MBP First Looks Part IV

I have now owned my MBP for a month now and have settled in quite nicely with it and Tiger. Here's a quick recap of what I've done with it so far.

I Can Load Windows On A Mac? Groovy!
The feature that practically sealed the deal for me was the fact I could run Windows XP/Vista natively on the Mac (using Boot Camp). This allowed me to continue to run Windows-only applications and still utilize Mac OSX. The performance I got with it was amazing, and Vista's performance check proves it, rating my MBP at equal scores to what I get on my desktop (base score of 4.8 for both). But, I didn't like the fact that if I wanted to go from one OS to the other I had to reboot, and the fact that sharing files between the two partitions became problematic.

Enter VMWare Fusion
Luckily VMWare released Fusion, to allow the running of guest OS's while Mac OSX is running. I got the best of both worlds in one amazing package. I could do my programming with Visual Studio, while in the Mac world. I couldn't be happier, plus I could easily transfer files from the virtual Windows XP image to Mac OSX and vice versa painlessly by dragging 'n dropping files.

Wicked Performance, Style, And Portability
I am amazed at the performance of the MBP, especially when playing WoW and running games through Fusion. Also the boot time to get into Mac OSX was great, averaging around 25 seconds from power on to get to the desktop.

I like the form factor of the chassis. Its slim, so I can fit it in my current bag, its not too heavy to lug around, and the screen is the best I've seen on any previous laptop I've owned.

The Road Ahead
I'm still getting used to the keyboard layout, and that will be overcome with time and patience. One major thing is that if I use an external mouse, I find that its not as good as it works on Windows XP/Vista (I've tried several applications to remedy this but none have gotten the movement style Windows had).

I have yet to dive into the world of Automator, and even the XCode platform for developing apps for Macs. That is on my todo list. Also on my todo list is to evaluate whether I will get an immediate benefit of going to Leopard. It would be cool if I could try out Leopard first before buying it... does Apple provide a beta trial of it, kind of like what was avaiable for Windows Vista's beta program?

 

that's wonderful dbam .. great to see u settling down with ur mbp ! ... 25 seconds startup time is pretty much the time it takes a pristine mbp to startup ... looks like ur taking care of ur mbp and being mindful of wht ur installing...

when ur running vmware fusion ... how much is the temperature increasing by? what is ur cpu temp in normal conditions (idle...light use) vis a vis when ur using vmware fusion?

it'll really be great if apple gives out evaluation time limited copies of leopard to try out ... but... i don't think that's going to happen...

 

Great work, dbam, thanks for it .

 

Nice post, what i look forward too in leopard is "stacks".

 

hey mate i have had my mbp for about 2/3 weeks. its a great machine, although did you have any issues with the tinting issue with the bottom 1/3 of the screen? i have already had to have mine replaced, and im not so sure about this one either.

 

I did not experience any tinting problems in my MBP. Mine must be a defect for not having the tinting problem .

Under light use, temps usually range between 45-50 (Celsius). By "light use" I mean just simple web browsing, and writing a few documents in the Text Edit program. Nothing fancy like Word or Open Office.

Under heavy use, temps climb just a bit to 55-60 (Celsius). Fusion runs the temps just above 60. This is better than when I was running Windows using Boot Camp, which immediately shot up the temperature to 65-70. Obviously when running games like WoW the temps get a bit higher to about 65-70. I haven't noticed it going any higher than that. The MBP does cool off relatively quick when the load drops.

One question about external mouses and Mac's. Does the mighty mouse give a better experience than other kinds of mice? I find it bothersome to use an external mouse like my logitech mx510 because the acceleration/deceleration doesn't seem to be working well at all. Therefore I tend to stick with the touchpad only.

 

I too am getting a MAC-Pro very soon, so thanks dbam987 for the First Looks review. I'm especially happy to know how well VMWare Fusion works.

 

neat..
thanks for posting that dbam... sounds like bootcamp does run the machine quite warm! ... iv stalled on installing win xp/vista on the mbhp ... haven't yet had the need to access windows while using os x ... i'm waiting for bootcamp to come out of beta.. when it ships with leopard.. and see how it performs.. i guess in the meantime i could get an eval version for vmware fusion ... i can run it for a month .. and then hopefully by then leopard would be released... and i can figure whether the bootcamp release is good enough for my needs .. or whether i need to get a copy of vmware fusion ...

as for ur mx510 mouse .... hmm.. that's too bad.... i have a logitech s530 keyboard/mouse combo for the mac ... and haven't been facing any problems.... (looks like im one of the very few who aren't having issues with the s530) ... the mouse is nice and responsive... just like i want it ..

