Played with a 15" MacBook Pro with LED backlight today

[Kaido]

Mini-review

Highlights:
+ black levels = awesome
+ runs MUCH cooler than previous models
- still has dumb hinge design (won't fold back all the way)
- only 2 USB ports (on a $2500 laptop)

 

[TheStu]

Originally posted by: Kaido
Mini-review

Highlights:
+ black levels = awesome
+ runs MUCH cooler than previous models
- still has dumb hinge design (won't fold back all the way)
- only 2 USB ports (on a $2500 laptop)

I sort of agree with the USB port issue, but at the same time, what do you need to plug in there? If you are at a desk, you will probably have a hub anyway so that way you can have your printer, external devices, ipods, and what not hooked up there, stuff that isnt easy to take with you. But when you are on the road, you already have wifi, bluetooth, and a decent sound chip. So the need to hook up extra things is minimized since you are going portable.

Conversely, it gets annoying on my machine to have to unplug my thumbdrive or mouse if I want to use my external USB hard drive (it requires 2 ports)

 

[HermDogg]

I agree, it really should have more than two USB ports. I use my laptop with an external mouse 75% of the time and have several thumbdrives (one for docs, one for work, one big one for quick file transfers, etc.) and it's a pain to have to keep switching them amongst the 3 USB ports on my laptop. 4 should be standard, although Apple does love firewire and is probably trying to sell more accessories that use firewire ports.

 

[Kaido]

Originally posted by: TheStu
I sort of agree with the USB port issue, but at the same time, what do you need to plug in there? If you are at a desk, you will probably have a hub anyway so that way you can have your printer, external devices, ipods, and what not hooked up there, stuff that isnt easy to take with you. But when you are on the road, you already have wifi, bluetooth, and a decent sound chip. So the need to hook up extra things is minimized since you are going portable.

Conversely, it gets annoying on my machine to have to unplug my thumbdrive or mouse if I want to use my external USB hard drive (it requires 2 ports)

I use a lot more devices than the typical person too. I love my 14" Gateway laptop because it has 4 USB ports, which is typically just what I need. My bag usually has the following USB devices:

-wireless mouse
-memory stick
-card reader
-portable hard drive or two
-card reader hard drive
-wacom tablet
-sometimes a portable printer
-iPod

It's a small pain to swap things out and can get even more messy when you toss a USB hub into the ring. You'd just figure that for $2,500 you'd get a bit more for your money than a screen that can't go back all the way and only 2 USB ports, you know?

 

[Kaido]

Originally posted by: HermDogg
I agree, it really should have more than two USB ports. I use my laptop with an external mouse 75% of the time and have several thumbdrives (one for docs, one for work, one big one for quick file transfers, etc.) and it's a pain to have to keep switching them amongst the 3 USB ports on my laptop. 4 should be standard, although Apple does love firewire and is probably trying to sell more accessories that use firewire ports.

Yeah, I agree. I do like Firewire for certain applications (scanners and external hard drives in particular), but I've never used a FW800 device. I've actually never even met anyone who uses a FW800 devices.

 

[gus6464]

The thing that sucks about the 2 fw ports is that they are shared by the same pcie bus. You cant plug in a fw400 and fw800 device at the same time. And the 2 usb ports thing is crap too.

 

[TheStu]

It all comes from size constraints. I have a MacBook Pro sitting on my desk at home (my friend's machine, the backlight stopped working he wanted me to take a look at it) and since I have popped the topcase off, I know how much room is in there.... it is pretty packed in in there all ready. I think that if they were to squeeze all the existing ports closer together, they might be able to fit another USB port in there... but that would make things awful tight when you are plugging stuff in.

 

[TheStu]

Originally posted by: Kaido

Originally posted by: TheStu
I sort of agree with the USB port issue, but at the same time, what do you need to plug in there? If you are at a desk, you will probably have a hub anyway so that way you can have your printer, external devices, ipods, and what not hooked up there, stuff that isnt easy to take with you. But when you are on the road, you already have wifi, bluetooth, and a decent sound chip. So the need to hook up extra things is minimized since you are going portable.

