State of the art

This is my second review of Apple's new unibody MacBook Pro, the first one following limited use at the Apple Store and using the higher-end model with 512MB VRAM and the 2.53GHz processor.  I did not buy that machine, and chose instead the outgoing, base model MacBook Pro with the non-unibody enclosure and older graphics.


 
Well, I kept that older MacBook Pro for just under four months, and am writing this on the new model, with the base configuration 2.4GHz processor and 256MB of VRAM.  No, I didn't upgrade out of any desire for newer features, rather my machine had a video glitch that Apple could not repair, and so they replaced my machine with a new one.  All-in-all, Apple's quick and positive resolution truly impressed me, and reinforced my view that Apple provides not only the best hardware and software in the industry, but the best customer service as well.
 
 
Okay, on to the new MacBook Pro.  First off, as other reviewers have already mentioned, the new model MacBook Pro is only available with a glossy screen, and this was the primary reason why I didn't initially buy this model.  I still prefer matte screens, and there is some good news on that front as Apple's recently announced 17" unibody MacBook Pro will offer matte as a $50 option.  Since that machine is not yet available and I already consider 15" to be bordlerline oversize for me, I took the glossy screen 15" model.
 
 
As glossy screens go, this is about the best one out there.  Yes, it is like a giant mirror when turned off, and no, cranking up the brightness does not make reflections go away, only overpowers them.  At moderate brightness levels you will need to be mindful of your surroundings and possibly adjust your positioning.  Keep in mind that matte screens are also affected by reflected light just as much as glossy screens are, they just difuse the glare to spread it over a larger area, and make it less jarring.  Of course, the trade-off is that matte screens distort everything regardless of the presence or lack of glare.  For photo and video work in a darkened room (easy with the backlit keyboard) glossy is vastly superior.  For text in a brightly-lit office, matte is the way to go.  This is, and always will be an issue of personal preference.  I used a glossy screen MacBook for the last few years, so I knew what I was getting into and while not my preference, glossy is not a deal-killer for me.
 
 
Now while my preference is for matte, I most definitely do enjoy the benefits of glossy.  I spend a lot of my free time watching movies and playing games on my computer, especially when I travel, which is often.  Both of those activities are significantly better on the glossy screen than on the matte screen.  I also work on a matte screen external monitor in my office (on a desktop computer), so the negative aspects of the glossy screen only affect me when working on the road or at home, and can be addressed by adjusting position and lighting.
 
 
So the screen is about the best screen on the market for glossy-screen-fans, and about the least horrible glossy screen for glossy-screen-haters, how is the rest of the laptop?  Well, in every possible way, Apple has taken what was arguably the best laptop on the planet and made it better.  Slightly better in some ways, drastically better in others, and at the very worst, unchanged in areas where honestly no change was needed.  Lets have a look.
 
 
The new MacBook Pro is a bit larger and heavier than the old one, but the difference is tiny, and is made up for by the equally small reduction in thickness.  Sizes are so close that just about any case designed for the old MacBook Pro will work just fine with the new one.  I have a very nice Brenthaven case that fit the old model snugly, and it fits the new one just as well.  The weight difference is also completely unnoticeable.  I call it a draw, but if your desk is already very crowded by the older model, the new one will take up an extra few fractions of an inch in every direction.
 
 
Ergonomically, the new model is an improvement, and is honestly far better than I initially thought it would be.  Lets start with the keyboard.  The new MacBook Pro uses the separated chicklet-style keys just like the plastic MacBooks, the MacBook Air and the newest Apple aluminum desktop keyboards.  My previous experience with this keyboard design comes from the plastic MacBook and the desktop keyboards, both of which have flat-topped keys.  On the MacBook Pro the keycaps are slightly curved and are also more rigidly mounted than was possible on the plastic MacBook.  I haven't spent enough time with the MacBook Air to know if it shares this new level of rigidity, but it is a drastic step up from the plastic MacBook and perhaps feels even better than the desktop keyboards, which I find excellent.  There was no learning curve for me with this keyboard, and right away my speed is better than on the old MacBook Pro (as it was on the MacBook).  Where the old MacBook Pro remains superior is in the feel of quality.  The longer stroke on the old MacBook Pro keys just felt more luxurious to me, though not by much.  This is truly one of the best keyboards on the market today, and while I miss the look and feel of the old model's keyboard, this one is better for the business of typing.
 
