During WWDC, I put an order in for a 17″ MacBook Pro with a glossy, high-density 1920×1200 display. I’ve had it for just under a month, and so far it’s better than any other machine I’ve used.

I had some issues with my 15″ that I don’t have at all with this machine. First off, the 15″ MacBook Pro had an annoying high-pitched whine when I first got it (it mostly went away after an overly slow repair process). It wasn’t much different from the similar noise made by my 15″ PowerBook G4, but the PowerBook didn’t leak the noise onto the built-in audio channels. There was also the audible inequality between the left & right speakers, which I spoke about earlier. I was also bummed that my 15″ MBP didn’t come with a dual-layer burner, like the last generation PowerBook G4 did.

The 17″ MacBook Pro has no whine to speak of, no electronic interference noise on the audio lines, and the speakers sound great for a portable. I can actually play music on the speakers at a reasonable level and hear a bit of low-end sound that just wasn’t there on my 15″. Oh, and the superdrive burns dual-layer discs…

Of course, there are some more positives that triggered the purchase. 64-bit capabilities of the Core 2 Duo CPU, more L2 cache, 4GB RAM, better GPU, etc. I didn’t get a new laptop just to get over the small issues I had with my 15″ system — I just found that the 17″ MacBook Pro had a critical mass of improvements to trigger the upgrade.

Of course, there are some obvious disadvantages to owning a 17″ portable. It’s heavier, has less battery life, probably won’t be easy to crack open in a plane, … I think all those things are a small price to pay for 77.8% more pixels alone, let alone the other benefits I’ve listed above.

If I could suggest improving anything, it’d probably be the addition of the LED backlight for increased battery life, and maybe a bigger battery (it’s not like they don’t have the space, and what’s an extra few ounces…). Also, I’m not overly impressed with the stock Fujitsu 160GB 5400RPM HDD — it’s slower than the 80GB 5400RPM Seagate I installed in my iBook G4 a few years ago. I’m guessing it was chosen for battery life over performance.

As usual, I’m enjoying the spark of productivity that seems to come whenever I get a new system. This time, though, I think the motivation boost is also fueled by WWDC, and also the fantastic additions in Leopard that are helping me run like a well-oiled robo-coder.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 10th, 2007 at 9:24 pm and is filed under Mac. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.