I have a 17 inch MBP 2nd gen, 2.33 C2D.
My main complaints with the computer were:
Otherwise the machine has been nothing short of exceptional. Before I made the switch from Windows based machines to my mac I had been a chronic updater, going through 2-3 computers a year. The day I purchased my MBP I had no idea how much product satisfaction I would experience and to this day am still pleased with the machine as a whole.
That being said, the main issues I had seem to have been addressed in this product update which is nice as well as the other hardware updates. It appears the "build quality" of these new machines exceeds the previous generation laptops significantly. The "brick" manufacturing process seems very neat and I am hoping that when picking one of these up it seems more solid than my current machine.
I will be curious to see exactly how much stronger the hatch pivots are and whether the aluminum pitting issue has been worked out.
All in all, as a product update they have increased performance as much as possible given the architectural limitations that a thin notebook inherently suffers from. Less ports is not a surprise really, it is apparent that with the introduction of the MBA that Apple (as well as current technology) are moving towards making laptops more portable by reducing the number of doo-hickeys that we have to carry around.
For the people who feel like they just cant survive without XYZ connection and don't want to carry around 15 adapters to fit their current hardware, if we don't continue to move forward in technology and are constantly keeping ports/connections for every piece of hardware that has ever existed, it will severely limit what can be done on new machines.
If you are at home with your external monitor, external HDs, or whatever it is that you have, through use of hubs and adapters you can still have all of these things and you likely don't travel with all of the doo-dads anyway, so leave the hubs/adapters/doo-hickeys at home.
My sincere hope is that the build quality has been improved significantly in this release and from my toying with the macbook air in Apple stores it seems that they have taken care of my major concerns.
No matte screen may be an issue, I am not sure how this will change the way I do design work, worst case scenario I will purchase an external screen with Matte finish and it won't matter anyway.
~Ael
My main complaints with the computer were:
- Screen joint strength was very poor, if you picked it up with the screen open to take it into another room the screen would fall shut. (Very annoying).
- The latch would randomly "pop" and the screen would come open.
- The screen shell doesn't sit flush with the base of the case.
- Poor screen quality, badly lit areas in corners, low brightness (on matte, haven't tried glossy).
- Aluminum Pitting on palm wrests, sometimes it seems like I have acid rain for sweat.
Otherwise the machine has been nothing short of exceptional. Before I made the switch from Windows based machines to my mac I had been a chronic updater, going through 2-3 computers a year. The day I purchased my MBP I had no idea how much product satisfaction I would experience and to this day am still pleased with the machine as a whole.
That being said, the main issues I had seem to have been addressed in this product update which is nice as well as the other hardware updates. It appears the "build quality" of these new machines exceeds the previous generation laptops significantly. The "brick" manufacturing process seems very neat and I am hoping that when picking one of these up it seems more solid than my current machine.
I will be curious to see exactly how much stronger the hatch pivots are and whether the aluminum pitting issue has been worked out.
All in all, as a product update they have increased performance as much as possible given the architectural limitations that a thin notebook inherently suffers from. Less ports is not a surprise really, it is apparent that with the introduction of the MBA that Apple (as well as current technology) are moving towards making laptops more portable by reducing the number of doo-hickeys that we have to carry around.
For the people who feel like they just cant survive without XYZ connection and don't want to carry around 15 adapters to fit their current hardware, if we don't continue to move forward in technology and are constantly keeping ports/connections for every piece of hardware that has ever existed, it will severely limit what can be done on new machines.
If you are at home with your external monitor, external HDs, or whatever it is that you have, through use of hubs and adapters you can still have all of these things and you likely don't travel with all of the doo-dads anyway, so leave the hubs/adapters/doo-hickeys at home.
My sincere hope is that the build quality has been improved significantly in this release and from my toying with the macbook air in Apple stores it seems that they have taken care of my major concerns.
No matte screen may be an issue, I am not sure how this will change the way I do design work, worst case scenario I will purchase an external screen with Matte finish and it won't matter anyway.
~Ael