15" MacBook Pro LED review: Amazing screen
updated 09:00 am EDT, Thu June 28, 2007
15" MacBook Pro LED review
ExtremeTech reviews the new 15" MacBook Pro with an LED screen, noting that while the laptop with desired upgrades and accessories is pricey (about $2900 total), it delivers a virtually unrivaled user experience. The reviewer first notes that the data and setting transfer process from a PowerBook was made almost too easy by apple's Migration assistant -- a total set-up time of 40 minutes. Commenting on the new MacBook Pro's most compelling feature, the LED-backlit screen, the reviewer notes that the display is much brighther than his PowerBook's display. And the built-in iSight is identified as an oft-overlooked boon. "(With my PowerBook) I never could find a good place to put the (iSight); it was always in the wrong spot. Well no more worries about that, my MacBook Pro has the camera built right into the top of the screen. I can easily just look right into the camera when I'm vidoeconferencing without giving it a second thought. Since the camera is no longer a headache, I've found that using video chat is a lot more fun and a lot more useful."
For performance comparison purposes, the reviewer checks the frame rate in World of Warcraft, noting "The frame rates seemed to go as high as more than 100 FPS to as low as in the 20s. [...] I love having the option of getting a little bit better performance if I want it. It reminds me of that guitar in Spinal Tap that could go up to 11 instead of just 10. Heh, heh."
Junior Member
Joined: Jul 2006
Built-in iSight lacking
The comments about the handiness of the built-in iSight camera should be taken as ironic. The camera is fine if you want to focus on yourself. It's utterly useless if you want to interview someone or record a conference speaker.
Apple should make the iSight camera rotate some 270 degrees inside the housing (and perhaps up and down a trifle). Toward the user for conferencing. Looking inside the case for foolproof privacy. Forward for recording someone else. It wouldn't be that hard to do and would cost only pennies to implement. And make it possible to lock it facing internally with a pin, and Apple would put an end to legitimate corporate concerns about security.
And this should be done across the line--MacBooks, MacBook Pros and iMacs--with the next major design revision.
--Mike Perry, Inkling Books, Seattle