 

Just a friendly note, zambie: the final version of Boot Camp isn't going to be Leopard-exclusive. Its bundled into Leopard, yes, but according to some sources, although not officially confirmed, the final version of Boot Camp will also be available for Tiger, but at a cost of $29 US.

So you don't have to get Leopard to get the final version of Boot Camp. Just a note .

 

hmm.. .well i thnk to myslf ... sooner or later i shall be getting leopard... so .. why get bootcamp by itself when in a couple of months time i do intend on installing leopard... ... but.. thanks for the heads up on that Sam ... resourceful as ever you are! ..

 

I intend to gather the strength and energy to install MonoDevelop on the Mac so I don't have to go through Fusion to get to Windows to do the development on. Once I do this then 80% of the time I'll be in the Mac world. Currently I spend 50-50 on each.

 

What I'm about to say may shock some people, so brace yourself.

I have had my MBP for about 3 months now, and have sufficient experience in using it. There are however some big problems that came about during my usage that is forcing me to reconsider the MBP altogether. After thinking about this for sometime, and trying various ways around the problems I'm encountering, I have decided to sell my MBP .

Firstly, the keyboard is not all that I had hoped it would be. I type very fast, and sometimes my fingers would miss the key I wanted to hit. It would have been better if they spread out the keys a bit better, because the amount of space on the MBP certainly could accomodate it.

Secondly, the trackpad is a bit too sensitive, and my wrists graze it too often, leading into accidental mouse moves. Did Apple need to make it so large?

Thirdly, I find myself booting into Windows a lot more than booting into OSX. OSX (Tiger edition) is a great, but for my needs it didn't meet them.

Fourthly, I got the Griffin 5-in-1 flash card reader for the MBP and found it didn't support flash cards with capacities greater than 512 MB. I knew the MBP didn't have a built-in flash reader, and so I planned to get the reader for it, only to find that it didn't work all too well. I need this functionality for my work.

The MBP is a great notebook to have, but it largely depends on how usable it is to the person. It was fun playing around with it, and if the keyboard and trackpad could be better organized then I wouldn't have minded staying with it. It would have been cool to use a keyboard similar to how the MacBook and Sony Vaio CR laptops have, with the keys separated out a bit.

I plan on "down-grading" to the Sony Vaio-CR laptop once I find a buyer for the MBP.

This member no longer feels this way about his Mac, read about it on post 16 below!

 

Sorry to hear its not going that well, dbam...but at least now you've discovered what you really want and what you don't really need . Have you considered listing the MBP you're selling on the Buy Sell Trade forum here ion NBR?

 

Hi Sam, I'll consider posting it on the buy/sell/trade forum. Thanks for all the tips and tricks, as they helped a lot.

 

Well, good luck!

 

OK, I made a gigantic mistake. I judged too soon on the MBP, hence I deleted that silly posting I made. Now for the reasons why I came back...

1. The MBP's hardware is impressive.
2. My dad figured out why I didn't like the keyboard and gave a suggestion to get around my problem with it: hit the keys harder.
3. The trackpad can be tamed, by turning on the 'ignore accidental trackpad hits'
4. Vista runs nicely on it
5. Fusion rocks. Especially on Leopard (see #6)
6. The updates to Fusion make running Vista a viable option, especially on Leopard
7. I tested out Leopard, found I loved spaces, found Fusion rocks on it, got Leopard
8. Even the Sony laptop's screens struggle to out match the MBP's screen

So.... I've learned a valuable lesson here. Feel free to slam me on this, I should never have given up on the little things.

EDIT:
9. Time Machine is much simpler to use on Leopard than Vista's backup system.
10. Found networking between Vista & Leopard to be a snap

 

dbam987,

I "revived" your previous post, and made a small message at the end. I think its a good idea to keep it, just so others can see what you felt were flaws with Macs, and what you've decided now . But if you really want it deleted, delete it, its fine with me as well!

And what can I say? Welcome back, dbam!

 

lol, i was hoping i wouldn't have to ever look at that post ever again. i'll think of it as a comic-relief sort of thing.

good to be back! by the way, i just placed an order to up the memory to 4gb on it, so i can run vista (via Fusion) along side leopard (i love spaces).

i'm going to start a new thread soon: MBP Second Looks