Apple MacBook Pro 15in review

After inhabiting the same skin for several years, the 15 inch MacBook Pro has been revitalised with the same unibody construction and minimalist aesthetics as its smaller sibling.

It was always beautifully built, but the new model surpasses expectations, especially now that the physical latch has been replaced with a discreet magnetic seal.

The black border feels better proportioned against the Pro's larger 15.4 inch screen, which has a noticeably wider viewing angle than the MacBook's. However, Apple's flirtation with glossy displays is now a full blown exclusive relationship: you can no longer opt for matt unless you move up to the 17 inch model, starting at £1949 and sized for the occasional lug around rather than fully mobile computing. The reflection-prone finish will annoy many professional users, especially in tasks such as photo retouching.

We tested the 2.53GHz model, which now comes with a sensible 4GB of RAM as standard. The cheaper 2.4GHz version gets 2GB, but can be upgraded. Both use DDR3 memory running at a fast 1066MHz, but the standard hard disk spins at a modest 5400rpm, leaving a faster drive as an upgrade option, which seems a shame for a pro machine. If you decide to replace it later, the uniform case design means that the hard disk can be replaced in the same way as on the MacBook; this was a tricker process in the previous chassis.

The small motherboard forces all the ports to be located on the left side of the case, so while lefties will be happy, righties will have to trail their mouse cable around the back. There are only two USB ports, and only one FireWire, the faster 800Mbit/sec variety (compatible with standard 400Mbit peripherals with the right cable), but you could add more via the ExpressCard port.

Graphics capabilities are the biggest change. Two separate nVidia chips are built in: the same GeForce 9400M as in the MacBook, which borrows its memory from RAM, and a GeForce 9600M GT. The 9600 has a rather mean 256MB of RAM in the 2.4GHz machine, with no option to upgrade to the same 512MB as in the 2.53GHz, which is a transparent ploy to screw the extra £350 out of you. The point of keeping the lesser graphics unit is that you can switch to it to improve battery life, but you have to log out of Mac OS X to do so, which is clunky, and if you're running Windows Vista via Apple Boot Camp (rather than with third party virtualisation software such as Parallels Desktop) you can only use the 9600. This turned in a very respectable score of 147% in our 3D gaming benchmark, making the Pro a credible gaming laptop.

We were unable to get a full set of benchmark results directly comparable to our PC laptop scores, but we can report that Mac OS X felt very nippy and light on its feet on the 2.53GHz system. However, Windows once again suffered from shorter battery life: just over an hour in heavy use, and two hours and 20 minutes in light use. That's much less than Apple's estimate of four hours (or five with the 9400M enabled) in OS X, which we comfortably exceeded in light use.

This is a nearly great Mac. There are too many ways it could have been better, not to mention cheaper, and for Windows it's not ideal at all.

Author: Alan Stonebridge