{"id":307,"date":"2009-05-16T08:25:28","date_gmt":"2009-05-16T15:25:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bcrockett.com\/blog\/?p=307"},"modified":"2009-08-11T16:22:08","modified_gmt":"2009-08-11T23:22:08","slug":"the-new-macbook-pro","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/bcrockett.com\/blog\/2009\/05\/the-new-macbook-pro\/","title":{"rendered":"Review: The New Macbook Pro"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Oh,<\/a>

Oh, the glare.<\/p><\/div>\n

Earlier on Twitter, I mentioned that “I just laid the smack down on an Apple Macbook Pro product survey.<\/a>” Since then, a few people have asked for the details. Despite my best efforts to keep this blog free of any fresh content, 140 characters just wasn’t going to cut it.<\/p>\n

First I have to say that I do love this lappy and would buy it again if I had it to do all over again. But having spent a couple of years on the old MacBook Pro, the new one seems like a small step back to me.<\/p>\n

Here were my gripes:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. The Screen<\/strong>: It’s floppy. As in: it nearly closes if moved around or used at an incline (on your lap if your legs aren’t straight out, in bed, etc). At first I thought this might be a problem with my specific unit, but after checking out others, it seems to be a weak hinge used on all new MacBook Pros. It’s not a huge deal, but makes the product feel quite a bit cheaper than the older model.<\/li>\n
  2. The Trackpad<\/strong>:\u00a0 While I liked it at first, it takes too much pressure to click, is too loud when clicked, and is a little tricky if you don’t pay close attention to where you let your fingers rest on the lappy. With all the sliding, pinching, flipping and clicking, chances are good you’ll have your fair share of what I call the “Phantom Taptm<\/sup>” Again, not a huge deal here and I like the concept, but it needs some refinement. A better option might be to keep the button (sensitive only to a click and not merely touch) and<\/em> and add a clickable track pad.<\/li>\n
  3. The Power Adapter<\/strong>: The magnet in the MagSafe power adapter isn’t as strong as on the older model. At first I thought it was in my head, so I did a side-by-side test with my old model. I’d say the new magnet is about 2\/3 as strong as the old one. It’s not a big difference, but it is noticeable and if you’ve enjoyed the old MacBook Pro, you might feel like Apple is beginning to skimp on the details.<\/li>\n
  4. Mini Display Port<\/strong>: Then there’s the issue of using an external monitor. They got rid of the DVI output port, and replaced it with a Mini DisplayPort. I didn’t even think to check that in the purchase process, so I was surprised when I went to hook up to an external monitor and couldn’t. Gotta buy an adapter for that. Also, if you’ve got a 30″ Apple Cinema Display, don’t expect your new MacBook Pro to power it. Gotta buy a $99 adapter for that, too.<\/li>\n
  5. And finally my biggest beef: The Screen.<\/strong> The 15 Inch model “features” a glossy display with no option for matte. What a huge<\/em> mistake. Don’t believe the salesgeeks when they say “It’s really not an issue\u2014the screen is so bright that you won’t have a problem with glare unless you happen to use it sitting out in the sun.” Ok…but most people who buy a laptop WILL use it while they’re sitting out in the sun. For many, the reason we buy a laptop is so that we can move the computer out of the dark cube or office we normally work in to somewhere where there’s some natural, healthy light.Notice the glare on my screen in the photo at the beginning of this post. I didn’t take the shot to with this intent, but realized after the fact that it does a good job illustrating my point.\n

    There’s a lot of glare\u2014and I’m indoors. Yes, the blinds are open, but it’s around 6PM and the sun is completely on the other side of the house. Similar problems with glare occur if you happen to be in a room where there’s a light on (which yes, if you’re a computer geek is probably so rare an occasion that you’ll never have to worry about pesky glare on your shiny new screen).<\/p>\n

    Honestly\u2014this is a huge deal for me. If you’re a designer, you’re probably going to be frustrated by glare on more than just the odd occasion.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    So. Those are my complaints. In all, probably no deal breakers. Like I said\u2014I’d buy it again if I had to\u2014but does this feel like progress? Not to me. Issues like this might be excusable in a regular MacBook, but we’re talking about the “Pro” model here, and it seems to be missing some key features you’d expect in the professional field (not to mention this price range).<\/p>\n

    The good news is they sent out a survey, so it looks like they really are trying. I just hope the people who take the survey don’t look past the fact that Apple took a step back (despite making the new product even shinier than the last).<\/p>\n

    In the end, if you’re smart you’ll probably wait until the first update before buying a new MacBook Pro. By then I’m guessing some of these kinks will be worked out.<\/p>\n

    If you have any questions or comments, please let me know, I’d love to answer them.<\/p>\n

    One more note. I love Apple’s design from their products to their ads to their website. They definitely subscribe to the popular minimalist design notion that “less is more,” and it generally serves them well. But if I had one message for them (apart from a nastygram about their glossy screens), it would be to take a page out of Milton Glaser’s book when he says “Just enough is more.”<\/p>\n

    See, when you start taking out useful or even necessary features for the sake of minimalism or simplicity, you instead end up with complexity. An adapter for this, a cable for that, and an external component for this. “Simplicity” stops being simple and becomes burdensome. For a great article on the topic, see Brent Barson’s “Simplicity is Overrated<\/a>.”<\/p>\n

    Oh- one more thing. The good news is that although they got rid of that pesky DVI port, they kept the Kensington security slot for the 3 people who would die without it.<\/p>\n

    *UPDATE<\/strong>: I’m finishing this post the next morning. Now that the sun is up on this side of the house, the glare is so bad I can hardly see what I’m typing. But that gives me an idea for a new Apple product. As an accessory to the glossy screen on the MBP, they should sell iBlinds for people who live in houses with windows, but still want to be able to see their monitor.<\/p>\n

    *UPDATE<\/strong> 8\/10\/09: Apple listened. The 15″ Macbook Pro is finally available with matte screen again. It’s an upgrade though\u2014yours for the low price of only $50. Seriously, it will be WELL worth the money.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Earlier on Twitter, I mentioned that “I just laid the smack down on an Apple Macbook Pro product survey.” Since then, a few people have asked for the details. Despite my best efforts to keep this blog free of any fresh content, 140 characters just wasn’t going to cut it. First I have to say […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,22],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-307","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-design","category-review"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/bcrockett.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/307","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/bcrockett.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/bcrockett.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/bcrockett.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/bcrockett.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=307"}],"version-history":[{"count":22,"href":"http:\/\/bcrockett.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/307\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":383,"href":"http:\/\/bcrockett.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/307\/revisions\/383"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/bcrockett.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=307"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/bcrockett.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=307"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/bcrockett.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=307"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}