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Review by Dardopete:
Unless you are very new to the game, you know what you are getting. This is a MacBook Pro battery. It does exactly what you’d think it would do. It powers the machine up. With luck, I get two to three hours of life before I plug it in again. Mine lasts two years. Then, I buy another one. Complaining that it should be something else doesn’t increase its playtime or lifetime. I’ll take this machine, even with this battery, over any other non-Mac computer, and most Mac computers, any time. It runs hot (which can’t help the battery), but it’s true, durable, reliable, and paid for. If there’s a better battery out there now, buy it. Otherwise, this for for 80 bucks runs the machine well enough.

Review by S. A. Trost:
I purchased this item as a replacement for 1.5 year old battery that came from the manufacturer. My previous battery had something wrong with it, in a period of 2 months, it went from 85% health, to about 40% health, and then in a period of about 2 days it dropped below 20% health. This made it so i was getting < 1 hour battery life which was unacceptable. I was at about 290 cycles when it was at 40% health, and I called apple, but they said since it’s been over a year they wouldn’t do anything about it (which contradicts a lot of things I’ve heard from other users experiencing the same issues).

At any rate, my new battery is here, popped it in, drained it, gave it a boisterous charge, and now i’m getting somewhere between 3.5 to 4 hours battery life on a full charge. I was appalled after 1 cycle though, the health dropped to 99%, but now I’m nearing 20 cycles and it’s still at 99%. Works for now, hopefully this one will last the rated 300 cycles (apple says 300 cycles should have a health of 85% still).

Review by Jeffrey Stanley:
This is my first Mac computer. My first four computers ran Win 3.1, Windows 95, XP, and Vista (from about 1995-present). I have quite a lot of time spent on each of them. Switching from Windows to Mac is not difficult, but it can be a bit frustrating for a week or so. There are Windows features that you will miss, but they are mostly overcome by overall advantages in my opinion.

I’ve spent two weeks with this machine now. If I had written this review after one day, I would have probably stated that I regretted the switch to Mac. After getting more proficient with the machine and realizing how well it works, I would definitely recommend it to a friend.

This review is going to be a mix of my impressions of both the hardware and the Mac operating system from a new Mac user perspective.

The only difference between my machine and the one on this product page is that I ordered directly from Apple and upgraded the hard drive to 250GB (from the 160GB base option). I am using 2gb of ram and the lower-end processor.

My Mac OS impressions:

The biggest thing I missed from Windows at first was the task bar. Mac uses the “dock” to replace the task bar. The dock is kind of like the quick launch toolbar in Windows spread out across the entire bar, with large icons. Having used windows with a task bar for the past 13 years, I missed the ability to see all open programs and switch between them with the task bar. The dock has a tiny dot below the icon on running-programs, but nothing else to separate it from other program and folder icons. The dock is not nearly as useful for multitasking as the task bar.

The saving grace that rescues the Mac from awkward app-switching while multitasking is called expose. Expose is activated by either pressing a key or using a multitouch gesture (four-finger swipe). Expose uses the entire screen to display all open windows and allow you to switch between them. It’s like alt+tab on steroids. Having used the machine for a couple weeks, I miss using expose when I use my Windows machine. As much as I hated the dock at first, I have to give the advantage to the Mac for managing multiple windows while multitasking.

The controls for open-windows are quite different than in MS-Windows. In Mac, there is a resize, hide, and minimize button instead of maximize, minimize, restore, and close. To close an app on the mac you need to use a menu command or keyboard shortcut. The Mac resize button kind of works like restore/maximize, only it’s a bit more awkward. A commenter here pointed out that it resizes the window for ideal viewing without using the entire screen. I find myself resizing windows by dragging corners more than I ever did on a Windows machine. I really miss the ability to maximize, if for no other reason but to avoid distractions. The green resize button may be better on an enormous monitor, but not on a 13″ notebook. When you minimize or hide an app on the Mac, it is only available from the dock and is hidden from expose. I’ll give the window size-management advantage to Windows in this contest. The windows system is just easier and more logical in my opinion. It isn’t a deal-breaker, but I do miss the Windows “window controls.” If you are a frequent user of the F11 key while web browsing in Windows you’ll have to kiss that feature goodbye. Neither Firefox nor Safari will go full-screen.

Windows Explorer is “replaced” with an app called Finder. Finder is kind of like the start menu and an explorer window all rolled up into one. Compared with older versions of Windows, finder is adequate but Vista’s explorer is quite a bit easier and more logical to use. I prefer Vista’s preview pane to Mac’s coverflow. I miss the “up folder” button. I have found myself mostly using the view that puts files, folders and apps into a column view for easiest computer browsing, and it just isn’t as elegant as Windows Vista. The lack of a maximize button has caused frustration especially in the finder, because the finder likes to stay in a very small window unless you drag the corners.

The Safari web browser is nice and quick and has a decent security reputation. I have been switching back and forth between Safari and Firefox. Firefox has crashed a couple of times and I really like being able to use multitouch gestures with Safari, so I’m leaning toward making Safari my main web tool. Reading RSS feeds, and the bookmark toolbar are really well done in Safari. Browsers are so personal that it’s difficult to recommend one over the other, but as a Firefox user in Windows I think I have high standard and Safari has met or exceeded them.

I absolutely hate the iPhoto app. Iphoto does not allow you to organize and browse your photos in folders. It imports your pictures and sorts them itself based on time/date stamps on the photos. This works fine for personal vacation snapshots but it completely mixed up the rest of my images. Folders that were neatly organized for work projects, and fun web clippings, and adult stuff were all shuffled into one big mess after I imported my image collection. I ended up just deleting all of them and not using iphoto at all. Right now I’m just using Finder to browse my photos and the preview app to view them. Light editing work isn’t possible in the preview app and I still haven’t decided what to use for a basic photo editor yet. Vista’s photo app is junk but it’s still superior to iPhoto if you like to keep your photos organized using your own folder system. I know people who love iphoto. It comes down to whether you want the ability to organize your collection yourself. If you have a big mess of photos, you’ll love iphoto’s ability to organize them via event and face recognition.

Edited to add: you can organize your photos into “albums” after you import them into iPhoto, but be prepared to spend a lot of time reorganizing everything. Even after you organize into albums, the main library screen gives you views of your entire collection (perhaps things you don’t want everyone to see).

I have not used Garage Band or iMovie yet. I’ll update later when I get a chance.

Edited to add: I played with garage band a bit and it’s pretty powerful. It allows you to import and export AAC and MP3 tracks and record sound in multiple tracks. Very easy to use. The only other audio app i’ve ever used is audacity and I much prefer Garage Band. I haven’t used any of the music lessons it offers yet but plan to soon.

I played with iMovie for a few minutes and it seems pretty nice and very intuitive. I actually don’t mind Windows Movie Maker, which is included with Vista. I would not consider it a big step up from Win Movie Maker, but it’s a nice app.

The mail, calendar, and address book apps are basic but work very very well. The address app will import common file types easily. It will sync with yahoo out of the box. Address book will only sync with Google contacts if you own an iPhone or iPod Touch.

