Unibody MacBook Pro: an in-depth review with video - Page 2

It could be a USB audio device attached to the internal hub.

What anti-reflective coating? I can't find anything that suggests it being used.

That situation (not being to insert/eject dicscs) can only be described as bad design. Normal wear and tear should not lead to that kind of situation.

Oh, Ireland. I really wish I had the hair to comb, mate.

The scruffy has more to do with the not shaving for days at a time. These days that includes my head.

And while we're on the subject of shiny..

The moment anyone comes across a matte overlay for the new MBP screens, let me know. I don't mind the reflections on mine most of the time, but I'm so used to the matte screens it's still a bit to get used to.

I must not use the trackpad like everybody else. I don't use my thumb at all, just my index finger. I find it to uncomfortable with my thumb touching the trackpad. I used to use tap and click on Windows laptops but found it got quite irritating when I would be reading and tapping the trackpad at the same time, so I switched to a mouse. This all in one trackpad is brilliant. And I'm loving the multi-touch gestures.

Stand in front of a window and if the light on the other side of the glass is darker than the light in front of the glass, the greater the amount of reflection that is produced.

Sitting in a dark office and turning on your computer, the screen becomes basically a spotlight. As such, any object that the light from the display falls on will be reflected back onto the screen; and will be noticed by the viewer unless the screen is so angled to reduce the amount of light that is reflected back to the viewer's eyes.

And, as you evidenced, turning up the display brightness did in fact reduce the reflection.

I would suggest at that point you increase the amount of light in the room behind the display, certainly not onto it and if anything, as little as you need to read for example, in front of it. Doing so, and adjusting the angle of the screen should significantly reduce the amount reflection. Surely enough for it to quickly become unnoticeable, and even as I sit in front of my glossy monitors, completely eliminated altogether.

Bon chance.

Good grief. More "Prince McLean" pseudo-journalistic dribble.

Let's think about this for a second:
*The low-end macbook still has firewire. Okay, consider this "inventory clearing" and "legacy"
*The Air isn't really "consumer", but a specialty product (I would assume jetsetting execs were a market...)

Less ambiguously, the
*Mini has firewire 400.
*iMac has firewire 400/800
*MacPro has firewire 400/800

Looks to me that firewire bereft odd-men out here are the Air and new macbook. I would HARDLY consider the mini and iMac to be "pro-only" machines.

If you spent 50 man-hours on this, I would really consider taking a typing and/or journalism class.

Next week: http://www.photodon.com/

No mention about whether these run cooler than their predecessors...any word?

Fabulous machine, beautiful design. Glossy won't work for work. Color looks terrific, but reflections cause eye strain (don't want to work even a little harder at work) - been there, done that, can't go back. Doesn't match with 30" matte screen. Hate to even think what it would be like to have a 30" glossy screen.

Thanks for the review, it was the first I came upon that said anything really interesting and felt like a real hands-on experience (adding information to what could anyone see in the Keynote stream), unlike all the others - Engadget, Gizmodo, Anandtech, ... who did just copy & paste specs from apple.com + add some whining about firewire and glossy screens...

I have already ordered a 2.4 Ghz MacBook + 4GB RAM upgrade (seems more reasonable for me - with decent external display still cheaper than MBP with half the RAM and firewire, which I do not need). My country is unfortunatelly not on a list of "officially supported" Apple, and the delivery time is "3 to 4 weeks", can hardly wait

Meh, I'm too ugly to work in front of a mirror all the time.

After a couple of hours of intense data crunching, the only "just' noticeably warm spot is on the bottom upper left.

And I mean Just

I run Folding@Home 24/7 and my new 2.4 Ghz MacBook is not as warm as my old G4 iBook.

John

Anyone has an opinion on that ?
I plan to buy a 2.8Ghz and this got me a little concerned.
I asked to an Apple Shop guy yesterday and he said there's no way 2.8Ghz will cripple my battery life more than a few minutes but he didn't look like he knew what he was saying, so...

