Recently, I followed my college-age daughter's advice and I walked into an Apple store. The staff had so much fun showing off and converting me to a MacBook Pro 17. They were enthusiastic and so smart; off-the-chart smart.
I believe Apple now builds the coolest hardware and software on the planet: Macbook Pro, i-touch/phone, i-pod, i-pad, i-tunes, OS X, Xcode IDE. They sold over two million i-pads within the first 60 days of its release. They recently celebrated their 10 billionth i-tunes download milestone and reported their most profitable two quarters ever. Their stock growth over the last five years is equally impressive. The trend is clear; Apple definitely rules this industry now.
So, what makes the MacBook Pro 17 the laptop to own?
Screen: 1920x1200 pixel resolution for a 17-inch display. Evenly backlit with LED technology that produces a crisp display. For the 17-inch display, there is a choice of flat or glossy screen finishes. I chose the flat finish to eliminate reflections.
Case: Lightweight, aluminum case. Features (such as microphone, camera, ports, on/off button, DVD slot) that should be small are small. No plastic cases that crack; no creaking lid hinges; no flimsy plastic DVD trays. The manufacturing is first class. It is analogous to being in a luxury car where everything just fits well. The MacBook Pro exudes engineering excellence in its design.
Battery: With a PC laptop, I needed to minimize usage to maintain on time. On a recent 3-hour airline trip, I tried to max out usage on the MacBook Pro as a battery test. Still had plenty of battery charge at the end of the flight. I also impressed the passenger next to me.
Trackpad: Based on multi-touch technology. Two fingers on trackpad and depress is similar to a right-click. Two-finger swipe is a scroll. Very nice human factors technology throughout.
Operation: Very quiet, no fan noise (does it even have a fan?). Fast start-up and login.
OS X (Snow Leopard): Stable, no blue screen of death. It is obvious that OS X has its roots from Unix. One of the features, Spaces, allows multiple concurrent workspaces to be used (Ctrl-arrows navigates through the workspaces). OS X also includes built-in software for folder/file encryption (file vault), version control software (CVS), and development (python, perl, php, gcc, apache web-server).
Fun stuff: Open the terminal window and type 'say this is a great day to buy a mac' without the quotes.Get more detail about Apple MacBook Pro MC024LL/A 17-Inch Laptop.
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