Everyone has an opinion about iTunes. I’m a big fan of it. It’s exactly like the windows version only it runs a bit faster without the bugs. If you have an iPhone or iPod touch, the Windows-iTunes bug with time/date being wrong after the computer sleeps is not an issue on the Mac.

Time machine is the Mac’s backup app. It is amazing and very simple. I’m using an external drive plugged into my Apple Airport wireless router, as a backup disk. My wireless disk showed up on my desktop instantly once I plugged it into the router. Time machine noticed the external drive right away and went to work backing up my files (after asking permission of course). Now my machine automatically backs up any changes every hour as long as I’m in range of my wireless access point. Time machine is a big load off my mind. If I ever have a drive failure or my computer is destroyed I have an exact backup of everything without remembering to backup my files. Vista will backup according to a set schedule, but it lacks the ability to easily look through backups for specific files. Time machine is wonderful and make wireless backup effortless.

The Mac disk utility is almost as good as the one in Vista and it’s easier to use. It’s far superior to the one in XP. I used it to format my external wireless drive because the Mac router couldn’t read NTFS formating (although the computer can read NTFS drives via USB for some reason).

The graphics control software is a joy to use. When I plug in my external monitor it immediately extends my desktop to the new monitor. Adjusting everything from resolution to rotation couldn’t be any easier.

Boot camp is a utility that allows you to create a partition and install Windows as a secondary boot system (you need to own or buy a legal single-disk 32bit copy of either Windows XP or Windows Vista). When you start up the boot camp utility, it gives you a choice between using either 5 or 32 GB of space for the Windows partition. I learned the hard way that Windows XP SP3 won’t fit into 5GB. You need to give it at least the 32 GB (which left me with almost exactly 200GB on my “250″ GB drive). Installing Windows using the Boot Camp utility is very very easy. Once you get Windows loaded, your OSX install disk makes quick work of installing drivers for all of your laptop’s hardware. It’s too bad that Nvidia and HP aren’t as good at putting together easy Windows driver packages as Apple. In order to boot into Windows, you simply press the “option” key during bootup and it allows you to choose which OS to run. Windows XP absolutely screams on this hardware.

The hardware:

The hardware is where this computer really shines.

The biggest advantage is stability. My last computer purchase was a vista machine. To say that I had stability and hardware compatibility issues with my HP Vista desktop is an understatement. The main reason I turned to mac for this purchase was the fact that the hardware, drivers, and software are made for each other. This machine has ran flawlessly for the past two weeks. I did have two crashes of the Firefox browser while watching Flash video, but only the browser went down rather than the entire system.

I have connected an external monitor, camera, ipod, USB drive, and router to this machine. All of the drivers were already installed and everything has “just worked.” The hardware is a joy to use when it just works. It is difficult to put into words how happy I am with the lack of effort in using this machine.

The speed isn’t blazing-fast but it runs very well, even with many many apps and windows running. My Vista desktop has similar specs, but my new Mac feels slightly faster.

One outstanding productivity feature of this machine is the touch pad. I honestly prefer it to using a mouse for office and browsing tasks. I can’t say enough good things about the multitouch gestures. Two finger scrolling, two finger right-click, three finger forward and back in Safari, and four finger expose make this machine feel like like it is part of you. Having the entire surface of the touchpad as the button is brilliant, especially for drag and drop operations. The large size of the touchpad makes it very precise.

The keyboard is really nice. At first I thought the keys were a bit soft and the travel was too shallow, but I quickly got used to it and now prefer it to my more “clicky” desktop keyboard. I don’t know how I lived this long without a backlit keyboard. The backlight is more useful than I thought it would be.

The display is beautiful. It has good color, a wide viewing angle, and is plenty bright for indoor environments. I would prefer that the screen wasn’t glass, but the reflections aren’t as bad as I feared. If there is a bright light source behind you, you’ll need to angle the screen to reduce the glare but it’s workable.

The DVD drive is a DVD drive. It feels slow and makes a lot of noise. I’ve never owned an optical drive that I considered fast and quiet, and this one isn’t any exception. It works well, but isn’t anything special.

The battery life is incredible. The seven hour battery life is not an exaggeration if you are using the computer for light browsing and office apps. Expect about 4-5 hours if you’re using it for heavy web browsing and a bit of media. Listening to music with the display off would easily last over the advertised 7 hours. Streaming high definition video on netflix using wireless will knock it down to at or below three hours. I haven’t watched DVD movies on battery power but I expect it to barely get you through a single two hour film with a bit left over.

The size and weight are ideal for portability. 4.5lbs doesn’t exactly feel light until you compare it to similarly spec’d machines that weigh a full pound (20%) more. I wouldn’t want a larger machine if I had to lug it around much.

The speakers are quite good for a small light machine. Don’t expect much bass, but the sound is very clear with good mids and highs. The speakers are plenty loud for listening to podcasts or music in a semi-quiet medium sized room or office. I won’t need to pack external speakers for use in my hotel room when I travel, like my last laptop.

The “magsafe” power adapter is more than just a gimmick, and more than just a way to avoid tripping and breaking your machine. The “power brick” itself is a lot smaller than my last dell laptop. It’s exactly the same size as the USB wall adapters that used to be included with ipods. The cord is 6ft long and the brick includes fold-out wings to wrap the cord around. It is very well thought-out for travel. With the cord wrapped up and the plug folded into the body, the power brick only takes up about 2.5″ x 3″ x 1″ in your bag. When you are using it at home or at the office there is an included 6ft extension cord for the power brick so you aren’t as tethered to your desk.

The computer runs very cool compared to most laptops. Also, there are no vents where super-heated air blows out. While I’m sure it uses a fan, I’ve never audibly actually heard it run or felt a stream of warm air from it. I think it may vent through ports and the keyboard but it runs cool enough that you don’t notice it. Edited to add: it does get rather warm when watching high resolution video, but stays quite cool when web browsing or using normal office apps. Even when very warm, the fan is still quiet (the only way to actually hear the fan is to hold it near your ear).

The only drawback to the hardware compared to Windows machines is the fact that there is no option to hibernate when closing the lid. It sleeps when you close the lid but it still is using a small amount of power. If you’re only going to be away for a couple hours this isn’t an issue, but you must completely shut down when on battery power if you’re going to be away much longer.

This machine is a lot more expensive than similarly spec’d Windows machines but I feel that it’s worth the money. I’m a very satisfied Mac switcher.

Review by Nate:
Well I must say I am very happy i did not buy apple’s first iteration of the 13″ aluminum macbook last year b/c they really got it right the second time around upgrading it to a macbook pro! Its nice to have that “pro” stamp on a 13″ now! Apple has listened to their customers adding almost everything we have asked for and more, and managed to reduce the price! Thanks Apple!

CHANGES FROM LAST YEAR

- 0 less

- 13″ aluminum macbooks became macbook pros

- 2.53Ghz up from 2.4GHz dual core

- 4GB RAM up from 2GB

- led display has 60% greater color gamut than previous model

- new advanced built-in battery that lasts up to 7 hours vs 4hrs

- FireWire is back (after all the complaints of first model)

- SD card slot (replaces express card slot)

- new models now come with iLife ’09

- separate digital audio input is gone

- new model uses the same integrated mic and headphone port as the iPhone

PROS

- finally a price cut with a performance upgrade! i knew apple could do it. i was tired of paying for aesthetics and not performance.

