For Apple devotees, it's the little things that make the difference, and the MacBook Pro has a handful of extras that help it stand out amid a fairly generic field of competitors. The MacBook's AC adaptor connects magnetically to the laptop, so if you accidentally trip over the cord, it will simply detach instead of sending the entire thing crashing to the floor. You also get Apple's Front Row remote. This tiny device is the same as the one that comes with the iMac, and it controls Apple's Front Row software for playing back movies, music and photos from a 10-foot user interface.
Also included is Apple's much-loved suite of proprietary software, iLife '06, which includes intuitive tools for building Web sites, creating DVDs, composing music and working with photos.
The default guarantee for this MacBook Pro is one year of coverage for parts and labour. Free telephone support, however, 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.
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System configurations:
Apple MacBook Pro (15.4-inch 2.33GHz Core 2 Duo)
OS X 10.4.8; Core 2 Duo 2.3GHz; 3GB DDR2 SDRAM 667MHz; ATI Mobility Radeon x1600 256MB; 150GB Hitachi HTS541616J9SA00 5,400rpm
Apple MacBook Pro (15.4-inch 2.0GHz Core Duo)
OS X 10.4; Intel Core Duo 2GHz; 2GB DDR2 SDRAM 667MHz; ATI Mobility Radeon x1600 256MB; 100GB Toshiba MK1032GSX 5,400rpm
Apple Mac Pro
OS X 10.4.7; 2x 2.66GHz Intel Xeon 5150; 1GB DDR2 FB-SDRAM 667MHz; 256MB Nvidia GeForce 7300 GT; 250GB Western Digital 7,200rpm
HP Pavilion dv6000t
Windows XP Professional; Intel Core 2 Duo T7400 2.16GHz; Nvidia GeForce Go 7400 256MB; 100GB Fujitsu MHV2100BH 5,400rpm
Edited by Matthew Elliott
Additional editing by Elizabeth Griffin
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User reviews5
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Phonesyay1234 5 December 2011
Good: looks quite good
Bad: evrything else
Comment: this has broken 9 times
p.nev 23 November 2008
Good: Stylish and clean
Bad: Deteriorates slowly
Comment: I bought a MacBook pro in November of 2007, just over a year ago and it was incredible. I loved how it was so unique from what my friends were using and the Apple hardware and software was very stylish and clean-feeling. It was super-fast and easy to use as well as having an excellent battery life and the same functionality when portable.
A year later, a lot has changed. . .
About a month ago the so-called super drive began ‘coughing’ and spitting DVDs back at me. It was still under warrantee so I had this repaired for free. Great! But later the magnetic connector at the head of the mains adapter began to deteriorate and eventually completely failed to charge my Mac. No worries, it was still under warrantee and got a new one sorted out right away. Great! But again, problems arose. Now whenever I put my Mac on charge it miraculously comes to life without anyone having pressed the power button. It seems to occur just as it reaches full charge. A waste of power and an annoyance at 3am when I’m awoken by ‘AUUUUUUUUH’ and the zip of the ‘super’ drive. The performance of the Mac has also significantly decreased, despite me clearing nearly 50GB of hard drive space using an external hard drive. Further problems include a failure to install subsequent Mac OS X updates using software update. So I’m stuck a year in the past in terms of the operating system. I also find that applications tend to quit unexpectedly all the time. I’m surprised the error message doesn’t read ‘The application ‘photo booth’ quit, much as it has done the past 2 months.’ And of course “Would you care to send a report to apple that no one will read but may comfort you in the knowledge that you’ve taken some kind of offensive action against apple’s failure.” I treat my Mac like a gem and have never dropped it nor spilled anything on it. What have I don’t to deserve this? What am I not doing right?
Apple has great customer service and stylish machines but in this case its been nothing but a massive failure. Maybe I was just unlucky but it seems like my MacBook Pro was only meant to work so long as the warrantee was still valid. Im not going to invest in apple care because its just more money towards a machine that seems to be slowly dying. My old windows laptop was under £300 and served me well for over 3 years. I could have bought 4 of them for the price of my MacBook Pro and in retrospect, should have. I’m not a computer expert in any respect but Apple seem to have a lot of bugs to work out and for a machine so expensive it should be more durable and long-lasting.
Not worth the money, at all. It’s upsetting :( I love apple. . .
T Molnar 1 February 2007
Good: Fast, bright screen, Mac OS
Bad: Ports on sides, suffering through MS Word in Rosetta coupled with Endnote ref tool
Comment: All in all I am very happy with my MacBook Pro. Having had an older G4 Powerbook with ports on the back, I have to say I miss that configuration.
Generally everything works faster and I have had no major difficulties with the various media development I undertake, website design/maintenance, and research/teaching writing.
It's not Apple's fault that Microsoft Word/Endnote works only adequately (that will change) but that is a downside for me which is tangential to how the actual machine operates.
That being said this is a great laptop.
See all 5 user reviews