I’ve had my MacBook Pro 17-inch for a bit over two years now. It is a great computer and still works fine. Aside from the letters “a” and “c” falling off from the bezel, turning the computer into a “M– Book Pro,” a couple of the cushion pads on the bottom falling off, a ding on the back side, some light scratching and a dead pixel, the computer works just like it did on day one. Well almost, the fans tend to run more often now.

However, I never purchased Apple Care protection, so basically it’s living on borrowed time. One catastrophe, such as the logic board going, and I’m out a computer. So I’ve been recently thinking about replacing it with another MacBook Pro. And I’m happy to say that I finally did. I purchased the computer yesterday at the Providence Place Apple retail store, in Providence, Rhode Island.

I Want That, No That, No That One

I settled on the newly released MacBook Pro, 15-inch, 2.53 GHz model. It comes with 4GB of memory, a 250GB hard drive, which I will replace with a larger and faster drive in the fall, integrated NVIDIA GeForce 9400M graphics chip, and a wonderful 7-hour battery. Well, 7 hours in the most “lab restricted” of tests I’m sure, but it’s going to be better than the 2 hours I get now with my 17-inch.

I purchased the “low end” 15-inch for a few reasons. For one, I don’t need the extra power of a dedicated video card (256 shared VRAM is enough for me) nor the faster processor speeds, which are minimal at best when compared to real working environments. Also, I didn’t want to spend $800.00 more to get a 17-inch just for a 1.6-inch larger screen size (diagonally). Also, what put me off is the fact that the new 17-inch displays are now 1920 x 1200 (native resolution). This makes for a fine display, however, objects on-screen tend to be much smaller than my current 17-inch, which uses 1680 x 1050 (native). I’m sure that if the native resolution were somewhere in between the two, there may have been an argument for the 17-inch. But alas, no such argument was present, so I happily went for the 15-inch, and if I may say so, it was an excellent choice.

The Impressionist

I’ve had less than 24 hours to come to my opinions on this wonderful new machine, so anything I write here is subject to change. The first thing you notice, even before you take the computer out of the box is that Apple has focused on environmentally friendly packaging. The boxes are much smaller than even the ones that came with my 17-inch just a couple years ago. I would say they are easily 40% – 50% smaller in volume. And of course, the overall packaging is exceptional, as all Apple products are.

When you break the plastic seal and open the box, you are greeted with the top side of the glorious MacBook Pro. That white Apple logo is staring you right in the face. Just the thought of reaching in the box and picking up the computer is enough to give one goosebumps.

After removing the computer from the box, I took off the plastic protective wrapping. I was surprised at how much thinner the computer was, and how much better looking it was than my 17-inch. I glanced over to the older MacBook Pro and saw a much different computer than just a few moments before. All of a sudden I didn’t like the design of my 17-inch. How fickle I am.

The aluminum unibody design is remarkable. With the screen up, no seams are present on the top or sides of the body, and unlike my 17-inch, no screws are visible. The bottom contains 10 screws that fit a second piece of aluminum which acts as the bottom of the computer. It fits perfectly. I’ve never seen a product with such an intuitive and clean design. The only materials I see are aluminum and glass, a small plastic covering where the hinge is, the rubber-like feet pads on the bottom, and of course the plastic keys of the keyboard.

Wait, There’s More

I’m so impressed with this computer, and I haven’t even turned it on yet! The first thing that you notice once you get into the OS (and go change the display colors to Adobe RGB) is that the screen has the nicest colors and clarity you’ve ever seen, either on a laptop or desktop display. The colors are crisp and vivid and the LED screen brightness will work in any natural light setting. I find myself only needing to ramp the brightness 5 levels or so. Maxing out the brightness looks as if you are staring into a sun.

The keyboard layout is much better than my 17-inch. The only bad thing I can say about the keyboard, and indeed of all Apple’s latest keyboards, is the abandonment of the Apple logo on the command key. I used to fancy saying Apple-S to save, or Apple-X to cut. Now, we are just like the folks in the Windows world, we now say “command.” That’s about all the negative comments I have about the keyboard. The special function (F1 – F12) now offer more of the features I use, like Expose and Dashboard with their own keys, complete with icons.