- new Snow Leopard Operating System comes pre-installed! Same great ease of use with much faster performance!

- much better lcd screen! inline with the pro models…still glossy and still some glare but much nicer!

- backlight keyboard on all 13″ models now! ( i really enjoy this as it can be controlled from low to high)

- battery life is significantly better than last year.( i get about 6 hours w/ regular use not the 7hrs that is reported)

- the computer is designed beautifully truly a head turner.

- iLife 09 suite is superb for pictures, movies, and music. Good software really does sell hardware.

- SD card slot accepts SDHC, which goes up to 32GB and works like a charm. (can boot from SD card as well)

CONS

- aluminum outer casing does dent easily if dropped. (buy a soft case for it!)

- power cord is short and does not reach as many places as I would like…must sit very close to power outlet.

- battery can’t be removed easily

- SD card sticks about half way out of slot. eye sore.

- blu-ray option would have been nice but understandable given licensing fees. (many blurays are offering digital copies which help)

Taking into consideration all the great improvements over last year with a nice price cut I can now truly recommend this near perfect Macbook Pro!

Review by T. Truong:
I bought this to replace the original 85W which came with my macbook pro.

This new one has a better rubber extension on the magsafe so it won’t fall apart as easily like the first one did. The size of the “brick” has been reduced, it’s no longer a rectangle, it’s now a square. -About an inch shorter then the old one, although still suppling 85watts. If you have a non pro macbook, get this rather then the 65w(same price). this will work with all the macbooks, macbook air, macbook pro. so it’s more universal if you plan on upgrading laptops.

Review by ***MATT***:
Just do a google and you’ll see the life of this adapter is about a year. Way too many incidents out there. My first adapter lasted exactly one year. One day I was charging my macbook and I started to smell wires burning. It turned out to be the wire from this adapter, specifically where it attaches to the macbook. The key is not to put *any* stress on the wire at all by letting it bend. Apparently the plastic wire is so cheaply made that it will wear out and expose the inner wires to each other. Luckily my macbook was not damaged, and I was there to unplug the adapter when it started to smolder. While I love the smart magnetic design, it’s made quite shoddy. Of course the price is very high also at !?! Ridiculous for plastic and cheap wiring! When I went to the Apple store to replace my adapter, there was a 3 week wait as well! I was lucky to find one on eb*y for just under .

My best advice is not to put any tension on this wire because it obviously can’t handle it, and I’d avoid leaving it charging alone simply because I don’t trust it and I’ve googled quite a few horror stories. Check out the apple store and you’ll see all the reviews about sparks, smoke, melting , and fire.

Currently, I’m on my 3rd adapter in 3 years. The current version I bought on ebay and it’s re-enforced at the weak spot I mentioned. This version seems to be the best. Check out the photo I posted, and you’ll notice that the end that connects to the macbook pro is different, with a bigger plastic shell.

While this newer version is square and more compact, photos indicate that it’s still got the same old weak end.

Review by Jeffrey Stanley:
This is my first Mac computer. My first four computers ran Win 3.1, Windows 95, XP, and Vista (from about 1995-present). I have quite a lot of time spent on each of them. Switching from Windows to Mac is not difficult, but it can be a bit frustrating for a week or so. There are Windows features that you will miss, but they are mostly overcome by overall advantages in my opinion.

I’ve spent two weeks with this machine now. If I had written this review after one day, I would have probably stated that I regretted the switch to Mac. After getting more proficient with the machine and realizing how well it works, I would definitely recommend it to a friend.

This review is going to be a mix of my impressions of both the hardware and the Mac operating system from a new Mac user perspective.

The only difference between my machine and the one on this product page is that I ordered directly from Apple and upgraded the hard drive to 250GB (from the 160GB base option). I am using 2gb of ram and the lower-end processor.

My Mac OS impressions:

The biggest thing I missed from Windows at first was the task bar. Mac uses the “dock” to replace the task bar. The dock is kind of like the quick launch toolbar in Windows spread out across the entire bar, with large icons. Having used windows with a task bar for the past 13 years, I missed the ability to see all open programs and switch between them with the task bar. The dock has a tiny dot below the icon on running-programs, but nothing else to separate it from other program and folder icons. The dock is not nearly as useful for multitasking as the task bar.

The saving grace that rescues the Mac from awkward app-switching while multitasking is called expose. Expose is activated by either pressing a key or using a multitouch gesture (four-finger swipe). Expose uses the entire screen to display all open windows and allow you to switch between them. It’s like alt+tab on steroids. Having used the machine for a couple weeks, I miss using expose when I use my Windows machine. As much as I hated the dock at first, I have to give the advantage to the Mac for managing multiple windows while multitasking.

The controls for open-windows are quite different than in MS-Windows. In Mac, there is a resize, hide, and minimize button instead of maximize, minimize, restore, and close. To close an app on the mac you need to use a menu command or keyboard shortcut. The Mac resize button kind of works like restore/maximize, only it’s a bit more awkward. A commenter here pointed out that it resizes the window for ideal viewing without using the entire screen. I find myself resizing windows by dragging corners more than I ever did on a Windows machine. I really miss the ability to maximize, if for no other reason but to avoid distractions. The green resize button may be better on an enormous monitor, but not on a 13″ notebook. When you minimize or hide an app on the Mac, it is only available from the dock and is hidden from expose. I’ll give the window size-management advantage to Windows in this contest. The windows system is just easier and more logical in my opinion. It isn’t a deal-breaker, but I do miss the Windows “window controls.” If you are a frequent user of the F11 key while web browsing in Windows you’ll have to kiss that feature goodbye. Neither Firefox nor Safari will go full-screen.

Windows Explorer is “replaced” with an app called Finder. Finder is kind of like the start menu and an explorer window all rolled up into one. Compared with older versions of Windows, finder is adequate but Vista’s explorer is quite a bit easier and more logical to use. I prefer Vista’s preview pane to Mac’s coverflow. I miss the “up folder” button. I have found myself mostly using the view that puts files, folders and apps into a column view for easiest computer browsing, and it just isn’t as elegant as Windows Vista. The lack of a maximize button has caused frustration especially in the finder, because the finder likes to stay in a very small window unless you drag the corners.

The Safari web browser is nice and quick and has a decent security reputation. I have been switching back and forth between Safari and Firefox. Firefox has crashed a couple of times and I really like being able to use multitouch gestures with Safari, so I’m leaning toward making Safari my main web tool. Reading RSS feeds, and the bookmark toolbar are really well done in Safari. Browsers are so personal that it’s difficult to recommend one over the other, but as a Firefox user in Windows I think I have high standard and Safari has met or exceeded them.

