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First Impressions ... new 17" MBP

G

gwerhart0800

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Mar 15, 2008
456
31
Loveland, CO
I received a new MBP yesterday ... it's a 17" standard res, 2.5Ghz, 4GB Ram, 250GB HD:

Good:

The display is beautiful. After the system was ordered, I realized that the standard display for the 17" did not have the LED backlight. I was worried that it would look as dim as the Dell D520 it is replacing ... but, it is bright and evenly lit. Also, the order paperwork (3rd party vendor used by my company) listed the display as glossy even though I wanted the Matte finish. Thankfully, the display is the Matte version.

Love the "thinness" compared to the Dell.

Performance test: Handbrake on my C2D 1.83Ghz Mini was ripping at ~17fps ... MBP at 32fps.

No dead pixels!!! I seem to be lucky ... the only LCD display that I have ever had dead pixels on was the very first ViewSonic 15" that I paid $1200 for.

Strange:

The MBP was reporting 97% battery and I was using it, but it suddenly went to sleep. I was only able to "wake" it by plugging in the power. I need to spent some time in system prefs to get things configured that way I like them.

Not-So-Good:

The closure latch seems to be constructed for people with very thin fingers. I really have to carefully push it in with the tip of my finger to get the display up.

Bummer:

The MBP is just a little too big for my SwissGear backpack.

Next steps:

I am planning to install VMware Fusion and load up a WinXP image to move all of my work crap to the MBP. I am not planning to do the BootCamp thing because I never play games and based on how I use my Mini, I prefer to be able to suspend the Windows VM. If you go the BootCamp route, then the VM for Windows must be shutdown completely ... no suspend.

I also need to look at getting a USB hub for my home and work offices so that I can just plug in one USB plug to connect my keyboard/mouse/iPhone when I start work. With the Dell, I used a dock, but for the Mac, I will be doing a bunch of manual connections for the USB stuff, plus power and my 22" displays.

I am also hoping that I can get Adobe to switch my CS3 license from Windows to Mac ... one can always hope!
 
Congrats on your new MBP; you'll love it; give yourself time to get used to it, and to adapt to the differences (small, but real) that exist between Apple OS and Windows. I'm a recent switcher, and I'm really enjoying my MBP. It's a great machine, aesthetically attractive, powerful, impressive performance and comes with a superb screen. Your machine sounds terrific. Enjoy it. Cheers.
:apple: MBP 15.4, 2.4 ghz, 2 GB RAM, 160 HDD; iPod classic, 30 GB
 
Head long rush ...

Scepticalscribe said:
Congrats on your new MBP; you'll love it; give yourself time to get used to it, and to adapt to the differences (small, but real) that exist between Apple OS and Windows. I'm a recent switcher, and I'm really enjoying my MBP. It's a great machine, aesthetically attractive, powerful, impressive performance and comes with a superb screen. Your machine sounds terrific. Enjoy it. Cheers.
:apple: MBP 15.4, 2.4 ghz, 2 GB RAM, 160 HDD; iPod classic, 30 GB
Click to expand...

I bought an original 128K Mac in 1984, but dropped Apple when it required a replacement to upgrade. I purchased an iPod Mini about a month before they were discontinued. Last October, I bought an Apple TV, in September an iPhone (for work), in March a Mac Mini for iPhone Dev, and now in August a MacBook Pro for work. The MacBook Pro purchase was motivated when a company sales support guy was in my office running 6 virtual machines under Fusion and had a complete single laptop demo of the software product we develop. My boss asked at the beginning of this month if there was any HW I wanted because there was some $$$ left in the budget that would disappear at the end of Sept. I jumped on the chance to dump my Dell D520.

My only reservation is the "long" repair times. I really pound laptops and Dell has typically made 2-3 in-home services calls on my systems. The next day service really worked. I am fear what will happen if the MBP has to be repaired. I think this is my biggest complaint about Apple trying to work in a business environment.
 
Yes the CCFL backlight should not have uneven backlighting.

Congratulations on the computer.
 
alphaod said:
Yes the CCFL backlight should not have uneven backlighting.

Congratulations on the computer.
Click to expand...

Well, why would it? I mean it's brand new, right?:p

Also, OP, how bright would you say your MBP is in comparison to the LED backlit models? :)
 
Southernboy said:
I'm assuming that you've calibrated the battery?

Enjoy your MBP ;)
Click to expand...

I did the battery calibration thing today. Prior to doing the calibration, the power meter dropped to 99% as soon as I unplugged the power. After calibration, I can remove the power cord and it takes a little bit before it drops. Not scientific, but still, it points out that this is a reasonable procedure. I am puzzled as to why Apple makes you hunt for it on their web site. I think it should be detailed in the "manual" that comes with the laptop. I loaded iStat Pro and see that the battery has been cycled 3 times ... once was definitely me doing the calibration, I assume that one was the initial charge, but I am wondering where the other one came from.

I am just about setup. The only major task left is moving my work stuff from my Dell D520 to my VM WInXP image.
 
Battery changed @ 98%?

I did the battery calibration excercise ove the weekend and basically left the MBP plugged in after it fully discharged. It was reporting 100% changed and seemed happy. I powered off this morning and drove to work. I plugged in immediately. I noticed after I power up, that the battery now reports 98% changed, but the green light is on the plug and the laptop is still @ 98% after 4 hours. iStat lists the health at 100%.

Is there a reason that the MBP will hold off charging back to 100%?
 
gwerhart0800 said:
I did the battery calibration excercise ove the weekend and basically left the MBP plugged in after it fully discharged. It was reporting 100% changed and seemed happy. I powered off this morning and drove to work. I plugged in immediately. I noticed after I power up, that the battery now reports 98% changed, but the green light is on the plug and the laptop is still @ 98% after 4 hours. iStat lists the health at 100%.

Is there a reason that the MBP will hold off charging back to 100%?
Click to expand...
This is perfectly normal.
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1909
 
gwerhart0800 said:
I
Not-So-Good:

The closure latch seems to be constructed for people with very thin fingers. I really have to carefully push it in with the tip of my finger to get the display up.
Click to expand...

Agreed here. My 17" can be a pain to open as well. Other than that, I love it. Congrats and enjoy!!
 
Congrats :)

Why is the MBP so much faster at Handbrake? Is it like, hard-drive intensive as well? I can't think of any other reason, since it's doing it almost 2x as fast but the CPU certainly is only about 45% faster.

??
 
gibbz said:
Agreed here. My 17" can be a pain to open as well. Other than that, I love it. Congrats and enjoy!!
Click to expand...

It is designed to avoids accidential openings. Works fine for me and everyone I know.

If you have fat fingers you might want to use a dialing wand? (simpsons joke).
 

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Firefly2002 said:
Congrats :)

Why is the MBP so much faster at Handbrake? Is it like, hard-drive intensive as well? I can't think of any other reason, since it's doing it almost 2x as fast but the CPU certainly is only about 45% faster.

??
Click to expand...

Fast than what? I was using a 1.83Ghz C2D Mac Mini and getting ~17 fps ... with the MBP (2.5Ghz) I get ~33fps. The CPU in the Mini has only 2MB cache and is a few generations older than the CPU in the MBP. The speedup is quite reasonable.
 
Consultant said:
It is designed to avoids accidental openings. Works fine for me and everyone I know.
Click to expand...

Sure, it works, but it is probably the most difficult to use of all the dozen or so laptops I have had since I started buying/using laptops. I was just surprised given the very ergonomic design of the rest of the laptop. I am assuming that the design was chosen because of the requirement to maintain the overall thinness of the laptop.
 
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