I've got a new MacBook Pro today

I've got a new MacBook Pro today. It's MB470LL/A model, pretty basic one. And I run Xbench test on it. It was interesting on is it better or still the same. Well, guess what.


I didn't expect it to be something super powerful, and actually it never was. ;)

I had a chance to compare it to my old MacBook Pro, one of the first models sold in March 2006. I also worked for a few days on MacBook Air, the first generation model (which doesn't make it less attractive, though. ;)

I got a really good deal on my MBP, so there is nothing I can complain about. Besides, having no SuperDrive, only USB Ethernet, only one USB and no Firewire on-board, could bring to my life less happiness than I got with MBP. However, the MBA was for me something really interesting and worth-while upgrading. The MBP became for me just a better thing to keep my things running on.

Seriously, if you're thinking about getting a new Mac, think about getting MBA (mean, MacBook Air).

P.S. Why, the hell, they changed Firewire port again? I've got buy a new set of cables now for my camcorder and external drive. This sucks.

Considering new laptop

While considering new laptop, I run xbench on my almost 3 years old MacBook Pro against half a year old MacBook Air (the one that belongs to my wife). While a lot of people think that xbench can't be used as accurate comparison test for computers, something is better than nothing.

So here comes the data side-by-side.


As you can see, the overall score for MacBook Air is about 2 times less then for my MBP.

Going into details, the CPU scores are pretty close to each other. I don't know why but it could be that 1.6 Core2 Duo is running much alike 2.0 Core Duo. Memory test is also pretty much the same.

Graphics really sucks on MacBook Air. Especially, when it comes to OpenGL.

One of the biggest surprises was that disks are running pretty much the same, however, my MacBook Pro was supposed to be 5400rpm vs 4200rpm on MacBook Air.

Keeping in mind that market price for my MacBook Pro is about $1,000 off the craigslist, and one can grab a sealed first generation MacBook Air for as low as $1,150 (add taxes, AppleCare and other shit and it will grow upto $1,500), the price difference of $500 could be a good bargain for getting 3 years hassle-free laptop. However, you should be ready to depart with all-in-one laptop, loosing bigger 15.4" vs 13.3" screen (not a big issue for me though), Firewire port and integrated SuperDrive (that's basically all that I'm really using). The gain is lighter weight, slimmer and fancier toy. ;)

So does it really worth it? I don't know. I'm still looking for aftermarket few months old aluminium MacBook Pro's, which are priced around $1,800-1,900 off the craigslist (no taxes, but add extra $250 for AppleCare). The upgrade cost is raising two times up though.

I'm missing old good days having few more years on AppleCare and caring less about what I'm working on. ;)

Few bad things

Few bad things happened today. Well, everything started with a good thing. Apple service center (in Texas) has received my laptop, fixed it (replaced a lot of things), and sent it back. And all that was yesterday, within one day. Today, I've received a call from Apple store, telling me that I can come and pick up the laptop. That was really fast and really cool.

However, when I got home and turned it on I discovered a few, but pretty unpleasant things. The display case, when the lid is closed, in deformed and bent from one side. Not a major problem, just a few millimeters, but, damn, that was something I didn't order.

The other thing was that my display started to blink (flash), like it could not hold a brightness level. I've tried to play a little bit with brightness and it got pretty stable, however, still a pretty unpleasant thing (and a work-stopper! nobody who has got eyes should ever work on a blinking screen intentionally ;).

The last thing is over heating. The laptop got very very hot in the area between the keyboard and display (a small area about few centimeters wide) during 10 or 15 minutes. It was so hot, that I didn't feel safe when putting a finger on it. Well, I know MacBook Pro's are pretty hot things, but not that much. I had it for more then a year, so I can compare it to real thing.

Well, I came back to Apple store and told them about my problems. So, guess what, they told me to leave a laptop for one week more. What the fuck. I mean, this really sucks. While I am very satisfied with their attitude and willingness to fix things, and do this fast, I am extremely disappointed about staying without the laptop for two weeks. I also don't like the fact that I didn't have these problems before. This is something that should never happen.

AppleCare looks to be a good service, but not that good on quality control though. Hopefully, they can solve my problem pretty fast.

I am out of my laptop again. This makes some pressure for me and makes me think about getting an extra laptop for special occasions (did you say MacBook Air?). I like the idea, but it's too expensive at this moment (about $2K).