I absolutely hate the iPhoto app. Iphoto does not allow you to organize and browse your photos in folders. It imports your pictures and sorts them itself based on time/date stamps on the photos. This works fine for personal vacation snapshots but it completely mixed up the rest of my images. Folders that were neatly organized for work projects, and fun web clippings, and adult stuff were all shuffled into one big mess after I imported my image collection. I ended up just deleting all of them and not using iphoto at all. Right now I’m just using Finder to browse my photos and the preview app to view them. Light editing work isn’t possible in the preview app and I still haven’t decided what to use for a basic photo editor yet. Vista’s photo app is junk but it’s still superior to iPhoto if you like to keep your photos organized using your own folder system. I know people who love iphoto. It comes down to whether you want the ability to organize your collection yourself. If you have a big mess of photos, you’ll love iphoto’s ability to organize them via event and face recognition.

Edited to add: you can organize your photos into “albums” after you import them into iPhoto, but be prepared to spend a lot of time reorganizing everything. Even after you organize into albums, the main library screen gives you views of your entire collection (perhaps things you don’t want everyone to see).

I have not used Garage Band or iMovie yet. I’ll update later when I get a chance.

Edited to add: I played with garage band a bit and it’s pretty powerful. It allows you to import and export AAC and MP3 tracks and record sound in multiple tracks. Very easy to use. The only other audio app i’ve ever used is audacity and I much prefer Garage Band. I haven’t used any of the music lessons it offers yet but plan to soon.

I played with iMovie for a few minutes and it seems pretty nice and very intuitive. I actually don’t mind Windows Movie Maker, which is included with Vista. I would not consider it a big step up from Win Movie Maker, but it’s a nice app.

The mail, calendar, and address book apps are basic but work very very well. The address app will import common file types easily. It will sync with yahoo out of the box. Address book will only sync with Google contacts if you own an iPhone or iPod Touch.

Everyone has an opinion about iTunes. I’m a big fan of it. It’s exactly like the windows version only it runs a bit faster without the bugs. If you have an iPhone or iPod touch, the Windows-iTunes bug with time/date being wrong after the computer sleeps is not an issue on the Mac.

Time machine is the Mac’s backup app. It is amazing and very simple. I’m using an external drive plugged into my Apple Airport wireless router, as a backup disk. My wireless disk showed up on my desktop instantly once I plugged it into the router. Time machine noticed the external drive right away and went to work backing up my files (after asking permission of course). Now my machine automatically backs up any changes every hour as long as I’m in range of my wireless access point. Time machine is a big load off my mind. If I ever have a drive failure or my computer is destroyed I have an exact backup of everything without remembering to backup my files. Vista will backup according to a set schedule, but it lacks the ability to easily look through backups for specific files. Time machine is wonderful and make wireless backup effortless.

The Mac disk utility is almost as good as the one in Vista and it’s easier to use. It’s far superior to the one in XP. I used it to format my external wireless drive because the Mac router couldn’t read NTFS formating (although the computer can read NTFS drives via USB for some reason).

The graphics control software is a joy to use. When I plug in my external monitor it immediately extends my desktop to the new monitor. Adjusting everything from resolution to rotation couldn’t be any easier.

Boot camp is a utility that allows you to create a partition and install Windows as a secondary boot system (you need to own or buy a legal single-disk 32bit copy of either Windows XP or Windows Vista). When you start up the boot camp utility, it gives you a choice between using either 5 or 32 GB of space for the Windows partition. I learned the hard way that Windows XP SP3 won’t fit into 5GB. You need to give it at least the 32 GB (which left me with almost exactly 200GB on my “250″ GB drive). Installing Windows using the Boot Camp utility is very very easy. Once you get Windows loaded, your OSX install disk makes quick work of installing drivers for all of your laptop’s hardware. It’s too bad that Nvidia and HP aren’t as good at putting together easy Windows driver packages as Apple. In order to boot into Windows, you simply press the “option” key during bootup and it allows you to choose which OS to run. Windows XP absolutely screams on this hardware.

The hardware:

The hardware is where this computer really shines.

The biggest advantage is stability. My last computer purchase was a vista machine. To say that I had stability and hardware compatibility issues with my HP Vista desktop is an understatement. The main reason I turned to mac for this purchase was the fact that the hardware, drivers, and software are made for each other. This machine has ran flawlessly for the past two weeks. I did have two crashes of the Firefox browser while watching Flash video, but only the browser went down rather than the entire system.

I have connected an external monitor, camera, ipod, USB drive, and router to this machine. All of the drivers were already installed and everything has “just worked.” The hardware is a joy to use when it just works. It is difficult to put into words how happy I am with the lack of effort in using this machine.

The speed isn’t blazing-fast but it runs very well, even with many many apps and windows running. My Vista desktop has similar specs, but my new Mac feels slightly faster.

One outstanding productivity feature of this machine is the touch pad. I honestly prefer it to using a mouse for office and browsing tasks. I can’t say enough good things about the multitouch gestures. Two finger scrolling, two finger right-click, three finger forward and back in Safari, and four finger expose make this machine feel like like it is part of you. Having the entire surface of the touchpad as the button is brilliant, especially for drag and drop operations. The large size of the touchpad makes it very precise.

The keyboard is really nice. At first I thought the keys were a bit soft and the travel was too shallow, but I quickly got used to it and now prefer it to my more “clicky” desktop keyboard. I don’t know how I lived this long without a backlit keyboard. The backlight is more useful than I thought it would be.

The display is beautiful. It has good color, a wide viewing angle, and is plenty bright for indoor environments. I would prefer that the screen wasn’t glass, but the reflections aren’t as bad as I feared. If there is a bright light source behind you, you’ll need to angle the screen to reduce the glare but it’s workable.

The DVD drive is a DVD drive. It feels slow and makes a lot of noise. I’ve never owned an optical drive that I considered fast and quiet, and this one isn’t any exception. It works well, but isn’t anything special.

The battery life is incredible. The seven hour battery life is not an exaggeration if you are using the computer for light browsing and office apps. Expect about 4-5 hours if you’re using it for heavy web browsing and a bit of media. Listening to music with the display off would easily last over the advertised 7 hours. Streaming high definition video on netflix using wireless will knock it down to at or below three hours. I haven’t watched DVD movies on battery power but I expect it to barely get you through a single two hour film with a bit left over.

The size and weight are ideal for portability. 4.5lbs doesn’t exactly feel light until you compare it to similarly spec’d machines that weigh a full pound (20%) more. I wouldn’t want a larger machine if I had to lug it around much.

The speakers are quite good for a small light machine. Don’t expect much bass, but the sound is very clear with good mids and highs. The speakers are plenty loud for listening to podcasts or music in a semi-quiet medium sized room or office. I won’t need to pack external speakers for use in my hotel room when I travel, like my last laptop.

The “magsafe” power adapter is more than just a gimmick, and more than just a way to avoid tripping and breaking your machine. The “power brick” itself is a lot smaller than my last dell laptop. It’s exactly the same size as the USB wall adapters that used to be included with ipods. The cord is 6ft long and the brick includes fold-out wings to wrap the cord around. It is very well thought-out for travel. With the cord wrapped up and the plug folded into the body, the power brick only takes up about 2.5″ x 3″ x 1″ in your bag. When you are using it at home or at the office there is an included 6ft extension cord for the power brick so you aren’t as tethered to your desk.

