Business -- 16 days ago
We like – The New MacBook Pro
By Edward Hambro Rabben
When the new Macbook was unveiled in Apple’s keynote conference earlier this month it was the big reveal. Previously, I thought Apple had been suspiciously quiet on the laptop front whilst focussing in on the tablet and phone market. It was a bit like Sherlock Holmes presenting crimewatch: entertaining but you would always feel that his talents lay elsewhere and he should get back to his real job.
Don’t get me wrong, I love the iPhone and iPad but laptops have always been an Apple special for me. There was an added volume of hype about the machine based on its new ‘Retinal display’. Containing a 2880×1800 resolution (or 220 pixels per inch if you are being pedantic) the new display was the highlight of the reveal and honestly it is quite literally eye-wateringly good. Even letters take on a cinema-esque highlight in the new display. If you have a high definition film or artsy wildlife pictures then it is an experience; cinemas will look very limp afterwards. My only concern about the display is that it is the first of its kind and as such you wont get full use out of it for a while yet. However, the new Macbook Pro is not just a pretty display. It has an extraordinary processing power of minimum 2.3 GHz and a weight of 2.02 kilograms, giving you a desktop killer if ever there was one. It runs so smoothly it feels effortless.
It looks good, feels good and weighs good (but get a case if you can because that lightness and delicate display makes me nervous when considering an impact with a surface that isn’t carpet) and does what you want from a laptop. The battery life, however, needs to be improved considerably. Apple state that the Macbook Pro has seven hours lifespan with ‘web use’. Technically they are correct because in the ads, in letters of such a minimal font size that you ironically need the display the Macbook pro provides to read, ‘web use’ basically covers a single tab on Firefox which contains Facebook. Anything more than that and the power drops faster than a euro in Greece. Which is very coincidental as the price has risen to a fairly hefty sum (but to anyone familiar with Apple then expense is not a new experience) for no optical drive. Apple are getting very sneaky about this because they want everyone on iTunes and for who have DVDs or Blu-Rays it’s a bit of a nuisance. My last little gripe is that there is a lack of retinal display apps, I have no doubt that they are coming but until they do that display is going to feel very frustrated. However those facets aside this is quite simply a brilliant little machine; the Macbook Pro continues the Sir Jonathan Ive’s technology lab tradition of minimalist beauty and maximum efficiency. This laptop is one of the key apple products and it delivers in spades.
£ 1799 (entry level) apple.com
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