It’s the inclusion of the Intel Thunderbolt technology that had us interested more than anything else in the 2011 Apple MacBook Pro 15†laptop edition. And when it did land in our quarters for a review, our mind raced back to a top Intel Exec apparently saying ‘Apple helps shape our roadmap’ earlier this year. Now why would the world’s most prominent chipmaker feel so lovable towards any one company in particular? Our guess is as good as yours – probably the famed ‘Wintel’ affair is no longer making as many heads turn around as ‘Intelapple’. It’s almost like when you can’t get your old flame off your mind and then one day, a knight in shining armor sweeps you off your feet. You can’t stop talking about him among friends, family and yes may be to your ex too. But it does get a little too uncomfortable to imagine when we are talking manufacturing giants here.
Thankfully, unboxing this Apple product was like walking down a primrose path with the bundle including precisely what it should. The need to instantly plug in our review unit to a charging station drew our attention to the 85W MagSafe connector that automatically fits in the right port once you get it close to the notebook along with an AC power cord. The user documentation was accompanied by a cleaning cloth and the setup DVDs. The 15.4†LED-backlit widescreen notebook crafted in a precision unibody aluminum enclosure bears a rather clean profile. The top lid includes just the Apple logo and it lights up when the device is in use. What we particularly liked was the solid hinge that held it to the main chassis.
A brief run through of both the box and the innards of the Apple MacBook Pro 15-inch reveal Intel’s 2.2GHz core i7 quad-core processor to be pulling things off. It’s accompanied by 4GB of 1333MHz DDR3 RAM, the AMD Radeon HD 6750M/SD GPU and the hotly anticipated Thunderbolt high-speed I/O technology. The laptop is based on Mac OS X version 10.6.7 and bundles in a 750GB hard disk. It also features Intel high-definition audio support. As we strolled along the left construe, there was the Magsafe power port followed by the Gigabit Ethernet and FireWire 800 ports. The Thunderbolt port was seated next and had two USB 2.0 ports for company. The screen’s top bezel features the FaceTime HD camera with an indicator. While the battery indicator lights lie on the left edge, the front rim includes the Sleep indicator and the IR receiver. Move over to the right and there’s a Kensington lock security slot and slot-loading SuperDrive. The other options are the SDXC card and audio in and out ports.
Lift the lid and you’ll know why it’s called Apple goodness – lots of beautiful silver grey, a clean look and plenty of open space. The upper right corner features the power button which when hit is pretty quick to power up the notebook, with the screen lighting up in no seconds. The stereo speakers are seated on either side of the keyboard holding center-stage with the lid open. It’s a backlit piece of hardware and we took an instant liking to the sufficient room in between keys. Responsiveness and accuracy is what came naturally to keyboard though we did feel it could have been a little more tactile. The topmost row is assorted neatly with Fn keys and the one that really stood out was the Dashboard key. It doesn’t steer away from its name with access to widgets in the Dashboard offered via a single touch. We could edit them effortlessly and also include new ones from a long list.
The trackpad is as wide and smooth as it could get on a notebook. Bundled with a host of customization options, there was much we could do to have it suit our preferences. From scaling the tracking speed, to the double-click and scrolling speed, it did have a lot to show off. If you’re someone who’s more familiar with multi-finger gestures, you’re going to immediately like the trackpad’s support for one, two, three and four finger tweaking. ‘Pinch open and close…’ no they aren’t any dance moves, but just an addition to the list of options you can play around with when using the trackpad of the Apple MacBook Pro.
We appreciate the efficacy with which we could seamlessly move between various tasks while working with the MacBook Pro. The familiar Dock offered shortcuts to virtually all the functions we were going to need. ‘Extensively customizable’ are two words that should aptly describe what the interface is like. Web pages load up rather quickly and there was really no reason to complain whatsoever. Connecting our USB drive had the notebook silently accommodate the flash drive by its name on the homescreen; no searching and no confusing actions. It was only when we had a second USB drive hooked up that things started getting a wee bit messy if we may call it so. To put it simply, there’s just not enough space between the two ports. Nothing really changes in terms of the onboard applications – there’s iMovie 11 and Garageband among others alongside FaceTime for video calls. Photo Booth version 3.0.3 using the integrated HD camera had our attention too. iPhoto 11 version 9.1.1 really got us into action and we instantly fell in love with the Places feature.
Precisely what had us excited about the laptop turned out to be downer by the time we finished reviewing it. Intel’s Thunderbolt technology is yet in the nascent stage and there’s really no access to the Thunderbolt cable in the practical sense. It’s going to take much time really before it actually arrives, at least in India and the inclusion of a USB 3.0 port instead would have made it more of a utilitarian. The new Apple MacBook Pro 15-inch seemed just slightly evolutionary and brought nothing exceptional to the table save for the noticeable bump in speed. And while seven and a half hours of battery life upon moderate usage left us impressed, we were left wondering what more? Apple fans and of course those who have an additional Rs. 1,24,900 that they’re dying to spend may give the laptop a go. We’re giving the device a good 8 out of 10.
