I thought I'd post a review as I know I had a bunch of questions when I was considering a new Mac, and was often scared off by a lot of the negative talk about temperature, glossy screens, benchmarks, airport cards, etc. I didn't just become a Mac owner, I dove off the proverbial Windows cliff. I am not just using this for internet browsing either, I'm using Apple Logic, Aperture 3, Guitar Pro 6 very frequently, as well as the usuals like iTunes and the normal internet stuff.
My setup in this review:
-15" 2.2 GHz i7, 4 GB ram, 7200 RPM 500 GB hard drive, Glossy High Res screen
-27" Cinema Display with numeric Keypad
-APOGEE One Audio Interface
-Apple Magic Mouse
So yes, right off the bat the one glaring negative is all of that was ridiculously expensive, but man do you get what you pay for.
First the laptop. I'm still astonished at how fast this is. I agonized over going solid state or not, but I stuck with the 500 GB 7200 RPM and am glad I did for the money. I don't know what kind of speed boost you get with solid state and I admit that, but I genuinely don't fathom how I could be much more pleased than what I have now. My computer starts in a whopping 10 seconds after pushing on, or restart. 10 seconds. If SS makes that 2, 3, or 4, I still don't think I care because I'm coming from a Dell that took almost 45 seconds. From sleep, it wakes up instantly. There is no discernible delay whatsoever. Same with programs, they open in maybe 2 seconds. Even Logic and Aperture, two very large programs, are up and running almost instantly. If you are in the market for solid state or regular HDD, please don't agonize about speed if you go regular HDD. I needed the extra space of regular HDD for Logic, Aperture, photos, etc, and I couldn't be happier. If you don't need the extra space, I'm sure the SSD's are amazing as well.
-Performance wise, much of the same. There is no delay performing tasks of any kind in Logic or Aperture. I've had both programs going at the same time, with Safari and iTunes open as well, and things don't change. I feared I would need more memory, which I plan to upgrade to 8GB at some point, but overall with all of my main uses going at the same time, I still have over 1 GB of free memory, and the processor wipes through any task I throw at it. The heaviest processor intense tasks are when I am using Logic, and playing guitar through my Apogee interface. The CPU really starts cranking then if I monitor it in Logic, but it never hiccups.
-It gets hot. This is the "hottest" laptop I have owned. When the CPU gets moving in Logic and Aperture, I can hear the fans picking up. It's not distracting at all to me, but you can hear it. The bottom is hot to the touch, so I downloaded a temperature monitor which told me the CPU was around 65 C, which from what I gather is completely normal. I don't mind the heat for the performance, but this isn't a "rest on your lap" laptop while using programs like Logic.
-The glossy display to me is amazing. I have zero regrets. Yes, it has reflections, but I went to the apple store first, and wasn't bothered with the display even in the glare happy store lighting. Part of why I went glossy is I wanted the apple cinema display which is only glossy, since it has the most hassle free connection and plays super well with the MBP (I was considering the Dell U2711). I plug the MBP in, the display instantly lights up. I love the simplicity. The display itself is amazing. I just need to color calibrate it still.
-I have been really impressed with the airport card thus far. It picks up the internet instantly when waking from sleep (took about 20 seconds with my Dell to restart the internet), and it is FAST. I just upgraded my router to a Netgear N600, and I am getting identical speeds wireless that I was straight into the modem, over 32 MBPs (using both speedtest.net and road runner speed test)!!!
-The Magic Mouse.....I'm indifferent. I LOVE the scrolling. I hate going back to a non-magic mouse that doesn't have touch scrolling. I don't like the clicking that much though. It's a little clunky sometimes and things I right click when I didn't mean to. It's also slow when set to the fastest tracking speed. I know this can be fixed with BetterTouchtool though.
Overall, I spent over $4k on all of this. I can genuinely say I don't have one ounce of regret. I wouldn't change anything, wouldn't make any other configuration choices, etc. I really considered an iMac instead and using my Dell still as a laptop, but if you have the money, I'd highly recommend going with the laptop and external display because the portability is amazing to have. Let me know if you have any specific questions.
My setup in this review:
-15" 2.2 GHz i7, 4 GB ram, 7200 RPM 500 GB hard drive, Glossy High Res screen
-27" Cinema Display with numeric Keypad
-APOGEE One Audio Interface
-Apple Magic Mouse
So yes, right off the bat the one glaring negative is all of that was ridiculously expensive, but man do you get what you pay for.
First the laptop. I'm still astonished at how fast this is. I agonized over going solid state or not, but I stuck with the 500 GB 7200 RPM and am glad I did for the money. I don't know what kind of speed boost you get with solid state and I admit that, but I genuinely don't fathom how I could be much more pleased than what I have now. My computer starts in a whopping 10 seconds after pushing on, or restart. 10 seconds. If SS makes that 2, 3, or 4, I still don't think I care because I'm coming from a Dell that took almost 45 seconds. From sleep, it wakes up instantly. There is no discernible delay whatsoever. Same with programs, they open in maybe 2 seconds. Even Logic and Aperture, two very large programs, are up and running almost instantly. If you are in the market for solid state or regular HDD, please don't agonize about speed if you go regular HDD. I needed the extra space of regular HDD for Logic, Aperture, photos, etc, and I couldn't be happier. If you don't need the extra space, I'm sure the SSD's are amazing as well.
-Performance wise, much of the same. There is no delay performing tasks of any kind in Logic or Aperture. I've had both programs going at the same time, with Safari and iTunes open as well, and things don't change. I feared I would need more memory, which I plan to upgrade to 8GB at some point, but overall with all of my main uses going at the same time, I still have over 1 GB of free memory, and the processor wipes through any task I throw at it. The heaviest processor intense tasks are when I am using Logic, and playing guitar through my Apogee interface. The CPU really starts cranking then if I monitor it in Logic, but it never hiccups.
-It gets hot. This is the "hottest" laptop I have owned. When the CPU gets moving in Logic and Aperture, I can hear the fans picking up. It's not distracting at all to me, but you can hear it. The bottom is hot to the touch, so I downloaded a temperature monitor which told me the CPU was around 65 C, which from what I gather is completely normal. I don't mind the heat for the performance, but this isn't a "rest on your lap" laptop while using programs like Logic.
-The glossy display to me is amazing. I have zero regrets. Yes, it has reflections, but I went to the apple store first, and wasn't bothered with the display even in the glare happy store lighting. Part of why I went glossy is I wanted the apple cinema display which is only glossy, since it has the most hassle free connection and plays super well with the MBP (I was considering the Dell U2711). I plug the MBP in, the display instantly lights up. I love the simplicity. The display itself is amazing. I just need to color calibrate it still.
-I have been really impressed with the airport card thus far. It picks up the internet instantly when waking from sleep (took about 20 seconds with my Dell to restart the internet), and it is FAST. I just upgraded my router to a Netgear N600, and I am getting identical speeds wireless that I was straight into the modem, over 32 MBPs (using both speedtest.net and road runner speed test)!!!
-The Magic Mouse.....I'm indifferent. I LOVE the scrolling. I hate going back to a non-magic mouse that doesn't have touch scrolling. I don't like the clicking that much though. It's a little clunky sometimes and things I right click when I didn't mean to. It's also slow when set to the fastest tracking speed. I know this can be fixed with BetterTouchtool though.
Overall, I spent over $4k on all of this. I can genuinely say I don't have one ounce of regret. I wouldn't change anything, wouldn't make any other configuration choices, etc. I really considered an iMac instead and using my Dell still as a laptop, but if you have the money, I'd highly recommend going with the laptop and external display because the portability is amazing to have. Let me know if you have any specific questions.
