Customer Reviews

Apple MacBook Pro MC371LL/A 15.4-Inch Laptop (OLD VERSION)

5 star:		(52)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

After having a 3 year-old Dell die on me (to be fair it was put through multiple trips to and from school in my bag, sometimes while it was still on) and a Toshiba Satellite fail after a year, I was tired of paying bargain prices and receiving a frustrating experience to go with it.

My girlfriend had talked about buying a Mac and I always balked at them as being too expensive. Well, most of the main problems with my old laptops were compatibility issues between hardware and software, often involving frustrating searches for new drivers. Knowing that Apple makes the hardware and develops the software for their computers made me think they would be able to integrate the two aspect better than PC's I have used. I still have nightmares about all the drivers I had to hunt down when I downgraded my Toshiba from Windows Vista to XP.

I had actually purchased a 13" Macbook Pro with a glossy screen from Amazon a few days before Apple did their big upgrade in April 2010. It was a beautiful looking machine and was easy to use after I became accustomed to the differences from a PC, ie; What is the "Finder"? However, the 13" screen was a little small for me. I do some photography work, and I watch movies on it as well so I decided the 15" Macbook Pro would be the way to go. Once they did their upgrade for all their machines I decided to buy directly from Apple.

I debated long and hard on the glossy vs. matte option. Going with the high-res screen (1680 X 1050 as opposed to standard 1440 X 900) was a no-brainer. After doing some online research I also chose the matte option (as opposed to the default glossy screen). I had never actually seen a matte screen as the local Best-Buy didn't have one in stock. I was a little nervous on my decision, but I called Apple tech support and easily arranged for a return on my not-yet-arrived 15" Macbook Pro should I want one with a glossy screen instead. The person I spoke with even arranged for return shipping labels paid for by Apple! I didn't upgrade the harddrive or RAM because I can do those myself, or have them done later, for a lot cheaper than Apple's pricing.

The new 15" w/ the matte screen came and I opened up some high-res You-tube videos and compared it side-by-side to the glossy. This was the middle of the day and the lone window in our living room was creating all sorts of reflections on the glossy screen while the matte was unphased. Sure the blacks on the glossy were a deeper and the colors might have "popped" a little more, but knowing I would be using my laptop in a room lit by daylight or with a bright light, the henious reflections on the glossy screen definitely made it a no-go for me. This was a window that was in front of the computer and wasn't even directly shining on the screen. I was really happy I decided to go matte.

That being said, I have loaded up Photoshop CS5 and it runs great. Way faster than my old laptop. I appreciate a lot of the little touches that Apple puts into their products that are becoming more and more noticable every day I use it. (Such as their search feature is always available with 1 click from the desktop) I plan to buy an Applecare plan towards the end of my one-year warranty period to make sure this lasts me at least 3 years. Hopefully I might be able to keep this for 4 or 5 years.

Overall, if you have the $$ I highly recommend this product.

Pros-
- Unibody design is super-sturdy and slim.
- Love the matte screen
- The high resolution upgrade helps with multi-tasking, programming, photo-editing, web-browing, ect..
- Super-fast w/Photoshop
- Good side-to-side viewing angle, (better than the screen on the Windows-based laptops I have used)
- Keyboard is very pleasant to use
- Speakers are adequate
- Touchpad is awesome! Large and easy to use with 2, 3, and 4 finger controls not found anywhere else
but on a Mac. I rarely use a mouse anymore, which works well for using it on my lap.
- Quick boot up time. Opening and closing the lid for "sleep mode" waiting time is basically zero.
- Good battery life

Cons
- Expensive (duh)
- Can get hot on the underneath towards the back where the processor is located.
- Up and down viewing angle not so good (this is common w/laptops though)
- Some software not available for Mac
- USB 2.0 (instead of newer 3.0)
- Glowing Apple logo on the back of the screen is a bit of advertising I could do without.
- Sharp Edges on front (can apparently be filed down but I am wary about doing this)
- No Blu-Ray drive


Update:

Maybe it is just me, but my Apple seems to have more issues with Flash and streaming internet content than I have ever had with a PC. I know Apple is at war with Adobe and has gone to great lengths to disparage the Flash format. They do not seem to have worked too hard to ensure that Flash content works flawlessly with their machines. Streaming videos will stop or fail to load alltogether. This doesn't happen often, but with a PC I never had any issues like this at all.

Update x2 (8/30/10)

So my power supply had been giving me intermittent issues (every couple of days the power would come on and go off every couple of seconds for no reason). I called Apple support and they recommended just using the shortened version (the power supply is customizable to be either longer with an additional cord, or not), and then to call them back if the problem continued. The guy I talked to thought the cord that lengthens the setup might be the issue. Well I wasn't have any more problems for a while....