Come On Now, Touch Me

The touchpad has evolved so much since my 17-inch. The first thing you’ll notice is that the button is gone. The touch pad is the button. When I heard Apple say this a while back, I thought that meant you simply touch it, and it will act as a single click, just like my 17-inch. But no, you can still do that, but when you click down on the touch pad, it actually clicks. And what’s better, you can tell it to do a right click by clicking the bottom-right of the touch area. That’s just cool. The touch pad is made of glass, and it has this fine texture as to not make it too slippery, but still provide a smooth surface. Also, multiple finger gestures can be used, including a cool four-finger swipe that will clear the screen with an up-swipe, and return the windows with a down-swipe. Well done!

The user experience is second to none. The new glass overlay makes it easy to keep your screen clean and it also protects the screen as well. As we all know, it’s much easier to clean glass than the actual LCD or LED screen.

Do You Hear What I Hear

Now, I’m not a total Apple fanboy. I’ll tell you when I think Apple does something wrong, or if I don’t like something. That time is now.

Thus far, the only real negative thing I can say about my new MacBook Pro is that the speakers don’t sound as good as my 17-inch. I don’t know if that’s because the speaker grills are smaller, the speakers are of different quality, or the unibody has anything to do with the sound, but the speakers sound a bit “tinny” and the high-end frequencies seem to overpower the low-end.

Listening side by side, my 17-inch wins easily in sound quality. Now, I never listen to music from the internal speakers, I use a great Klipsch system, but if I needed to, it would be nice to hear better sound quality. I haven’t heard the new 17-inch sound quality, so I can’t say if this is just related to the 15-inch. The larger speaker grills and larger overall size of the 17-inch may prove better for sound reproduction. Also, the solid aluminum may resonate much differently than my 17-inch, which would certainly affect the sound.

Final Thoughts

One word… wow! Forget about the OS, which is the best in the world, I’m just going to focus on the hardware. So much time and effort was spent on the little details. Moving all the IO ports to one side of the machine was brilliant. I hated having cords sticking out on both sides of my 17-inch.

The aluminum body is so minimalist in form but allows the computer to do everything it wants to do in terms of functionality and practicality. If it’s not essential, it’s not there. Apple doesn’t like little things sticking out here and there, distracting the user from the experience. Aside from the recessed keyboard area, you are essentially looking at a flat block of aluminum with nice rounded corners. The razor sharp, 90 degree angles of the computer’s edge are eye-catching, as is the back-lit keyboard. Some didn’t like the black keys, but I find they look great with the black border around the screen.

This is my first LED display, and I must say I wouldn’t use a standard LCD every again. The colors are amazing, and I hear this is the best display Apple has ever used. The resolution of 1440 x 900 (native) is very adequate. I would have preferred something in the middle of that and 1680 x 1050, but it’s not a limitation in my opinion. Since I use my MacBook as my primary computer, I may get the 24-inch Apple display and throw in a wireless keyboard. That would be the perfect setup for me.

I’ve stopped counting all the Macs I’ve purchased since 2005. This could be number 13, or it could be 11. I’ve lost track. I used to go 3 years with a PC, but I often go less than a year with a Mac. I just can’t help but eat up the innovation and style. This one, however, I’m probably the most excited about since my first Mac mini.

I finished transferring all of my files via an external clone, and I finished adding most of my apps. I’ll be installing MS Office 2008 as soon as I finish this post. I love doing clean installs of my Macs, so this was something I’m accustomed to. I can take a clean install and have the Mac look exactly the way I want it in about 2 hours or so. I have about 40 applications I must install each time, so that takes up the bulk of my time. Thankfully, I have a Mobile Me account and my preference settings I can just sync down from the cloud and I’m good to go.

In Closing

Wait, didn’t I already have a “final thoughts” section? Anyway, I’m gonna go and finish my app installs and enjoy the MacBook a bit more. I’ll be back to post any changes in opinion I might have.

Update 06.20.09: The trackpad, which is made of glass, is silky smooth. Comparing it to my 17″, there is no contest. My fingers just glide across the glass. Nice.

So far, the only issues I have are the sound quality/level. The speakers are not as loud as my 17″ and don’t sound as good. But I’ve been told the 17″ have more speakers and a sub-woofer, which would explain the better sound.

Update 06.19.09: I didn’t even mention that this new model has a SD card slot. And wouldn’t you know, I used it yesterday. I didn’t have my USB cable for a camera, so I just popped in the card. iPhoto opened, my pictures were imported and I was done. Thank you Apple!

So far I’ve not had any problems or negative reaction to my new computer. I couldn’t be happier.