I’ve been shopping for a notebook for quite some time. There really is a lot of junk out there. Having used a Powerbook G4 and the first version of the Macbook Pro, I began to look into purchasing a Windows based notebook for Visual Studio development.

I tried the HP dv7t, a Dell XPS m1530 and a Sony FW390. The Sony was quite nice but Sony support tends to be a bit lacking. Sony also would not guarantee support for the upcoming Windows 7!

In spite of the negatives that I found with these products, my final decision to stay with the Apple line was due to the superior hardware that I was always aware of anyway. The multi-touch trackpad, the back-lit keyboard, bright 17″ 1920×1200 LED panel, superior fit and finish, etc. All this and more just adds up to one superior product. And I have not even addressed the advantages of OSX Leopard and the upcoming Snow Leopard.

I briefly considered a Unibody MBP, but the price discount of roughly $1,000.00 for this unit and the awful glassy screens on the new ones made the choice very easy for me.

Oh, and I like a button on my trackpad too!

First off, instead of updating the Macbook Pro 17″ like the 13/15″, Apple decided to make some upgrades, like having upping the processor to 2.5 ghz Core Duo, 2 gigs of RAM to 4 gigs RAM, and the HD to 320 gigs.

The video card in this machine is the Nvidia Geforce 8600M GT with 512 megs of RAM–whereas the new 13/15″ Macbooks have the 9600s.

The touchpad is NOT the new button-less touch-pad, but it still has the hand gestures.

The computer has a ambient light sensor that light up your keyboard in the dark and adjust the screen brightness in different lighting conditions. The monitor has a LED back-light, and the finish is glossy (You can the 17″ screen with a matte finish, but you’ll have to go to Apple for that). The screen is not the same as the new 13/15″ ones.

Why did I get this one? I wanted the highest resolution of 1900×1200 because work with HD video and digital photography.

Pros:

System is light, looks cool, people think that you are sophisticated and rich.

Cons:

a) Overheating

If you need it for any real computing then get ready – system overheats.

Temperature of the GPU/CPU reaches over 170F – get external keyboard, or you will burn your hands.

b) Not Windows compatible

Apple is unable to produce quality drivers for their hardware.

System freezes after 2 hours of work.

For reference see forum: [...]

Sound drivers interfere with network card creating chipping sound.

b) Usability

New Mac Mousepad is unusable. Get ready to get an external mouse.

Bottom line – save yourself some time and money – get a different machine (and Ubuntu if you want to see really cool and reliable OS – believe me – much better USABLE and RELIABLE choice).

I’m returning this “brick”.