Then yesterday (the day before I started a new job teaching at a university) the power supply quits working completely. I call Apple and they say contact the authorized Apple service providers in my area (neither of which were open that day since it was Sunday). The next day, Monday, I called the 2 authorized service providers in my area, one of which says I need to leave my computer there overnight for testing to determine if I am eligible for a new power supply, and the other which couldn't handle my problem when I was available to come.

Now I try to contact Apple support and all day I have been getting the most ridiculous message that says

"At this moment, the customer support team is not available for your support due to unavoidable reasons.. Sorry for the inconvenience caused.."

I suppose it is impossible for Apple to properly staff their service center, so not being available was of course, unavoidable. So I am stuck with a bogus power cord for now.


Update x3 (9/2/10)

I decided to choose the option where I call Apple about my problem, instead of them calling me. That worked much better. I received my replacement power cord in the mail today, a Thursday, after my power supply originally quit working altogether on Sunday. I have to send back the old one, which has actually started to work intermittently now. If Apple deems that I replaced a non-broken power supply they are going to charge me $80. We'll see...

Length:: 5:08 Mins

I hope this video helps you make up your mind.
You will not regret buying this machine.

For summary skip to the bottom. Video to come soon...


I already wrote a review and posted a video on the 13", so I'll spare you the pre-story. The 15" MacBook Pro (Summer 2010 version) is a step up for me. I want to go on record by saying that I did NOT opt for the high res screen, and I'll tell you why in a moment. I'm still an MCSA and an MCTS, and Microsoft is still primary in my world, but I access these resources via Apple.

First, I want to clarify why I chose to buy the 15" when I had a 13" that was sufficient. Because I run VMs a lot (I have reviews of Parallels and VMWare), the real estate of the screen was very important. The 13" handled everything I threw at it like a champ, but I needed more screen area. I also needed a stronger multitask processor to keep up with the demands I put upon it. The 2010 version of the MacBooks achieve gains in three key areas: The processor, which on the 15" and 17" models is the Core i5 and i7 models; the video cards, which again, on the 15" and 17" models are improved with newer technology; and the power management.

The previous processor was the Core 2 Duo - an older technology but not a slouch by any means. It was and is a very powerful processor, all things considered, and the 13" was able to deal with everything I threw at it, including multiple VMs at the same time and video encoding processes. Where the Core 2 Duo struggles is with multi-tasking speed; while it can handle multiple processes, it allocates resources towards the most intensive of what's running at the detriment of everything else. In other words, if you encode a video at a medium resolution, you would find that the machine was nearly unusable otherwise; not frozen or dirt slow, but slow enough to be annoying. The fan would come on and the heat would multiply, and you often would fear for the poor MacBook's life. Not so with the i5. It also does get hot - hotter, in fact, than the Core 2 Duo - but even though it's dealing with intensive processes, it never breaks stride with other applications that might be running. You could encode video, then jump over to your email and work as if nothing were going on. The laptop's fan would be going nearly full blast and the heat would be expunged at an exponential rate, but the laptop would not slow down. I consider that impressive, especially given the fact that battery life did not suffer from older years. The i7 is even more powerful than the i5; but the primary reason I could not consider that version has to do with the heat. It's so extreme it's got people online worried about cooking eggs. I know they're not exaggerating; the i5 can get quite hot, so if the i7 is as strong as I know it is, I can only imagine how hot it must get.

The video cards have been improved in the new MacBooks. They are newer versions of the NVidia cards that were released, and some of the MacBooks have the higher end Intel integrated chips. If you don't understand some of the video card technology, there are dedicated video cards and then there are integrated cards. The dedicated cards mean simply that they have their own memory and don't share the RAM of the computer. Integrated, as evident by the name, uses shared RAM to function, either in whole or in part. The integrated chips are lower cost, obviously, at the trade of a performance hit - the RAM it's sharing is inaccessible to the OS and applications, and because the RAM is always a chunk of other RAM, there is an effective tug-of-war going on when using the integrated card. It's really popular in lower end laptops because of the price point - if you paid less than $700 for your laptop chances are it's got an integrated card. All of the lower priced 13" Apples (MacBook, $1199 MacBook Pro, MacBook Air) have integrated chips. The Air might have gotten bumped to NVidia, not sure. In any case, Apple has mixed some models with integrated and dedicated chips, so that less intense processes use the integrated and higher processes switch automatically to dedicated, which is more powerful. Most casual users will think this a pointless feature; but it's good to have for battery life.

