“It just works” may sound like an overrated cliche, especially if you haven’t used a Mac. It is unbelievable how easy everything is set up. And by setting up, I meant entering some informations – name, language, time zone, etc. Right after supplying those information, I connected to a wifi hotspot, downloaded Skype, installed it, and video chatted with my friend half way around the globe – using the built in speaker, mic, and iSight camera – all in less than 10 minutes. You still think it’s overrated?

The mid-2010 13-inch Macbook Pro is not a new model. Apple just refreshed the innards with a speedier processor, stronger graphics, beefier battery, bigger memory and storage. Although not upgraded to the new Core i5 like it’s bigger siblings, these 13 inchers are not pushovers. The new Macbook Pro shares most of its hardwares and it’s unibody enclosure from the previous iteration. It also shares it’s weaknesses.

I had several weeks to play with it before presenting this review, so let me walk you through the bits of information you want to know about the 13-inch Macbook Pro.

Screen

The 13″ LED backlit screen is gorgeous. The blacks are deep, and the colors are vibrant. The edge to edge glass and black bezel gives that additional pop to the display, and it’s aesthetically pleasing too.

My only gripe about this is the ancient screen resolution. The 1280 x 800 resolution is so 5 years ago. Even those 10.1-inch netbooks sports a 1366 x 768 screen nowadays. It would have been nice to have a 1440 x 900 build-to-order option on this one.

A lot of people have been complaining about the glossy display of Macbook Pros. Sure, you can see yourself in it’s mirror-like finish sometimes, but it’s not that big of a deal. Of course the same cannot be said if it’s used outdoors and under the sun. But it’s pretty sufficient for most users.

Keyboard

The full-sized keyboard is soft to the touch, nicely laid out, and is generously spaced. The chiclet-styled keys are tactile and responsive. They’re discreet but provides excellent mechanical feedback while typing. If you’re coming from PC laptop, you will terribly miss the usual Home, End, Insert, and Delete keys (the Delete key present is actually a Backspace).

Ambient lighting doesn’t always provide sufficient illumination on the keys. If you frequently use your notebook on airplanes, restaurants, and coffee shops, you know very well what I mean. It is very hard to type on blind keys, especially when entering passwords. The backlit keyboard is so useful, that I think it should come as a standard on every modern laptop.

Multitouch Trackpad

The trackpad is huge, and is made of glass. Glass introduce lesser friction than plastics, which results in smoother overall operation. The whole pad functions as a button, so you don’t have to find a button to click. Well, not whole of it. The upper 25% of the trackpad is not clickable.

I still cannot get over the convenience of multitouch gestures. Ever since I started using Mac, I never had to point to a scroll bar again. I just swipe two fingers (usually index and middle fingers) up and down to scroll pages. Now with inertial scrolling, the speed of scrolling will depend on the momentum of the flicking of your fingers. You can swipe four fingers up to show desktop, and down to invoke Expose.

Softwares like JiTouch allows you to be creative and add your own multitouch gestures. I have gestures for next and previous tabs, close window, minimize, and etc.

I will never look at touchpads the same way again!

Battery Life

Simply put, the battery life is amazing epic! On regular use (word processing, web surfing, iTunes on the background, Wifi on, Bluetooth on, Screen and keyboard backlight at 50%), I am getting 7 to 8 hours of wireless productivity. I’m pretty sure if I turn down those settings, I can reach up to 10 hours. Similar notebooks runs for only 3 hours with the same loading, sometimes even less.

Performing similar tests in Windows on Bootcamp is a whole new basket of eggs. With similar loading in Windows XP, I only managed a little more than 4 hours. The palm rest area also got uncomfortably hot during those times. Clearly, OS X has a better power management than Windows, intentionally or not. This is one of the advantages if the hardware and software is designed and developed by a single company – it’s seamlessly integrated.

You can check how much charge your battery has left anytime by just pressing a button. Neat!

Magsafe Power Adapter

Once again, Apple showed it’s attention to detail, even in the most mundane things – like laptop chargers. Obviously, a lot of thought has gone to these things. The connector has a magnetized tip, so when somebody tripped on your wire, it won’t send your laptop flying – it just disconnects. The Magsafe even has cable management built in.

The Magsafe adapter that came with the 2010 Macbook Pro models are similar to that of Macbook Air. It is reportedly more robust and reliable, because the cable runs parallel to the body when plugged, unlike those that came with earlier Macbook Pros that runs perpendicular, thus exposing the part of the cable nearest to the connector to wear and tear.

Speakers

The stereo speakers are located under the keys. It’s loud enough for playing music and movies to a small room. The mini subwoofer is… well, mini – just enough to add a little depth to the sound output. The sound quality pretty decent, it’s as good as it gets for laptops of this size.

Connectors

The 13-inch Macbook Pro only has two USB ports. Yes, two. And they are also placed too close to each other. If you insert a USB flash drive in one port, there isn’t enough space to even plug an iPod cable. I juggle with different USB devices on daily basis, and this limitation somewhat cripples me.

It is also impossible to connect a projector or a secondary monitor without a $29 Mini DisplayPort to DVI adapter.

Conclusion

Overall, the Macbook Pro is one gorgeous and sexy machine. Everything is well thought of, even the smallest of details. Everything is well integrated and just works out of the box. It’s true that Apple notebooks are more expensive than other brands with similar specs, but what you’re paying for is the experience, the stability and the seamless integration of hardware and software working in harmony. No other laptop can match this Macbook Pro in terms of its unique feature set, long battery life, weight and proportions.

Pros:

Backlit keyboard
Multitouch trackpad
Epic battery life
Stylist design
Strong graphics processor
OSX Snow Leopard
Thin and light at 0.95 inch and 2.04 kg

Cons:

Expensive
Core 2 Duo processors
USB ports placed too close to each other
1280 x 800 screen resolution
Mini DisplayPort to DVI/VGA adapter sold separately

Geek rating:

Popularity: 42% [?]

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