Ugly MBP???? Time for a redesign?

Well sorta depends on who you are but me personally I hate the look of the MBP only reason I am getting it is because it is an Apple and the screen is stunning. But sense I am buying this summer (montevina) I have my fingers crossed that they are going release a new design. Now what is the possibility of this happening? And is is possible to have your MBP professionally painted by The Apple store? And If possible( and you have enough time) I would like to see a few photoshops of what you would like it to look like.

 

I love the MacBook Pro design, but I think it needs a redesign as well.

No, the Apple Store won't paint your MBP for you. Take a look at Colorware though, they paint Macs.

 

WOW colorware is cool. But They do not color the keyboard and the touch pad.

 

It is an old design, but what would you change?

I'd like to see more USB ports. Ok, otherwise...

It's thin. The "monohinge" works and seems durable. Limits the ability to move the screen back, but it's a kind of a rare need.

Sometimes I think the cables coming out the sides makes for a messy desktop.

They've continued to refine, adding backlit keyboard, mag safe, front row IR, iSight, etc.

I have minor quibbles but none of it is fatal.

Good designs just don't need much changing. Porsche rode the original 911 design for ~30 years more or less.

It is an old design, if they changed it, that would be fine, if they didn't, I could understand that too. Colors don't excite me much. I'd get a black one if they offered one, but it's not killing my that its silver.

Most German cars evolve over time, and they evolve well and the older models even still manage to look good as time goes on. Now, look at companies like General Motors (or Dell) who rely on obsolete designs to generate "excitement" for new models. Their current and past offerings kinda look like poo, with a few exceptions here and there.

Still the hotness after all these years. It's a 1988 model.

 

Car designs do not change very fast so to use a car as an example is wierd but i know where you are getting at. Personally I hate the rounded design I like square design without the button so you can left the hinge I like what hp does with the touch bad that sinks down. But the Hinge can stay there forever everyone else needs to adopt that.

 

Actually dells XPS M1330 and M1530 are great designs, in fact better then that of a Macbook Pro IMO. So much so that if they release a 17" model MBP would fall to 2nd. But if Apple does use the M1530 as a benchmark of a new design it would be great.

 

General motors changes car designs all the time, like every few years. You get things like the Aztek.

Dell changes designs frequently.

My larger point was that good design endures.

Style kinda tends to be a fashionable gimmick. Some good, some bad, but never consistent, and rarely great.

 

Or look at the E1505 white bumpers? What a mess. Or those wacky Ambilight style XPS laptops from a couple of years ago.

Sure if you throw out 50 designs, some may be ok. And notebooks are not rocket science. HP keeps it simple. Their designs are solid, if not spectactular. Some of their 17" designs verge on getting weird, but most of their laptops are the basic black industrial plastic types.

 

One thing I like though is the fact that the bottom and the sides are not flat black plastic it is covered all over in Aluminum. And of course the thickness!

 

thinkpad had a great design until lenovo took over and put speaker grills on the side and also the off-centered screen . i always felt MBP were more for girls. rich blonde girls to be exact. very cosmetic-ish if you know what i mean. i cringe every time i see a fat dude walking around with his little MBP no offense (well actually yes) :/

 

also for the short period of time i carried my LG T1 to library/sbux i had many MBP owners come up to me and asked me questions about the notebook :]

but yeah the design is getting old and i personally like the design of LG T1, panasonic Y5, old thinkpads, sony TZ a lot better than MBP.

i also dislike how some people try to act all elegant w/ their MBP sippin on lattes at starbucks. this is true for some biz students w/ their first thinkpads

 

The design is so old, how can you be a poseur with it?

Is that a 1.33GHz G4? A 1.67GHz G4, a Core Duo?

It's in every TV commercial and print ad. It's just what it is.

It means you paid 20% too much for your laptop but you're cool like that.

 

sir are you on crack? what the heck are you talking about.

 

I might be on a wee bit of crack rock...

 

I am sorry but I have not seen many girls use MBP's to this date!

 

I think he is on the same thing that Sesame street puppet on his avatar is on

 

Actually, there is the XPS M1730, if you haven't heard . That is the 17-inch XPS model. And it sure ain't thin .

