It has been a while since I last posted here, but I have become the sad owner of a 2.4GHz Penryn MBP. I bought it some weeks ago: I spent the first week installing software, the second week using it, and the third week asking myself why I did not realize sooner that I could have used my money for spending some weeks somewhere in the world or just save my euro for buying ice creams for the rest of my life.
Before buying it, I came on this site looking for some info. I did not know whether going for a MBP or a MB. I hope that this post can be useful for people with the same doubt I had.
What made me chose a MBP:
- larger screen;
- discrete GPU.
That's it: current generations MBPs and MB have similar processors and the same amount of RAM.
The PROS:
- when the screen works, it is wonderful;
- when the computer is off or when you are not doing heavy computations, the aluminium case is a joy to touch;
- the illuminated keyboard is really wonderful. I used to think it was only design, but it is useful.
- it is really thin.
- some animations are smoother than on the MB. In particular: stacks, grids, and dashboard. Expose and spaces animations are similar to those on MB.
- multitouch is not useless as many people think. You can zoom images, web pages and pdfs, go back and forth while surfing, easily browse pdf. I appreciate it.
- speakers are not as bad as many suggest. They are worst than those on my previous toshiba, but much better than those on a dell I work on.
- the battery lasts only a bit less than four hours with "normal" usage: Browsing, email, some text editing.
- it is silent. In particular, much more silent than MBs.
What are the CONS:
- it becomes hot. At 80 celsius (maximum I reached) it is still touchable but forget about the "lap" part of laptop.
- the screen sometimes does not work as it should.
- the keyboard is not as good as many say. I waited some weeks to check whether or not I would get used, but the keys are simply too close to each other and the enter/return key on many keyboards (every keyboard except the us version) is ridiculous: I am not yet able to press it without looking.
- it is not that smoother and faster than a MB. Sometimes it does not feel responsive at all.
- the trackpad is too small for comfortable multitouch gestures. You can still do such gestures but not as on the MB Air.
- audio output on jack is not as good as I thought it would be and worst than my 5-year old toshiba.
The very very bad. Look at the following screenshots.
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The first two were caused by Aperture. Aperture is made by Apple: it makes a heavy use of the GPU and that is the result: corrupted video memory. I do not know if my unit is defective or it is just aperture. I can only say that I do not have these problems when I use other software. nvidia drivers on this MBP are commonly not considered in their 'final' version. I hope apple will release a new graphics update, but I do not think apple can keep producing everything by itself: it is now in a competitive market, with many novelties. Their marketing model is still in the powerpc era.
However, these are not the only graphics problems. Here is another one.
![]()
The corrupted text was caused by a very rare operation (fortunately): scrolling. Yes, I simply scrolled down or up that page and the text was not repainted correctly. This one came out from nowhere, but it looks like the .3 leopard version will solve the problem. Anyway, I think this is absurd.
I have another problem related to leds. You can read more about it here:
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=7080811#7080811
for a quick look:
![]()
the image is not mine but is taken from the thread cited above.
So, frankly, I think that the current MBP is not worth the money they ask for. I live in Italy and I bought it from a shop: I will ask for a replacement/service in the next weeks but I cannot return it. If I could, I would return it without thinking twice. In Italy the base MBP is worth 1.5 times the average monthly salary, but with those surprises it should cost only a little more than a dell.
If you want to ask specific questions just do it and I will be glad to answer them (if I can).
ciao,
thistle
Before buying it, I came on this site looking for some info. I did not know whether going for a MBP or a MB. I hope that this post can be useful for people with the same doubt I had.
What made me chose a MBP:
- larger screen;
- discrete GPU.
That's it: current generations MBPs and MB have similar processors and the same amount of RAM.
The PROS:
- when the screen works, it is wonderful;
- when the computer is off or when you are not doing heavy computations, the aluminium case is a joy to touch;
- the illuminated keyboard is really wonderful. I used to think it was only design, but it is useful.
- it is really thin.
- some animations are smoother than on the MB. In particular: stacks, grids, and dashboard. Expose and spaces animations are similar to those on MB.
- multitouch is not useless as many people think. You can zoom images, web pages and pdfs, go back and forth while surfing, easily browse pdf. I appreciate it.
- speakers are not as bad as many suggest. They are worst than those on my previous toshiba, but much better than those on a dell I work on.
- the battery lasts only a bit less than four hours with "normal" usage: Browsing, email, some text editing.
- it is silent. In particular, much more silent than MBs.
What are the CONS:
- it becomes hot. At 80 celsius (maximum I reached) it is still touchable but forget about the "lap" part of laptop.
- the screen sometimes does not work as it should.
- the keyboard is not as good as many say. I waited some weeks to check whether or not I would get used, but the keys are simply too close to each other and the enter/return key on many keyboards (every keyboard except the us version) is ridiculous: I am not yet able to press it without looking.
- it is not that smoother and faster than a MB. Sometimes it does not feel responsive at all.
- the trackpad is too small for comfortable multitouch gestures. You can still do such gestures but not as on the MB Air.
- audio output on jack is not as good as I thought it would be and worst than my 5-year old toshiba.
The very very bad. Look at the following screenshots.
The first two were caused by Aperture. Aperture is made by Apple: it makes a heavy use of the GPU and that is the result: corrupted video memory. I do not know if my unit is defective or it is just aperture. I can only say that I do not have these problems when I use other software. nvidia drivers on this MBP are commonly not considered in their 'final' version. I hope apple will release a new graphics update, but I do not think apple can keep producing everything by itself: it is now in a competitive market, with many novelties. Their marketing model is still in the powerpc era.
However, these are not the only graphics problems. Here is another one.
The corrupted text was caused by a very rare operation (fortunately): scrolling. Yes, I simply scrolled down or up that page and the text was not repainted correctly. This one came out from nowhere, but it looks like the .3 leopard version will solve the problem. Anyway, I think this is absurd.
I have another problem related to leds. You can read more about it here:
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=7080811#7080811
for a quick look:
the image is not mine but is taken from the thread cited above.
So, frankly, I think that the current MBP is not worth the money they ask for. I live in Italy and I bought it from a shop: I will ask for a replacement/service in the next weeks but I cannot return it. If I could, I would return it without thinking twice. In Italy the base MBP is worth 1.5 times the average monthly salary, but with those surprises it should cost only a little more than a dell.
If you want to ask specific questions just do it and I will be glad to answer them (if I can).
ciao,
thistle
care, your 4,1 MBP is still under warranty and I would be on the phone with them trying to develop a course of action as to how it is going to get fixed. Unless, of course, it is a waist of time as you put it. But in my opinion, something that costs as much as a MBP should be close to perfect and yours is far from that. There are several programs out there that will encrypt the data on your hard drive incase you do not want any sensitive data being exposed when it goes in for repair, but if you consider getting your brand new machine fixed a "waist of time," this option may not be to your liking either!
