Apple Macbook Pro – The Ultimate Apple Laptop?

Overview

I am heading into the world of the unknown here, I have only once used a Mac and being a Windows boy through and through, using a Mac is like a blind man trying to navigate his way around a new room. But I know there is a lot of demand for Macs with them being an Apple product.  Fan boys and girls alike jump at the chance of owning one and the other benefits are valid as well with its OS being one of the most stable around; in some it areas beats Microsoft hands down.

So what does this ‘Macbook’ offer all you Mac fans? Let's find out.

Review

Style

Now Macs are known for their style, most of the Macbooks on the shelves put Laptops to shame. This Macbook comes in a glossy white colour that while looking nice can’t be good when it comes to dirt and grime with even the slightest blemish standing out worse than a full sized spot on the end of your nose.

Weight wise this Macbook does not disappoint either.  Weighing in at only 2.5kg this laptop will feel as light as a feather when compared to other Laptops in its class.

Screen wise this Macbook has been built with a 15.4″ TFT LCD screen that looks rather impressive with its 1440 x 900 resolution.

Under the bonnet

Now we come to the be all and end all of Macbook/Laptops in my opinion, the specs. It’s these that determine how fast the product actually is, a glossy screen and case is all nice and fancy at the end of the day, no word of a lie.

But if the specs are not what you need all you’re going to end up with is a nice looking Internet Browser. Now thankfully this Macbook does not seem to disappoint in the specs area.

Processor wise this comes with an Intel Core 2 Duo that runs at 2.53GHz which is a rather fast processor for the Macbook/Laptop. Now with it being a Core 2 Duo this means that it has 2 processors instead of the 1 we have been used to for years. Now while you may think this means you get 2×2.53Ghz you are partially right and partially wrong.

First of all the computer will only use the 2 processors if the software supports it. Now whilst most of the modern OS like Vista and to a certain extent Windows XP 64, do support this feature, I am not initially sure that the Mac OS X 10.5 supports 2 processors at the same time. If anyone knows if this fact is true or false then please let us know.

Either way however, the single processor alone should be more than enough power for the OS on this Macbook to run as well as any design packages you may run.

Helping out the processor is 4GB of DDR3 RAM, this partnership gives this laptop the boost it needs to run everything you can possibly need without the Macbook having to slow down to take a breather. Now once again I am not sure how much RAM the Mac OS x 10.5 needs to run on its own but with reports of Mac being much less memory intensive than Vista you can rest assured that it will not be more than the 1GB that Vista uses. I would not be surprised if it was significantly less in fact, once again let us know if you use a Mac how much the OS uses.

With this being a high end Macbook you would expect a high end graphics card as well to power through your applications. Built into this is a NVIDIA GeForce 9600M GT card with a huge 512 MB of memory, now with this amount of memory all your applications will have enough for even the high end tasks.

The rest does not leave much to be disappointed about; having wireless that is capable of the new Draft N connection means that supported routers will be able to deliver speeds much faster than the current speeds we are used to. This Macbook also comes with Bluetooth, 2 USB ports, Firewire and a supported battery life of up to 6 hours! By all reports.

The Gaj-It Verdict

Design 9/10
Usability: 8/10
Features: 10/10
Value: 9/10

We Say

If you like Macs and have alot of money to burn, this might be the Macbook that's right up your street.

Technical Specs

• Processor – Intel Core 2 Duo 2.53 GHz ( Dual-Core )
• 4 GB (installed) / 4 GB (max) – DDR3 SDRAM – 1066 MHz – PC3-8500
• 320 GB – Serial ATA-150 – 5400 rpm
• Apple MacOS X 10.5
• 15.4″ TFT 1440 x 900 ( WXGA+ )
• DVD±RW (±R DL)
• NVIDIA GeForce 9600M GT / GeForce 9400M – 512 MB
• Bluetooth – Yes
• Ethernet, Fast Ethernet, Gigabit Ethernet, IEEE 802.11b, IEEE 802.11a, IEEE 802.11g, IEEE 802.11n (draft), Bluetooth 2.1 EDR

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