Business | Technology
MacBook Pro delivers value for money
Notebook is not nearly as cool or stylish as the Air, but it is a powerful and well-designed computer.
- By Scott Shuey, Chief Reporter
- Published: 00:20 December 13, 2008
When I picked up the MacBook Air a few months ago, I was impressed with both its power and size but unimpressed by the limited number of ports and by Apple's decision not to include a DVD drive.
With the newest MacBook offering, the Pro, Apple has decided to add more ports and put the drive back in, but with a noticeable increase in the notebook's size and weight.
The new MacBook is not nearly as cool or stylish as the Air, but the improvements still make this a very powerful, well-designed and far more practical computer.
Durability
The body of this notebook is also made from one single piece of aluminum, which doesn't get it many points in the style category but definitely gives it points for durability. When I first picked up the notebook, I was surprised by how solid it felt. It also feels surprisingly heavily, weighing in at almost 2.5 kg.
That's not overly heavily, but it's surprising coming from a machine that is only 36.4cm by 24.9cm and 2.4cm tall.
There is also a number of little things that make this a nice computer. Apple has removed the need for any additional buttons around the touchpad by making the touchpad itself double as a button.
The system also has a backlit keyboard and stereo speakers that you can actually hear from a distance.
Internally, there is nothing to complain about. The system has a Intel Core2 Duo chip, 4GB of memory, 320GB of storage and even includes a 512 MB video card. I was especially impressed with the video card since those tend to be the first thing computer manufactures leave out when designing smaller notebooks.
About the only thing I could find on the system to quibble with was the number of USB ports. Two is an improvement over the single USB port on the Air, it's still limiting; however, Apple has also added a video-out and a firewire connection, features the Air also lacked.
The MacBook Pro does come with a price however. The system as I reviewed it cost Dh9,200 ($2,499), although a less-powerful system is available for Dh7,300 ($1,999).
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