Apple MacBook Pro 13-inch

I love this product , there is no issue of the hang and other all.

It was by far the cheapest policy I could find and it was extremely quick and easy to sign up to it. Everything was chosen and completed in under 5 minutes. I would definitely use it again. It would be nice, however, to have a discount for paying the entire contract up front.

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We have a 6 year G5 that we have been very happy with, so there was no other choice for us but to get a MacBook Pro.

We chose the 13

Awesome machine, extremely fast, does everything Apple says it does. Looks and performs beautifully. So easy to use, you can literally have 20 applications open at once without any problems. I love this machine, get one. Quality, you can't beat a Mac.

Buying the MacBook Pro was a leap of faith(& finance) but it is not a step I have regretted for one instant. After years of Windows experience it is good to use a computer that starts quickly, is straightforward to use, has a range of usable programmes installed from day one and which in the time since I bought it (June 2011) has proved entirely reliable working as efficiently now as the day it was purchased.

Particular highlights are the Safari web browser which is a joy to use, I Photo and Garageband which is making an old guitarist very happy. THe Apple OSX, Lion, is excellent, it just does its job unobtrusively letting you get on with using the computer and works extremely well with the physical controls on the MacBook Pro.

Downsides - none that have emerged at the time of writing (Jan 2012) except the price is initially daunting.

However while the MacBook Pro is not cheap a period of regular use makes it plain where the cost goes. It is beautifully put together and feels like the hardware will last if even a minimal amount of care is taken of it, the same can be said of OSX and the applications installed with it.

Finally I should mention the service I received form the Manchester Arndale, Apple Store - FANTASTIC. Knowledgable, interested staff with the patience to put up with and clearly answer even my most stupid questions. If you can, buy from an Apple Store and rediscover what service is really about.

In conclusion I would have to recommend this laptop to anyone who values a quality product and quality service. You really do get what you pay for !

This is my second Apple laptop, a MacBook Pro 13". I have used numerous Windows laptops supplied by my employer as well.

I have used this for 2 1/2 years with almost daily use, mostly web browsing and emails but also photo editing, DVD viewing and basic web site creation. Summary below:

- Screen is still bright and clear with excellent colours.

- Battery life was excellent when new, at over 7hrs with wireless, slight lighting of the keys and near max brightness. Now, it's still a respectable 4hrs

- Lots of little things work well, like the well-designed, solid, backlit keyboard, the quality of the screen hinge, uncluttered design, solid build quality, quick boot time, even the charging cable is safer and better

- Mac OSX is the easiest, most fuss-free system to use, and much cheaper to keep up-to-date once a new OS is out. Last upgrade cost £25! I use Windows for many hours during the week, I don't want to actively maintain my home machine as well.

- Hardware, OS and software integration is slick.

- Last Mac laptop (iBook) I sold on eBay after 4 years of solid use, I got 25% of it's value back. A good chunk of money towards this one.

Very pleased

Apple have once again rolled out their next generation of MacBook Pros with very little change to the exterior. We have come to expect this from Apple, which tends to keep the design for a few years before undergoing a complete refresh. This is by no means a negative point, however; they are still some of the most (if not the most) beautifully designed machines of their kind- though we were hoping for a black model to slightly show off our new, heavily price-tagged, Apple goods.

Specs

What is new, however, is the innards. The main alteration being the latest processors from Intel, dubbed ‘Sandy Bridge’. The 13 inch baseline model that I have tested is packed with a 2.3GHz, dual-core, intel core i5 processor. Though we expected something along the lines of 3.0GHz for this refresh, the Sandy Bridge processor makes up for it with its intelligent performance boost of up to 2.9GHz- if you are using really intensive apps. To add to your already-drooling-mouth, you are supplied with 4Gb of memory. And they didn’t stop there. You’re given ample space with 320Gb of storage. What I didn’t understand is that they did not include Flash memory found in the MacBook Air, which would have really sped things up. Instead we are still given the standard 5,400rpm hard drive.

