APPLE MAC BOOK PRO (2008 EDITION) REVIEW

Apple has made its 1st update to the venerable Mac Book line since the introduction of the Mac Book Air. Regular 13-inch Mac Books get the regular CPU upgrade, but the Mac Book Pro line gets a prominent internal overhaul ,including new Penryn-class Intel CPUs, new touch pad shrugs lifted from the Mac Book Air and eventually a backlit LED option for the 17-inch models, something that is already a standard for 15-inchers. Let look more into the updated 2008 Mac Book Pro.

Design
Physically the revamped 15-inch Mac Book Pro is identical to its forerunners, still only 26mm thick, but now that we've got used to the thinner versions, lighter Mac Book Air, it feels comparatively huge in comparison. Open the bonnet and inside you'll reveal just a power button, a full-size keyboard, stereo speakers, a sizeable touch pad with a single mouse button and a built-in I-Sight camera. Despite our love for a cleaner look, we've also got acclimatized to having at least a few media control keys; an attractive touch-sensitive media controls now regularity even on the cheapest laptops.

Performance
With the all new Penryn processor, the Mac Book Pro offers an tremendous boost in performance over the previous mid-2007 Pro revised model, although a pre-Penryn 13-inch Mac Book from late 2007 was nearly as fast as the present. This underpins our opinion that Intel's Penryn’s, while more on the energy efficient front, don't offer much on a performance boost.

The Mac Book Air was well behind its conventional Intel Core 2 Duo CPU, designed to fit into the Air's extra-thin chassis, and is comparatively slower than the typical Core 2 Duos engrossed in most notebooks.

The Nvidia GeForce 8600M GT graphics card encourages for some basic gaming incase if you plan on playing games on the Mac Book Pro, you will want to install Windows on a different partition through Boot Camp.
Despite some initial cramping the revamped Mac Book Pro offered lesser battery life, we got an impressive 4 hours 23 minutes with our battery drain test but that's 47 minutes more than the older version of the Mac Book Pro and 20 minutes more than the Mac Book Air.

Overall
As we expect, the new combinations hit the same price as the now-discontinued ones. More power for the similar money is always a great welcome, but at £1,599, we still think the cheaper 13-inch Mac Book is a better overall package, outsmarted only if you require either the bigger display or Express card slot, or you can never let live without the touchpad gestures.

Pros
+ Penryn Efficiency
+ Apples performance
+ More power same old pricing
+ Better battery

Cons
- Pricey

Value For Money

Our Rating