Just Bought the 15" MBP

Just jumped on the bandwagon. Was really close to buying an HP Envy, but having to choose between a 14" vs 17" was difficult. For me, I think 14" is too small, and 17" is just too big.

This laptop is meant for personal use. I'm provided a laptop from work, and over the years have had Lenovo's, HP's and Dells. While all of them have met my requirements for work, none of them have necessarily had great displays or decent graphics cards. Plus, they're always bulky and flimsy.

So since I'm looking for a pure home-user experience, I was pretty interested in OS X. While Win 7 Home Edition is a crippled version of it's big brother counterpart, OS X is designed around the consumer market. It'll never join your Windows Domain, run your Login Scripts, or allow your IT dept push software updates to it. It was never meant for that. Watching/making movies, managing photos, and playing games is where I'll be spending most of my time with this box.

While the OS is pretty nice, it's the hardware that sealed the deal. The Macbook is just plain gorgeous. The colors on the screen come to life, it's fast, and doesn't feel flimsy. Closing and opening the lid, and watching how fast this thing comes back to life is amazing.

Note. I wanted the 15" with the 1GB Video Card and saw it on Amazon for about $150 cheaper than retail price. Fortunately, when I asked the Apple Store if they would price match, they said "yes". So, price shop before you go!

Pros:
gorgeous screen
beautiful case
backlit keyboard
fast

Cons:
loud fan
No backspace key
OS X Lion around the corner (not sure if entitled to free upgrade)

 

not sure what you mean by the backspace key... I mean sure apple calls it delete but is the spelling on it really that important?

 

Not the spelling. While every other laptop manufacturer has a DEL & a Backspace Key, the MBP only has a DEL key, requiring you to press FN + DEL to do a backspace.

 

The DEL key on the Macs works exactly as it does as a windows backspace key.

 

Loud fan is something I hardly ever hear of with any of Apple's Mac computers. I've owned several and I have a 2010 15" MBP, never hear the fan unless I use SMC fan control when playing games and even then it's whisper quiet. The iMac is extremely quiet in regards to fans.
OP you should have Apple look at your machine, the fans should barely be audible in the quietest rooms.

You are entitled to a free upgrade to Lion. Why would you put that as a con? Oy vey.

 

I didn't know the apple store price matched.

 

you got it backwards.. but yes... pressing the "delete" key does a backspace... and fn+delete does a delete.

 

doh123 - correct. I wrote it backwards. The delete button is a backspace, and it's conscious effort to stop looking for the del key and use the left-hand to seek out the fn key.

Regarding the fan, it's whisper quiet when I'm just browsing the Internet, typing, or in iPhoto. But when starting a movie in Netflix, launching Parallels, or playing a game and the fan kicks in. It's louder than any other laptop I've ever owned. I have the version with an i7 and the upgraded 1gb video card.

 

you haven't owned many laptops... I've had several much much louder than the MBPs fans get.

 

My laptops have always been business laptops, and I've owned many of them thruout the yrs. The fans are never loud.

Regarding Lion, I asked the Apple employee if I bought the Macbook now, if I would be entitled to Lion when it came out, and he said he had no idea, but doubted it.

 

Also, I'd be curious what a blu-ray movie looked like on this thing, because the screen is just awesome. Unfortunately, no blu-ray. Not necessarily a con though, because I don't have any blu-rays

 

That statement alone shows you haven't own many laptops. By design the majority of Windows notebooks have a fan so loud you can hear them clear across the room under common web surfing. As I mentioned earlier, you should take your new Mac to Apple and have them look at it. I run my Macs under heavy load and the fans run very quiet still.

Sorry for that employee's incompetence, it's states right on Apple's website that all new purchases of Macs since WWDC (June 6th) will get a free upgrade to Lion. http://www.apple.com/macosx/uptodate/

 

Well, a loud fan on the 2011 MBP isn't a bad thing considering how much performance it packs in a 1 inch chassis.

From my experience the MBP fans are nice and quiet. Not ninja silent or not a small turbine. Good overall.

 

You should be able to upgrade depending on when you bought your MBP. Check out the link below.

