (only for windows) that is quite remarkable: When you perform the installation of windows on the virtual machine, you just have to enter the windows key at the very beginning and then the software controls the input output during the whole installation so you don't have to answer the annoying windows installation questions.
There is a problem though. That software tens to generate some grey screens of death from time to time, a would say 1 orw 2 per month. By that I mean that the kernel gets panic and you have to reboot the machine. I sent the log to the developers and I hope they'll fix it soon We'll see.
Also regarding the hardware. One thing that I don't like is that the machine tens to run a way to hot. They have improved this a little bit in the new version (C2D) but still is kind of hot. They have modified the firmware and the fans run faster and more often. But still gets hot. There is an app out there which helps with this: coreduotemp. Basically you can controll the fan speed as you want. Highly recomended. Also, you can check on realtime the temperature of the system.
Greg and anonymous: The wallpaper comes from InterfaceLIFT, a site I discovered just yesterday; they have some great stuff :-) The wallpaper in is Foggy Morning 2.
drio: I'm already using Parallels; note the icon in the dock! ;-) I haven't bought it yet though, as my trial key is still valid. But I'll buy it soon, dunno if retail version or what...
I've also tried the latest beta that has support from booting the Windows on your Boot Camp partition. Unfortunately it has screwed my activation key because I already reactivated Windows at least twice... one with the switch to the new laptop and one for some "significant" hardware changes in my old machine. I'll have to call Microsoft to get this fixed and then I'm not sure I'll go with the beta version any more, heh.
As regards temperature, you are right. It gets very hot and I failed to note it in the post. However, it is more comfortable than the iBook: when active, that machine got hot where your palms rest, which was very annoying. This one, at least, gets real hot past the keyboard, so it's not as problematic for use on a table.
Julio,
Argc.. sorry I didn't see the icon. Actually.. I don't know how come you have so many icons in the dock if you use quicksilver. Anyway, just curious.
Regarding parallels, please, let us know if you have the same problems I have (and other people have. Check the forums).
Also, are you using parallels for your development with netbsd or still Qemu? If you use parallels I would like to hear about it.
drio: Yes, I have had some problem with Parallels. It panic'ed the box once, but not any other time. (Please note that I've not used it intensively yet.) Also, it once started consuming memory like crazy (10GB of swap!).
As regards Quicksilver... I'm not too used to it yet; didn't have it in the iBook because it was "slow". Plus I like having the apps in the dock in specific places so that "visual memory" works ;) And the icons there are useful for the eventual drag and drop.
And about NetBSD... I'll certainly switch to Parallels, but I haven't had the chance yet. As it supports "raw" hard disk images, I doubt I'll have any problem with the switch :-)
10G of swap? No way.
Initially I had 1G only, and the windows VM and macosx where using almost the 1G of ram. Then I started running solaris10 also and the system started to page in/page out so I had to upgrade the memory otherwise performance was really bad with more than 1 virtual machine running.
What do you mean that parallels uses 10G of swap? But that 10G are mapped against your main memory? I am confuse.
drio: It happened only once. I installed the latest beta available, configured a new virtual machine for Windows and asked it to use the Boot Camp partition. I assigned it 1 GB of RAM (and I have 2 on the machine). Then I launched it... and everything became slow, very slow.
When I was able to launch the Activity Monitor (it took a long while), it reported that the system was using 10 GB of memory. Shutting down Parallels reduced that to 8 or so. Had to close several applications to see the amount of memory go down, and at last had to reboot because some apps were unstable.
what are those little ovals in the bottom right of the screen?
Bobregular: It's Adium X, the instant messaging program, using one of the included skins.
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