Graphics

Unfortunately, you won’t see an improvement in graphics. Period. Apple have made the switch to Intel HD graphics as opposed to using the Nvidia graphics present in last year’s models. They will serve you well in day-to-day use with the cool, smooth, luxurious effects that Mac users have come to expect, but if you are a gaming fanatic, this is not for you.

Body

Design has remained pretty constant, and so, one underlying issue remains; the weight. Though the robust, unibody, aluminium enclosure is sturdy enough to handle the day-to-day challenges thrown at it (even if you resist the urge to wrap the beautiful, shiny, thousand pound device in bubble wrap), it comes in at a heavy 2Kg- that’s more than your nintendo wii; but in a portable device! This is something that needs changing as there are tons of laptops on the market at a fraction of the weight- and price for that matter.

Display and Camera

The screen is 13 inches of glossy elegance. It’s 1280x800 resolution is very impressive when combined with the LED backlit display. Images look sharp and crisp and motion lag is unnoticeable. The one issue with the glossy screen is when you take your portable computer outside. Yes, Apple have still not resolved the issue of that annoying reflection glaring back at you whenever you take a gander in the wilderness of the outdoor cafe. We had hoped for a matt alternative but this remains a feature exclusively available when configuring the 15 inch model. Above the screen, there is a new built-in camera. Apple have rid of the ‘iSight’ name in light of the new FaceTime app. But it is not just the name that has been changed. The FaceTime camera now sports a 720p HD resolution for- yes you guessed it- HD FaceTime calls. It also brings out those pimples that went previously undetected when snapping cheesy shots in Photo Booth.

Navigation

The trackpad is the largest ever seen on a laptop. It allows for multi-touch gestures that now make up a large part of navigating around your Mac. Inertial scrolling in webpages, sleek zooming in photos, smooth sliding from one desktop to the next; once you have mastered the basics your fingers will be sliding about like a dog on roller blades.

Battery

Apple promises that you can browse the web for a whole 7 hours on battery. Now, we often see manufacturers make these promises when we actually get a pathetic 2-3 hours until we have to revert to the wire. The battery is essential; if it dies after a couple of hours then how on earth can the device be called ‘portable’? However, the MacBook Pro really excels in this area. Under general usage, you can easily get around 7 hours, as promised. And after 5 months of daily usage, that battery life has not slipped. Well done Apple.

Input/Output

The 13 inch model houses two USB 2.0 ports, a Firewire port, an SD card slot and the all new Intel innovation, ‘Light Peak’ technology. The Mini DisplayPort now doubles as the new ‘Light Peak’ I/O Apple calls, ‘Thunderbolt’. This allows data transfer of up to 10Gbps but with practically no peripherals sporting this new feature, calling it an advantage may be a bit premature. As above, there are two USB 2.0 ports. Not only is this a relatively small amount of ports for a ‘Pro’ device, but Apple have not made the upgrade to USB 3.0. Though it would not offer the snappy speeds of Thunderbolt, it is omnipresent in the modern laptop market and considerably more speedy than their current USB port configuration. The number of ports may not be an issue for most users. Considering that the built-in trackpad is the best way to navigate the OS and the built-in keyboard is far easier to type on than even some of the newest premium laptops out there, there is no need to connect replacement devices. Though should you have the urge to copy a few Gigabytes of music or a HD movie or two, be prepared to make a brew- that is, of course, until we see the emergence of Thunderbolt storage devices.

Summary

The baseline MacBook Pro is a considerable hardware upgrade that easily out-performs its predecessor. We thought that the omissions from this device when compared to its more advanced siblings should result in it being removed from the ‘Pro’ family. However, its capabilities exceed much of the competition so we can understand why this should not be seen as anything less than ‘Pro’. If you are looking for a premium, robust and incredibly fast computer for day-to-day or intense tasks from word-processing to movie editing then the baseline MacBook Pro will serve you well. If you are more interested in the gaming side of things, I recommend upgrading to the 15 inch model which has an AMD Radeon GPU.

