“I am writing these words on a sleek, fast laptop computer powered by an Intel processor. But unlike the vast majority of Intel-powered laptops, this machine isn’t running Microsoft Windows. It’s the latest Macintosh laptop from Apple Computer, and the first Apple portable to run on Intel processors. Like all Apple computers, it uses the company’s excellent Mac OS X operating system instead of Windows,” Walter S. Mossberg writes for The Wall Street Journal. “The new laptop, called a MacBook Pro, is the successor to Apple’s PowerBook models.”
“I’ve been testing the MacBook Pro and comparing it to both a late-model PowerBook and a roughly similar Windows laptop, the new H-P Pavilion dv5000t. All three machines have 15-inch-wide screen displays,” Mossberg writes. “My verdict: The MacBook Pro is better than the PowerBook and better than the H-P, though it has some drawbacks. It is faster than previous Apple laptops, but the speedup isn’t as great as Apple’s claims suggest. At a starting price of $1,999, the same as the PowerBook it replaces, the MacBook Pro costs more than the H-P. But in my opinion, the price premium is more than justified by its superior design and features.”
“In my harsh battery test, where I turn off all power-saving features and play an endless loop of music, the MacBook Pro lasted two hours and 59 minutes, exactly the same as the PowerBook and 12 minutes longer than the H-P. In more normal conditions, I estimate the MacBook’s battery life could approach four hours,” Mossberg reports. A similarly-equipped H-P dv5000t costs $230 less than Apple’s MacBook Pro, but “you get a much better operating system; vastly better built-in software for Web surfing, email, photos, videos and music; a much brighter screen with much higher resolution than the H-P’s; twice the dedicated video memory; and the built-in camera. Plus, the H-P is quite bulky compared with the Apple. It’s a pound heavier than the Mac, and up to 77% thicker. Also, despite the recent discovery of a couple of harmless viruses for the Mac, the H-P is much, much more vulnerable to viruses and spyware than the Apple.”
Mossberg concludes, “The MacBook Pro isn’t revolutionary, but it’s a promising start to the era of Intel-powered Apple laptops.”
More in the full review here.
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Related MacDailyNews articles:
New York Times’ Pogue: Apples MacBook Pro a ‘beautifully engineered, forward-thinking laptop’ – March 01, 2006
Apple MacBook Pro a ‘drop-dead gorgeous laptop’ – February 27, 2006
Macworld posts Apple MacBook Pro 2.0GHz first lab tests – February 22, 2006
Apple PowerBook G4 1.5GHz vs. MacBook Pro 2.0Ghz Adobe Photoshop benchmarks – February 22, 2006
Apple begins shipping MacBook Pro notebook computers with faster 2.16 GHz Intel Core Duo processors – February 14, 2006
Adobe: no native Intel Mac support until 2007; Photoshop could be 14 months away – February 01, 2006
Computerworld: Apple’s MacBook Pro ‘fast, really fast – looks like a real winner’ – January 28, 2006
Analyst: Apple seeing strong sales of iMac Core Duo, MacBook Pro, 5th generation iPod – January 25, 2006
Apple: expect MacBook Pro shortages – January 19, 2006
Use the ExpressCard slot to add FireWire 800 to Apple’s new MacBook Pro – January 15, 2006
Apple MacBook Pro, ExpressCard and EVDO – January 14, 2006
Apple introduces MacBook Pro; up to four times faster than PowerBook G4 – January 10, 2006
I want my MacBook Pro. Dammit. I’m not sure why I haven’t ordered it yet, but still I’m mad that it hasn’t arrived.
Not viruses Walt, trojans.
Seems Apple is also circulating trojans of their own.
http://www.macfixit.com/article.php?story=20060301220722970
Interesting to read this and then the article that we are all gullible saps.
Not quite I don’t think.
Finally a decent price-comparison that everyone can understand.
Benchmarks between a Dell running Mac OS X 10.4.4, a Powerbook G4 and a MacBook Pro
http://arstechnica.com/reviews/hardware/macbookpro.ars/5
Remember folks, in the new X-Bench 1.2 all scores are based upon a PowerMac dual 2 Ghz G5 processor at a score of 100 for each test. (a two year old machine!)
The MacBook Pro comes in with a overall X-Bench score of only 54, the Powerbook G4 at a mere 46.
If you want a real machine, better longterm performance value for your money, a PowerMac is the only way to go.
A well written article with good “real world” HP cost comparison.
He could have elaborated more on the vastly superior software (iLife apps) which don’t have any competition on the dark Windows side (nobody offers the integration and functionality of iLife, Windows users need to know this before making their half-baked decisions about what to buy).
MacDude, you are such an ill informed loser.
“Longterm”? What are you smoking? In a year there will be virutally no new PowerPC software programs.
If you don’t like that get a Dell.
Also please consider changing your handle to “MacTurd”
Heldi to MacDude: “consider changing your handle to “MacTurd”
Do it for all of us please…
“MacDud” would also be an appropriate handle.
While “MacDud” would provide a simpler sig for MacDude, I suggested “MacTurd” because it more closely resembles the stench of his typical posts.
Hey! I resemble that remark!
‘Nuff said.
Kate
she’s vicious, she’s mean, she’s got pumps and she aint afraid to use them!!
Hey Turd, great 3-Stooges quote
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Reading all these comparisions between Macs and DELLs. GO buy a frigin DELL then. Apple won’t miss U
Are all of you apart this little circle of “Reader Feedback” people? Do you all hang out together? Each “Reader Feedback” section I read has the same people responding. Now it’s stooped to mini conversations as if you were talking on the phone. Does anybody have anything new and/or interesting to say? I realize that MacDude may not be the most popular person on these blogs, but at least he’s got something half-way interesting to say. Here’s a topic on how great the MacBook Pro is, and you guys are interested in giving nicknames to MacDude? Let it go…
No, Bob, MacDude rarely has any interesting to say. He’s a grumpy, paranoid poop who owns a Mac and seems to think it and the company are going to explode any day now.
Reading MacFixIt will do that to you. I used to read that site until I got sick of worrying about whether this or that new bug would affect me. Now I only check out the site when I have a problem, which is practically never. (And even then, I check out MacOSXHints first, which was founded by MacFixIt forum members who got sick of the site’s negative attitude.)
(whoops, actually just the MacOSXHints forums were founded by ex-MacFixIt folks…)
The Xbech scores for the Macbook Pro are crippled, due to Beam Synching being turned on on the intel version. If you recompile Xbech for intel OSX with Beam Synching off like the PPC version, it will outperform the Dual 2.0Ghz G5 reference machine. Infact, some bechmarks, such as the UI stress test get even higher than the G5 quad!
The Macbook Pro isn’t taken seriousely enough. It’s a monster.
A pound heaver than the Mac? Wow!
MW – big
Heidi “
“Longterm”? What are you smoking? In a year there will be virutally no new PowerPC software programs”
I think YOU’RE free-basing. IN A YEAR NO NEW PPC SOFTWARE? Everything right now and for the forseeable future is on track to come out as a UB which means it will run on either processor. Do you think developers are going to abandon ship in a year when the installed base of Intel Macs will only be a FRACTION of the rest of the Mac universe?
Not. Gonna. Happen.