 
TrackPad.  Hmmm, this is a tough one as I never liked ANY touchpad on any computer, and am quite a fan of the IBM (now Lenovo) TrackPoint, also known as the little red eraserhead.  Given the choice, I'll take the little red nub over any touchpad made, but since I don't have that choice on the Mac platform, Apple's new touchpad is about the best one out there, and is a worthwhile upgrade in most respects to that of the old MacBook Pro.  The old one was more conventional, but did still support many two finger gestures, including squeezing and expanding of text and graphics and two-finger scrolling and right click.  I never bothered to learn the rest of the gestures because the touchpad was just too small to take advantage of them and having the button separate made some of their use awkward to me.  On the new touchpad, the entire surface is the button, and it is a large and extremely responsive surface made entirely of glass, though coated to resemble metal.  Three and even four finger gestures are supported and are so intuitive that even after only one day, I cannot imagine giving up Expose support with a four-finger swipe.  This is a major advance, even without the gestures.  Being able to move any finger (or thumb) to position the cursor and then click in the same motion without moving the hand is a huge improvement that may in time become more natural to me than the eraserhead I know and love.  This matters because on the eraserhead I could use one finger to move the cursor and then click with my thumb, without ever moving my hands away from typing position.  On the new Apple, I can do the same thing, only making the entire motion with my thumb.  I'm not used to this yet, but its already comfortable, if a but slow.
 
 
Other ergonomic differences are minor.  For instance, the slot for the SuperDrive is now on the right instead of the front.  This is easier for me as that is the position I am used to.  Its been on the right for all of my 12" PowerBooks and my 13" MacBook, and as I've only had the 15" MacBook Pro for less than four months, I wasn't really accustomed to the front placement yet.  Of course, I really don't use an optical drive all that much anyway, so this isn't that important.  What is more important is that all other ports are moved to the left side, again like the MacBook and 12" PowerBook.  This is great if don't want to plug anything in on the right, not so great if you do, and is entirely a matter of personal preference.  I prefer this arrangement, but I know many who will miss having a USB port on the right, especially fans of mice with short cords.
 
 
The last two ergonomic changes are also what I consider the biggest improvements, and they are the display hinge and the display latch.  The hinge is basically the same as that of every aluminum and plastic MacBook and PowerBook to come before it, only it opens to a significantly wider angle.  This is huge folks, and that was always my biggest complaint about every MacBook and PowerBook that I've ever used.  Simply, older models couldn't open wide enough for comfortable use in a (hopefully parked) car, and the new one does.  The latch is nothing more than the magnetic latch from the plastic MacBook and the MacBook Air.  No more thin button and tiny metal catch to break, just close the display and a small magnet holds it shut.  To open, just pull the display open, a task made extremely easy by the small indentation for your thumb.  First-class design that actually is so smart you have to wonder why it was part of the very first clamshell-style laptops back in the 1980s.  This one is so obvious in its simplicity.
 
 
So what about the real reason we buy these things, which is the performance and function.  Well, honestly there is little significant change from the model it replaces.  Yes, the new MacBook Pro has fasters processors available on the high end, but the model I have uses the exact same 2.4GHz Penryn Core2Duo chip as the old model.  It has the same 2GB of RAM, though now faster DDr3 instead of DDR2, has the same 256MB of memory for its dedicated graphics card.  Yes, the internal architecture is a bit faster, the memory is faster and the GPU is supposed is of the next generation, all of which should result in higher overall limits for the new machine, but even after playing some fairly demanding games, Doom 3 on the Mac side and Mass Effect on Windows, I have not noticed any significant performance improvement.  Perhaps as newer drivers come out and almost definitely when we get the new Snow Leopard OS which will add GPU power to regular computing tasks, but for right now, any speed differences are minor at best.
 
