I'm looking for a reason to get a MacBook Pro. I really like the unibody aluminum enclosure, but I don't really care for using the Mac OS X platform. I really like Windows 7, so I want to know how fast that runs on a MBP. 13" is all I need, and if the integrated graphics run Gmail video chat, YouTube and TV shows well enough, then I'm happy. It's definitely a nice piece of hardware, but I wonder if W7 will run smoothly on the hardware.
I try to not be a hater, so I will admit that the MBP is a pretty little number. 13" is a good size, and it isn't as expensive as the intense, super large MBPs. Some good PC laptops go for around 1K, so I think that's a decent price point for a decent computer. However, I don't feel any draw towards OSX, whereas I fully enjoy the experience with W7. The one click trackpad is also pretty sweet-looking, so maybe that will pair nicely with W7. I just worry if it'll run quickly enough. I've read battery life drops in this kind of setup, but two hours is plenty for the kind of work I like to do.
Pros:
- pretty little computer
- nice size and weight
- Boot Camp
- Touchpad is pretty sweet
Cons:
- I've read that MagSafe isn't safe at all
- I've read that the cooling fans don't spin fast enough
- Does W7 run quickly enough?
My current laptop is the HP dm3-1020CA. It's a cute little laptop, basically a 13" HP Envy, which looks more or less like a MacBook. It cost me 750 CAD, which was a bit surprising. Spec-wise, it's really impressive. AMD Athlon Neo X2 Dual Processor 1.60GHz, 64-bit, 4GB RAM, 320GB HDD, 4 USB slots, HDMI out, Wireless N-draft, tiny little card reader built-in. It runs like a dream, and the keyboard is really nice. Considering I'm a really touchy-feely kind of guy that played piano for 13 years, I think my opinion of a keyboard carries more weight than some people. I had a Toshiba A100 and a L300D, both of which had a Canadian keyboard. (Who the heck uses a Canadian keyboard? Canadians use it because they have to because manufacturers think we use it, as evidenced by th fact that there are laptops with Canadian keyboards in Canada that Canadians use. Ugh.) I hated them. The Canadian aspect of the keyboard annoyed me to no end because I had to adjust my LShift-ing by reaching my pinkie out every time I capitalized a word. Blech. Nevertheless, the keyboards on those computers just sucked, and I hated them. This dm3-1020CA has a real solid one. The keys are sturdy, and I can really pound away on it if I'm typing an angry blog post about how much I hate some keyboards. One annoying feature is that the F keys can only be accessed through a Fn button. I hate this. I looked up free programs to reassign keys, but none of them work. Can someone point me to a good one? In summary, even though my dm3-1020CA has a Canadian keyboard and the Function keys are annoying, I likes it.
That being said, I think the future of portable computers is in thin-and-lights. I know netbooks are all the rage right now, but I hated the one I tried. The keyboard was cramped (gotta hate crappy keyboards), and I couldn't video chat with my girlfriend who was in Australia at the time. Upgrading the RAM and slightly overclocking the CPU did diddly-squat, so I'm left with a bad taste in my mouth. I tried the ASUS EeePC 1005HE, which my research determined was the best for me. My HP thin-and-light rocks the show. The RAM gets a bit hot, but I like it warming up my hands. Toshiba has a competing TnL, the T130D-006, but I didn't like it as much. Yep. Mine rocks the show.
Bottom line: I like my laptop, but the MacBook Pro is so much prettier. The aesthetics is what really gets me, and if it can putter out enough power on Windows 7, I'm all in. Thoughts?
