Apple MacBook Pro - 15.4" - Core i7 - MacOS X 10.7 Lion - 4 GB RAM - 750 GB HDD

First impressions
This is a piece of art, not just a computer. There's nothing like lifting a new MacBook out of its box; the smell is as good as any new leather jacket. Built from a solid piece of aluminium, you will spend the first few minutes just admiring the sheer beauty of your purchase. This mac boasts the aluminium unibody, instead of being made up of lots of parts, the casing and frame is one piece of metal - glorious. Over the years, the macbook has developed in product design as well as capability. Predominantly, they used to be white, but new designs feel more fashion forward. The silver frame work compliments the beautiful black keys, that are backlit by a gorgeous light - accentuating the sheer beauty and sophistication of the machine. It measures at a reasonable 36cm x 25xm x 2.5cm and weighs about 2.5kg.

What made me choose this model?
I wanted a laptop that was lightweight, powerful and could handle lots of design work - memory and speed were important. I was initially looking at a Macbook Air as they are very light weight. I needed a computer laptop, and wanted an Apple as it's a brand I trust and have never had a problem with. I had used lots of PCs and HP laptops with work - all of them were invariably slow to some degree. If they weren't continually asking for updates or crashing, they would be very slow and sluggish. I've been using a macbook since 2007, but even recently that was starting to get tired and the spec was gradually going out of date. Initially, I was put off the Macbook Pro by its weight. It's 2.5kg, which for a laptop is quite a heffa. I wanted to be able to take it to meetings and hook up to networks easily, so the Macbook Air would have been perfect. However, the capability of the Air is far more limited, as I wanted a speedy processor and enough ummmph to be able to handle some technical and graphical software. The Macbook Pro has double processing capability (Intel Core i7 2.2 GHz - Quad-Core), compared to the Macbook Air which only has a Dual-Core (essentially this means it can multi-task more efficiently). I was given a really good offer through our IT company at work, and I couldn't turn it down. I reasoned that I should just get down the gym more, strengthen my shoulders and deal with the weight, which didn't seem a good enough excuse not to get such a powerful machine.

Lights, Camera, Action! (also translated as: Sound, Camera, Screen)
The screen is huge, well not the biggest of the range, but any larger just seems pointless for a Macbook, because I may as well have bought a full sized, non-laptoppy one! The display is so shiny and clear - gorgeously glossy, makes looking at photos a real joy, clear, crisp and beautiful. At 15" you have ample room, plus it's LED backlit. The Macbook uses AMD Radeon technology, which will also make whatever you're looking at stand out beautifully. There is a little HD web camera integrated just above the screen of the macbook - perfectly placed at eye-level so you can Skype or FaceTime away to your hearts content (there is a really cool application included called Photobooth, which lets you take funny photos of yourself...if you're lucky enough, I'll remember to add one on to this review). The sound is fine, no complaints at all. With the 15", the speakers lie either side of the keyboard, so the double output makes for rounded listening. The speakers are stereo and include a subwoofer (Fido the dog woofer? Ok, bad joke). No complaints here. There is an omnidirectional microphone built into the mac too, just under the left speaker (video conference calls are made all the better when the other party can hear you!)

Mice
The Macbook Pro has a trackpad, but no ordinary trackpad. Apple have a few tricks up their sleeves. The trackpad is used instead of a separate mouse, and is placed just infront of the keyboard, closest to you. Previous models have included 1 or 2 buttons at the bottom of the pad, which act as a right and left clicker (as on a mouse), but this trackpad is one smooth seamless piece of metal - beautiful. The tricks are fab: for example if you tap on any word with 3 fingers, it will show you the definition (this had come in particularly handy for some reviews I've experienced on ciao!!!), but then if you tap with 2 fingers, the mac will zoom in on the area you are hovering over - nifty huh? There are lots of other tricks - 1, 2 or 3 finger swipes all doing different things, swipes in different directions doing other things - move over Fido, this mac with all its tricks will become your new best friend.

