MacKozer

A subjective review of the new MacBook Pro 13″ – part 2

Posted on July 9, 2009 by admin

Mirror mirror on the wall…

One of the parts of the latest MacBook Pro series is the new glossy screen. Actually, glossy screens has been widely discussed since the release of the Unibody models. The quality of the screen is very good. While you are working in the shady environment or there is no contrast backgrounds behind you, it is rather fine. The only problematic part of the screen is frame that acts as a mirror. Even if the screen itself is OK, the frame reflects everything, especially windows or light sources. It can be annoying sometimes.

The quality of the picture and colors are fine in my opinion. You can clearly see the difference in their saturation compared  to the white MacBook. The latter looses in the category of the  angle at which you can look at the screen without any distortions . MacBook Pro 13″ allows you to look at an angle of almost 180 degrees.

Wallpapers on all of my Macs are by Stocks Photography (via Desklickr – Flickr client).

Another thing that is worth to mention is light sensor. Depending on the degree of light intensity, the computer dims or brightens the screen. In the case of the white MacBook and iMac the brightness of the screen is on the same level all the time and one need to use  special programs that dim it depending on the time of the day.

For the last couple of days I have been testing my new toy in the typical work conditions and I took it with me  to a couple of conferences I took part in.  What I noticed at one of the conferences, is the higher  temperature of new MacBook Pro 13″ compared to his older white, plastic brother. The difference was clearly perceptible. I have the impression that this is partly related to the aluminum Unibody chassis , which leads to better heat exchange using entire surface of the body. I decided to compare all three computers in terms of temperature. I have tested all of my three Macs for the level of heat they generate. Those tests confirmed my assumptions – 13 Unibody MacBook Pro generates much more heat than two others Macs.  The difference is on average 10 degrees C, compared to the white MacBook and iMac. It is interesting to note that both, the white MacBook and iMac, run the systems that was installed over 1 year ago with rather big number of apps installed and uninstalled during that time.  Need to mention that while MBP13 run iBench test, temperature  jumped up to 88 C degrees, while at the other two computers it rose to 62 – 63 C degrees. Perhaps it is related to some of the hours worked on the battery by limiting the use of the fan – MBP13 is far quieter than other two Macs.

Here is a short film I did to compare the temperatures of my Macs. Both MacBook Pro 13″ and white MacBook had not so many apps running, only the iMac had Firefox, Thunderbird and couple of other apps open. The difference is not as big as I mentioned above. Sometimes, but rather seldom, new MacBook Pro 13″ is the coolest of all of my Macs.

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TO BE CONTINUED….

A subjective review of the new MacBook Pro 13″ – part 1