★ Apple’s June ’09 Unibody 17″ MacBook Pro [REVIEW]

I have been using the 17″ MacBook Pro for 31 days now and I felt it was time to share a few thoughts I had on this computer. First, as I do in most of my blog posts, I find it best to spend a few sentences discussing my previous notebook computers in an effort to share where I’m coming from in my post. I’m not a professional journalist so reviewing a product without any bias and with proper investigation is not a strong point of mine.

My first notebook was an Apple iBook 233Mhz (clamshell). It was running OS 9.0.1 and was ridiculously slow but I enjoyed it. From there, I upgraded to the iBook 600Mhz, iBook G4 800Mhz, PowerBook Titanium 867Mhz, PowerBook 12″ 1.5Ghz, MacBook 13″ Core2Duo 2Ghz, MacBook Pro 15″ 2.33Ghz, MacBook Pro 15″ 2.6 Ghz, MacBook Pro 15″ 2.93Ghz and finally my latest machine, the 17″ MacBook Pro 3.06Ghz.

As you can see I was upgrading once every 2 years and the past year I’ve owned 3 machines. I became smarter about my computer investments always selling a computer for a similar price than I purchased it and upgrading to the newer model. Incentives like AppleCare, bags & cases go a long way in resale value for these machines. Let’s discuss my last computer.

My previous computer was purchased in February and it was the 2.93Ghz 15″ MacBook Pro (Unibody) that was released in November of 2008 but received a CPU upgrade at Macworld 2009 in January. This model had 4 gigabytes of ram and a 256GB Solid State Drive. There weren’t any huge issues with the machine but I was left wanting a bit more.

The first complaint of mine was that the display color quality wasn’t good and this was mostly because I hadn’t calibrated it properly. The second issue was the very short battery life and getting only 2.5-3.5 hours on a single charge which was painfully obvious every time I had a long meeting, camped out in front of an Apple Store or went to a cafe that was without power outlets.

My final issue with the 15″ was that since the MacBook Pro was introduced in January of 2006, the PPI (Pixel per inch) density of the 15″ display was unchanged. The PowerBook G4 15″ had a native resolution of 1280×854 which was bumped to 1440×900 in 2006 but has since been unchanged. A majority of mid-range Windows notebooks in the 15-16″ category have resolutions that are 10%-30% higher than Apple’s “professional” 15″ notebook and it bothered me. I believe the PPI of the 15″ model is 113 and the 17″ model is 130. This increased quality does mean windows are smaller but for my young eyes, it’s perfect and I find myself more productive.

The 17″ native screen resolution is 1920×1200 compared to the 15″ 1440×900. This small change has dramatically improved my productivity and I’ll talk more about that later.

So the deciding factor and requirement to upgrade to the 17″ MacBook Pro was based on a few factors which include a small processor bump, 60% improved color quality, 8 hour integrated battery, 3 USB 2.0 ports, larger monitor, more pixels, a $200 price difference over the 15″ model.

Prior to the WWDC 2009 (June update) of Apple’s notebook line,the difference between the top of the line 15″ and 17″ models was a $550 difference. After the update, all of the notebooks received a $300 price difference and the margin between the 15 & 17 inch offerings was only $200. That money is enough to go toward the AppleCare warranty, larger hard drive or software but when you aren’t bothered by the larger footprint and extra weight, it’s a very small price to pay for a better computing experience.

• The 15″ measures 5.5lbs, .95″ thin (14.35″ wide & 9.82″ deep)
• The 17″ measures 5.5lbs, .98″ thin (15.47″ wide & 10.51″ deep)

So this very minuscule addition of weight, width and depth equals 520×300 extra pixels. It seems small but it a completely new experience and an experience I recommend every potential MacBook Pro user should look at before making a decision between 15 or 17.

I personally can’t tell a difference in the color quality of the 15 & 17. I think the 17 has better color accuracy but that’s only because they said the June 2009 model saw a 60% improvement in quality. It’s certainly not any brighter but I enjoy the display more than the previous 15″. Supposedly the 60% improvement is on all 3 June 2009 MacBook models (13, 15 & 17).

The CPU speed is really negligible. The difference between 2.4 & 2.53 might be noticeable just as a 2.53 & 2.6 might be noticeable as well but for most tasks that I do every day. Once you reach the 2.8Ghz, 2.93Ghz and 3.06Ghz ranges, most office tasks won’t feel a difference and you’re better off getting a solid state drive over a $250 upgrade for a 260Mhz speed bump because that’s all you get. That bump may shave 5 minutes off a 25 minute video compression but I haven’t tested this and for games, it’s all about your video card & GPU so save the $250 and save up for a solid state drive.