Connectivity
I have always had bad experiences with PCs and laptops connecting to wireless devices - they always seem to have a nervous breakdown and drop connection. I've never experienced this with macs, somehow they're clever and know what their doing with very little invention from me. The probook has a wireless LAN and bluetooth aerial. Other ports include Magsafe power port (instead of "plugging in" the power cable to the laptop, the cable is connected by a magnet, which is incredibly handy if someone trips on the cable, as the cable will just release from the laptop and not send your precious piece macbook flying across the room. As well as Gigabit Ethernet port, Firewire 800 ports, 2 x USB 2.0 ports, Thunderbolt port (how very roman-godly), audio lines in and out, SDXC card slot and Kensington lock slot - they sound impressive but I'm still learning exactly what you do with them all.

The Operating System and Software
The Macbook uses Apple MacOS X 10.7 Lion, Apple MacOS X 10.6 - which are the latest editions. So, you are using the very best of systems that Apple has to offer. To be honest, I'm not noticing a huge amount of differences between Lion and Snow Leopard (the previous version - yes, Apple like their cats). The software it comes with is all within "Lion" - we have Mail, Address Book, iCal, the Mac App Store, iTunes, Safari, Time Machine, FaceTime, Photo Booth, Mission Control, Launchpad, AirDrop, Resume, Auto Save, Versions, Quick Look, Spotlight, Quicktime plus others, including iLife (iPhoto, iMovie and Garageband) yadda yadda yadda, the list goes on - all you need to know is there really is "an app for that". It's a sound assumption to make that there is something for everyone - whether you like music or photos, email or browsing. If you're not sure, you can always pop into your local Apple Store and have a go on one of the display MacBooks - be careful though, because you will fall in love.

Storage, Memory and Processors
The Macbook Pro gives you quite a generous storage space of 750gb. However, if like me you will be doing lots of graphical or other such work that requires hard drive space, it's always sensible to get an external one in addition. Your Macbook could have anything from 4-8 GB RAM, which is plenty. As already mentioned it uses Intel Core i7 (the type of processor) 2.2 Ghz (the clock speed of processor). It uses multi-core technology (quad-core) meaning that it can do multiple tasks much more effeciently and improve the overall speed at which you can run your programmes and applications.

What else should you know
The other gubbins I should probably mention are that it has a built in CD/DVD+RW drive, card reader, hyper-threading technology, integrated memory controller, Intel Turbo Boost Technology 2.0. There is also a security slot - but you would need to buy the cable lock separately. The battery is made from lithium polymer and can last up to 7 hours.

The Box
Everything about Apple is beautiful, even the box. Inlcuded with the Mac was a power cable, cleaning cloth, user guide, all beautifully packaged and assembled together. The user guide is easy to read and tells you all about getting to grips with your piece of tech. I didn't really need to use it, but I have to it to refer to should I need it - but to be honest, you can find what you need to know online anyway.

Price
I got mine for a little under £2000, gasp you may, but that included a full design suite (that sells in the apple store for £1000 alone). You can get it slightly cheaper, if you go for the 13" (or more pricey, going for the 17"). As I'm using it for design work, the medium size suited my needs. If you just plan to use the MacBook for day to day internet, and light storage such as itunes, you may as well buy the 13". There isn't a huge difference in price when you go from a 13" up to 15", up to a 17" - but in terms of the spec, you get a lot more. For the 15" expect to pay in the region of £1500. It's a lot of money - but it's worth it.

Protect me!
The Mac comes with Apple's standard 1 year warranty - so if you have any problems, you can either get it sent off to be fixed or you should be able to take it into an Apple store, and the delightful staff in blue t-shirts should be happy to help you. You can also buy their 3year Apple care, which is a form of insurance, if you like - of course, you can get similar deals with other companies that specialise in Apple products too.

If you're a PC user and read all that thinking "I'm can't use a Mac" or something along the lines of "so what's the difference", visit this little link which will take you to the Apple website and show you: http://www.apple.com/uk/findouthow/mac/#​switcher

100% recommended

Thanks for reading

© MarcoG 2012