2. Comparing Apples And PCs

You might find it difficult to believe that you could be caught willingly and productively using an Apple laptop after years of Apple vs. PC wars. However, today Apple is not only running on the same hardware as many PCs, but you can actually compare the hardware Apple to Apple so to say. The unit selected was an Apple MacBook Pro, a 15.4" widescreen laptop with a 1440x900 display. The CPU is Intel's T7400 Core 2 Duo running at 2.16 GHz with 4 MB cache. The chipset is Intel's 945P. The laptop has 1 GB of RAM in a single SODIMM, which is great for upgrading later. The hard disk drive is a 120 GB Serial ATA unit that provides lots of storage at 5400 RPM with 8 MB of cache.

Graphics are powered by an ATI X1600 with 128 MB of RAM at a graphics processor core speed of 418.50 MHz and memory at 450MHz for which Apple has actually provided a DVI out port on the laptop.

There are two USB 2.0 ports, one powered Firewire 400 (IEEE1394) port, one Firewire 800 port, audio out, MIC in, Bluetooth, 802.11g wireless and Gigabit Ethernet on this laptop. Apple has added some nice touches to the laptop by providing a 1.3 MB web cam, a great keyboard that is also backlit, a large glide pad, and a remote. One of the coolest things Apple has done is to use a magnetic plug to link the AC power supply's DC output line to the laptop. This prevents you from accidentally pulling the laptop off the table when you trip on the power cord. You do trip on power cords, don't you?

The MacBook Pro's magnetic power supply plug prevents deadly laptop-on-the-floor accidents.

MacBook Pro hardware is very competitive with higher end laptops. While the Pro's graphics capability is somewhat less than you might wish for, the CPU is on the higher end in this price range. It is very hard to get everything you would like in a laptop, but in the $1700 to $2000 price range Apple's MacBook Pro is very competitive with any vendor's laptop in a part for part comparison. In addition, some vendors will not even come close to this combination in a 15.4" screen as they choose to only sell 17" units with upscale display resolutions and CPU's. As for Windows only units, the best comparisons that I could find were the Alienware M5550 and the Powernotebooks.com PowerPro 2:24. However, those configurations change all the time so do your homework.

Doing your homework is a challenge as the major issue is actually using the laptop and seeing how it functions for you. Traveling to as many stores (Apple Store, big box retail, and small custom shops) as possible it was easy to see the quality of the MacBook Pros. The keyboard was very impressive, clearly one of the best laptop keyboards among all the laptops tested. The keyboard also (only under OS X currently) has back light keys which is very nice late at night while typing.

The MacBook Pro comes in four models based on Display size (15.4" or 17") and on which of two Intel CPUs is installed.

So with this hardware comparison in hand, and the ability to run Windows XP, I ordered a MacBook Pro on-line. I placed the order at about 8 PM central time US on the 15th of December. The unit was shipped from overseas on the 16th and it was delivered on the 18th. There was no lag time on shipping when ordering on-line. Of course buying at a local store can provide benefits of local warranty service and local expertise and you do support your local economy. The package was relatively small considering it was a laptop. The external box provided little packing and the Apple box was one of the smallest laptop boxes I have ever seen.

During unpacking, one thing I noticed that I didn't notice at the store is that the MacBook Pro has a very smooth surface that readily shows fingerprints. This is only slightly annoying but it is noticeable. A second slightly annoying fact is that the screen does not rotate more than about 120 degrees which is less than most laptops allow. These are not deal breakers. One nice thing, the unit was charged and ready for use right out of the box. On booting I discovered that the setup process is quite easy and fairly standard for anyone who has bought a PC in the past. It's slightly different from Windows setup, this being OS X, but the questions are pretty much the same.

I really liked one feature of OS X setup. While I was setting up my login account I was able to take a picture of myself with the built in 1.3 MP camera to use as a login icon.