Reviewing 15-inch Apple MacBook Pro (Core 2 Duo), Laptop Magazine gives it 3.5 out of 5 stars rating and writes, “There’s a new dream machine for Apple fans: The MacBook Pro has been updated with an Intel Core 2 Duo processor, along with more RAM and hard drive storage. We got our hands on this top-of-the-line 15-inch model, a thing of beauty clad in sleek aluminum. It didn’t post the performance numbers we expected, but we suspect it will still be snapped up by devoted creative professionals.

Still only one-inch thin, the MacBook Pro remains one of the lightest notebooks with a 15.4-inch widescreen display. This 5.6-pound notebook is excellent for home and office use but is portable and compact enough to take on the road.

Using the MacBook Pro is a pleasure, and it didn’t take us long to fall in love with the screen, whose optional glossy treatment is perfect for watching movies. The notebook comes with an infrared, six-button remote, so you can enjoy flicks from across the room. Our only complaint is that the system became uncomfortably warm after it was on our lap for longer than 15 minutes.

We like the MagSafe Power Adapter, which disconnects from the notebook if you trip over the cord. For this model, Apple added the MagSafe Airline Adapter, which uses the same concept but connects to an in-seat power port (a $59 option, not included in our tested configuration price). The MacBook Pro’s illuminated keyboard and motion-sensor technology for protecting the hard drive help make this a solid pick for business travelers.

Apple’s computers have long been RAM weaklings, with standard configurations that paled next to their Windows counterparts, but the company appears to be correcting that. The 2.33-GHz 15-inch MacBook Pro comes with 2GB of 667-MHz DDR2 SDRAM standard, twice that of the previous version. Ours came maxed out with 3GB of RAM for an extra $575. That’s overkill for everyone but the most demanding power users.

We tested the MacBook Pro using MobileMark 2005 and the free Boot Camp download, which enables Macs to run Windows XP. Productivity performance was decent, with a score of 204 but below the average score of 231. We suspect this may be because Windows uses only a small partition of the MacBook Pro’s hard drive (although you can set it to use more) and that Boot Camp itself has some performance overhead.

Overall, the Core 2 Duo-enabled MacBook Pro isn’t the dramatic improvement we were hoping for. However, it provides more than enough performance for both productivity and entertainment and does so with style-and with lots of thoughtful amenities that Windows-based machines just don’t offer.

PROS & CONS of the MacBook Pro

• Elegant design
• Double the RAM of previous version
• Includes remote and built-in camera
• Excellent software bundle
• Core 2 Duo processor not dramatically faster
• Runs warm
• Mediocre wireless strength

Read more reviews of the Apple MacBook Pro

This entry was posted on February 1, 2007 and is filed under Apple.