The computer runs very cool compared to most laptops. Also, there are no vents where super-heated air blows out. While I’m sure it uses a fan, I’ve never audibly actually heard it run or felt a stream of warm air from it. I think it may vent through ports and the keyboard but it runs cool enough that you don’t notice it. Edited to add: it does get rather warm when watching high resolution video, but stays quite cool when web browsing or using normal office apps. Even when very warm, the fan is still quiet (the only way to actually hear the fan is to hold it near your ear).

The only drawback to the hardware compared to Windows machines is the fact that there is no option to hibernate when closing the lid. It sleeps when you close the lid but it still is using a small amount of power. If you’re only going to be away for a couple hours this isn’t an issue, but you must completely shut down when on battery power if you’re going to be away much longer.

This machine is a lot more expensive than similarly spec’d Windows machines but I feel that it’s worth the money. I’m a very satisfied Mac switcher.

Review by Nate:
Well I must say I am very happy i did not buy apple’s first iteration of the 13″ aluminum macbook last year b/c they really got it right the second time around upgrading it to a macbook pro! Its nice to have that “pro” stamp on a 13″ now! Apple has listened to their customers adding almost everything we have asked for and more, and managed to reduce the price! Thanks Apple!

CHANGES FROM LAST YEAR

- 0 less

- 13″ aluminum macbooks became macbook pros

- 2.53Ghz up from 2.4GHz dual core

- 4GB RAM up from 2GB

- led display has 60% greater color gamut than previous model

- new advanced built-in battery that lasts up to 7 hours vs 4hrs

- FireWire is back (after all the complaints of first model)

- SD card slot (replaces express card slot)

- new models now come with iLife ’09

- separate digital audio input is gone

- new model uses the same integrated mic and headphone port as the iPhone

PROS

- finally a price cut with a performance upgrade! i knew apple could do it. i was tired of paying for aesthetics and not performance.

- new Snow Leopard Operating System comes pre-installed! Same great ease of use with much faster performance!

- much better lcd screen! inline with the pro models…still glossy and still some glare but much nicer!

- backlight keyboard on all 13″ models now! ( i really enjoy this as it can be controlled from low to high)

- battery life is significantly better than last year.( i get about 6 hours w/ regular use not the 7hrs that is reported)

- the computer is designed beautifully truly a head turner.

- iLife 09 suite is superb for pictures, movies, and music. Good software really does sell hardware.

- SD card slot accepts SDHC, which goes up to 32GB and works like a charm. (can boot from SD card as well)

CONS

- aluminum outer casing does dent easily if dropped. (buy a soft case for it!)

- power cord is short and does not reach as many places as I would like…must sit very close to power outlet.

- battery can’t be removed easily

- SD card sticks about half way out of slot. eye sore.

- blu-ray option would have been nice but understandable given licensing fees. (many blurays are offering digital copies which help)

Taking into consideration all the great improvements over last year with a nice price cut I can now truly recommend this near perfect Macbook Pro!

Review by Third Wiley:
The first battery I received was an absolute failure, would not hold a charge and would not shut off automatically when fully charged. The second battery works as advertised and my only gripe is that it doesn’t fit as smoothly on the bottom of my Macbook as the original battery. The only really satisfactory aspect to this entire episode was the Brilliant Store which provided me the best customer service I have ever received.

Update: If I could I would lower this review to one star. The battery failed to hold charge after less than one year.

Update II. I gave up and finally ordered a replacement battery from Apple. Now, six months later it is working perfectly. My Macbook Pro will operate down to 1% charge remaining. Lesson, its better sometimes to spend a little more; in future I will only buy replacement parts from the Apple Store.

Review by Meg’s Mom:
Apple has some serious explaining to do: I’ve had 3 PC laptops and never had a battery fail so rapidly— and to physically expand!

Read the blogs on Apple’s own website, and you’ll see this problem is rampant. Some users’ batteries expand into the case and destroy the track-pad. But call Apple, and they’ll tell you, “All batteries expand when their fuel cells are empty,” and “Batteries are consumables so if you didn’t buy our extended warranty, you have to buy a new battery.” [NEVER MIND THAT ON THEIR OWN WEBSITE MORE THAN 370 USERS HAVE HAD THESE CRITICAL BATTERY FAILURES]. I have an HP from 2002 and the original battery is still running. Same for my 2004 Compaq, and even the original battery in our kid’s knock-around Dell (circa 1999) is still running.

Sorry to say, but Apple really stinks on this front. Their customer service is seriously dropping the ball and is not at all competitive with HP.

BOTTOM LINE: Don’t be surprised if your replacement batteries fail quickly (even Apple’s “Senior Advisor” says they don’t last longer than 300 charges or 9-15 months); and if your machine isn’t under warranty be sure to replace the battery every 12 months so it won’t expand and destroy your computer.

Review by ThinMan:
I saw that this battery was around 1/2 the price of the Apple-branded battery, and it had a few positive reviews on Amazon.com, so I thought I’d give it a shot. It arrived promptly, but when I put it in place and went to charge it, the charge would not go above 26%. I took it to my local Apple store, and he confirmed through diagnostics that it was a bad battery. He then proceeded to give me a new battery at no charge (I was buying an iMac at the time). Score: Apple 1, Agptek/Amazon 0.

Also, the promised thumb drive never arrived.

Review by Matthew Gruel:
I have been leery of purchasing an off-brand battery replacement. After doing some homework and discovering that others have experienced poor fitting batteries and coloring issues, I took a chance on this battery, given that the (albeit few) reviews had been positive.

I’m very pleased with the final product. Seller ships quickly, and after nearly a month of use, I have found the difference in battery life to be insignificant in comparison to the Apple OEM battery. Considering I paid half as much for essentially the same performance, I’m one happy camper.

Review by Parry:
Coming from a troubled Nvidia 8600M GT MacBook Pro – let me say that I was very skeptical buying another Apple Laptop with nVidia chip in it.

However, one weekend I decided to visit the nearest Apple Retail Store and check out the newly released models. My decision was mostly influenced by the reduced prices and increased battery life.

After some debating over buying the older model for same price or getting the latest one we settled on the newest mid end 99 model with 2 GPUs. As is common I got a very nice resale price for my older MacBook Pro as it had AppleCare.

This generation is an all around improvement over the past generation unless you happen to be using ExpressCard on 15″ model that is. In our case we never used the ExpressCard after attempting to use a eSATA card that did not work really well. And we have a few SD Cards that we figure we can easily use.

So on to the specific improvements over its predecessor -

1) Battery Life – I was very doubtful that the battery would last any longer than 4 hours at the maximum but was pleasantly surprised to find that for surfing/email type and the occasional CNN/Youtube flash videos getting 6+ hours was quite easy.

2) Prices – No doubt prices are the most reasonable Apple laptops have ever had. If you have no need for the dual GPU you can get the 99 model which comes with a respectable 2.53Ghz Processor, 4GB RAM and a very capable 9400M GPU.