I love Apple Macs so I am always going to biased in favour of them. This one is, as usual, a brilliant apple product. At first the screen size took a bit of getting used to previously i had a 15inch macbook pro from work - but after a week i forget about the difference. Nifty little machine and i love it already - perfect for carrying if you are working away or travel a lot.

I love this laptop! It's robust with features and power. I love all the built-in extras (even a built-in iSight camera for video conferencing!) I also like the online help. I have yet to seek help online and leave without a workable answer and I've owned Mac's for 25 years! Also, I travel with my laptop and have even dropped it (in the bag) a couple of times. Thankfully, no damage at all! Amazing! One thing, this computer does require maintenance. It has to be cleaned up and taken care of or it begins to run VERY slowly. There's some great software (mostly free) that Apple recommends for that though and you can take care of it quickly.

I highly recommend this laptop.

I got my Apple MacBook 2.00GHz through their college student discount program. Therefore, I got the computer, the Apple Care Protection Warranty, a free HP printer and a free iPod Touch all for the price of $1200. For those not eligible for this discount program, the computer alone retails for $1100, but it is still definitely worth this price.

My MacBook was an upgrade from my previous iBook G4, and while the MacBook is merely one step above the previous iBook, it is in fact one giant leap. Not only is the MacBook much faster due to it's Intel Core Duo processor, meaning it virtually has two processors working at the same time, it is much easier to use. The keyboard is designed more ergonomically meaning that typing is much more comfortable for the hand and wrist. This translates into writing term papers not only more quickly and easily, but also more comfortably and prevents the hand and wrist cramps I used to experience.

The MacBook has a wide screen which is not only more functional but more stylish than the 12 inch screen featured by the iBook. It weighs only 6 pounds which makes it very portable, I can put it in my bag and take it to class with me without getting shoulder cramps from carrying something heavy around all day at school.

I love to play music on my laptop which reveals another excellent feature of the MacBook. I don't need to spend extra money on after market speakers because the MacBook's polyphonic, multi-layered, rich sound that is able to be played at volumes loud enough that make additional speakers unnecessary. The sound that comes out of this machine is beautiful and I prefer it to that of my iPod dock.

As mentioned eariler, the 13 inch wide screen display allows you to see everything on the screen in a clear, high resolution manner. It offers 1280 x 800 resolution which provides perfect display and makes watching movies just as great as watching them on the television, if not better.

The MacBook has all of the ports one could possibly need including 2 USB ports, a firewire port and digital audio in and out among others. The power cord is also magnetic, a feature that is pure genius because it prevents the unfortunate event of someone tripping over the cord and the computer falling to the floor and being damaged as my iBook had been in the exact scenario. If someone were to trop over the cord or it got caught on something, the magnetic design allows the plug to simply remove itself from the computer, making it idiot proof.

The computer has 120 GB of memory, much more than the mere 30 GB provided by the prior iBook. This amount of memory means you could store more music, movies, documents and pictures than you could ever imagine. Space on the hard drive will never be an issue with the MacBook and you will never need to buy additional memory.

For those that use the computer mainly for surfing the web, listening to music, doing school assignments such as writing papers and downloading documents, the MacBook is perfect. My downloads are finished before I even have time to determine how long they are going to take to complete. Web pages load at virtually lightning speed, the page is done loading before you can blink an eye. Also, as mentioned earlier music sounds crystal clear and loud and movies appear similar to the picture provided by a high definition television.

The MacBook is the only computer you will ever need, and it will last you at least 3 years. Especially if you opt for the Apple Care Protection Program, a warranty that covers virtually any type of damage that could possible happen to the machine, including physical damage. It does everything and anything you could ever want out of a laptop in a compact portable size and weight at an affordable price. The MacBook is an excellent machine that I cannot think of any downside to. For a college student like me, this is the perfect computer.

Rating: 10