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A Very Nice Machine

Entry 444, on 2006-12-16 at 22:03:36 (Rating 1, Computers)

I've had my MacBook Pro (Core 2 Duo 2.3) 17" for three days now and I've got to say that its a brilliant machine. I have Windows XP installed but haven't had time to test it much yet. The new version of Parallels can use the same installation as Boot Camp, so I can run Windows two ways. Of course, I would prefer not to run it at all, but its nice to have it for the occasional games I don't have a Mac versions of, and for a few specialised PC only programs, as well as for testing my web sites with PC browsers.

I downloaded the beta version of Photoshop CS3 today and that has run well so far. Its very fast and has been reliable for a beta. Most of the programs I use are Intel or universal so they really fly. OmniWeb, BBEdit, Mail, etc are many times faster than they were on my old PowerBook G4. Even PowerPC programs running in Rosetta are quite adequate, if not spectacular. Luckily I rarely use Microsoft Office, so the fact that its not Intel native yet doesn't really matter to me.

The extra pixels on the 1680x1050 screen are useful compared to the 1440x900 pixel screen on my previous machine, but some text is now a bit small, although still easy enough to read. The screen is much brighter and whiter than the previous one and the lighting and colour is fairly even across the screen. The viewing angle is good for a laptop. Reports of poor screens on some 17" models don't seem relevant to this one.

The only problem so far is lack of a built-in modem (just for faxing and the rare times I don't have a broadband connection) and the bigger power adapter. I'll continue to test this machine and report back, but my initial impression is that this is a very nice machine.

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