3) Operating Temperature – I have owned my share of laptops (Apple and non-Apple) and I have to say this one is the coolest – it never gets too warm and I can use it on my lap all the times – even encoding videos using the HandBrake application did not make it uncomfortably hot. However if I switch it to use the 9600M GPU it gets warmer even on regular use. It also runs very quiet – the fans may be coming on but I never notice.

Initially there was a lot of furor over Apple’s downgrade of the Serial-ATA interface speed (used to transfer data to and from the hard disk) to 1.5Gbps but Apple quickly restored the speeds to 3Gbps – I do not however notice any difference with the 5400RPM hard disk.

About the display – it is gorgeous and colors are vibrant. I had the opportunity to use a calibrated color profile to make it look even better. However I find the display to be a little too much reflective but I am coming from almost always using matte display so I figure it’s a matter of getting used to it.

Apple’s use of Mini DisplayPort is ahead of its time – not many displays support it and so I had to buy a DVI adapter – not a big problem but Apple should at the very least re-start bundling the adapter with the Pro machines. Also, another USB port in lieu of the SD Card Reader would be quite welcome – people can use the SD Card Reader for only SD Cards, but a USB port can be used for SD Cards as well as other peripherals.

That said, this generation is overall a very nice improvement – the great battery life itself is enough to convince one to upgrade.

[ Edited to add some findings after extensive use ]

After using it for a few months, I find a handful of things moderately annoying about this laptop -

1) The positioning of USB ports – both USB ports are on one side of the laptop and they are far too closely positioned to use both at once. For example I found I could not attach my Sandisk USB thumb drive and anything else at a time. And I don’t have any irregular/unusual devices. They should really go back to having the ports on two sides or at least position them a bit more apart.

2) The Lid of the laptop is loose – this was known to me before but I never thought it would become annoying. I don’t routinely use the laptop in bed but whenever I do it’s annoying.

3) The amount of RAM Apple advertises (4GB) is not actually entirely usable – only 3.75GB is. So you lose 256Mb of RAM for the dual GPU.

Review by Tristan Harward:
This machine is without a doubt the best computer, if not the best piece of technology gear, that I have ever used or owned.

Going to try to keep this review short, but sweet.

I’ve had it for about 9 months now, basically since the Unibody MBP’s came out. First, the construction is just outstanding. The solidness of the enclosure makes the whole thing feel sturdy and basically indestructible. In 9 months, I have treated it like I treat all my equipment – I use it thoroughly without too much concern for cosmetics – and there is not a single scratch or sign of wear on the entire machine. The thing still looks new, after 9 months – that’s how durable it is. Incredible.

The speed and responsiveness and stability of the computer itself is excellent. I’m a programmer and photographer, so I take it to the max every time I use the computer, and I expect a lot of it. With 4 GB of RAM it’s never sluggish and handles everything better than any computer I’ve ever owned.

Graphics and gaming performance is surprisingly good with the 2nd dedicated Nvidia 8600 video card. I dual boot to Windows XP (however reluctantly) and it works great.

I don’t even need to talk about the software, hopefully you know all about it by now. OSX is truly awesome, especially for programmers. It’s so refreshing to have a real operating system where you can pop open a real console and still have a nice graphical interface on top of it. The OS is a matched pair with the quality of the hardware.

In short, this is a seriously great machine. I’m no Mac fanboy – I run Windows, Linux, Mac, whatever – but I’m very impressed with the quality and especially the construction and build durability. It’s honestly at a level above any other laptop, it’s a pretty stunning difference. If it is more expensive, it will make up for it in longevity and resale value alone. Definitely worth it.

Review by S.R.:
Pros-

-VERY thin, I hardly notice that it’s installed. Unlike those silicone covers.

-Keyboard lights up clearly, doesn’t impede the light at all.

-Takes 2 minutes to get used to. It definitely doesn’t feel like a bare keyboard but it doesn’t feel like it’s a covered keyboard either.

Cons-

-Kinda pricey for a very thin piece of industrial plastic. The price might be high due to the fact that its molded SPECIFICALLY for macbook keyboards. Because it’s an EXACT fit.

-DO NOT I REPEAT DO NOT fold or crush this cover. keep the original box if you need to store it away. Unlike silicon this product WILL WRINKLE. I decided to clean mine because it does feel sticky after long term use. I cleaned it with soap and water and i decided to WRING it out. WHAT A BIG MISTAKE. the product had wrinkles that would not disappear. I was too cheap to buy a new one so i have to live with annoying wrinkles.

Other than that..this is hands down the best keyboard cover for macs out there and not a lot of people know about it.

Review by Pratap:
I bought this for my 2.0GHz Unibody Mac. I have been using it for a week now. My thoughts:

> It is NOT a perfect fit. But close enough. Does not fit perfectly near the function keys. But where you’d hit the keys frequently – i.e the letters and the space bar, it fits well.

> Takes a while to get used to because if you push your finger over a key, chances are the CG will flip momentarily.

> Does not stick to the aluminum surface. Which is good and bad. Good because it doesn’t leave any sticky residue and can be cleaned. Bad because it flips like mentioned earlier. Because it is so easy to flip, I am not sure how protective it can be against liquid spills.

> Have not noticed any heat issues so far.

> Muffles sound when you type, which is a good side effect.

> Is very clear. The silicone feels high quality. But I think it is over priced.

And yea, it does protect your key board from dust.

Review by Harvey Woodmeadow:
This battery definitely did not meet my criteria as a suitable replacement.

On the plus side: as near as I can tell, it did actually store electricity and allow that electricity to be used to power my laptop. And after all, that’s pretty much the bare minimum a battery ought to be able to do and still be called a battery.

On the negative side: the fit-and-finish of this battery was awful. Something minor like the slightly-different LED status lights (no diffuser to reduce glare, simple on/off rather than Apple’s industrial-engineered “fill-up” animation) can easily be overlooked. After all, that has no effect whatsoever on the actual performance of the battery.

But other issues did. The first battery that was delivered to me, the status button wasn’t even operable; it was stuck in the “on” position. A replacement battery shipped to me, the button fell off upon opening the package and had to be re-glued. Even after that, the button didn’t rest flush with the battery case, causing it to scrape on surfaces (my lap, the table, etc.) that the computer was sitting on.

Operationally, there were also problems with the compatibility with my laptop. The computer never would recognize that the battery had reached a full charge; instead, once the battery got to 100%, the charging would cycle every few seconds between “Charging”, “Calculating”, and “Charged”, with the green/orange power cable light toggling back and forth as the status changed.

Note: I did perform the recommended battery calibration _and_ reset of power management for the computer. The above behavior happened in spite of that.

Also, it appears that the battery doesn’t support the Mac OS X Battery Updater, as inspecting the battery status in the System Profiler showed null (“0000″) values for the various firmware revision fields. I suspect that may be related to the inability of the charging system to recognize that the battery was fully charged.

After the second dud, I sent the battery back for a refund. For those on a really tight budget, you might find the various annoyances acceptable. But frankly, I’d say those on a really tight budget ought to be buying a computer that doesn’t chew up batteries after just 12 months, and doesn’t have a battery so expensive that at the replacement seems dirt cheap. Conversely, if you feel an Apple fits in your budget, you might as well accept that you have to spend another 0/year on batteries.

