Apple MacBook Pro Fall 2011 user reviews (2.2GHz Core i7, 15-inch)

Pros 1. UI is beautiful
2. Gestures and Trackpad are top of the line and windows comes no where close
3. FAST! waking from sleep takes half a second and startup is nearly twice as fast as windows
4. great build, and again just simply a gorgeous computer

Cons 1. does overheat, but not that bad unless you are running a bunch of heavy apps, and that is like any other windows PC
2. graphics switching doesnt seem to work all the time
3. issues with all browsers except Safari

Summary I just recently bought this Mac, and it was my first ever. I was a die hard windows fan, until I used my room mates Mac, and I instantly fell in love with it. First, the trackpad makes life so simple and it makes you wonder how you ever used a computer without it and the gestures it comes with. Also, some believe the UI is out of date, but I think it looks gorgeous and is a lot more fun to use then windows SuperBar. The speed of this computer is ridiculous. The computer wakes from sleep as I am lifting the screen, then I just log in. It used to take me a solid 30 seconds or minute to do the same on my old PC. All in all, this is a fun, beautiful, fast, and amazing computer that is worth the price in my book!

Pros Very fast computer, love the track pad, Starts up in seconds.

Cons Can't run games well, has frozen up frequently for me

Summary This computer is built for speed. It's the fastest computer I've ever used, and blows my HP away. This computer doesn't run games, and even freezes up playing Minecraft, which is not exactly a hard game to run. Other than that this computer is great and I would definitely recommend it.

Pros - Extremely Fast
- Beautiful screen
- Amazing OS
- Top of the line track pad
- Great webcam
- Built material
- Weight
- Overall appearance
- Battery Life

Cons - All USB ports on one side
- Price
- I wouldn't consider this a con,but it may be awkward to use a mac,especially like me who used a PC for 14 years.

Summary I just switched from a HP Vista laptop. The difference is enormous. The laptop looks absolutely stunning,it's material is excellent giving it a feeling of expensiveness.

From all the apps,gadgets,multiple screens...it really gives you various options on customizing the computer just how you want it. Even though millions might have a Mac,nobodies is the same.

The OS is at top gear,having everything you need and not having everything you DONT need. It's so simple and easy,the startup takes aprox 5-6sec....and shutdown amazingly even less,witch is not the case on windows platforms.

The keyboard is very good,I can't say much about it since I'm not a huge typer,but it's very comfortable,and the glow is a nice touch. But the track pad is amazing,I've never seen something so cool.

There are also a lot of cool features and interesting innovations that the PC doesn't have. Like the unibody that makes the Mac so sleek and extremely durable. Then the magnetic power plugin so you don't have to push it in or pull it out causing damage. The battery light indicator on the left side,amazing quality sound,and thunderbolt.

Yes,it may be expensive for some(even me). You might want to get something similar or even better by spec for a cheaper price,but Apple does one thing that no other company does.

They build everything to work for ages. This is not a laptop that's going to be outdated in a few months,or laggy in a year or two. This is definitely a laptop thats going to last for 5 years without it being turbo slow!

I highly recommend it to anyone,from students to old folks!

P.S if you get one,consider for 60$ getting the magic mouse,it's also great!

Pros - Fast
- Casing feels very strong
- Screen is beautiful
- Speakers are good for a laptop
- Battery life very decent
- Keyboard
- They DID something with function keys
- The webcam better than most
- Other Apple gimmicks are fun
- Not many viruses yet

Cons - Very little customizability
- Loud
- May get "warm"
- No USB 3
- No BluRay
- Why FireWire?

Summary The laptop is very nicely made. Some may call on it just for being a mac (because apparently Apple doesn't make good products) but I have an opinion much different. And understand, this is my first Apple computer. I have an iPod but who doesn't? I am a former Windows user, and There's just so much that JUST WORKS with it. Windows 7 is better than Vista, but neither even come close to Lion.


