Excellent Machine - Not going back to a PC anytime soon

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I purchased the Apple MacBook Pro MB134LL/A 15.4" Laptop (2.5 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo Processor, 2 GB RAM, 250 GB Hard Drive, DVD/CD SuperDrive) from Amazon last month. I love it. I've been using PC based laptops for work and play for 15 years, and while I have dabbled on MacBooks (of various types) with friends over the years, this is my first Mac purchase and the first time I am using a Mac for work purposes. In short, I could not be more satisfied with the machine itself.

Externally, the 15.4 model is a sight to see. It has an elegant, polished look about it. More importantly, it has a sturdy feel to it. So many PC laptops, including name brands (Dell, Compaq, etc.) have such a cheap, plastic feel about them, as if you could twist a little bit and something cheap would come flying off. Not the MacBook Pro. The aluminum shell and the solid body give it a confident feel, like it could take a little abuse if necessary. The keyboard is just right: large keys, rightly placed, with a good feel--not to soft, not to much of a click. That the FN function keys come set to serve as hardware options by default and Fn keys (F1, F2, etc.) only while holding down the Fn key seems backwards ... but its a simple switch in Preferences. The ports on the sides seem sturdy and well place. At first, I thought I would miss having all the ports tucked away on the back of the machine (as in the case of many PC laptops), but in the real world this has not turned out to be so bad after all. Given the $2500 investment, I purchased a Speck clear cover and some ApplePeelz stick-on wrist guards, just to the keep the dings and sweat/grease stains to a minimum. After all, I'm planning to take this machine for the long-haul.

In terms of performance, the elegance on the outside is matched by the gears on the inside. It really moves along. I ponied up for some more RAM, making it a 4 gig machine, because I figured if I was paying $2500 for a machine, I may as well trick it out. I run a typical suite of office programs - email, web, Microsoft Office, iTunes, syncing to a smartphone, scholarly research software, etc. - and the MacBook does great. 8 to 10 programs open at a time and not hesitation whatsoever. And unlike Windows after 6 months, the overall system performance has not lagged. I can put the Mac to sleep 6 times a day, and it always wakes up ready to go, full speed ahead.

Sure, $2500 is (these days) a real investment in a laptop. So if you just want to drop a little coin for a simple, what-you-pay-for is what-you-get machine, don't get this one. But if you are looking for a machine that looks and runs great, with an operating system that is simple (but not simplistic) and has a polish and flair that Windows has never even approached, then consider this model. I love it.
By ralphie boy

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