Our first MacBook Pros arrived yesterday — three 2GHz poser buy with our own coin — and the testing started immediately . Macworld Lab has been churning away on benchmark testing , and we ’ll carry a review with complete in - deepness result later this week .
In the meantime , I ’ve been using one of the other MacBook Pro systems as my principal system for about a Clarence Day now . That ’s good , I ’ve require the plunge — after a wait of a couplet of hours while Apple ’s Migration Assistant software copied all my files over from my PowerBook . The end result ? This shiny new Mac laptop may be packed chock full of hot new engineering on the interior , but it still feels like home .
So , in the interest of straightaway satisfaction and in advance of our extroverted review , here are some notes about the MacBook Pro after 24 time of day spent in its slavery .
All scores are in minutes:seconds except for Unreal Tournament results, which are in frames per second. All systems were running Mac OS X 10.4.5 with 1GB of RAM. The Photoshop Suite test is a set of 14 scripted tasks using a 50MB file. Photoshop’s memory was set to 70 percent and History was set to Minimum. We rendered a project in Cinema4D. In iMovie, we applied the Aged video effect to a 1-minute movie. We converted 45 minutes of AAC audio files to MP3 using iTunes’ High Quality setting. We used Unreal Tournament 2004’s Antalus Botmatch average-frames-per-second score; we tested at a resolution of 1,024 by 768 pixels at the Maximum setting with both audio and graphics enabled. We created a Zip archive in the Finder from a 1GB folder—Macworld Lab testing by James Galbraith and Jerry Jung
Using the MacBook
I recognize we ’ve said this before , but it bears repeat : these Intel - free-base Macs are most definitely still Macs . For the past Clarence Day , I ’ve been using the MacBook Pro exactly as I was using my former PowerBook , and have not notice a individual instance where there ’s been something I ’ve been ineffective to do because I ’m running on an Intel mainframe . After the Migration Assistant did its matter , I was up and carry with no major hitch . My windows are all correct where I left them ; my non - Universal - binary applications programme run for without charge … it ’s like I did n’t switch systems at all .
One of the first thing I did do upon switching was update several of my favorite utilities to oecumenical versions : after a quick download , DragThing , LaunchBar , SpamSieve , and several other programme were running at full , Universal f number . ab initio I was concerned that my non - native software were running quite slowly , because the spinning beach ball cursor made numerous show . But a fast check with the Activity Monitor software evidence me the verity : my initial scheme slowdown was being triggered by Spotlight indexing all the files I had just replicate over to my young organisation . Once Spotlight terminate its dirty work , the system became unbelievably responsive , much more so than my previous 1.5GHz PowerBook .
Several of my moolah - and - butter lotion , most notablyEudoraand Microsoft Office , are n’t currently usable in versions that run natively on Intel processors . But I honestly have n’t perceive any backwardness in those applications . ( The one oddity I have noticed ? The MacBook Pro ’s Scrolling Trackpad feature did n’t seem to work quite right in Microsoft Word . )
How it looks
In terms of strong-arm appearance , the MacBook Pro is almost identical to the 15 - inch PowerBook G4 . It ’s slightly wider and thinner , although you would n’t observe unless you sit one model on top of the other . The covert ’s slightly shorter , although it ’s definitely brighter than the PowerBook G4 ’s .
A self - portrayal of the MacBook Pro rent with the laptop ’s built - in iSight camera and a nearby mirror .
Of of course , properly above the screen door you ’ll find the built - in iSight tv camera , and it works great . I was able to wander around our offices with the MacBook Pro while on a video recording chat , and it worked without a hitch . The quality of the picture seems moderately dependable , too .
The MacBook ’s trackpad and shiner button are wider than the PowerBook ’s , and several other lineament are more or less unlike — two screws that used to be seeable on the keyboard plane of the laptop have been relocate to the side , out of a user ’s standard eye stock .
The fresh MagSafe power connexion employment as publicize . Just this past weekend , I almost stultify my PowerBook by tripping over the corduroy and shooting it onto the trading floor . But in several endeavor to tumble the MacBook Pro , the MagSafe connector did its job , releasing its fastening to the computer and falling harmlessly to the floor .