Review by Nathan Beauchamp:
I bought this to replace the aging battery in my MacBook Pro. As other reviewers have noted this is not an EXACT replacement of the original and some discrepancies do exist. However, it does work just fine. I’ve had no issues with battery life which seems if anything superior to the old battery’s performance. If you don’t care about a perfect fit and seamless seams, this is a great battery.

Review by C. Payne:
The first thing I would like to point out is that the product image provided by Amazon is the older version of the Speck MacBook Pro Black case. This item is actually the second version, thus the V2 in the product name. I think the newer version is much sleeker than its predecessor and I am very happy with this case. It fits perfectly on my MacBook Pro and definitely improves the overall durability of the computer. I will be taking the laptop with me around campus in my backpack and like the fact that it will be protected from scratches. I recommend this product and am confident it will hold up to a college lifestyle.

Review by Truth Teller:
After reading the reviews here and double checking the Speck website to order the right case, really happy to get this nice Speck product. Can actually use the laptop resting on your thighs without the hot case heating up the case and your legs now.

Product looks great. Never had a case on my previous 2003 G4 15″ AL but what this case does is allow you to use it more without worrying so much about how you sit it down and where you use it. Does make the notebook feel more safe and substantial. Can’t beat it and got it at a great price.

When this does go out, it will surely attract a lot of attention. I have the red and the logo viewed from the other side does look really good.

This review is for the silver keyed 15.4 Macbook Pro with the V2 second series. (Not for the unibody with black keys.) Went to the Speck website to ensure I did make the right pick.

Review by Parry:
Coming from a troubled Nvidia 8600M GT MacBook Pro – let me say that I was very skeptical buying another Apple Laptop with nVidia chip in it.

However, one weekend I decided to visit the nearest Apple Retail Store and check out the newly released models. My decision was mostly influenced by the reduced prices and increased battery life.

After some debating over buying the older model for same price or getting the latest one we settled on the newest mid end 99 model with 2 GPUs. As is common I got a very nice resale price for my older MacBook Pro as it had AppleCare.

This generation is an all around improvement over the past generation unless you happen to be using ExpressCard on 15″ model that is. In our case we never used the ExpressCard after attempting to use a eSATA card that did not work really well. And we have a few SD Cards that we figure we can easily use.

So on to the specific improvements over its predecessor -

1) Battery Life – I was very doubtful that the battery would last any longer than 4 hours at the maximum but was pleasantly surprised to find that for surfing/email type and the occasional CNN/Youtube flash videos getting 6+ hours was quite easy.

2) Prices – No doubt prices are the most reasonable Apple laptops have ever had. If you have no need for the dual GPU you can get the 99 model which comes with a respectable 2.53Ghz Processor, 4GB RAM and a very capable 9400M GPU.

3) Operating Temperature – I have owned my share of laptops (Apple and non-Apple) and I have to say this one is the coolest – it never gets too warm and I can use it on my lap all the times – even encoding videos using the HandBrake application did not make it uncomfortably hot. However if I switch it to use the 9600M GPU it gets warmer even on regular use. It also runs very quiet – the fans may be coming on but I never notice.

Initially there was a lot of furor over Apple’s downgrade of the Serial-ATA interface speed (used to transfer data to and from the hard disk) to 1.5Gbps but Apple quickly restored the speeds to 3Gbps – I do not however notice any difference with the 5400RPM hard disk.

About the display – it is gorgeous and colors are vibrant. I had the opportunity to use a calibrated color profile to make it look even better. However I find the display to be a little too much reflective but I am coming from almost always using matte display so I figure it’s a matter of getting used to it.

Apple’s use of Mini DisplayPort is ahead of its time – not many displays support it and so I had to buy a DVI adapter – not a big problem but Apple should at the very least re-start bundling the adapter with the Pro machines. Also, another USB port in lieu of the SD Card Reader would be quite welcome – people can use the SD Card Reader for only SD Cards, but a USB port can be used for SD Cards as well as other peripherals.

That said, this generation is overall a very nice improvement – the great battery life itself is enough to convince one to upgrade.

[ Edited to add some findings after extensive use ]

After using it for a few months, I find a handful of things moderately annoying about this laptop -

1) The positioning of USB ports – both USB ports are on one side of the laptop and they are far too closely positioned to use both at once. For example I found I could not attach my Sandisk USB thumb drive and anything else at a time. And I don’t have any irregular/unusual devices. They should really go back to having the ports on two sides or at least position them a bit more apart.

2) The Lid of the laptop is loose – this was known to me before but I never thought it would become annoying. I don’t routinely use the laptop in bed but whenever I do it’s annoying.

3) The amount of RAM Apple advertises (4GB) is not actually entirely usable – only 3.75GB is. So you lose 256Mb of RAM for the dual GPU.

Review by Tristan Harward:
This machine is without a doubt the best computer, if not the best piece of technology gear, that I have ever used or owned.

Going to try to keep this review short, but sweet.

I’ve had it for about 9 months now, basically since the Unibody MBP’s came out. First, the construction is just outstanding. The solidness of the enclosure makes the whole thing feel sturdy and basically indestructible. In 9 months, I have treated it like I treat all my equipment – I use it thoroughly without too much concern for cosmetics – and there is not a single scratch or sign of wear on the entire machine. The thing still looks new, after 9 months – that’s how durable it is. Incredible.

The speed and responsiveness and stability of the computer itself is excellent. I’m a programmer and photographer, so I take it to the max every time I use the computer, and I expect a lot of it. With 4 GB of RAM it’s never sluggish and handles everything better than any computer I’ve ever owned.

Graphics and gaming performance is surprisingly good with the 2nd dedicated Nvidia 8600 video card. I dual boot to Windows XP (however reluctantly) and it works great.

I don’t even need to talk about the software, hopefully you know all about it by now. OSX is truly awesome, especially for programmers. It’s so refreshing to have a real operating system where you can pop open a real console and still have a nice graphical interface on top of it. The OS is a matched pair with the quality of the hardware.

In short, this is a seriously great machine. I’m no Mac fanboy – I run Windows, Linux, Mac, whatever – but I’m very impressed with the quality and especially the construction and build durability. It’s honestly at a level above any other laptop, it’s a pretty stunning difference. If it is more expensive, it will make up for it in longevity and resale value alone. Definitely worth it.

Review by Parry:
Coming from a troubled Nvidia 8600M GT MacBook Pro – let me say that I was very skeptical buying another Apple Laptop with nVidia chip in it.

However, one weekend I decided to visit the nearest Apple Retail Store and check out the newly released models. My decision was mostly influenced by the reduced prices and increased battery life.

After some debating over buying the older model for same price or getting the latest one we settled on the newest mid end 99 model with 2 GPUs. As is common I got a very nice resale price for my older MacBook Pro as it had AppleCare.

This generation is an all around improvement over the past generation unless you happen to be using ExpressCard on 15″ model that is. In our case we never used the ExpressCard after attempting to use a eSATA card that did not work really well. And we have a few SD Cards that we figure we can easily use.

