MacBook Pro 17" 2.66 GHz

by Teresa
(Atlanta, GA)

My current laptop is a 17 inch MacBook Pro with a 2.66 GHz processor and 4 GB of RAM. This is my second Apple laptop, and I purchased it refurbished directly from Apple. My first laptop was a G4 PowerBook that I purchased used via eBay. That one served me well for over four years, despite being dropped - twice - on the concrete floor of my favorite coffeehouse. I figured I couldn?t go wrong with another Apple.

I am a freelance web developer, and before purchasing the MacBook Pro I?d been developing sites on a fairly new iMac. The G4 PowerBook still worked, but its screen gradually grew darker and took on a magenta-colored cast, and it became increasingly sluggish. I needed a machine I could use to develop web sites away from my desktop, and that I could take with me when I met with clients. The 17? MacBook Pro met both those requirements.

The 17? size makes the MacBook Pro a bit too large and weighty to handle easily, which makes me extra careful about carrying it around lest it meet the same fate as my PowerBook. I could have gone smaller, but the size was a trade-off that netted sufficient screen real estate to work comfortably with the many windows I tend to keep open while developing web sites.

The display is simply beautiful. I won?t get into the whole Windows vs. Mac debate, but it?s always a disappointment when I have to preview a site on a Windows machine after working on my MacBook Pro. One downside is the glossy screen; in some lighting situations it is annoyingly reflective.

I still haven?t learned all the trackpad gestures that should be saving me time, but the few I use are handy. I never like being without a mouse, but out of all laptops I?ve used I?m bothered least using this one because the trackpad functionality is so good.

The feel of the keys is nice for a laptop, but like all laptops has the ergonomic failure of the flat keyboard and the layout compromises necessary to pack all the keys into a smaller space.

Since purchasing this laptop less than a year ago, the hard drive failed, along with the cable leading to it. They were covered under warranty and replaced with minimal hassle. I was fortunate enough to have a Time Machine backup, so I lost no data and restoring all my files was a piece of cake.

Everyone's needs are different, but if you?re someone who appreciates the power and usability of Apple computers in a portable model, you can?t go wrong with a MacBook Pro.