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Apple MacBook Pro MC700LL/A 13.3-Inch Laptop review: A Solid Computer Gets Faster, By Glenn R. Howes (Nashua, NH)
I stopped by my local Apple Store the morning this MacBook Pro was made available to the public and bought one, replacing my over two year old unibody MacBook. These are premium computers, and well made. My old computer, which looks very much like this one, still looked great after two years, with a little scratching on the bottom, and an unfortunate denting of one corner. I do not regret for one minute paying more for a device I use several hours a day, and from which I derive my living.
The strong point of this computer over previous 13 inch unibody MacBooks is the processor. It is noticeably faster at computationally intensive tasks. For example, I have a large application written in the C++ programming language which Xcode on my late 2008 vintage MacBook could compile in 16.5 minutes, this MacBook can do the same task in 8.5 minutes, a nearly doubling of speed. Similiarly, converting a 10 minute MP3 file to AAC in iTunes used to take 21 seconds, now it takes 14 seconds. Unsurprisingly, computer processors have gotten faster. The new processor does tend to heat up fast under full load, so be prepared for more frequent fan noise.
The weak point is the stock hard drive, a 320GB 5400 RPM Hitachi laptop drive. Any operation depending on hard drive throughput is not going to be much faster on this computer than in years past. If you do not have large capacity needs, you may be better served special ordering a model with a smaller but much faster solid state drive (SSD), they do not come cheap, but will result in a much more balanced computer that does not leave its high performance CPU idling awaiting data. I would do so, but the higher capacity SSDs cost as much as the computer alone.
If you were to upgrade to an SSD, be aware that while this model has one type III SATA port, you might have trouble using one of the new type III SATA SSD drives in it. I tried to install a 128 GB Crucial RealSSD C300 into the hard drive bay and the operating system installer failed to install. Online forums indicate people are having troubles with type III drives, and whether the problem is with the drive used, a bad cable, or firmware is in dispute. You might want to wait on a type III upgrade until this settles out. In the meantime, I've purchased a bracket allowing me to replace the optical drive and put the SSD on the type II port formerly used by the SuperDrive.
This is the only laptop Apple sells without a discrete graphics processing unit (GPU), instead relying soly on the Intel integrated 3000HD GPU. Intel has previously not been known for its GPU prowess, but space constraints and Intel's design restrictions, and improvements in performance finally pushed Apple into going integrated only. I would have preferred a discrete GPU, especially in a premium laptop, but I am not a gamer, and will make do with the much better CPU. I'm sure Apple would have preferred a discrete GPU, as their strategy for performance improvements is to use the GPU for general purpose computing using the OpenCL framework.
New to this year's models is the Intel Thunderbolt connector superseding the Mini Display Port connector. This flexible port will likely become more and more useful as hubs and peripherals become available to make use of its fantastic speed. Adaptors and docks will be available to use this one port as a USB, DVI, Firewire, Ethernet port simultaneously, making one data cable for easy desktop docking. But, I don't have any use for it now. Media reports indicate Apple will have this port to itself this year, although Intel is insisting that other motherboard manufacturers could start to include it, and I hope they do. Whether the port is a marketplace success is not a foregone conclusion, but I look forward to syncing and charging a future iPad over this speedy port; sadly the iPad 2 does not have this port, but someday.
I am glad to have a standard FireWire 800 port, and an SD Card reader, neither of which were found on my previous non-Pro laptop. I'll be able to charge my iPad at maximum speed with the 2 Amp USB ports, something I couldn't do before. The FaceTime app for OS X comes pre-installed, you don't have to buy it from the Mac App Store.
Little luxuries include the backlit keyboard, the MagSafe power cable, the firm responsive keyboard, and the big multitouch capable trackpad. The display is bright and has a good, but not great range of viewing angles, certainly worse than an iPad, but better than most cheap laptop monitors Yellows are a bit saturated while using the default color profile. I'm sure many would prefer a higher resolution than 1280x800, but I'd prefer a jump to very high resolutions combined with support for resolution independence in the operating system and applications. Maybe someday. The high resolution iSight camera surprised me with its clarity and size when doing a FaceTime chat.
A few things have gone downhill. It takes the removal of 12 screws to swap out the hard drive, my old MacBook had but 1. There used to be a dedicated microphone port next to the headset jack, but that has gone the way of the dodo, and I never used it anyway.
I chose to purchase my own 204-Pin DDR3 SO-DIMM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10600) named brand memory from a favorite online vendor and saved quite a bit of money over Apple's charge for 8GB of RAM (2x4GB). Installation was simple enough with the right sized Phillips screwdriver, although it is odd that we are expected to change the RAM while the battery is still connected. Still the installation went without incident, and is certainly simpler than most other laptops. I was a bit disappointed that the added RAM didn't appreciably improve my Xcode compile time, slicing at most 20 seconds off the 8.5 minutes, but hopefully it will help when multitasking multiple applications.
This is a refinement to previous generations, and I would bet likely to be the last for this series of machined unibody anodized aluminum enclosures, as elegant and perfect as they seem to be. If you wait a year or more, you might get such changes as awesome Liquid Metal cases of fantastic shapes, Retina Display monitors, touch screens, standard SSD boot drives, 4G cell networking and the loss of the optical drive. But I couldn't wait, I needed the horsepower now, not next year.
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