The cable connecting the MagSafe connective to the AC adapter ’s power brick is noticeably thicker than the one on Apple ’s previous generation of laptop power electric cord , lead me to think that it might be more broken . The brick itself is large , more the size of it of an AirPort Express than the previous - generation exponent brick .
After an hour of sitting in my overlap , the MacBook Pro was decidedly quite warm . I ’m not indisputable if I ’d say it was warm than a PowerBook G4 , but it sure enough did n’t sense any tank .
The MacBook Pro add up with a remote mastery and Front Row software , and that software worked just as we ’ve seen it figure out on an iMac . My one attempt to hook up the MacBook to my TV set at home base did n’t meet with much success , but I ’m going to give it a few more tries ; in the right scenario , the MacBook Pro and Front Row could double over as a domicile entertainment hub at home or in a hotel room .
First tests
The tests we ’ve done so far be given to suggest that these MacBook Pro model are comparable to the speed of the iMac Core Duo models . When compared to the former - generation PowerBook G4 , they ’re intelligibly quicker in most trial , shockingly quicker in sure situations , and slower when it comes to running apps being translated by the Rosetta emulation technology .
Our right test result decent now : the Universal version of Cinema 4D XL , a C.P.U. - intensive rendering program , which was 3.3 time faster on the 2GHz MacBook Pro than on the 1.67GHz PowerBook G4 . Unreal Tournament 2004 took vantage of both the Intel processor and the MacBook Pro ’s seriously upgraded video subsystems to post a frame rate 2.5 metre greater than that of the PowerBook G4 . These result omen well for utilization of the arrangement with Universal versions of professional applications and games . ( And keep in mind that other Universal app will likely get faster over meter as they are optimized for Intel processors and increasingly take advantage of multiple processor heart . )
Our first Rosetta trial on the MacBook Pro was our received 14 - job Photoshop CS2 suite , and the PowerBook G4 completed that job just about 1.7 time as fast as the MacBook Pro . Photoshop is intelligibly usable on these new system , but there ’s no denying that processor - intensive undertaking will take longer to fulfil so long as a worldwide version of Photoshop is unavailable .
MacBook Pro: First Tests
good consequence inbold . quotation systems initalic . “X Factor ” refer to the number of time faster the MacBook Pro 2GHz Core Duo is than the PowerBook G4 1.67GHz ( 1.0x = same speed . ) little numbers are better for all tests except Unreal Tournament .
All scotch are in minutes : seconds except for Unreal Tournament results , which are in frames per second . All scheme were running Mac OS X 10.4.5 with 1 GB of RAM . The Photoshop Suite psychometric test is a set of 14 scripted tasks using a 50 megabyte file . Photoshop ’s memory was set to 70 percent and story was specify to Minimum . We render a project in Cinema4D. In iMovie , we applied the Aged video effect to a 1 - minute motion-picture show . We converted 45 minute of AAC audio file cabinet to MP3 using iTunes ’ High Quality setting . We used Unreal Tournament 2004 ’s Antalus Botmatch fair - frames - per - second scotch ; we tested at a declaration of 1,024 by 768 pixels at the Maximum setting with both audio frequency and graphic enabled . We created a Zip archive in the Finder from a 1 GB brochure — Macworld Lab examination by James Galbraith and Jerry Jung
One of the big questions people have had about the MacBook Pro has been its battery life , and Apple ’s been silent on the issue . Testing barrage life is a jolly tricky matter , and we ’ve only just start to scratch the control surface . But I can report the result of our first battery test , in which we played a videodisk on a 15 - inch PowerBook G4 and a MacBook Pro until their respective batteries died , with Energy Saver preferences turned off . The end result : the MacBook Pro go after two hour and three minutes , and the PowerBook exit four moment subsequently . So at least in our first mental testing , the shelling lifespan of the MacBook Pro seems in line with the barrage fire life on the last - generation PowerBook G4 .
( Updated 2/22 at 8:40 PM ET to correct mislabeled speed of iMac Core Duo test organisation . )
