MacBook Pro first impressions
After over three years with a 1ghz 15" titanium PowerBook I've finally upgraded to a 2ghz dual core 15" MacBook Pro! Compared to my old laptop, this machine is absolutely amazing. I've been waiting a LONG time for:
- Built-in Bluetooth, 802.11g, USB 2.0
- Higher resolution, contrast, brightness display
- Trackpad with the two-finger scrolling
- Much much improved video subsystem
- A machine fast enough to effectively use spotlight
Additionally, this new kit is going to save me a lot of VNC sessions since I can run other operating systems in virtualization via Parallels, and it will allow me to more easily build and properly test universal binaries. Parallels seems to work pretty well for a beta product, but I'm definitely looking forward to seeing some competition (especially open source competition).
Despite its awesomeness, there are still some issues with the MacBook Pro:
- The power supply whine is still there when the system isn't using a lot of juice, but apparently much less so than in earlier revisions.
- These machines run HOT. I probably wouldn't try and put it on my lap if I wasn't wearing jeans, and it does make your hands a little uncomfortably warm when using the built-in keyboard (though I'm sure I'll get used to that).
- The display doesn't tilt back quite as far as the old titanium powerbooks. Not a big deal, hopefully that just means they've solved the problem where the hinges would just snap after a year or two (and take out the backlight cable, argh).
- Intel code on Mac OS X supposedly uses more RAM than the PPC equivalent, which means you should buy more RAM than you are accustomed to from earlier machines.
The RAM usage increase is somewhat surprising, because i386 binaries are more compact (the i386 libSystem is about 16% smaller than PPC). I'm guessing the increase is due to the lack of usable registers on i386, which increases the amount of stack necessary per thread. I doubt it's an alignment issue, because PPC definitely cares more about alignment than i386 does. A quick sample shows that Terminal.app with one window does use about 5% more real memory than the PPC equivalent (and a LOT more virtual memory, but that might just be Quartz or something).
5% doesn't sound like much, but I've heard bigger numbers for other kinds of applications. I definitely plan to upgrade this machine from 1gb to 2gb, but the only times I've really felt RAM-hungry so far are when I'm using Parallels (which understandably needs a lot of real memory).
Bob,
1. What revision are you using?
2. What about battery life?
Comment by Cesar — 2006-05-05 @ 3:13 pm
Not sure what revision it is. Serial starts with W8612. I ordered it Monday (though it was stock, not BTO)… I can’t imagine these things are sitting in the warehouse very long.
Battery life? No idea, it’s been plugged in since I got it yesterday. I got a second battery for it, and it seemed to charge up fast enough. If I unplug it and leave it at normal power management settings, it seemed to think around 3hr 30min (give or take 20 minues, it jumped around a bit).
Comment by bob — 2006-05-05 @ 5:43 pm
About your MBP’s heat, there is a thread on SomethingAwful right now about that: it seems that the builders at apple are a bit … liberal… when applying thermal grease between the chips (northbridge, CPU and GPU) and the heatpipe contacts. As a result, the thermal connection is very poor and unit overheating ensues.
Since you’re a fairly technical guy and unless you’re afraid of voiding your warranty your should take a peek at the thread and ponder whether or not you should try the mod (it shouldn’t be difficult for anyone who’s every built a few PCs from scratch)
Comment by Masklinn — 2006-05-06 @ 4:03 am
Though I could regrease it, I’d rather just wait a few weeks and have Apple do it or replace it… if it turns out they really are doing it wrong across the board, that is.
Definitely not worth voiding the warranty. You really want the warranty on these things (in my experience with PowerBooks). You’ll nearly always need something repaired in the second or third year, and that repair will inevitably be worth the $350 extended AppleCare warranty.
Comment by bob — 2006-05-06 @ 8:05 am
What else have you run with Parallels?
Is it slow enough to rule out playing PC games?
Comment by Joe Grossberg — 2006-05-06 @ 12:49 pm
I don’t really plan on trying any games with it. I know it runs Windows damn well on its own dual-boot cause Beau plays Counter Strike on his every day, but I’m pretty sure it doesn’t yet have any Direct3D or OpenGL acceleration. I wouldn’t count it out in a future version or some other future virtualization app (or something WINE-like).
Comment by bob — 2006-05-06 @ 2:04 pm
Bob,
After a few days of use, how is the new MacBook Pro going? I want to upgrade my PowerBook 17″, but I’ve read a lot of complaints in the Apple forums about the heat and whine, I was wondering if these are only an small percentage of MacBook Pros, how is yours performing? is there any real whine? is the heat unbearable?
Comment by Cesar — 2006-05-14 @ 8:39 pm
I don’t mind the heat so much anymore. Doesn’t take too long to get used to I guess.
The whine is noticable, but only really shows up if I’m charging. I’ve heard that the whine used to be worse than what it is in the revision I have. I’m wearing headphones most of the time, which mitigates that. It’s really high pitched though, I’d imagine that a lot of people simply won’t notice it at all.
Comment by bob — 2006-05-14 @ 8:49 pm
Thanks for the parallels cite. I’ve been waiting on MBPs, the heat really worries me for the components around the CPU. I go to my local Apple Store 3x /week to check them, noticed they got rid of the HD Wynton Marsalis screensaver which made the 1st MBPs run scathingly hot, but the recent samples feel as hot as any Windows laptop i’ve used. And the one 17″ MBP they had feels more than uncomfortably warm too.
Comment by Gene — 2006-05-17 @ 7:07 pm
I really wouldn’t worry about the heat. If it’s not hot enough to melt your skin, it’s certainly not hot enough to fuck up any of the electronics.
Besides, that’s what AppleCare is for.
Comment by bob — 2006-05-17 @ 10:25 pm