The Pros:

It is lightning fast even just on the intel graphics. I've tried my best to slow it down, and so far I haven't been able to make it unusable. Editing massive photos in GIMP at 70MP in size may slow it down, but anyone dealing with those file types are probably using better image software anyway. It edits video very nicely just in iMovie. I'm no editor though, it was just fun to play with. It converts video files unbelievably fast. A 2 hour 720p movie in under 15 minutes! While running iTunes and several other things! Gaming is great on it also (boot-camped of course) on full graphics it still runs nicely and above 20fps which to me is considered good.

It feels like a robust machine. It's not some plastic garbage that you'll need to replace in a year or less. It is made of metal. I've dropped it from 3-4 feet accidentally and it barely left a dent. The screen was fine too. the hard drive turned off because of some built in safety thing but it was fine. I'm not recommending any of you start your drop tests or anything, but it will survive a fall, unlike my Acer. And the casing on all the plastic laptops is the first thing to break. If you think your hinges have broken, think again because most likely it is the plastic casing that's broken. From the dozens of computers I've fixed (of people I know or friends of friends to use Facebook terms, and yes they know that their warranties are being voided and I tell them this before I even start, and I have their permission to do so) are all the same. Acer, HP, Toshiba, Dell, Lenovo, they're all made of the same stuff. Flimsy copper-coloured plastic that's coated black with texture on top, screwed together with weak connections (the screw holders break the easiest) that don't last more than a year or two. In Jobs's Terms, "They're ****." Because they are.

The screen is absolutely incredible. The colours are very vibrant and nice. Greens just look greener and blues just look bluer and so on. The contrast is nice too. Pictures look nicer on this screen than they did anywhere else aside from being printed. Video also benefits from this. The 16:10 ratio is perfect. And I see why they won't budge on that. Lots of online video content is still only in 4:3 ratio, and it's frustrating looking at it so tiny on a 16:9 screen. With this ratio, both 4:3 and 16:9 look better. So now you don't need to choose which you're going to convert your videos to. And most if not all cameras by default set their photos to 4:3 ratio, you can change that, but now you don't need to because they look fine just the way they are.

Listening to music on this laptop is great. It's part of the reason I went 15" instead of the base 13". They're loud and very good quality for a laptop. It might seem like a minor detail, but when you're not bothering with your home entertainment system, it is loud across the whole room, and due to me being in Canada, I haven't been able to test it outside yet, but I am fairly confident with what I've heard that the speakers would do well outside too. I listen to music all day, and speakers are important in this case.

Some will call the battery horrible or misleading on this because yeah, it really does only give you 4-5 hours worth. But really, does anyone do any better? This is a pro machine. It does actually sometimes get to 6 hours when just sitting there, which is how the tests are done for it anyway. Do you really think they do field tests and put that number as the maximum? They test them by looking at the battery capacity and calculating it with the minimum operating power of the machine. It's done by math, not by field test. You think any of the windows laptops that boast 5 hours get more than 2-3 hours? Well they don't. And even just using iTunes and Word on them they get maybe 1-2 hours of life (yes I've tested this, and my Toshiba was "guaranteed" 6 hours. Yeah right.). This machine's battery life for just Pages and iTunes I've gotten 5 hours out of, just doing my writing while having background music, and yes, full brightness on both the screen and keyboard. It's a very good number for them to boast about. And for those complaining about the battery being non-removable, It's not a big deal. When is it a big deal? When do you remove your battery? Do you just walk around with backups all day? It's a lithium POLYMER battery, meaning yes, it's prone to exploding if handled wrongly, which removing it would be in that category. It would be dangerous to remove this type of battery and I wouldn't want to anyway. So that argument falls apart.

Now to the keyboard. Being a writer, it's a very important aspect of the computer. I've been through so many keyboard designs, and none are better than the chicklet keys of this thing. the backlight also helps, as most of the time I'm writing late at night or in a dark room. Writing 3000 words a day just feels so much easier on this keyboard than any other. The Command instead of windows ctrl has been pretty easy to figure out, the same basic commands are the same (copy, paste, cut, undo) redo is command+shift+Z however and a lot of the commands for Pages is different from Word, but the basics are the same (bold, underline, italicize) formatting the paragraph and the page is all different though, and you can Google the commands for pages and Apple has a nice chart with them all on their website that should be the first result. Don't be afraid to use the internet sometimes.

