New job? New laptop! It’s my number one workplace tool, so it’s also fitting to fit my laptop requirements to a change in employment. As I’ll be doing a lot more daily commuting and possibly more business travel, I decided to downsize from my Macbook Pro with a 15″ screen (the Mid 2007 model) to the most recent 13″ MBP (the Mid 2009 version). I opted for the 2.53 GHz processor, 4 GB of RAM and a capacious 500 GB hard drive. Very roomy!
The old laptop was only 2-1/2 years old but, as I feared when I first got it, didn’t hold up well to the daily grind and was ready to be replaced. The new MBP’s unibody aluminum enclosure feels miles more substantial and durable than the crinkly, easily dented enclosure on the old machine. It also has the newer-style MBP keyboard comprised of individual black keys, a huge huge improvement from the slippery, flat silver keys on my old machine. And the battery? Did I rave about the battery yet? Sure, it’s built into the case so you can’t carry a spare but it lasts for an entire work day. Apple says it lasts for seven hours and that’s no misprint. I’ve used it for an entire day at my desk without having to plug into a wall socket.
It’s easy to overlook but the new machine also shows improvements in some of the small details that demonstrate Apple’s prowess at hardware design. The old MBP had a lousy latch. The new MBP has no latch, just a magnetic close. The old laptop had four quickly lost little rubber feet on the bottom. The new laptop has built in bumpers on the bottom. The functions of the 12 function keys have also been rejiggered to make it quicker and easier to access iTunes controls, the widget dashboard and other stuff. Good work, Mr. Jobs.
I do sort of miss the matte screen on the old guy. The super-shiny glossy screen on the new machine takes some getting used to and is just a failure in direct sunlight or with too much light coming from behind you. The almost-three-year advance in processor power isn’t terribly obvious, sadly.
This may have been the first time ever that a new computer arrived and I wasn’t totally excited to get to it. That’s probably because I’d gotten nice and comfy in my old laptop with lots and lots of software and settings set up just so. The new machine offered me the option of using Apple’s migration utility to copy everything over — and I mean everything — but my impression is that would bring over all the unused settings, unused programs and general crud that accumulate in ever computer over time, so I opted for a more targeted strategy.
I booted up my old laptop in firewire target disk mode and copied over all the basics, aka my documents and media files. iTunes was perfectly happy when I just dropped my entire old iTunes folder over the new, empty one. Luckily, I’ve been pretty good at saving all important passwords and logins in Wallet, so I didn’t have a problem re-establishing email accounts and other key settings.
This 13″ Macbook Pro is the eighth Mac I have owned¹ in the decade or so since I jumped to the Apple side at the end of the 20th century. Back in 1999, I was lured by a groovy and colorful slot-loading iMac after years of relying in smallish, Windows-based laptops and home brew PCs. Despite my overall satisfaction with the Mac platform, I’ve definitely had some winners and losers over the past 10 years in Apple-land. My favorite so far was the original “Duel USB” iBook, a beautiful white plastic coated number with a 12″ screen that was rock solid reliable. My “Late 2006″ iMac with its huge 24” screen is also an amazing machine and a close second (Khoi Vinh, design director of Newyorktimes.com, is also a fan). At the bottom of the heap are an original Mac mini, that proved to be too underpowered, and the overly fragile, just departed Mid 2007 15″ Macbook Pro.
This time around, I did consider slimming all the way down to a Macbook Air but the loss of power, capacity and functionality at a (much) higher price wasn’t worth the extra 1.5 pounds of weight savings. I would have given up 75% of my hard disk space, half my RAM, 20% of my processing power and a firewire port, second USB port, ethernet port and SD card port, not to mention the DVD drive. And the 13″ MBP has a seven hour battery! Did I mention that?
¹ A 1999 candy-colored CRT iMac, an original “Duel USB” iBook, a 2nd iBook, a 17″ Powerbook, an original Mac mini, a 24-inch Late 2006 iMac, the “Mid 2007″ 15” MBP, and now the “Mid 2009″ 13” MBP.
Prior coverage:
New Mac laptops: one step forward, two steps back 10/8/2009
Three frigid millimeters, Steve Jobs, is all I ask 1/20/2008
Thin is in but I’m not sure why 1/16/2008
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