You can expect a hit, but not 40%. More like 10-15% max, the processor won't be turning at full speed constantly anyway.

The Penryn laptops run a heck of a lot cooler. In the dark days of the push for a laptop G5 from Apple, it would have been hard to imagine the achievements of Penryn, from a thermal perspective.

What is reassuring is that the Unibody stuff took airflow and cooling into good account. Radical design changes can sometimes lead to unexpected heat issues.

You'd lose maybe 20 minutes out of 3 hours or so, worst case scenario. If you need that kind of CPU, I'd say go for it if you can afford it.

I think the Apple Store guy was trying to say that when you are not doing CPU intensive stuff the difference in battery life can be very small since the Intel laptop CPUs are very good nowadays at dialing down power drain when the CPU is not being used so intensively.

For Mac-based Pro work, even after all these years, nothing comes close to the Apple Cinema 30", from the studio setups I've seen. Two 30" Apple displays are like de facto Mac setups.

The 23" matte Apple Cinema Displays are still available. Maybe one could pair the new MBP with the 23", using the 23" as the "proofing" display... The MBP display for "portable inspiration on the go", not final comps/etc...?

Very, very good observation. It looks like the USB in the Apple 24" display acts as a powered 3-port USB hub, as well as a USB audio device.

This was not unexpected on Apple's part or anybody that took high school physics.

From Apple's marketing materials on the new LED Cinema Display:

"On the back of the display, youll find three self-powered USB ports. You enable them along with the built-in iSight camera, microphone, and speakers the moment you plug the USB connector into your new MacBook."

It's really disgusting to read all of the rationalizations, dismissive diversions, and mental gymnastics that "everyone" swallows regarding the REAR VIEW Mac DISPLAY mandate.

I have indeed tested all of these AND THEY S-U-C-K .

Please read that last sentence as many times as it takes to flush the BS out of your system.

We must pretend that a bright screen will not be called upon to display a DARK FREAKIN' SCENE in a movie or photo or game or ....

We must pretend to "counterbalance" any and all OTHER features of the display against the

STUPIDITY OF THE REAR-VIEW Mac. Even if those other features are totally distinct and in no way capable of ameliorating the STUPIDITY OF THE REAR-VIEW Mac.

That so very many of us LOYAL CUSTOMERS continue to be shut out by the NO-CHOICE
STUPIDITY OF THE REAR-VIEW Mac display seems to bother nobody.

After dropping big bucks into a Mac, we are expected to go ELSEWHERE to buy and slop a matte decal onto the highly aesthetic ( if useless ) REAR-VIEW Mac display.

I just blew $34 (S/H) on a Photodon matte film to put on the 13.3" MacBook that I borrow from the school where I teach. I will report back re. how it works.

********* THIS IS A CALL FOR HELP TO SOME THIRD PARTY ENTREPRENEUR ***********

WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU WAITING FOR ???!!!!!!

LET'S HAVE A SERVICE THAT WILL ACID ETCH A MATTE FINISH ON THE OUTSIDE SURFACE
OF THE MAC (ESPECIALLY 24" iMacs) GLOSSY GLASS.

THERE IS A HUGE DEMAND FOR THIS RELIEF FROM THE STUPIDITY OF THE NO-CHOICE REAR-VIEW MAC DISPLAY POLICY.

HOW ABOUT IT ???? IT LOOKS LIKE THE IDIOTS AT APPLE ARE NOT GOING TO
GIVE US A CHOICE. IT LOOKS LIKE THEY THINK WE WILL GROW ACCUSTOMED TO THE
STUPIDITY OF THE REAR-VIEW MAC DISPLAYS.

************************************************** ****************************************

And for you morons who keep bringing up that the LCD panel is itself glossy and that this could not be done ----- SHUT UP !!!!!! JUST SHUT THE HELL UP !!!!!
If a film applied to the outside surface of the glossy stupidity can cut the glare, THEN THE SAME COULD BE DONE MORE ELEGANTLY BY ETCHING THE GLASS COVER's OUTSIDE
SURFACE ITSELF.

