Apple MacBook Pro 2008 Edition user reviews (Core 2 Duo 2.5GHz, 2GB RAM, 250GB HDD)

Pros Great battery life, very attractive display

Cons Hardware failed 3 times in the first year - latest failure is because of the faulty nvidia chip reported widely on the net. Google for "macbook pro graphics chip", and it's the first link.

Summary I love this laptop, except when I hate it! :) I bought it for my consulting business, and use it daily for my work and hobbies, mainly photography.

I purchased mine in 8/2007 and it failed completely within 10 days - just completely dead. Apple replaced it with a brand new one. The display partially failed after about 6 months, so Apple replaced the whole display. Power supply failed after 8 months - replaced. Now just 2 weeks past warranty (I didn't buy AppleCare - I recommend you do), the display (internal and external) doesn't work - exact symptoms of the nvdia 8600M GT chip failure. The machine will boot, as evidenced by using voice-over or screen sharing from another mac, but the display is completely dead. Twice I got it working again after about 20 boots, and it works fine until you sleep or power off.

The only saving grace is that Apple agreed to repair it again at no charge, even a few weeks out of warranty. But according to other posts in Apple forums, the same faulty chip is going back in, and will eventually go bad again. I hope Apple eventually agrees to extend the warranty for this defect.

I would give it 5 stars without hesitation if the hardware was reliable, but with the failures I have experienced, I don't think I would purchase this computer again. If I did, I would be sure to get AppleCare, which extends the warranty to 3 years.

Updated on Sep 17, 2008

Update - I would change to 4 stars if I could. Apple decided to replace the whole laptop at no charge due to my repair history. So I now have a brand new 2.6 GHz MPB, with a bigger hard drive too (was 160GB, now have 200GB). But the best part is that they let me purchase Apple Care on the new laptop, so I'm covered for 3 more years (yes, 3 years, even though I originally purchased a year ago).

My faith in Apple Customer Service has been restored! But I would still highly recommend that you purchase Apple Care - it's worth the extra cost in my experience!

Pros Better, faster, stronger.

Cons It contains circuitry that would fail in any time. This happens offten out from the warranty coverage time

Summary The Nvidia8600 chip appears to be failing. Many MBP are failing every day and the way to fix them are changing the logic boards. The problem we (the affected users) is the overheating of this chipset.

Also, the displays for this computeres have (often) particles inside the screen and flurry areas.

Other physical problems may occur.
Goog some and find the macbook pro problems.

Pros The fastest computer in its class... The looks are stylish, great power, sharp screen, unbeatable OSX, can run windows, absolutely great.

Cons only 2 usb ports, the integrated dvd drive reads limited dvd's, slightly heavy for everyday travellers. Limited software.

Summary The computer is simply the best. No otherway to put it. Having used an alienware gaming device, i have to say that this isnt much slower than a 3.2 ghz alienware. I have a 2.6 vaio, and the 2.5 mac aces it in speed. It looks stunning, has a crisp screen, amazing OSX, nothing much to dislike about it. The software support however is a let down. Also, if you want to upgrade your processor, you need to change the entire insides, upgradability is lacking. All in all, the best laptop you can buy.

Pros Ability to run Mac and Windows software made transition from my Dell Laptop easy. Speed to download 8GB of photo was amazing. Opens RAW images in seconds vs PC minutes.

Cons Cost, some dual software has fewer functions on the Mac, difficulty using bluetooth with PC Windows.

Summary I'm back to Mac after 15 years on PCs and am I happy. I started in the 80s with Macs at home and Work, but my employer, the US Govt., forced me to PCs. Now after 10 Window's PCs, I decided to give Mac a chance, even with the $3,000 price tag for MacBook Pro with 4 GB RAM and the faster 200GB drive. What a machine! I'm not an expert, but an advanced user and the transition was easy. I loaded Parallels, XP SP3 and about 15 Windows programs and upgraded 4 PC programs to Mac, two were free. Programs running under Parallels do lose some printer functionality with my Kodak 5300, but they all have worked. Wireless worked fine with both Mac and PC, but I'm still having problems with my PDA Sync with MS PC Outlook using Mac Bluetooth, but it syncs with the USB cable . I find great pleasure downloading my 4 and 8GB CF cards using USB 2.0 and my I-rocks flash card reader with USB ports and the faster ExpressCard 34 CF drive. Downloads are amazingly fast and viewing the files in the Mac Finder is almost instantaneous, and very fast in Windows. Most of my recent PC peripherals work better than on my old Dell 8200 laptop. Only my PCMCIA cards didn't fit the MacBook. I've only had this Mac for a month and the negatives are few, and mostly from my stubbornness in reading instructions with the Windows Virtual Machine functions. I would have given this a 10, but nothing is perfect.