A Review of the Apple MacBook Pro MB133LL/A 15.4" Laptop

The MacBook in the Big Leagues!

I continue my series of reviews on Apple's mobile computers the "MacBook" with this entry which covers their professional series 15.4" MB133LL/A. I discuss what it has to offer, what it may be missing, as well as who will get the most out of using one of these high powered notebooks. First I'm going to start with the basics.

Hardware:

Processor: 2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo

RAM: 2GB (DDR2 SDRAM

Storage: 200GB Hard Drive (Serial ATA)

Optical Drive: Apple's "superdrive" CD R/RW with integrated DVD +/- R RW

Dimensions: 14.1" x 9.6" x 1"

Weight: 5.4 lbs

The screen on this MacBook is excellent as you can always expect from the Pro series. It runs at a native resolution of 1440x900 which is better than your average laptop display. It is a resolution slightly better than you can expect from a 720p television. This particular notebook has its display backlit by LED's which is a nice power saver.

This MacBook Pro is also made of a nice aluminum shell which gives the impression of more durability as well as additional cooling, as the case is heat resistant. The keyboard is also backlit which is nice if you're outside at night or otherwise in a dim area. It took a while for me to get used to the keyboard, but it is alright, not a great typing board in my opinion.

This notebook is relatively strong for a notebook, it has no problems running Photoshop CS3 while multitasking with other imaging programs. This can be attributed to the adequate RAM as well as the stand alone graphics accelerator which has its own memory and doesn't drain shared system resources. It plays games like a beauty. Don't expect to crank everything to maximum but most games will be fine.

Connectivity:

2 2.0 USB (use these to connect your notebook to things like printers, iPods, digital cameras, or whatever else you might have lying around)

2 Firewire (400, and 800, you can use these to transfer video from your digital camcorder or to transfer data between two computers)

ExpressCard (use this to add periphrials to your laptop)

1 DVI port

1 VGA (using DVI to VGA adapter, this is so you can connect your MacBook to a standard monitor)

1 audio out / mic in (optical)

WiFi

1 Ethernet jack