2011 MBP + Lion Experience; Share yours

[gorskiegangsta]

Like many here, I have upgraded my 2011 MBP to Lion on the first day of its release. The upgrade process was painless and Lion experience has generally been great. However, there are various quirks and annoyances I have with the OS. Some are bugs and rough edges around the OS, which is to be expected. Others are just the new default settings that may look like bugs.

First of all, booting takes on average 10 secs longer than it did. Under Snow Leopard it took 32-35 secs to boot up, now it takes 40-45 secs. However, it takes faster to log in and fully load the desktop (I have 2 by default), the menubar and the dock. Also, the battery life seems to have decreased by about an hour. I do not get over 6.5 hrs whereas I used to get 7.5 (doing basic browsing/productivity) under SL.

OS X Lion Bugs/quirks (will be updated as more comes to my attention):

1. Upon boot, when you get to logon screen, the keyboard doesn't light up unless you manually use the backlight control keys. Only upon entering a password and logging in, the keyboard lights up.

2. Upon display sleep, the display cannot be reawaken by touching the trakpad. Instead you need to physically click it or press a keyboard key. Not sure if it's a setting or a bug.

2. The Mac App Store feels very sluggish. Constant beachballing, every time you open the app, try to switch "tabs" or enter app info pages.

3. Dashboard (when it's not set as a space) sometimes reloads upon access.

4. Sometimes the Finder would close all windows and, upon reload, the gestures won't work anymore.

5. When entering Time Machine the finder windows are resized, but are not resized back to normal upon exit.

6. Time Machine now backs up more frequently than it did in Snow Leopard. As a result, it now frequently puts up an exclamation mark to tell you that there is new stuff to back up. This seems more like a different backup behavior than a bug.
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All being said, I like Lion a lot. I love how they got rid of scrollbars and included the ability to resize windows from any side/corner. Also, the new way the OS handles spaces has become VERY helpful and has increased my productivity by a fair amount.
On the other side of complaints, I do not like how hard it has become to "Show Desktop". the three finger + thumb outward pinch) gesture is really painful and, despite my best efforts to learn it, is still hit or miss. This is, perhaps my only complaint about gestures in Lion because just about every other gesture can be changed, except this one. Additionally, I am baffled by the addition of "Launchpad". I have no need or desire to use it, so I disabled the gesture right away.



Please share your experience. Do you experience the same bugs and/or behaviors in Lion OS? Are you experiencing other bugs? How/when did you upgrade? Did you do a clean Install?

 

[ikm19]

I have weird problem while using safari the discrete graphics kicks in even though i just surfing macrumors with no tabs opened.
Battery life is getting worse and cpu temp is running couple of degree hotter than it use to run on SL.

 

[srl7741]

I've noticed the same on #2 and #3 and I hope that is addressed or fixed at some point. I've tried to wait a bit longer to know for sure but my MBP battery seems to drain faster also. I've not done any real testing so I admit I could be wrong but It seems to not last as long.

Overall tho I like Lion and I'm sure it will only get better with future updates. I wish the Mac App Store had a few more Apps that I would like to use, for now i'm ok with waiting to see if they surface in the near future.

 

[accessoriesguy]

I haven't upgraded because of the first few round of bugs and issues.

I find some of the changes they made, to make it resemble iOS to be unattractive however. I didn't buy a computer to have a iOS interface. I hear most settings can be customized back but others we have to deal with. Oh well, they have to appeal to the ordinary. At least it wont be like Windows 8, which is great for things like the iPad but not for a full blown computer!

 

[Mak47]

Overall, I've been very happy with Lion. I love Mission Control, I'm starting to appreciate Launchpad, but what I love most is how easy it is to create multiple desktops and scroll through them using finger gestures.

I know, lots of people used Spaces before, but I never did. I never learned it, and it just seemed burdensome for me. Now, I don't know how I ever lived with just one desktop.

I really like the full-screen app feature on my MBP. Swiping between running apps is great. On my dual monitor setup at home, that isn't particularly beneficial, but making use of multiple desktops in a similar way is.

Natural scrolling irritated me for a few hours. Once I adapted, it feels well...natural. Now, if I ever have to handle a Windows machine it drives me nuts not to have that.

The negatives I've found aren't that big a deal, as I'm sure most will be fixed in future updates.

Scrolling seems a bit jittery, but the trackpad also seems a lot more sensitive, so it may just be my unsteady fingers.