 
Battery life has actually gone down with all things being equal, but of course, all things are most definitely not equal.  The new MacBook Pro has TWO graphics cards, a powerful nVidia GeForce 9600GT dedicated card and less powerful nVidia GeForce 9400M integrated graphics card.  Graphics performance with the dedicated card is equal or better to the old 8600GT dedicated graphics, but you will lose about an hour of battery life compared to the old MacBook Pro.  Run your new MacBook Pro on the less-powerful integrated video card and you get your hour of runtime back, five hours in moderate use according to Apple, but of course your PowerBook MacBook Pro is now only performing at the same level as the standard MacBook.
 
 
The point is, you have a choice, long battery life and slower integrated graphics or trade an hour of runtime for more powerful dedicated graphics.  This isn't as big of a penalty as you might think, especially when you consider how much better the new 9400M integrated graphics are than the Intel X3100 or GMA 950 integrated graphics on the plastic MacBooks and Mac Mini.  Appe claims that the new integrated graphics are five times more powerful than the Intel graphics of the older models, while some game benchmarks show a four times improvement.  Either way, the old Intel graphics were useless for high end games, while the new nVidia chip will run almost any game at acceptable frame rates so long as you back off on the detail.  I tried this with Doom 3 and found that the integrated graphics were fine with settings at medium levels, while with the dedicated card I could run detail at maximum, a setting that would choke the integrated graphics.  I can give up some detail in the interests of battery life when I travel.
 
 
There there are two other downsides to the dual graphics.  First, to switch between the two requires a setting in the control panel and then logging off and back on, which is less annoying than rebooting, but still not fluid or quick.  The other negative is that the Boot Camp drivers that allow you use Windows natively on your Mac only support the dedicated 9600GT graphics at this time, so for Windows gaming you will get horrible battery life.  I say horrible because the power management drivers are also not up to the level they are in OS X, causing the MacBook Pro to run hot and fast when in Windows, and when playing Mass Effect, it quit after only an hour and four minutes, compared to Doom 3 running for two hours and fifteen minutes in OS X with the dedicated and three hours and four minutes with the integrated video card. 
 
 
Windows is otherwise not bad on the MacBook Pro, though the older model was a bit better supported.  Sure, everything works, the keyboard lighting, the iSight video camera and what-not, but the trackpad is a bit jittery in Windows and you cannot run the lower power video card.  I expect Apple will address these issues in the next Boot Camp update, probably with Snow Leopard, and likely will add the ability to switch GPUs on the fly in OS X as well.  Even if such functionality is not added, this remains about the best combination of power and efficiency available, and that Apple can get away with a 20% smaller battery and provide the same runtime as the older model shows a real improvement in energy efficiency.
 
 
Perhaps the best thing I can say about the new MacBook Pro is that despite all of its radically improved technology, in most situations I just don't notice it.  It is a Mac, and that means that the user experience is so refined and so consistent that it matter little if I am working on my daughter's two-year-old MacBook (also running Leopard), this latest-and-greatest MacBook Pro or even the 8-core monster desktop Mac Pro at the office.  All Macs just go about their business with no fuss whatsoever, and except for the slight change to the function keys a few years ago, nothing changes in what you, the user, have to do.  Don't want to learn the new trackpad gestures?  No big deal, pretend they don't exist and keep on clicking the bottom of the trackpad with your thumb as though it was a regular button.  It will work exactly the same as your old trackpad did.  Want to use the new features, great, they are simple and intuitive.
 
 
Of course the biggest change to the new MacBook Pro has nothing to do with technology, features, ergonomics or performance at all, and that is the way that it is built.  The unibody enclosure is carved using a CNC machine from a solid block of aluminum, and results in the most rigid and strong-feeling computer case that I have ever come into contact with.  I won't be drop-testing my MacBook Pro anytime soon, but I have little doubt that this thing would survive unscathed from impacts that would dent the older model's thin aluminum skin.  There is simply zero flex in the new case and it feels like what it is, which is to say a solid chunk of metal.  This is the new state-of-the-art in laptop construction, and I have a feeling that we shall be seeing this design for many years to come.