January 10, 2009
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Apple 17″ Macbook Pro: Love+Hate, AGAIN…
YET AGAIN, the latest Apple product is incredibly innovative while at the same time daringly suicidal. They are bound to make some enemies on this one…
The new 17″ Macbook Pro is out, and the biggest RAVE surrounds the 8 hour battery life. Apple gurus go on and on about how they engineered the battery to set new standards and rock the world…
…Then they artfully slip in the fact that, like the iPhone etc, this new laptop’s battery is sealed inside the notebook shell. Gotta take it in to get it replaced!
I’m at a loss for words. Do you jump for joy because this new battery lasts 8 hours, and can be charged up to 1000 cycles, thus being capable of living ~5 years? Or did Apple just shoot themselves in the foot again? Is their brilliant technology just an evil ploy to force you back into their store every time your battery has a problem, not to mention putting you completely out of luck as the battery life starts to decay around year 4 or 5?
I can’t decide how I feel just yet. I hardly even need a $2800, 17″ laptop anyway… I think I’m still pissed that Apple left firewire out of the new 13″ macbook altogether instead of ADVANCING to FW 800 like they should have. At this point I’m really left with no option other than to get a 15″ macbook pro. And I don’t have $2200 in my business budget for equipment this year, so I guess I’m going to continue plugging away on my 1st-gen Intel Macbook that badly needs a new optical drive… 2.0 GHZ and 2.0 GB RAM ain’t bad, but the 64 MB shared graphics is laughable…
Oh, how I love and hate Apple!
=Matt=
Comments (8)
Seriously man, I really would like an Apple laptop or desktop but I am totally not willing to pay the huge price premium for it. I’d rather spend the 1-2k extra on a camera body or a high end L lens and have a PC that is just as fast. =/
And yeah, Apple is REALLY innovative at times, but at other times are just .. jerks. Like that whole ‘displayport’ crap.
At least they offer an anti-glare screen alternative to the horrible glossy one — for $50 more. I also wish they hadn’t discontinued the 23″ Cinema Display, especially with the replacement being the display-port only 24″ LED one that hxpham mentioned.
@hxpham - The “price premium” is actually almost completely a myth, believe it or not. If you try and price out EXACTLY the same hardware as Apple puts into their stuff, you will pay just as much or MORE. I’m serious! I know you can build a computer that is “about” as fast, or of almost the same quality / reliability. It’s that list bit of performance, quality and reliability that cost so much…
Think of it as getting the rolex of computers… Just like RRS is the rolex of ballheads, and Gitzo is the rolex of tripods. Why spend $800 on a carbon fiber tripod when a $99 will get the job done? I dunno, but some people pay!
Of course I’m still with ya! Mac, PC, it doesn’t matter, I don’t have the budget for that kind of high-priced equipment!
=Matt=
@William - I actually LOVE the glossy screen, it is gorgeous.
However, yet again I REALLY dislike Apple’s habit of taking away the option entirely. Just because some people like the glossy screen, doesn’t mean you force everybody to accept it. I wouldn’t be surprised if Apple’s “glossy only” policy is THE biggest annoyance among apple users right now. Most all their products are 100% glossy now, and I’m surprised that the 17″ MBP has the matte option. Thankfull, but surprised.
Like I said, they are like that autistic kid who is a brilliant genius yet completely stuck in la-la land…
And I’m sure they’ll eventually remedy the whole display situation. They can’t NOT offer a new 24″ desktop display, it would be suicide to think they can force ALL new mac pro buyers to settle for a mere 20″ or buy the usually overkill 30″… I’m sure that eventually they’ll come out with a full line of new LED desktop displays.
But as always, the limbo / stasis in between is a weird twilight zone kinda place, and this time we’re stuck with a 24″ monitor that ONLY connects to the newest laptops…
=Matt=
My 2.4 core 2 duo, 4gb ram, 6800m gt, 15.4in was $950 (Dell XPS m1530).
It is about 1000 for a Macbook (nonpro) right now (I bought my laptop during the summer) which has a 2.1 core 2 duo, 1gb ram, intel integrated, 13in
(I’m talking about good value laptops, not Sonys or Alienwares, etc)
@hxpham - Like I said, the comparable PC’s are definitely high-performance and a FAR better VALUE, but still not quite Apple Macbook Pro quality as a whole.
Then again, just like Ferrari’s don’t come with GPS navigation and all the other bells and whistles you can get with a fully loaded Camry, …Dell and Sony etc. offer some other compelling features in general- you’ll probably NEVER see Apple offer a built-in card reader, nor a thumb-scan I bet. So many reasons to hate Apple!
=Matt=
wow, are all the batteries for the aluminum macbook line not removable? i always take out the battery from my white macbook when i run it as a desktop for long periods of time, in order to prevent the battery from burning out.
@gwaceee - No, only the 17″ macbook has an un-removable battery I believe…
=Matt=