So on to the specific improvements over its predecessor -

1) Battery Life – I was very doubtful that the battery would last any longer than 4 hours at the maximum but was pleasantly surprised to find that for surfing/email type and the occasional CNN/Youtube flash videos getting 6+ hours was quite easy.

2) Prices – No doubt prices are the most reasonable Apple laptops have ever had. If you have no need for the dual GPU you can get the 99 model which comes with a respectable 2.53Ghz Processor, 4GB RAM and a very capable 9400M GPU.

3) Operating Temperature – I have owned my share of laptops (Apple and non-Apple) and I have to say this one is the coolest – it never gets too warm and I can use it on my lap all the times – even encoding videos using the HandBrake application did not make it uncomfortably hot. However if I switch it to use the 9600M GPU it gets warmer even on regular use. It also runs very quiet – the fans may be coming on but I never notice.

Initially there was a lot of furor over Apple’s downgrade of the Serial-ATA interface speed (used to transfer data to and from the hard disk) to 1.5Gbps but Apple quickly restored the speeds to 3Gbps – I do not however notice any difference with the 5400RPM hard disk.

About the display – it is gorgeous and colors are vibrant. I had the opportunity to use a calibrated color profile to make it look even better. However I find the display to be a little too much reflective but I am coming from almost always using matte display so I figure it’s a matter of getting used to it.

Apple’s use of Mini DisplayPort is ahead of its time – not many displays support it and so I had to buy a DVI adapter – not a big problem but Apple should at the very least re-start bundling the adapter with the Pro machines. Also, another USB port in lieu of the SD Card Reader would be quite welcome – people can use the SD Card Reader for only SD Cards, but a USB port can be used for SD Cards as well as other peripherals.

That said, this generation is overall a very nice improvement – the great battery life itself is enough to convince one to upgrade.

[ Edited to add some findings after extensive use ]

After using it for a few months, I find a handful of things moderately annoying about this laptop -

1) The positioning of USB ports – both USB ports are on one side of the laptop and they are far too closely positioned to use both at once. For example I found I could not attach my Sandisk USB thumb drive and anything else at a time. And I don’t have any irregular/unusual devices. They should really go back to having the ports on two sides or at least position them a bit more apart.

2) The Lid of the laptop is loose – this was known to me before but I never thought it would become annoying. I don’t routinely use the laptop in bed but whenever I do it’s annoying.

3) The amount of RAM Apple advertises (4GB) is not actually entirely usable – only 3.75GB is. So you lose 256Mb of RAM for the dual GPU.

Review by Tristan Harward:
This machine is without a doubt the best computer, if not the best piece of technology gear, that I have ever used or owned.

Going to try to keep this review short, but sweet.

I’ve had it for about 9 months now, basically since the Unibody MBP’s came out. First, the construction is just outstanding. The solidness of the enclosure makes the whole thing feel sturdy and basically indestructible. In 9 months, I have treated it like I treat all my equipment – I use it thoroughly without too much concern for cosmetics – and there is not a single scratch or sign of wear on the entire machine. The thing still looks new, after 9 months – that’s how durable it is. Incredible.

The speed and responsiveness and stability of the computer itself is excellent. I’m a programmer and photographer, so I take it to the max every time I use the computer, and I expect a lot of it. With 4 GB of RAM it’s never sluggish and handles everything better than any computer I’ve ever owned.

Graphics and gaming performance is surprisingly good with the 2nd dedicated Nvidia 8600 video card. I dual boot to Windows XP (however reluctantly) and it works great.

I don’t even need to talk about the software, hopefully you know all about it by now. OSX is truly awesome, especially for programmers. It’s so refreshing to have a real operating system where you can pop open a real console and still have a nice graphical interface on top of it. The OS is a matched pair with the quality of the hardware.

In short, this is a seriously great machine. I’m no Mac fanboy – I run Windows, Linux, Mac, whatever – but I’m very impressed with the quality and especially the construction and build durability. It’s honestly at a level above any other laptop, it’s a pretty stunning difference. If it is more expensive, it will make up for it in longevity and resale value alone. Definitely worth it.

Review by John Van Uden:
Apple’s current version of this adapter is for DVI-D cables only (no pin holes around the bar), and therefore won’t work with DVI-I cables (4 pin holes around the bar), which other than Apple displays, are the vast majority of cables out there. This 3rd party solution works perfectly for me to be able to connect to presentation systems that use the DVI-I interface, and also works with the other DVI formatted cables I have tried, including DVI-D. It therefore does everything the apple products does, allows more cable compatibility, and is significantly less expensive.

Review by B. Kramer:
I know that says alot, but comparing it side-by-side with the same solution direct from apple, it was a winner. I sit here typing and watching a signal on an external monitor for my macbook pro coming over this adapter – it works very well for it’s application.

Review by K. Seidl:
fit’s my 17″ perfectly. great for scratch protection, but i wish the plastic was a little stiffer to give a little crush protection and to prevent bending while in a backpack. the new unibodies especially could use some help- the corners taper, so the lid of the computer bears all of the weight if anything is accidentally placed on top of it. i’d love to see a case that had higher/stronger corners.

i really really love the fact this is NOT see through and a matte finish- but after the very first few hours in my backpack the matte finish is peeling off like a bad sunburn. so far it’s all along the edges but it’s starting to creep to the top of the lid and i’m assuming it will need to be replaced as it looks like it contracted a bad skin disease.

Review by K. Amerasinghe:
I think this is more of an appearance customization product than an actual protection product. Other than preventing the surface from getting scratched, this doesn’t actually protect it from bumps or falls or anything like that. Having said that, I think it does a good job in the appearance department. For those who want to be a little different, you can make your MacBook Pro look not like just another MacBook Pro (unless this case becomes so popular to the point of everybody having it). This is also great if you are one of those people who like to stick stickers on the laptop since you can just buy a new case if it all gets too messy.

Some people said the fit is not that great but I found the actual size pretty accurate. The small plastic parts that keep the case latched to the laptop do look scary small and feels like they could break any time but they didn’t so far for the couple of months I had it and I didn’t take it on and off that many times. Since the Unibody has no mechanical lock to open and close the top like the old body rather you have to forcefully pull the flap out, those who do it by pulling the edge might find the case sometimes can come off. But if you put your finger tips or nails deeper into the slot and actually pull the edge of the screen and not the cover this is not a problem.

I don’t know about the other colors, but the black version even though it says “see through” it doesn’t at all show anything through. It’s just completely matte black (which I like). But anything that lights up like the Apple logo or battery indicator lights just shows through it which is a really cool effect. (in my case I customized it to show my company logo).

My biggest complaints are price and weight. At the time I got it the price was still a little too steep for just a piece of plastic that sticks to the outside of a laptop in my opinion. I also noticed a significant increase in the weight in the Laptop after installing this. This could be because the Macbook Pro is pretty light to begin with but some people might find the coolness factor not worth the extra pounds you have to lag around. In fact the hinge of the screen felt like it was struggling to keep the top in place because the lid is now heavier. I also don’t like the big speck logo embossed on the corner but at least it’s not that prominent.

Overall I’m happey with it but you should know what to expect before buying it.

Checkout the customer pictures I uploaded of the case I have.