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Review
MacBook Pro 13-inch
The solid aluminum body and glass trackpad are an engineering
marvel. For sheer esthetics and build quality this laptop has no peer. By Prashant
L Rao
 Apple’s
always been known for its design chops and so it’s not surprising that
the company’s take on a business laptop is breathtaking in its elegance,
solidity and masterly fusion of form and function. The MacBook Pro 13-inch which
is being reviewed here is a stunning all aluminum bodied beast with a humongous
glass trackpad that does double duty as the world’s largest trackpad button
(the trackpad is the button!). It supports multi-touch—use two fingers
to right click, pinch or zoom, three to flick, four to scroll and so on.
The screen thankfully doesn’t follow the 16:9 ratio that is sadly the norm
on most laptops today. It’s a more readable 16:10 ratio. Unfortunately
it is a glossy display.
For a Core 2 Duo machine, the laptop’s battery life is fantastic. I tested
it by playing a DVD with brightness set at 100% and Wi-Fi on and it managed
to play for 4 hours and six minutes before giving up the ghost. That’s
equivalent to 6-7 hours of moderately heavy usage, something that’s topped
only by the Acer Timeline which is powered by a Core Solo ULV processor.
The software bundle comes with a decent word processor in
TextEdit and lots of multimedia apps as part of the iLife ’09 bundle. Apple
should consider bundling iWorks if it is serious about targeting businesses,
a segment where it is clearly trying to gain a foothold considering the support
for Microsoft Exchange in Mail.
| Processor |
2.53 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo with 3 MB shared L2 cache |
| Memory |
4 GB 1066 MHz DDR3 SDRAM, expandable to 8 GB |
| Hard drive |
250 GB serial ATA hard drive running at 5400 rpm,
with Sudden Motion Sensor |
| Display |
13.3-inch widescreen LED-backlit 1280 x 800 glossy
display |
| GPU |
NVIDIA GeForce 9400M integrated graphics |
| Optical Drive |
Slot-load 8X SuperDrive with double-layer support
(DVD±R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW) optical drive |
| Ports |
Mini DisplayPort for video output (adapters sold
separately); Gigabit Ethernet port; two USB 2.0 ports; One FireWire 800
port (FireWire 400 compatible) |
| Connectivity |
Built-in AirPort Extreme 802.11n wireless networking
and Bluetooth 2.1+EDR |
| Others |
SD card slot; Built-in iSight video
camera; one audio line in/out port, supporting both optical digital and
analog; glass Multi-Touch trackpad and illuminated keyboard; built-in, 58
WHr lithium polymer battery; and 60 Watt Mag-Safe Power Adapter |
| Weight |
2.04 kg |
So how does the MacBook Pro measure up as a business laptop? Well, the cost
of acquisition is on the higher side; the review unit we got was the fully togged
out 13-inch model, which should set you back by Rs. 93,300. However, a comparable
configuration in Dell’s Latitude line cost over a lakh of rupees and even
a Vostro 1320 with a comparable customized config would set you back by about
Rs 70,000. So cost of acquisition isn’t a show stopper here. Moreover,
with its exceptional build quality, it seems likely that the MacBook Pro would
keep on ticking long after the average corporate laptop would have bitten the
dust.
What would be a drawback would be the fact that users would have to be trained
in using OS X, which while an excellent OS is sufficiently different from Windows
(which most corporate laptop users are familiar with) to warrant some head scratching
as users struggle to figure out that the Command key does what CTRL does in
Windows and that Option key is sort of like a combination of CTRL and ALT depending
on the task at hand and that the Delete key is actually what a PC user is familiar
with as Backspace and so on. Then there’s the OS X Dock, a fabulous UI,
but one quite different from XP/Vista though closer to the new taskbar of Windows
7 in some ways. The Apple menu on top of the screen outside the app window as
opposed to the Windows format of having the menu within the app’s window
is also a tad disconcerting for a newbie to the Mac world.
As far as compute horsepower goes, the MacBook Pro has it in spades. It zipped
through any task that I threw at it with gusto and even though I hadn’t
used a Mac for ten years, it all came back to me pretty quickly.
| Pros |
- The design is simply exquisite. The casing
is made of aluminum with a gorgeous glass trackpad and it's so slim
that when closed it's about as tall as the Acer Timeline's body when
the latter laptop's open
- This is a snappy performer with lots of
power under the hood
- For a Core 2 Duo powered laptop, the battery
backup time is excellent (6-7 hours in real life)
|
| Cons |
- Tends to heat up while playing videos
- You can run Windows 7 using boot camp
but battery life takes a hit (about half of what you get running OS
X)
- It's a bit pricey but so is any decent
enterprise laptop. Users might need some retraining in using OS X but
it shouldn't take them long to get productive
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| Price |
Rs 93,300 (MRP)
You can extend the warranty by 3 years for Rs.16,600 and get a complete
cover for all accessories |
| Contact |
AppleCare hotline -
1800-425-0744 (BSNL & MTNL lines only) or 080-4140-9000,
Sales Call - 080-2574-4646, toll free on 1800-425-4646,
SMS "SALES" to 54646 |
| E-mail |
indiasales@mac.com |
| Web site |
www.apple.co.in |
prashant.rao@expressindia.com
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