17" MacBook Pro Unibody

Ok, so I went to the Apple store definitely not expecting to walk out with anything. But that all changed when i spotted the 17" MBP. It was just so sexxxy. I had to have it. I didn't even bother playing around with it in the store cause it was so crowded. I purchased on and i get home and begin playing around with it. First thing i did was do a clean install of Leopard. I was definitely looking to dual boot it with Vista X64 but I had some issues finding drivers, and I'm not that crazy about Windows on my Mac. If i need it I can just use the desktop in my room. The first thing I have to say since I am a big music junkie is the speakers on this thing ARE BANGIN. Second I really underestimated Leopard, I always like the User Interface, but now I see that it's more than just that. Now to get my point across, anyone who has any hesitation buying one of these or is interested but is having second thoughts...you are straight up out of your mind. Pull the effing plug already.

 

WoW,your post so emotional!So you like it?

 

Wows... thats a whole lotta money to drop on something in such a short period of time.

Anyways, hope you enjoy your Mac

 

I do not understand the point of reinstall of leopard.

When I get my 17 inch unibody macbook pro(yes, it is the latest model with 2.66 C2D, 320G hard drive, 4G of memory), all I need to do is to connect the new one with my old 17 inch macbook pro together using a firewire 800 cable and transfer everything over.

I did not experience any problem at all and I love it. It is definitely much brighter than my old 17 inch macbook pro.

I am very happy with my 17 inch macbook pro

 

reload is the best in the Windows world.. it is basically useless on OSX... but some people do it. Transferring from your old Mac to your new Mac is fastest if you hook them up with a network cable so they can run gigabit (if both machines are capable) its faster than Firewire 800 transfer by a little bit. Macs RJ45 ports can auto flip for crossover.. so you don't need a hub/switch or crossover cable to hook 2 together.

 

well the question begs.. what do you think of the laptop? do you like it at all? are you gonna return it? its so overpriced.... you know you wanna go get a $699 17"er thats cheap, and inexpensive... and run Windows cuz its got all the games and programs and stuff...

 

It might sound that I am repeating,but are you serious?

 

Yes, I am very serious haha. I love this thing, and to be honest I really needed something capable of running good virtual dj programs and music creation software such as reason and Logic Studio. I have no second thoughts about it so I'm definitely going to be keeping this thing, but I agree with some of you posters, this thing is way too overpriced. I'm just a little too happy with it to return it.

 

Congrats man, I was at the apple store today to buy the original iphone headset (which was sold out).

Anyway I was looking at the Macbook Pro and to me the 17" unibody mbp keeps drawing me closer to it (the matte screen). It is beautiful, I just love the matte version especially with the silver bezel and it looks a lot thinner too. Also the borders are so thin its so attractive with the thinness of the notebook.

I almost did what you have and asked the person to go to the back to get me the 17" 2.66GHz model in matte, BUT I resisted. I dont need a notebook (it would be nice to lay down and use one) but I have no use for it.

I have my eye set on a Mac Pro desktop purchase (probably when snow leopard hits this summer).

But congrats man that is an amazing notebook!

 

Ha ha, now you understand why Apple charges what they charge. It's not "overpriced" if customers like you are "Just a little too happy with it to return it".

Congrats, it must be nice to be you to just drop by the Apple store with no purchase of anything in mind and walk out immediately with a $3000 lappy in these low economic times.

 

In low or great economic times, it is nice.

 

I was just down at the apple store, man I cant get the 17" unibody mbp out of my mind the matte version!

Is it really true that if you reinstall OSX that the brightness will be brighter than the brightness you see at the apple store?

It was pretty dim.

 

Hah. I just picked up a new MacBook Pro 17" 2.66Ghz on eBay. Couldn't resist the deal. Guy had a brand new one for $2400, free next-day delivery, and with Live Cashback (13% or max $200) and eBay Bucks (2%), I have my new 17" arriving tomorrow for a grand total of $2150! Can't beat that! And then my 120GB Vertex SSD will be here later this week. Pretty excited. Will my Apple obsession ever end?