Thank you for your attention to this detail,

---gooddog

Obsessive much? I think you need to calm down a bit. This all-caps and repeating seven times a catch phrase you made up doesn't tell me I should agree with you.

You didn't follow instructions. Keep reading it until you are cleansed.

BTW, who the hell wants you to agree with me ?

We want a CHOICE CHOICE CHOICE CHOICE CHOICE CHOICE CHOICE CHOICE .

We expect YOU to display the minimal decency and consideration for OTHERS OTHERS OTHERS OTHERS OTHERS OTHERS OTHERS OTHERS OTHERS OTHERS that a chimp would have no trouble with.

---hope this calms you down a bit.

The problem is, you're the angry one.

BUT THIS LEVEL IS NORMAL FOR ME.

I never affect that complacent, insipid, bloodless tone that, were it not for the ability to type, would betray the presence of a veal.

MAYBE YOU KNOW HOW TO GET A 24" iMac GLASS ETCHED TO A NICE, MATTE FINISH.

MAYBE ALL THE BILE YOU RETAIN COULD DO THE JOB: I'M DRAINED MYSELF.

I think you've misunderstood what I was trying to say, and I find your response quite condescending, actually.

Of course any manufacturer has to go through a process of thermal engineering.

The point I was trying to make was that with incremental design changes, the thermal engineering team has more "cushion" to test and adjust the laptop cooling design.

The unibody design is really quite radical, and while Apple takes a longer time than the industry in developing products, I am sure the thermal engineering team faced quite significant challenges.

During the product development timeframe, there can be unexpected heat issues for really new designs, despite the best efforts of the manufacturer to model, test and adjust for new thermal issues. The "risk" of mistakes is higher, the margin of error lower, when dealing with new designs as opposed to evolutionary improvements in the laptop body.

Finally, it seems that there have been no serious reports of heat issues in the totally new unibody design, which indicates that Apple was able to do a great job in thermal engineering, but also there were no "mistakes" or unforseen (despite best efforts) heat issues.

Actually, it took me a few minutes to figure out what the hell gooddog was talking about with the "rear view" comments. Now I kinda get it, LOL.

Gooddog's ranting is worse even than my usual tangents, though.

The royal we? Seriously?

Actually, I am willing to pay up to USD $50 for a decent, quality matte/glare-reducing film for the new MacBook Pro.

I think many users, most of which, though not as pissed off as you, would appreciate more information on quality, suppliers, and price of such films. Let's try and get more info on this.

It might be a very important accessory, and could clinch the deal for many people looking to get the new MacBook Pro but have a niggling feeling about the glare aspect.

Apple is far from perfect, thank goodness there's a heck of a lot of 3rd party accessories to make up for Apple product disadvantages.

I've owned a new 2.4GHz MacBook Pro for about a week and a half now, and I can safely say that this is the best Mac I've ever owned. It's significantly faster than my last Macbook Pro (Late 2007 Santa Rosa 2.2GHz). The graphics are a huge improvement over the 8600M GT. I love the trackpad, and with the addition of MultiClutch, I can add three-finger swipe gestures as key combos for any program I want, or globally, if I want. I've become so used to tap to click, and drag lock that it's extremely nice for me to copy/paste or move windows, etc. Also, the glass display doesn't bother me that much. But, by far, the best thing I love about this computer is it does not burn a hole through my legs anymore. I can sit with it on my lap and not worry about getting third-degree burns. It is not even hot to the touch. Mine has been on all day and, in fact, it's pretty cold when I feel the bottom.

I would give this MacBook Pro a 5/5, but I guess AI feels differently.

Re: I find your response quite condescending, actually.

It was not meant to be. It was just a matter of fact.

