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New MacBook Pro (Santa Rosa) Notes

July 10, 2007 by debbie T | Mac Corner

I purchased my new MacBook Pro on June 11. I only have my older 1.5ghz PowerBook to compare, but so far, I love it!

MacBook Pro Specs

If anyone is on the fence about purchasing, I think this is truly a good time. It was worth my wait for the Santa Rosa chip.

This laptop will hopefully take me years into the future, as the ram can be upgraded to a full 4gb. Once ram prices come down some, I will purchase the additional ram. Note: keep in mind, that it is advised to keep the original installed ram; for warranty support, you might be required to install the original ram to troubleshoot hardware problems.

I haven’t purchased my Applecare plan yet, but later this year, I will. Keep in mind there are cheaper alternatives to purchasing direct from Apple.

Here are some observations and notes about the MacBook Pro:

LED Backlit Display

The new LED backlit LCD display is gorgeous. It was a huge improvement from the PowerBook. I had to lower the brightness on the MacBook Pro, as it was too bright for my eyes. It took a day to get used to it, but now I just adore it. I keep the brightness down a few notches, and it still stunning.

There is a little shiny mirror-like “MacBook Pro” text block at the bottom under the display. It is definitely different than the plain silver text “PowerBook” on my old laptop. Sometimes the reflection is distracting (especially when using the trackpad) and it looks like something is crawling across the laptop, but for the most part it is cool.

Keyboard and Trackpad

One additional thing to get used to was the keyboard. When I started using it, it was very stiff, so I made a lot of typing errors. I don’t know if the keys loosened up, or I just got used to using the keyboard, but it is better after a month.

The trackpad on the MacBook Pro is larger than the one on my PowerBook. I loved my PowerBook trackpad, and I constantly used the two finger scroll when browsing online.

The scroll is different on the MacBook Pro; I kept messing with the System Preference settings and I think I finally have it to my liking, but it was a struggle.

The first problem was the trackpad scroll would get “stuck” when scrolling down a long page. I had the same sticky issue with the PowerBook and I found the solution was unchecking the box next to “ignore accidental trackpad input” – unchecking this setting didn’t help with the MacBook Pro, and actually caused more problems. Eventually, I found that lowering the tracking & scrolling speed in System Preferences did help. (Keyboard & Mouse > Trackpad)

I also forced myself to keep my fingers straight while scrolling. My fingers were used to scrolling at an angle, and that was causing the sticky scroll on the MacBook Pro.

Another issue is when using the trackpad, the mouse pointer will disappear or get lost on the screen. I haven’t figured out how to amend this issue, but thankfully when my Wacom tablet is plugged in, I don’t have this problem.

Missing Bundled Freebie Software

Compared to my PowerBook, there were fewer free apps installed. Gone missing were Art Directors Tool Kit, Graphic Converter, Quickbooks, OmniGraffle, OmniPage SE.

Noise & Heat Issues

I was nervous about past noisy problems like mooing and loud fans. After one month of use, the only noticeable noise is a fan that occasionally starts blowing. It isn’t unbearably loud, and it doesn’t turn on very often, but it is louder than my PowerBook. Majority of time, the MacBook Pro is very quiet.

As for heat issues, it does appear to run hotter than my PowerBook, but not by much. I can still use the MacBook Pro on my lap, as long as I am wearing pants. My husband now uses my old PowerBook, and he complains of extra heat when wearing shorts.

Final Thoughts

Bottom line, I love this new MacBook Pro. I highly recommend it for those looking for a new Mac laptop. The screen is awesome, and it is fast! I am very happy that I took the plunge!

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