Apple - OS X Lion - Get up to date.

Jim

Update.. Didn't see the post above. Guess it would help to look at page two

 

Accidental post. Sorry.

 

didn't you pay tax at apple store?
you don't pay tax at amazon.

 

Depends on where delivery is. Amazon not immune to collecting sales tax look what Gov. Brown just signed the other day in California.

 

The new entry level 13 inch macbook pro with the HD3000 sounds like a jet engine. You might not hear it if you're sitting in front of the laptop, but since my brother owns said macbook pro, I constantly hear the perpetual 'lift off' each time I sit facing its back.

 

Yeah all the macbooks and macbook pros I've ever owned are very quiet. Definitely way quieter than alot of PC laptops that I've owned before.

 

Nope.

Amazon won't collect California sales taxes - Los Angeles Times

Amazon, Overstock thumb nose at California tax

Brown's an idiot. Ruining businesses in California for what? 0% of something is the same as some % of nothing. And it doesn't come with hate from 30 million people.

 

My MBP15 is also loud under load... my last few PC under load were much quitter than my MBP15. guess HLdan has only owned consumer PC's.

however the mac is by far the quitest of the bunch on idle or near idle, which is most of my use.

 

i didnt quite understand that "loud fan" thing as well.
I can only hear it when i am gaming but then it hardly matters.

 

Sound is pretty subjective and its hard to compare to other laptops, but any laptop will make a noticeable amount of fan noise when the system is under load. What you're hearing is perfectly normal when the system is stressed.

 

Really? No laptop is going to be able to be heard across the room just web surfing unless you live in the Sihera or there is seriously something wrong with the laptop.

Fire up a flash video on the old white macbook and the thing is louder then my XPS 16 at full blast. My friends 15 inch Macbook pro ( 9400m ) is louder under load as well. But when the Macbook is not under load fans are basically non-existent.

Quad Cores produce heat, Throw in a good gfx card and you will need a good fan to cool it and it will be semi loud

 

The Dell XPS 15 L502X I returned about two months ago would cycle up the fans for no apparent reason all the time, while sitting idle, and it was loud enough to easily hear it across the room.

 

Regarding the tax topic in this thread. If you don't pay taxes for online purchases at the time of purchase it does not mean that you do not pay taxes for that purchase when April 15th comes around. Unless you are conveniently forgetting to record that purchase with the IRS

But about the real topic of this thread. Congrats to the OP! Nice laptop!

Yes, the keyboard is probably one of the bigger issues for new Mac users, believe it or not. Especially if using Windows on the mac. How to perform screen captures, pageing up and down, home and end of line/file, switching between insert/overwrite modes, etc...

Those are all easy to do but takes awhile to learn the key press combos. If I let someone else "drive" my laptop while they are showing me somthing, the most often asked question is "how do I page down?". lol. no worries though.

Regarding fan noise, the apple laptops CAN get hot just as any other laptop. And when they do get hot, the fans are noticable (just as any laptop would get if fans on full at 6k rpm) especially in a quiet office. This most often happens to my MBP when I'm in Windows 7 in bootcamp while running an XP VM and while a big and busy JVM is running inside that VM. Then my GPU and CPU sometimes jump to 89c and the fans are screaming full blast. They do have good fans though, good bearings and all.

 

Taxes are a real bummer... if we were all to go by the books. It makes very little sense why the gov't can keep collecting taxes over and over and over again for the same item. It should be a one time tax, further resales of the item should be tax exempt.

So it's actually pretty deceiving when just about every large [and small] reseller on eBay advertises their items as "tax free". I don't live in Oregon. Don't lie to me.

GOVERNORRR.

 

who taxes you over and over? I don't think you know how it works.

 

Try reading it again. Slowly.

Cheers mate.

 

besides embedded taxes, taxes are only charged on the sell of a new item, not a resale of a used item... The state governments do not charge taxes on the same item over and over again. The federal government doesn't charge any sales taxes at all. Outside of the US, I have no idea...