 

Err? No?

Apple products never look bright in the store because the store is so bright to begin with! For example, the Apple LED display looks "so-so" brightness-wise in the store, but in my home it looks incredibly bright. I have to run it at around 1/3 brightness or it hurts my eyes it's so bright. The same goes for any LCD you look at under bright fluorescent lights in stores such as the Apple Store. They'll never look that bright under those conditions.

 

I know about the brightness looking different compared to at the brightly lit Apple Store.

There have been reports that the 17" unibody mbp screens look really dim with the demo version of osx installed on the floor models at the Apple store.

People were reporting that when the retail version of OSX was installed on the 17" mbp it was much brighter than the 17" on display at the Apple Store.

Interesting enough that when I went to "preferences" and under "energy saver" there was no option to switch to better graphics.

I'm addicted to Apple as well, when I was at the store today I was so close in buying a 17" 2.66GHz in matte model + a 2.26GHz Mac Pro desktop.

But luckily I came to my senses and decided to wait. I dont need a notebook at all so the 17" mbp would be a bad idea especially for the price of almost a mac pro desktop.

I'm going to wait until snow leopard ships along with the mac pro and probably buy a macbook air with either a 2.66GHz OCTO Mac Pro or a 2.93GHz OCTO, unless Apple does a silent speed bump to the midrange or base by that time.

 

I have the glossy version it looks sexy. No it really does who give a dang about the glare on glossy screens.

 

I've never heard of any system looking less bright in the Apple store. I recognized (approximately) the brightness of the screens in the store, and they looked just as bright as mine. The brightness notches even worked the same, and it's unlikely that store units have a different brightness range despite having the same number of "clicks."

 

I know the distinction of the brightness differences from looking at the screens at home and at the Apple store. I should know, so far I've LITERALLY been through 30 mbps from exchanges from 2 apple stores and buying and reselling.

Anyways when I looked at the 17" unibody it looks so dim. It feels like the brightness has been lowered down to 60% of the full brightness. I just went by the mall to play with one again today.

Many have been reporting that when they took their 17" home it was much brighter than the store model and the employees been telling them that it must be the version of osx that they have installed on the demo 17".

I've never heard of this either but apparently it seems to be true. Especially from some comparison in brightness between the 17" and the 15" unibody pictures that I've seen and the brightness of the 17" mbp as to the 15" right next to it (at the Apple Store) that looked like half the brightness of the 15". Matte or glossy.

Actually from the photos that I've seen the 17" looked the same in brightness as the 15" unibody mbps.

Either the demo models have an osx installed that doesnt utilize the full brightness or something is wrong with the demo models.

Also I noticed the demo 17" mbp doesnt have the gpu switching capabilities which leads me to believe the speculations are true.

 

http://www.notebooks.com/2008/11/24/new-macbook-pro-far-from-perfect/

I really like my MBP, but i agree with everything this poster says.

 

I agree with most of that article except the trackpad issues. I never had any problems with the trackpad, infact I really prefer the clickable trackpad and its much easier to use than previous generation with a dedicated button.

2 finger is much easier to me to use and faster as well with the clickable trackpad.

 

Don't know what to tell you. Perhaps your Apple store does things differently from the models I've seen. I'm VERY picky, and I've never see this brightness discrepancy.

 

I'm sure jjahshik is simply in thrall to the oft-mentioned thing that Apple does something special in some cases some of the time.

The brightness of the 17-inch (all of mine are non-glare-o-matic) is fine, but not especially so. I'm used to seeing a gulf between opinions of Apple-only or switched-from-some-cheap-pile users and mine, so in terms of their opinions I guess it's incredibly bright.

I 've dealt with it for a while now and I quite dislike the one-piece trackpad. It makes physical clicking completely unnecessarily difficult. But then as we know with the Mighty Mouse, Apple are masters of ergonomics, and not form over function I usually carry an Arc with me.

 

what are you going to do with 15" Will?

