Product ReviewsLaptops
For Mac users, the most important features of the new MacBook Pro range are related to performance improvement. For Apple, however, it's all about boosting its green credentials. LCD screens are power hungry and employ mercury; LED displays use less power and no mercury. By including an LED screen with the 15.4in MacBook Pro, Apple has been able to claim the position of being the first - and, so far, only - company to ship a laptop with a 15in LED display. That won't turn it into Greenpeace's best friend overnight, but it will certainly improve the company's image among environmental campaigners. Away from the screen, changes are more modest. Battery life has been improved by 20%, to six hours - something else which will please green campaigners. In performance terms, the MacBook Pro is the first Mac to use Intel's Centrino Pro chipset (codenamed Santa Rosa), and although some features of Santa Rosa have been left out, there are some benefits to raw power. The front side bus speed has increased by around a fifth, from 667MHz to 800MHz, and although the speed of the DDR2 SD-Ram remains at 667MHz, the MacBook Pro can now use up to 4GB of Ram. All MacBook Pros now have 2GB fitted as standard. The processor clock speeds on the three models have seen a marginal hike from 2.16GHz to 2.2GHz and 2.33GHz to 2.4GHz respectively. One more benefit of the Centrino Pro chipset is that it integrates 802.11n wifi, eliminating the need for a separate wifi controller and reducing power consumption. Overall, the power efficiency improvements have, according to Apple, increased maximum battery life by an hour. The graphics chipset in all
Retrieving the MacBook Pro from its box, you'd be hard pushed to guess that this is a new model. The case design has remained more or less the same since the introduction of the first aluminium PowerBooks in 2003. The exceptions are the infrared receiver and the iSight camera. And, of course, the PC card slot has been exchanged for an ExpressCard/34 slot. There's nothing wrong with keeping the same case design - the fact that it has lasted for four years is proof of how good the initial design was, but we can't be the only Mac users hoping Apple would do something radical with the MacBook Pro. In addition to the ExpressCard/34 slot, all the MacBook Pros in the range have one FireWire 400 and one FireWire 800 port. The 17in model has three USB 2 ports, while the 15.4in models have to make do with two. There's also built-in Bluetooth 2 support and Gigabit Ethernet across the range. In our tests on the 2.2GHz model, the MacBook Pro performed very well. The backlit LED screen is crisp and bright, and the horsepower improvements do make a noticeable difference, as you can see from our speed tests. Other under-the-hood changes, such as the integration of the wireless controller on the processor, make no difference to the end user experience, which is as it should be. For the first time in a long time, the entry-level machine in a Mac range isn't crippled in comparison to the other machines - in fact, there's a strong argument that, at £1299, this 2.2GHz machine is the best of the bunch. We couldn't help but be impressed with this MacBook Pro; it has a feature set that easily covers all the bases for mobile professionals. It has a decent amount of Ram, large hard drive, good DVD burner, and speedy processor and GPU. It's not perfect - we would like to see an eSata port, and it still gets quite hot underneath when you've been using it for a while - but to complain too much about that would be churlish. This is as close to a perfect professional laptop as you'll find anywhere. By Kenny Hemphill
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