Simply stated, Apple's venture, i.e., into solid uni-body construction was not really a physics issue. Simple physics would have predicted it. The thicker the body, the less thermal transfer. Obvious as they cut into the block the dynamics change. However, in comparison with the previous construction process, it would be superior, until all the parameter were equalled, thickness aside.

The main challenge that Apple had to address was the final cost, not the physics. Keep in mind that the when, where and who re tooling, manufacturing, delivery, etc., all have related costs and once they were addressed and totalled, the decision was relatively simple and virtually guaranteed.

Specifically, glare is not an issue.

Glare is the phenomenon by which an ambient light incident directly on the user’s eyes causes a loss of ability to use a display. As such, it is a function of the lighting environment and installation and not a property of the display. http://www.gdoptilabs.com/documentat...eflections.htm

As for "etching", you have to be kidding.

I would also like to point out, that virtually everybody that has actually gone and seen or bought a new Macbook are not concerned about the glossy screen. Everything that I have read so far indicated that the majority of dissenters are basing their opinions on ignorance, or others who likewise have little or no personal experience. And if it was out of experience, it was certainly not seeing the new Macbooks or the technology behind it.

I was wondering in the back of my mind what about the photo of Jonathan Ive in front of the case internals looked unlike the other photos I've seen of the unibody. Then I realized that this photo is actually him in front of the old MacBook Pro case--note that this is the bottom shell, not the underside of the keyboard, and it has bilateral ports, front optical drive, latch release button, etc.

Assuming you meant to show the old case because the previous paragraph talks about the comparison, a comparison photo of the unibody would be illustrative, and a caption to ease confusion would help.

Thanks for the detailed review.

No, not royal : I have a tape worm; a glossy rear-looking tape worm.

Listen junior, a specular reflection is created when incident light waves are reflected from a surface with irregularities of dimensions smaller than half the wavelength of the light.

A diffuse reflection is caused by surfaces whose irregularities are larger than that.

Everyone who has framed a print with "low-glare" or "matte" glass has seen how well the lightly "frosted" (etched) glass works.

EVERYBODY who has seen a Macbook has fallen in love with their own mug reflected in the screen. Since they have no freakin' choice, they dish out the dough and spend the rest of their lives rationalizing and lying about the swindle they fell for.

All of these individuals force down mouthfuls of TOFURKEY every Thanksgiving and tell their relatives that it is indistinguishable from the real bird. I would caution the rest of us from associating with these fungi-form "people". Nothing worthwhile has ever come from the likes of them. Apple is infested with their advance operatives.

Good side-by-side before & after photos are available from Photodon at the URL below. I will apply my $34 (including S/H) film to a glossy Macbook 13.3 inch (the model just before the unibodies) this weekend.

There is a YouTube demo at the site as well.

I will first experiment by laying a 6" X 4" pane of thin, matte, picture framing glass (lightly frosted) on top of the Macbook screen to see if it works as I expect it to work. If so, then it will prove that, by "frosting" the glossy glass lightly (etching or bead blasting), we can get what APPLE finds too difficult to offer to half of its loyal customers. The spirit of APPLE will survive the stupidity of the current policy. Acid can be diluted to fit the bill.

Personally, I suspect that the forced demise of matte screens is intended to clear the way for the reported future displays that have a phased array of photosensors interlaced with the pixel elements.
These look-back camera displays (not possible with matte screens) will force us to have a peeping-tom camera accessible to the alphabet soup snoops in our government, since the only way to disable the all-screen camera will be to cover the whole screen like a parrot cage. The VISISCREEN will be deployed and our brains will be sucked out through a small hole at the base of our tiny skulls.
We are not paranoid.

http://www.photodon.com/mm5/merchant...T&Store_Code=P

i want 2 of whatever you're taking.

*************************************************

No way !!! The Galactic Queen grants them only to me.
You must find your own chronosynclastic infindibulum.

But, in the meantime, you may access this secret portal and join the Body of Landrum in the serenity of our fluids:

http://www.engadget.com/2006/04/26/a...ng-lcd-pixels/