Apple's Aluminum Clad Thin and Light Laptop

Apple has some of the most sophisticated designs out there in the PC market. The MacBook Pro continues the metal clad tradition of the original PowerBook Titanium models by encasing the entire notebook with aluminum. This gives the notebook a very lightweight but durable shell. Of course, it also has one of the slimmest profiles on the market for a 15.4-inch system.

Apple MacBook Pro

©Apple

While Apple's 15.4-inch MacBook Pro certainly is quite expensive, it does offer some outstanding performance in a very thin and light package that is also stylish and durable. Sure, it is possible to get a PC with similar features for less, but it will likely be in a larger laptop that also uses a fair amount of plastics for its case.

Pros

• Very Thin and Light
• Strong Performance
• Stylish and Durable Aluminum Case

Cons

• Expensive
• Limited Number of USB Ports

Description

• Intel Core 2 Duo T8300 Dual Core Mobile Processor
• 2GB PC2-5300 DDR2 Memory
• 200GB 5400rpm SATA Hard Drive
• 8x DVD+/-RW Dual Layer Burner
• 15.4" WXGA+ (1440x900) Wide LCD with Integrated Wedcam
• NVIDIA GeForce 8600M Graphics with 256MB Memory
• Gigabit Ethernet, 802.11a/g/n Wireless, Bluetooth 2.1
• Two USB 2.0, Two FireWire, ExpressCard/34
• 14.1" x 9.6" x 1.0" @ 5.4 lbs.
• Mac OS X 10.5, iLife '08

Guide Review - Apple 15.4-inch MacBook Pro Notebook

5/28/08 - Apple's aluminum clad MacBook Pro line of computers has a very distinctive look that also provides it with one of the more durable chassis on the market. It also provides apple with one of the thinnest profiles on the market with a 1-inch thickness through the whole design unlike the more traditional notebook slant that goes from a thin to thicker profile.

In terms of performance, the 15.4-inch MacBook Pro has strong performance thanks to the use of the Intel Core 2 Duo T8300 dual core mobile processor. The system comes with 2GB of DDR2 memory, but this performs better with applications under the OS X operating system than Vista does with the same amount of memory. Of course, if you don't like the OS X operating system, it is possible to use Windows thanks to the BootCamp features of OS X 10.5.

The 15.4-inch LCD panel on the MacBook Pro provides a higher 1440x900 resolution compared to the more common 1280x800. It is a high quality display with bright colors and excellent clarity. The GeForce 8600M graphics allow it to handle pretty much any tasks one might have for it be it 3D or multimedia.

The biggest drawback to the 15.4-inch MacBook Pro is its cost. This is one really expensive system. There are equivalent PC notebooks on the market, but they re larger, heavier and typically not as durable.

The other issue has to do with its peripheral connections. Apple does not include card readers on their systems thus requiring an external reader. They also only have two USB 2.0 ports while includes a FireWire 400 and 800 port. It would be more useful for them to have a third USB port and drop one of the two FireWire.