Why did I go 3.06Ghz? I remember a clip back in 2003-2005 when Steve promised a 3Ghz notebook in 12 months. Finally in 2009, Apple has released a 3Ghz notebook and I wanted to be the first to get one. It’s just cool and that’s my only reasoning.

Let’s talk about SSDs (solid state drives) for just a moment. Personally, I regret not having an SSD in this computer and in fact, I downgraded from SSD to HDD just so I could get the 17″ screen. My plan has been to wait it out. I ordered an SSD in my previous MacBook Pro (the 15″ model) as a built to order option from Apple. It was an extra $650 but the speed difference was noticeable. I did have problems with the SSD though. It would occasionally lock up (common with SSDs), there weren’t any battery life differences with SSDs and at this time the solid state drive technology is still very new. Supposedly SSDs start getting slower the moment you put anything on them. Reports are finding that after a year, today’s SSDs are no faster than hard drives because over time the flash memory, after being written to thousands of times, slows down and becomes inefficient.

A 500 GB 7200RPM 2.5″ hard drive is around $150. A 256GB Solid State Drive (half of the capacity) is $650. The price for SSDs is dropping but not fast enough and every month, new drives are released that are more power efficient, faster, more reliable and cheaper. My goal is to wait until winter time before making the plunge to SSD so I can take advantage of new technology and hopefully at a lower entry price. My ultimate plan is to purchase two 265GB SSDs, remove the DVD drive from my MacBook Pro and put it into an external enclosure and have both of the SSDs in my system in RAID0 thus resulting in what some tests have proven, 500 megabyte per second reads. In comparison my hard drive solution can sometimes reach 150 megabytes a second in sequential reads. Multiplying that times 5 would be a worthwhile investment but all parts right now would cost me around $1500 which is the price of a new computer.

The battery life of the 17″ was less amazing than I expected. Apple claims 8 hours and I’ve seen that from time to time but not consistently. Turning off the dedicated graphics card, wi-fi, bluetooth, backlit keyboard and the display all of the way down with minimal applications open can yield me 8 hours. Of course, who’s going to do that. My 15″ MacBook Pro saw 1.5-3 hour battery life with normal use. The 17″ MacBook Pro sees 5-6 hours with Wi-Fi, Email and web surfing. I’m happy with that. I can’t get through a full day of use but it’s good enough for periodic use throughout the day. Until I get a guaranteed 12 hour battery, my MacBook Pro will always leave the house with the power cord. According to my tests I’m using the computer 12-16 hours a day so I can’t imagine not plugging in for a full day but I’m hoping that will change soon.

The difference in size has less noticeable than I thought and the experience of moving from 15 to 17 has been very enjoyable. I have to lug around an additional pound every day which is always in a back pack so I barely notice it and the advantage is that I get thousands of extra pixels to play around with. The size doesn’t feel super big on my lap and it can fit on a table at a cafe just fine. It’s going to be a pain when I travel (which I do once a month) but my long term plan is a cheap 10″ notebook strictly for weekend travel and business travel. Just a notebook with Wi-Fi and EVDO that I can use Gmail and NewsGator while I’m away from my MacBook Pro. The iPhone works great though as a netbook so that’s what I’m doing for now.

I did find some issues with the 17″ MacBook Pro. First of all, the hard drive clicks and I’ve had it replaced twice now and it still happens. Supposedly, the hard drive’s firmware has power saving features that tell it to spin down occasionaly but since my system uses the HDD so often that the click is caused by the HDD spinning right back up as soon as it powers down. The first two drives actually caused my OS to hault. The latest one doesn’t but the clicks are still happening. I can deal with the click, just not the slow down so I’m ignoring this for now.

The next issue is that the bottom case creaks. I tried a friend’s 17″ PowerBook from 2003 and their model does it too as well as the new 17″ models at The Apple Store so it looks like I’m not alone here. I would have liked to have SD  and ExpressCard on the latest 17″ MacBook Pro given it has the space for it but that’s just me being a complainer.

The 17″ has a dent, well it’s more like a bow in the center of the top lid. I explain more about it here.

Overall, I’m glad I upgraded, the speed bump and most features are nice to have but the ultimate beauty of this upgrade was the additional screen resolution that made getting work done a whole lot easier. I can’t imagine going back to a 15″ MacBook Pro now and I’m hoping a used MacBook Air is in my future as my portable computer. I’ll settle for an EeePC simply because of price.

Yep, another 1700 word blog post. i really need to learn how to write shorter posts.

There are two Flickr Sets for this new notebook.

1. New 17″ Macbook Pro
2. Dented MacBook Pro