Apple MacBook Pro (2008 Edition, 15-in, 2.5GHz) review

Apple MacBook Pro (2008 Edition, 15-in, 2.5GHz) Review

Reviewed by: Dan Ackerman

Reviewed on: 10 March 2008

The Nvidia GeForce 8600M GT graphics card allows for some basic gaming -- although if you plan on playing games on the MacBook Pro, you'll probably want to install Windows on a separate partition through Boot Camp.

Running Quake 4 at 1,024x768 pixels, we got 88 frames per second, compared to only 65 frames per second from the 2007 version of the MacBook Pro. Both systems had identical graphics cards, so we credit the CPU.

Despite some initial concerns that the revamped MacBook Pro offered less battery life, we got an impressive 4 hours 23 minutes with our battery drain test -- that's 47 minutes more than the older version of the MacBook Pro, and 20 minutes more than the MacBook Air.

We're still not fans of Apple's nearly obligatory extended warranty upsell, so much so that we've simply copied this complaint from our last MacBook review. The default warranty for the MacBook is one year of coverage for parts and labour, but telephone support is limited to a mere 90 days -- well short of what you'd typically find on the PC side -- unless you purchase the £279 AppleCare Protection Plan, which extends phone support and repair coverage to three years.

Conclusion
As we've come to expect, the new configurations hit the same price as the now-discontinued ones. More power for the same money is always welcome, but at £1,599, we still think the cheaper 13-inch MacBook is a better overall value, outweighed only if you need either the larger screen or Express card slot, or you can't live without the touchpad gestures.

Additional editing by Shannon Doubleday

System specifications:
Apple MacBook Pro 2008 Edition (15-inch, 2.5GHz)
OS X 10.5.1 Leopard; Intel Core 2 Duo 2.5GHz; 4096MB DDR2 SDRAM 667MHz; 512MB NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT; 250GB Hitachi 5,400rpm

Apple MacBook Air
OS X 10.5.1 Leopard; Intel Core 2 Duo 1.6GHz; 2,048MB DDR2 SDRAM 667MHz; 144MB Intel GMA X3100; 80GB Samsung 4,200rpm

Apple MacBook Pro (15-inch, 2.4GHz)
OS X 10.4.8; 2.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T7700 ; 2048MB DDR2 SDRAM 667MHz; 256MB NVIDIA GeForce 8400M GT; 160GB Hitachi 5,400rpm

Dell XPS M1530
Windows Vista Home Premium Edition; 2.2GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T7500; 2048MB DDR2 SDRAM 667MHz; 256MB Nvidia Geforce 8600M GT; 160GB Hitachi 5,400rpm