Conversely, it gets annoying on my machine to have to unplug my thumbdrive or mouse if I want to use my external USB hard drive (it requires 2 ports)

I use a lot more devices than the typical person too. I love my 14" Gateway laptop because it has 4 USB ports, which is typically just what I need. My bag usually has the following USB devices:

-wireless mouse
-memory stick
-card reader
-portable hard drive or two
-card reader hard drive
-wacom tablet
-sometimes a portable printer
-iPod

It's a small pain to swap things out and can get even more messy when you toss a USB hub into the ring. You'd just figure that for $2,500 you'd get a bit more for your money than a screen that can't go back all the way and only 2 USB ports, you know?

What about an expresscard USB hub? I remember that there were hubs that plugged into the PCMCIA slot on older laptops, so why not the express card slot? that would probably net you 4 more.

 

[Kaido]

Originally posted by: TheStu

What about an expresscard USB hub? I remember that there were hubs that plugged into the PCMCIA slot on older laptops, so why not the express card slot? that would probably net you 4 more.

Hey, that's not a bad idea! I also think I'm going to invest in a Firewire case for my 2.5" backup hard drive.

 

[TheStu]

Originally posted by: Kaido

Originally posted by: TheStu

What about an expresscard USB hub? I remember that there were hubs that plugged into the PCMCIA slot on older laptops, so why not the express card slot? that would probably net you 4 more.

Hey, that's not a bad idea! I also think I'm going to invest in a Firewire case for my 2.5" backup hard drive.

I would definitely get the firewire case... faster transfer rates (I don't think you would notice that much of a difference) but it also carries far more power, which means you wouldnt have to have to have 2 connectors like my 2.5" USB enclosure.

 

[Scott66]

Originally posted by: Kaido

Originally posted by: TheStu

What about an expresscard USB hub? I remember that there were hubs that plugged into the PCMCIA slot on older laptops, so why not the express card slot? that would probably net you 4 more.

Hey, that's not a bad idea! I also think I'm going to invest in a Firewire case for my 2.5" backup hard drive.

Yes get a firewire external. Firewire has the higher power capabilities so no need to use a second plug like USB. Transfer speeds are slightly faster than USB and it uses much less processor cycles, (at least on the windows comparisons I have seen)

I just picked up a harddrive enclosure with esata and an e-sata pci-e expansion card.

 

[Kaido]

I played with my brother's Core Duo MacBook Pro yesterday and the hinge is really super annoying. I was using it on my couch and I couldn't bend it back far enough to see the screen well. Ridiculous!

But I love it so much

 

[TheStu]

You know, I have never had a problem with screen visibility on my MacBook, and it has pretty much the same hinge as the MBP. But hey, everybody is different, and that is why there are so many choices out there.

 

[Scott66]

The reason the hinge doesn't seem to go back far enough is people are using it way too low. such as on a coffee table. Apple designed it to be on a desk or at least the height of most people laps but not on them ( they are called notebooks now). At lower heights people need to angle the screen further back. I love the long single hinge as it is very strong. I have seen so many 2-hinged laptops with cracked plastics or frozen hinges. Even macs power books were known to have the hinges lock up from the continual twistings.

 

[Kaido]

Originally posted by: Scott66
The reason the hinge doesn't seem to go back far enough is people are using it way too low. such as on a coffee table. Apple designed it to be on a desk or at least the height of most people laps but not on them ( they are called notebooks now). At lower heights people need to angle the screen further back. I love the long single hinge as it is very strong. I have seen so many 2-hinged laptops with cracked plastics or frozen hinges. Even macs power books were known to have the hinges lock up from the continual twistings.

The hinges on my last 15" Gateway laptop cracked; that was pretty annoying. But I'd rather have cracked hinges that allow a screen to fold back all the way. You have to squat down at the store to see the screen at the right angle, or else flip the laptop back a little. I'm only 6'1" so I'm not especially tall and I had to do that at the Apple store. Annoying but then nothing is perfect, and overall the laptop is just what I'm looking for. Now I just gotta save up for one

 

[rowcroft]

On the FW800/400 bus statement, I use both at the same time on a daily basis without any issues. Haven't had a problem with the screen hinge but have noticed it gets fairly hot during constant (not heavy) use.