Wierd Al, please stop double posting. Just edit your posts in the future, thank you .

 

Any while the M1530 and the M1330 look damn sexy, the M1730 is a minger. Man the harpoons!

 

Anyway we can contact apple as consumers?

 

Some of the bigger forums like MacRumors' forums do get "watched" by Apple staff. As well as Apple's own Discussions.

 

Where can I talk in Apples own Discussions?

 

Sure, just call their corporate office and ask for customer relations. I don't think there is anything wrong with the MBP design, I think it is classic. The only thing I would change is make the hard drive user accessible. The look is perfect, and I like having the ports on the side (while maybe not the most flattering look, it is much more user friendly).

 

Do you think One person will make a huge difference! They will probably not even take me serious!

 

http://discussions.apple.com/index.jspa

 

Probably not, lol! Apple kinda does its own thing. I am sure they realize how long the MBP design has been around, and I doubt it is by accident.

 

How true . Apple doesn't really listen...they only listen to Steve .

 

I think I if I give a link to this page and also talk about how dedicated sam is to Apple and he even thinks it's time then that should be a hint!

 

I like what cashmonee said about the hard drive. Also, Apple could improve the MBP's keyboard. I like the MB's keyboard better.

 

I'm kind of indifferent... I still think the MBP keyboard is better. It's totally subjective, though...

 

I like the MBP keyboard but yes the Macbook keyboard is still better.

 

I got a very bad reaction when I posted this same topic in the macrumor forums, no wonder they are die hard fans while I will buy what ever is best!

 

MacRumors is Mac fanboy haven . I just read some threads, I don't post there .

 

I know but it was taken so offensively! maybe I should go on and say I have changed my mind I am getting a HP 8710W just to stir them up a bit .

 

Although I do agree that MBPs are probably due for a design update in the near future, I have nothing but praise for the current one. It's certainly no mistake that they have stuck with this design for such a long time; I'm sure tons of market research etc has been done.

What in particular do you not like about the MBPs? Or is it that, like many, you would prefer something more vanilla in lieu of Apples hallmark chic? Because at least for me the M1530 is a huge step down in overall design.

 

Yea, they're more than a bit fanatical over there. I try not to post either, but it does tend to be a better resource for Mac stuff in general than a notebook-specific forum.

It's even worse on the official Apple forums, but then anything that implies something bad about Apple there usually gets purged anyway

Then again, the rather blatant inflammatory content and (deliberately) poor presentation of the OP's posts here aren't exactly conducive to him being actually taken seriously or inspiring people to be helpful and nice They do get attention though at least.

 

Yeah, they're usually busier than NBR is, and they just focus on Apple stuff .

If this Apple forum got that busy, we'd need like 25 moderators!

 

As you should.

I like the looks of the MB and MBP. If judging strictly looks, though, the white MB is my favorite by far. Neither machine is perfect, but what notebook is? A person should buy whatever suits him best and is within his means, even if it happens to be a P*cough* . . . a P - no, no, no, I just can't say it! A machine not a Mac.

 

I voted for a new design, I do like the mbp, its very clean and sexy, but it would be nice to see the apple design team blow us away with something new from left field.
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Well, I'm a recent switcher from the Windows pond so I'll admit I never really noticed or even knew the MacBook Pro existed. So to me, the design is new. I think it looks great and there's very little if anything I'd change.

I suppose the only thing I'd change is how you access the hard disk. I would have liked the option to upgrade the hard drive myself without having to disassemble the unit and void my warranty. Otherwise, it's pretty perfect.

 

You think the Dells look better than the mbp, are you insane? I'm a dell owner and i can tell you they have nothing on the looks of the mbp, yeh so what its been around for 5 years! That proves something right?

 

Well, the Dell XPS designs and the MacBook Pro designs are different, that's for sure. Some will prefer the XPS designs, some will prefer the MBP designs. The XPS designs certainly are a lot better than the previous ones. In this case, I guess Wierd Al prefers the XPS design.

 

True, Personal preference i suppose..