 

I've owned a few laptops...including the Dell E1705 and E1505, Alienware m15x and m11x, Thinkpad T61P, and my MBP is one of the quieter ones. Definitely the best laptop I've owned to date overall.

The DEL key takes some getting used to, but as you use it it becomes second nature.

I also have an Apple Wireless Keyboard mated to an LMP wireless numberpad. In addition to the numberpad, the LMP unit adds a proper DEL key as well as page up/page down.

 

Wait you serious?

Sell game back to gamestop, they give you $5. What happens when you buy a used game? Ream.

Buy used car? Ream.

Flea market? Ream.

Never mind the fact that your paycheck was taxed already.

 

uhhgg... yes your right, and I haven't been very clear.

Sure... if its from a licensed business that is required to pay a tax on their sales, then they can charge you... don't buy from somewhere that requires you to have a tax on your purchase. Some items will always be re-taxed (like vehicles), because there are specific laws about them in some jurisdictions, though its still possible to get them tax free in many areas depending on very many things.

Its very possible to buy used things with no tax involved... I don't deal with ever buying used stuff (besides vehicles) from an actual business, so I probably wasn't very thorough in what I said before, sorry. I don't have a problem with the government getting their taxes via sales (used or new), as I find it much more fair than an income tax period... yet most states charge both income tax and sales tax... just wait until the federal government starts doing a sales tax too.

 

Are you running this in Windows? Macs run like crap under load in Windows. Under OS X though they tend to burn a hole in your leg long before the fan will come on.

 

Check out DoubleCommand - it lets you remap keys. I use the mini enter key by the space bar for a proper delete key.

As far as fan noise, a quality build, PC or mac, will have manageable fan noise. There are just more cheap PCs to notice it on, but it's not a characteristic of PCs. My MBP is quiet under normal use, but flash will make it sound like a jet. A little more fan action might keep it from getting so hot on my lap.

 

I wonder if refurb macs from apple store count for the Lion deal. Anyway, there is always other ways to get Lion, but many people have been upset with the iOS type dumbing down of the OS X by apple.

 

I'm pretty sure the refurbs will be counted. As fas as people being upset about the iOS infusion.....Let Em. What bothers me is certain consumers feel the need to control the company by over complaining, spreading FUD and creating unnecessary drama about Lion. Does it ever occur to the complaining people that maybe, just maybe many others may like what Apple is doing? These customers need to move on with tech industry. Wait until Windows 8 comes out. The tiles will really ruffle feathers. Microsoft is doing exactly what Apple is doing, they are incorporating their handheld OS functionality within their desktop OS. It's a smart move so things remain seamless for the customer. Will it work for Apple? You betcha, because there are a lot of iPhone/iPad/iPod Touch users. Will it work for MS? Maybe not because WP7 just isn't able to compete with iOS and Android.

I will say this, geeks on these forums do this crap to Apple all the time. Rant incessantly about a new product and then months later they rave with high praise. Case in point, Snow Leopard was highly criticized because Leopard apparently had a better view of Expose'. Now all of sudden people love SL's Expose and they don't care for Lion's Mission Control. Several months from now Lion will get full praise.
My take is, if you don't like it, don't upgrade. There's no point in spreading FUD other than to purposely try and screw over the company.

For the record, there's no such thing as "dumbing down" when you're adding features. Apple is not taking anything away. I guess with Windows 8 adding the tiles to the desktop that means it's being "dumbed down" right? I wish people would stop saying such ignorant stuff. The average customer is not a tech geek and the average customer represents almost the entire tech buying industry. Amchair techs (the ones that constantly post on forums with criticism) represent less than 1/10th of 1% of customers. There's nothing wrong with making a system simpler by incorporating functionality from the portable device the average consumer already has. That doesn't mean it's "dumbed down".
I can't count how many times people have said, "I have an iPhone and would switch to a Mac but I don't want to learn a whole new system so I may have to stay with a PC". That it itself is sad.

 

I was talking to an apple associate and he told me refurbs aren't "qualified", but then he could be wrong as well. There were rumors that yesterday was supposed to be all-nighter at apple stores, so lion should be released this week.