Thanks to a series of fortunate events, I was able to get some early Christmas gifts for Cris and myself:

And thanks to getting both; I was able to get to do a first hand comparison. Hopefully the contents of this post may prove useful to those considering getting the new Apple laptops.

Also pictures in the gallery

The Good

Apple once again proves to be one of the companies that “get it.” And I believe its safe to say that at this point, in the industry, “functional design” has become just as important [and celebrated] as the actual functionality. More and more people are beginning to appreciate the “user experience” given by a product as we get further into the new millennium.

Apple has clearly mastered that art – as proven by the elegance of their products. There’s really no other word to describe it. Vista is cool, Google’s G1 has tremendous potential; but Apple products, they have that elegance no one has been able to touch. And I’m going to give you more proof of that while I go through describing this new machine in my hands.

Keyboard

Aside from the backlit keyboard (for top end MB and all MBPs), they switched the keys to black. The MacBook Air started this trend, and while this may be a purely cosmetic decision. It actually has a good repercussion: longevity of the keyboard’s “look.”

My old MBP’s silver buttons have worn over time, and they are quite a turn-off compared to the rest of the machine which as been well kept. Switching the keys to black can make you afford to wear the keys out, but still look decent as time passes… even in the worst cases.

Trackpad

Aside from the inclusion of multi-touch, they switched the surface material to textured glass. Looks like they took cues from the iPhone; realizing that real glass is very low-maintenance and high-resilience. The only thing I’m not certain of is that if and how easily that textured surface can wear down over time. Whatever the case, I’m sure it’s more durable than regular plastic.

Screen

As far as longevity and maintenance goes – this is was the good direction to take. Again, they used real glass, which means you can be pretty brutal with it, and it still won’t scratch. This translates to it being extremely easy to clean; as you can literally use any fabric and be as hard as you want on the surface and still get the job done.

Another nuance that can be found in the screen area is that the hinge/joint where the screen meets the body is now black. The exhaust/ventilation of the unibodies are now exclusive to the back (unlike before, it tended to breathe through the keyboard area as well). If you hadn’t connected the dots by now, let me spell it out: the area that is most likely to accumulate dust/dirt – is now black 😉

Again, if this was an accident, it’s one of the better accidents Apple made.

Body

Now I don’t think I have to get into much detail here; this is the most touted feature of the new line. Hell, there are even official Apple videos explaining what they’ve done. So rather than re-explain, just Google it or visit Apple’s site to watch/learn all about it.

I will say though, that seeing/handling the unibodies in person, up close; how flush everything is, how small the grill-holes are – it’s really something else. And that’s the kind of user experience that transcends the operating system. And I must mention that OS X on its own, is already an awesome user experience.

The Bad

First is that I’m really concerned that the ventilation has now been routed totally to the back. More ventilation is always better (although at the sacrifice of looks). But the way the keys are positioned makes it seem impossible for the machine to “breathe” any other way. I just hope the new chips and/or power management is effective, else we’ll be having a lot of overheating machines.

The new trackpad takes some getting used to. I guess if you’re a “tap to click” user, it doesn’t matter; but to people like me, who purposefully disable “tap to click” so we can explicitly assign the hardware buttons for clicking, this can be a strange experience which takes some getting used to.

With the screen, like I said, the glossy finish sucks; the glare/reflections during breakfast annoy the hell out of me. But I have to say that I guess it’s a reasonable “evil” to live with, considering the “benefits” it gives back.

The new DisplayPort sucks. It’s nice that they trimmed the size down again to make a neat looking port. But to not include an adaptor when they know people will be needing one… that’s just cruel. A brilliant money-making move, but cruel nonetheless. My old MacBook Pro had a DVI-DSUB adaptor, why couldn’t they throw a DP-DVI/DSUB as well for then new machines?

I guess what disappoints me is that I specifically got a Mac for Cris because she’s a teacher – and this was supposed to make every technical aspect of her life (as a teacher) so much easier. No viruses, to worry about, very intuitive interface, etc.

But now, she can’t do the thing what makes Macs perfect for teachers: presentations on a projector – because there’s no cable for that damn new display port! That we’ll have to buy one just to accomplish that task irks me.

Differences

Aside from the size, I guess the best way to differentiate the [MacBook] pros from the non-pros is that the MBPs are “expanded MBs.” Almost all physical characteristics are the same. It’s not like before where you had plastic cases for MBs and nice aluminum ones for MBPs. They’re all built the same way – so they share the same exact benefits mentioned above.

But the MBP naturally has more.

One is the backlit keyboard, which is standard for all Pros and only available in the top MB model.

I guess there’s also that bump in every hardware element: bigger hard disk, more ram, optional dedicated GPU, etc; which I personally didn’t care for. Nonetheless, those “upgrades” are all appreciated.

What forced me get the pro is the difference in LCD quality. MBs have considerably lousier LCDs than the pros. Understand that I’m a guy who has a colorimeter, and calibrates his monitors for maximum accuracy. The difference in video fidelity is a big deal for me; who relies on color accuracy for work.

That’s not to say that the MB’s LCD is crap though. If you’re a regular user, it’s better than fine. Apple has always had the best display panels out of all computer manufacturers. So by default you already have an awesome display. But if you’re serious about graphics, I’d say you will notice the difference between the MB and MBP.

So like I said; in a nutshell, to compare what’s lacking in the MB from a MBP is the wrong way to go about it. The new MB is already an awesome machine – and this is coming from someone who still sees the old MacBooks as second-rate Apple laptops compared to the MBPs… so that’s saying something.

These new models, I don’t consider them as second-rate at all. Instead, you should see them as “base models”… then the Pros are “enhanced” versions of the MBs. Don’t think about what you “lost” when you go non-pro but rather what extra you have when you go pro.

I hope that made sense, because it makes perfect sense to me hahahaha.