There’s irony in the fact I’m actually using the MacBook Pro to write this negative review post. I’m visiting a friend and one of the benefits to this visit was I got to sit down and actually test out the Mac Book Pro. I do like some of the features of Apple’s latest creation, but there are too many flaws for me to drop $1199 on this laptop. Below are my reasons.
First, the part in front of the keyboard where my wrists lay is long. This causes the end of the laptop surface to cut against the skin on the bottom of my wrists. I do like the feel and type of the keyboard buttons and type pad, however. There is a nice, substantial feel to each press of a button. The overall weight and thickness are very satisfactory. Compared to my old notebook, it’s about 70% lighter (literally – I had a huge 17 inch HP laptop) and definitely thinner (though the MacBook Air is obviously the king in that department).
The screen has great color and high quality resolution. Unfortunately, at the $1199 price tag, it comes in only 13.3 inches which as you already know is significantly smaller than what I’m used to. The 13 inch screen actually isn’t so bad until the windows and browser suddenly become smaller size and font as I’m typing. That’s one of the top 3 things that I don’t like about the MacBook Pro. Every time the font becomes smaller, I have to go up to the top and hit file zoom in.
Another thing I hate about the MacBook Pro is the click pad. By default, there isn’t a right click. With the tasks I need to do on the computer, I really need a right click. I looked up how to right click on the Mac Book Pro and there is such an option but when I turn it on, it makes it very hard to do a regular click since I then have to click on the very left side of the mouse pad. This results in me constantly trying to get the right click in for different tasks and ultimately is very frustrating.
Furthermore, I found the control copy, control paste, control whatever situation very frustrating as on the Mac, you need to hit command + c or command + v. This isn’t a PC thing, it’s a normal keyboard thing. I do a lot of copy and pasting so this really threw me off. If you never use these functions, this won’t effect you but it was really detrimental to my speed performance in getting tasks done.
As a life long PC user, I’m also not used to not having a start programs on the left hand side of the bottom of the screen. I think I can get used to the Apple set up on the bottom of the screen though. I’ve used the computer for about 14 total hours now and there are some things I think I can adjust to and others I can’t. On the plus side, the Mac has some cool features and ease of access the PC won’t have.
Just so all of you reading know, I honestly don’t give a damn whether I’m using a Mac or a PC and I think the people that get caught up in that stuff are stupid. I’m not a computer and I don’t pledge allegiance to a computer. I’ll buy and use the computer that provides the best value and user experience. If the MacBook Pro was awesome and worth twice as much as some stupid Acer or Toshiba Satellite, I’d buy it in an instant. However, as I’m finding out that isn’t the case.
This is not to say this computer sucks. It charged my iPhone really fast compared to an HP desktop we have at home. It obviously reeks of high quality and feels very reliable. Furthermore, I’ve noticed the battery power is great and it just has a sturdy, compact feel to it.
Unfortunately, there are some qualities as I’ve mentioned above that make the MacBook Pro unable to be my home laptop computer. It’s a shame because there’s a lot of great stuff about it and it would look great on a black glass table, but even if it was only $800, I couldn’t justify some of the sacrifices I’d have to absorb from using it.
Overall rating for the Mac Book Pro – 3.5 out of 5 stars
Cons: price, mouse pad clicking (right clicking), screen size, zoom in/zoom out control, non ergonomic design, control vs command functions
Pros: durability, quality, screen resolution and brightness, feel, battery life, key pad touch, no overheating