 

We are all entitled to our own opinion, so let's keep it that way.

 

I'm going to sell it. It's sat on my desk for toooooo long doing not very much. The battery has only 10 cycles, hah! Don't suppose anyone wants to buy a MBP, do they?

 

try B/S/T forum

 

Perhaps the Macs in the Apple Store are using a custom ColorSync profile. A profiles thats appropriate for the blinding overhead lighting.

 

This is not what my local apple store told me (I never asked) this is what several others are saying on several different forums, especially on the apple support forums.

Also I have two Apple Stores near me both 15 minutes away, one at the local memorial mall and the other one at the much bigger galleria. Both 17" from each stores I've visited was super dim.

Just curious, if your current 15" unibody mbp is just sitting there doing nothing what would you do with your 17"? Your using your 15" connected to a 24" LED ACD if I'm not mistaken.

 

I mean I don't use it as a laptop at all since the resolution is craptastic. It makes me miss my Inspiron 8600 with its 15.4" 1920x1200 display...

Oh, and I have a sneaky suspicion the wifey is going to steal the 17" when it gets here...

And with regards brightness, it ends here, OK? Whatever we might see at the Apple Store, I can assure you that the 17" MBP is just as bright as the 15", mmk? I've had a lot of play-time with one, since a few friends own them. I'm not saying the ones at the Apple Store are not dimmer necessarily, but that in normal use, they're great.

 

So why no mac pro?

 

Ibijo? Mehwha?

 

sorry?

 

LOL. Wasn't sure whom you were posing that question to.

 

I was asking you my friend! I mean,if you don't use it as laptop,why not to get mac pro?

 

Ahhh. Now I'm smelling what you stepped in. The Mac Pro is pretty nice, but it's a LOT of money, especially for a well-specced one. Plus, if my laptop had the resolution it badly needs, this wouldn't be an issue. Plus a laptop takes up less room, is quieter etc...

But don't think I haven't considered it.

 

You know I never said that the 17" mbp is dim right out of the box, its just the demo models at the Apple stores are dim.

You honestly dont see the difference between the 17" and the 15" right next to each other at the Apple store??

Its like a night and day difference. I'm sure when you open up your 17" it'll be bright as the 15" that you own, since its not either a demo model or the demo OSX installed on the 17".

I've owned the previous gen 17" 2.6GHz hi res led backlit model and the 2.5GHz 15" led backlit last gen mbp and played with those two at the apple store many times side by side and it looked similar in brightness at the store and at home.

But there have been many reports that concludes this that the store models are dim for some reason.

I didnt want to make this into an argument. Its just have been confirmed by many Apple store employees and many buyers as well, that is all.

Sorry but I'm starting to believe one of my friends that I met at macrumors that gave me an opinion of you, and I think he's right (no offense) but you are an a$$hole. I just feel like your a know it all that is too stubborn to listen to other people's opinions or even facts and leave it alone.

Its like the kid that always has to hit you last for no reason or something in an adult passive aggressive way.

 

and what about imac+24" LED?

 

Haha. No thanks. Don't really like the look of the iMacs, or the idea of not being able to upgrade my screen without upgrading the whole thing!

 

"I'm an a$$hole (no offense)." Gosh I haven't laughed so hard all day! I have no idea where all your angst just came from, but whatever!

Anyway, I'm glad the thread starter is enjoying his 17". It really is awesome!

 

I am A$$hole too,so don't worry Will

 

Actually I dont consider you to be one, I actually like talking to you though lol.

You seem reasonable with other people's opinions.

 

thanks m8! but some really do...

 

Woh you impulse bought the most expensive Macbook Pro!!
You must have some money

I have to scrap and save and plan everything out when I buy mac gear, it's so expensive (but worth it!).

It's good to hear that the speakers are good. The ones in my 2007-ish MBP 15" aren't the best, they sound ok but have very limited volume.

 

You r such a good man, let emotion take over. I can't do it.
I am a man with logical thought always win my emotion felling.