The function keys are easy to do actual functions. You don't need to guess where the button to turn up the volume is while pushing 'fn' on a windows computer. It's done well. On a Toshiba it's somewhere in the number buttons for the volume and on Lenovo and Acers the screen brightness and volume is on the directional keys but they're not the same way so it's confusing when changing laptops. here it isn't. do away with the fn before the button and just press the button that does the function. Simple. No need to tweak it to work the way you want.

Some might wonder about this "HD" webcam they offer. Yeah it's great when on FaceTime with someone on an iPhone or iPad, but it's still grainy on the computer. But still a lot better than other webcams that are SUPER grainy and have lots of lag. It's actually bearable on this.

Apple gimmicks like the battery life indicator have been useful too. The instant on feature works in half a second, so it doesn't really matter that it goes to sleep with the lid closed unless you're using it like an iPod or something.

In the news recently there was one virus that was for Mac that was discovered, and there are others, though still thousands of times less than Windows. It's only because the makers of the viruses are targeting the largest group, the Windows users, and don't bother with Mac because it's not that big a target. But as Mac sales dominate more, which they are catching up rapidly, I wouldn't be surprised when more viruses are discovered for mac or maybe even iOS. But for now I can feel safe online without the need for a background program doing nothing but eating up my resources. I'll give it 2 years.


The Cons:

It really shows Apple's closed source views when you can't easily customize YOUR computer. In Windows they let you change the entire UI to your liking. In Lion, they won't let you. Or at least I haven't found out how. It's nice that they made the software and hardware to work for each other, but I want to make MY computer truly MY computer. They just won't let you because they think that everyone is technologically retarded and they don't want you to break it.

When that graphics card spins up, it's loud. it sounds like a plane taking off. But the speakers will drown out any noise when playing games, or if it really bugs you, headphones. And the metal casing doesn't really dampen any of the noise like plastic does.

It won't get unbearably searing hot, but it will get warm. I haven't had it used in summer yet, but it's warm in the semi-cold living room because we've had to rely on an electric heater because the gas one broke. so it's now bearable to sit in there, because the warmth is coming from the same place my music is. It won't get burning hot, at least I haven't been able to get it that hot and if i haven't, the average person won't be able to. And no need to worry about accidentally putting your arm where the vent is and burning yourself like I've done on other computers, because the vent is in the back behind the hinge.

A common comment that there is no USB 3, but really, your hard drive's buffer speed won't even get as fast as USB 2 anyway, so unless you're using a solid state drive, it really doesn't matter. And besides, they have the Thunderbolt port now anyway. It's not popular now, but when windows machines get it, which they are in 2012, it'll get better.

No bluray. This one I was kind of mad about. All my movies are in bluray, and as much as Apple seems to think that disk media is going to suddenly vanish from existence, it's not going to any time soon. DVDs might, but so long as the PS3 has bluray, so will most of everyone. They can leave the diskless stuff to their Air line.

Why do they seem to find the need, in their minimalist style, to keep FireWire going? It's useless and I've never even heard of it before I was looking into this machine. There's no reason to have it any more, because the only people using it are those with their decade old cameras that need upgrading anyway! You could have removed it completely, or I don't know, added an HDMI port? Not everyone wants to go buy your 40$ adapter for that, and probably only a small number does when it's 5 bucks for the same adapter on Amazon. It's just pointless to have that port there. Maybe keep it on the 17 inch failure that doesn't even have an SD card slot, but why would the 13 or even the 15 inch models need this?



There is my opinion on this computer thus far. I'm expecting something to fail too, but until then, 5 stars it is. Thank you Apple, this computer is the best one I've used yet, and finally I can do away with all those failures in Windows ones. If you've read until now, I hope some of these points are valid, because to me they are, and feel free to voice your opinion on anything I've said. For those skimming to the end to hate on this, read the whole thing or your opinions have no meaning to me.