Plan to do a video review tomorrow, but for now....
Reason it took 72 hours is because of whatever Apple changed between the 2010 and the 2011 that basically required me to reinstall Snow Leopard in order to get my SSD to boot. Not pleased with that at all - I already had 10.6.6 on the old Big Apple, this "custom build" totally screwed things up that worked fine.
Anyway, I'll try to keep it brief.
The Positives
May not seem like a lot, but I depend on VMWare for work, so it's huge for me. As noted elsewhere this was not a major change to the hardware; rather, an "upgrade" to its internals. There are other frilly things like the FaceTime camera and other junk that I don't care about.
The Negatives
Fortunately I'll be selling my old Big Apple to recoup the majority of what I paid for this ($2800), and I'm sure it'll be a solid replacement for Big Apple, which has served me extremely well since I bought it. But there are things about this upgraded model which irk me; not because they're issues, but because there's no sense for the majority of them to be issues.
Reason it took 72 hours is because of whatever Apple changed between the 2010 and the 2011 that basically required me to reinstall Snow Leopard in order to get my SSD to boot. Not pleased with that at all - I already had 10.6.6 on the old Big Apple, this "custom build" totally screwed things up that worked fine.
Anyway, I'll try to keep it brief.
The Positives
- The web browsing experience is improved. Pages load with more snap than before and scrolling is not delayed, even briefly.
- VMWare is even faster than it was when I put the SSD in. I can cold boot a Windows 7 VM in 5 seconds.
May not seem like a lot, but I depend on VMWare for work, so it's huge for me. As noted elsewhere this was not a major change to the hardware; rather, an "upgrade" to its internals. There are other frilly things like the FaceTime camera and other junk that I don't care about.
The Negatives
- Boot speed is actually worse. I got it down to a 15 second boot time, but coming from the old Big Apple where I could cold boot in 12 seconds, it is a little disconcerting. It may improve over time, I'll keep watching it. Guess I expected more than what I got.
- Issues with a straight SSD swap which has worked on the past three MacBook Pros without incident - all of a sudden this one doesn't like it and forces you to reinstall Snow Leopard, even if it has the same version of Snow Leopard. Smells of a blatant attempt to get people to buy the SSD from Apple, but I only buy Intel SSD which they don't use. I couldn't even boot from CD to check the disk. I had to put the original disk back in, slave the SSD using USB-SATA, then do an install. That worked, but I still had issues with some pieces, so I had to do a clean format and reinstall, and even then VZAccess still doesn't work. Too much futzing for what is effectively the same OS.
- The GPU will get HOT. I've pinned it down to the GPU based on the iFixIt teardown and the component locations; it's not the processor. My heat gets generated directly center and below the screen which according to the teardown can only be that RADEON. Seems to be when the switching tech activates the RADEON and you push it, even slightly, the heat generated is rather surprising. The nVidia 320M in the previous gen didn't get nearly that hot under more taxing conditions. Just a 720P video seems to skyrocket the level of heat in the AMD chip.
- Ambiguous battery. I'm just not sure anymore. I mean, if I didn't know better, I would swear Apple adjusted the numbers at a firmware level. The capacity is 30% lower according to System Information, but it DOES seem to be around 8 hours I get under light usage, even on max brightness and keyboard backlight. If I'm running heavy apps such as VMWare I get around 4 which is the same as what I got on the 2010 model. What's weird is the time estimate though - if I set the battery indicator to Percentage, when it gets down to 75%, it claims I have 2:30 hours remaining. Obviously that can't be right - and evident by my calibration, it's been 6 hours since I started. But what concerns me is, how can a battery that is (according to Snow Leopard's System Information on both systems) 30% lower capacity end up roughly the same or better on the battery life? Also, the charge capacity fluctuates up and down - once it's 8850, then it's 8900, then it's 8750. It's like Snow Leopard doesn't know what the real capacity is. It had zero charge cycles when I turned it first on, but now it shows 4, even though I've only ever done two total charges - once when installing Snow Leopard, once during calibration. It will also be at 96% according to Power Savings, but 100% according to Watts. Very, VERY odd.
- The keyboard backlighting is uneven. The 5 key is almost twice as bright as the rest of the keys and the 6 key might as well not be lit at all for as dim as it is. All of the keys look generally dimmer than what the 2010 put out.
- VZAccess Manager does NOT work with the 2011 model. No idea why not; it just doesn't work. When I got the SSD up and booted I noticed - but didn't clue in until later - that Snow Leopard had deleted all of the VZAccess Manager Extension files, likely due to some incompatibility somewhere. Problem is not even a reinstall has corrected the problem, so I'm basically without 4G until it's fixed which may be never. All other apps, and I do have a lot of them, appear to be working fine.
- If you keep the HDD, even though it's only 5400, you can hear it when running. That's odd, because they are generally quiet. Doesn't impact me as I kept my SSD, but just noting it for others.
Fortunately I'll be selling my old Big Apple to recoup the majority of what I paid for this ($2800), and I'm sure it'll be a solid replacement for Big Apple, which has served me extremely well since I bought it. But there are things about this upgraded model which irk me; not because they're issues, but because there's no sense for the majority of them to be issues.
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(just kidding)