I had experienced the wifi problem on my POS NetGear router. My Time Capsule arrived last night though and now that is gone. I'm sure a future update will address the issue.

I miss the ability to swipe back and forth in all apps. That was present in SL, but now only works in Safari on Lion. I know it can be enabled in prefs, but it works opposite to how it works in Safari, and makes you change a bunch of other gestures. Hopefully that can be addressed in an update, it was a great feature.

 

[Mak47]

I haven't upgraded because of the first few round of bugs and issues.

I find some of the changes they made, to make it resemble iOS to be unattractive however. I didn't buy a computer to have a iOS interface. I hear most settings can be customized back but others we have to deal with. Oh well, they have to appeal to the ordinary. At least it wont be like Windows 8, which is great for things like the iPad but not for a full blown computer!

I can assure you, it's really nothing like iOS. Yes, launchpad is similar, but that's just one of many features of the new OS. It's not really Launchpad that is the feature though, it's the gesture to get there. It is not constantly filling your screen.

The only other thing is the full-screen function. Yes, iOS apps are full screen by default, Lion apps aren't. You have to tell it to go to full screen. The only reason to do so is to have multiple apps running on a single display and have the ability to swipe quickly between them. Unlike going to a "maximized" window on a Windows PC, you don't have to constantly close out of things to move to another app. You just swipe with three fingers.

Autosave is touted as being like iOS, but it's really not. You still have access to the file system. The first time you autosave, you're asked where you want the file. You can then access it from the file system or from within the app itself.

There's been a lot of talk about the similarities with iOS, but really, it's just a few things--which actually are quite sensible and are employed in a manner befitting a full-powered computer.

 

[stevemiller]

i wasn't running snow leopard long enough on my new mbp to make fair OS performance comparisons...

but comparing a 2011 mbp w/ ssd running lion to a 2008 hdd mbp running snow leopard, i can safely say regarding the 2011:

-boot times are plenty snappy

-the computer runs nice and cool under casual use (as low as 35ºC even when being used on your lap, unbelieveable!) and about 10 degrees cooler than my old laptop under a full load (8 rendering threads going full tilt)

-processor intensive tasks finish 2-3 times faster as well

-in general all of the new "effects" in lion run just fine, except of course when they glitch out, but thats bugginess, not an inherent hardware limitation

ok so that was mostly a hardware review, but i had to gush! provided you don't get a lemon, the 2011's are really, REALLY nice. and i was quite worried about how apple would fare cramming quad cores into their already warm laptops

my personal experiences with lion:

-10.7.0 for me hasn't gone as bat-****-ram-hogging-crazy as 10.6.0 did, so thank god for that!

-of all the new gestures, the safari page slide through history has really tickled my fancy. being able to "peek" backwards and forwards makes navigating on any other browser feel comparatively disorienting. of all the "because we can" animations they added, this one actually feels like meaningful visual feedback.

-swiping desktops (which in retrospect is easy to emulate in SL with bettertouchtool) makes the idea of spaces feel more accessible. as does the 'potential' of mission control/full screen applicatons/etc.

-however... the overall implementation needs A LOT of work. there's a million threads on here about it already, from useless secondary monitors during fullscreen, to no space arrangement controls, to my personal biggest issue of application piles that make finding a specific document a pain. the thing is, a lot of these things *could* be fixed, i just really hope apple choses to expand the functionality through updates rather than waiting until the next OS release.

 

[superericla]

2. Upon display sleep, the display cannot be reawaken by touching the trakpad. Instead you need to physically click it or press a keyboard key. Not sure if it's a setting or a bug.

This is intentional. Switch your screensaver to the "iTunes Artwork" screen saver and test it out. This allows you to change and play your music straight from the screen saver.

 

[gorskiegangsta]

I miss the ability to swipe back and forth in all apps. That was present in SL, but now only works in Safari on Lion. I know it can be enabled in prefs, but it works opposite to how it works in Safari, and makes you change a bunch of other gestures. Hopefully that can be addressed in an update, it was a great feature.

What you have to do is, under "swipe between pages" select "swipe with two or three fingers" The only gesture it disables is "three finger drag" which, IMO, is not very useful anyway.

 

[fel10]

I love everything about it. The only issue I'm having is that my MBP seems to be running a little warmer, but besides that, I love it.

 

[dlubis]

My MBP 15 (early 2011) keeps on crashing...! Cannot reach home at startup, always automatically shut down... Apple had reformat, change new HDD, reformat, just the same... After more than 10 years, this is my first disappointment on Apple...!