My MacBook Pro review

My boss bought me the latest MacBook Pro about 3 weeks ago. Here is my not so short review with subjects in order of importance. Configuration: 2Ghz Intel Core Duo, 2GB RAM running Mac OS X 10.4.5.

1. I'm used to old Powerbooks, so I didn't realize that Apple has turned the glowing apple around. This is to make it show straight from the back when the screen is open. Because of it however, for the first few times I was trying to open the laptop from the wrong end. I like the straight apple on the back, so no complaints.
2. When opening the screen I had to realize that there is a certain angle that you can't tilt the screen further. Basically you can't put the screen flat on the table, because of the way the hinges are designed. No problem, just different to what I've been used to.
3. There is a small camera built into the top of the screen. The window of it is built smooth into the surface of the edge of the screen. However, because of it's central position I tend to touch the little window when opening the screen. I don't think my fingers will make any damage, but still it makes me feel uncomfortable touching optics.
4. The way the "MacBook Pro" is written below the screen in chrome lettering is sexy and bold, and not disturbing at all.
5. Love the subtle way the camera, IR and microphone are done. You can easily miss them, but they are there when you need them.
6. The shiny power button on the right speaker is the only thing that brings assymetry to the otherwise perfectly symetrical design. It is placed there so well balanced and brave, it's a joy to look at the proportions.
7. I must admit the very first thing I had to try out was the camera. And since Photobooth was there in the dock I launched it. And, I didn't stop playing with it for 15 minutes. I have to admit it's rather childish, but I rediscovered the joy of distorted mirrors that are so familiar from the 90's hungarian theme parks.
8. Second thing that registered after downloading all the updates is that it boots extremely fast. It's the fastest Mac I ever tried out. It's very very fast.
9. Safari is so fast it's unbelievable. And, there is an universal binary version of Firefox, so I could experience lightning fast FF too. Very pleasant.
10. For the first time in my life I don't have to wait for applications to launch. It's probably as fast in this regard as the latest dual PowerMacs.
11. Rosetta runs smooth. All my applications even if they didn't have a universal binary version ran without a problem. And, at a very good speed too.
12. Adobe Creative Suite runs well under Rosetta. These apps take time to load, but then on you really can work with them well. Photoshop is the most processor hungry application and it runs almost the same speed as tested as my single processor 1.8Ghz flat screen iMac, which is good enough for me. Of course a universal binary would be highly welcome from Adobe. Version cue doesn't work on Rosetta, not that I need it. Never use it.
13. I didn't experience any of the whining and screen problems reported by some bloggers. I'm either lucky or those reports were blown out of proportion and were just single cases and do not represent the whole product range.
14. The only bug I managed to experience is a sleeping issue. Sometimes I can't wake the MacBook Pro up when it went to sleep because it being idle. It only happened twice in 3 weeks, so it's a minor annoyance. I hope this will be fixed with the next software update.
15. The screen is very bright. The only strange thing with it is that the resolution is much higher than on my older Powerbooks or the iMac, or any other Mac I used to work on. This results in smaller and more defined characters on screen, which works great for me, because I have good eyesight, but I can imagine that some people with poor eyesight will need to keep pressing Apple and + in Safari to get bigger fonts. Also, because of this very same issue, when designing for the web, font sizes need to be checked on a different monitor, because they may look small and sexy on the MacBook Pro, but will be slightly too big on an average screen.
16. There is a very good reason why this machine is done from aluminum. There is a lot of heat that needs to be taken away from the inside of the machine. The keyboard heats up quite a bit. The part that is close to the screen heats up so much you can almost burn your fingers. I kinda enjoy this "feature". The AC is way too cold in the office, so I tend to rest my fingers on the heated laptop to warm up a bit. Interestingly it heats up more when plugged in.
17. Battery time is very good. I managed to watch a whole movie and some more on it before it went to sleep with full brightness and speakers on.
18. Love the almost full size keyboard. Very comfortable. I tend to like it better than the plastic white keyboard that comes with the iMac.
19. And, I know some of you have had it for years, but the keyboard that lights up at night is new to me and I love it. It's just so useful, even though I mostly touch type. And, if you're watching a movie you can switch it off by pressing a key, because the keyboard light can be controlled much the same way as screen brightness or volume. It has an off state key besides up and down.
20. The keyboard has a "fn" button, which I could not figure out the use for, because it has a row of full function F buttons anyway.
21. The eject button is there in the top right corner which is blessing for me, because I'm so used to it on other Macs.
22. There is a screen mirror button on the F7 button too, which is very useful for mirroring the screen when doing presentations. So, basically you can switch between the two screen modes with a press of key.
23. Oh, the magnetic power cord. It's amazing. It's so great - I hope in the future all connectors will be like this. This is the next best thing to being wireless.
25. Bluetooth, WiFi, IR all built in and works great.
26. The remote is sexy. I used keynote for presentations and I had a lot of joy using the remote showing off the quartz slide changer effects for the audience that is mostly used to Powerpoint presentations. I guess I could've achieved the same remote functionality with my bluetooth phone, but the remote is so much simpler and lighter than a phone.
27. I like how there is a USB port on both sides of the machine.
28. Finally, there is one annoyance, that may have a solution that I couldn't figure out. The pulsating sleeping light is way too bright. I have to make sure to turn it away from my field of vision when sleeping otherwise I will dream about my alien abduction.

Overall, I know many are waiting for rev2 of MacBooks. Honestly, I can't really imagine what can Apple do better than this. I'm sure it's just my limited imagination, but this hardware is so close to perfection it's scary. This is my friends IS an example of intelligent design.