Speaking of which, the new MacBooks feature a newer version of the MagSafe power adapter. Due to fraying and melting issues with the previous models, Apple has seen fit to redesign this adapter to address the issue. It now holds a lot more solidly than before, and is partially cylindrical instead of rectangular (you can see images above, of course). The cylinder part is where the fraying most commonly occurred, so it makes sense why they did this change. The actual cable itself also feels more solid; kudos to Apple for improving this. It's also retroactively compatible, so if you buy a new adapter you'll probably get the newer version, and it should work fine for your model (assuming it's a MagSafe version and not the plug-in style from old times). The new 13" MacBook Pro claims a battery life of up to 10 hours due in part to the newer video card; the 15" that I'm reviewing here has already shown improved battery life over the older 13", even at maximum screen brightness. The usual activities will of course kill the battery: VMs, video encoding, audio recording, anything where there is a constant stream of data going one way or the other, basically.

One area of disappointment coming from the 13": The speakers. Because the 15" sports actual speaker grills instead of the embedded speaker of the 13", I somewhat expected at least slightly better audio quality. To my surprise and dismay, I did not receive it. I do a lot of audio records of songs and I use Sennheiser HD-280 Professional Headphones...but the problem is, a song can sound perfect in the headphones, but then I listen to it on the MacBook's speakers and the same song sounds absolutely terrible. I know it can't be the song that's bad, because the headphones are spot on with the way it should sound; but the MacBook's speakers just separate sound streams too much. It's hard to describe, but it's like the treble is cranked and I can't adjust with an equalizer or something. Movies are fine, but again, no appreciable improvement over the 13", where I would watch DVDs frequently with great effect.



So...do I recommend it? Well...it depends. I don't recommend it if you're just a casual user, even if you like the larger screen. Go for the 13" and if you absolutely have to have screens of a larger size get an external. I just can't justify the $300 premium for a larger MacBook unless you are actually going to use it for gaming, audio/video, or VMs. Then it makes sense. As far as the high resolution 1680 screen, recommended only if you're gaming, really. I would like to emphasize DO NOT get the antiglare from Apple. It's nice looking, it really is. It will shock you; it will tempt you; it will compel you to fork over the extra $50. Don't do it; the quality of that screen is not as good as the glossy, because the antiglare is not the full glass. Get one of the Green Onions Supply Anti-Glare AG2 Screen Protector for 15-Inch Aluminum Unibody Apple MacBook Pro and do it yourself. You'll thank me later.

I recently purchased the Macbook Pro 15" 2.4GHz i5 2010 edition to replace an aged 2006 Sony VAIO. I had previously owned a Macintosh around 15 years ago, so I had a working knowledge of what I was getting into. Above all, the Macbook Pro sold me on its unibody aluminum design, long-lasting battery life and a change from the Windows operating system. I have owned the Macbook Pro for about a month and it is truly one of the most fantastic computers I have owned (and I've owned many in past years, all Windows). I've broken down some aspects of the computer below:

Construction & Design:
The Macbook Pro is a unibody design that is cut from a solid piece of aluminum. This means there are not any battery compartments, memory compartments or openings as you find on most laptops. While this means you cannot change the battery on the fly, the computer is solid and doesn't buckle (or feel like it may buckle). The aluminum also helps to keep the computer cool by rapidly dissipating heat across the entire body; in fact, the metal exterior can be cool to the touch despite running for hours.

Display & Graphics:
There seems to be some debate over the glossy blacklight LED display of the Macbook Pro line, especially in terms of glare. There is a distinct reflection from the monitor if viewing something dark. Under normal conditions I did not find this to be an issue whatsoever, especially if you turn up the monitor brightness. The display does look fantastic and images have an extra "pop" as Apple spokespeople claim. Take a look at one in an Apple Store or Best Buy if you want to see it in person. As far as the high-resolution and matte upgrades, the average consumer won't gain much benefit versus a professional photographer, graphic designer or film editor.

Trackpad & Keyboard:
The Macbook trackpad is phenomenal and is truly sets apart the Macbook line from PCs. The trackpad utilizes multi-touch allowing the user to scroll through pages using only two fingers. Swipe back and forth to quickly navigate webpages or pinch and pull to adjust text size or zoom functions. The trackpad itself is massive allowing for a great deal of hand movement compared to most laptops. Still, you'll probably want to invest in a regular mouse, especially if you are Windows inclined for right click features. The keyboard has backlighting which means the keys light up in dark conditions, but I find this to be more of a novelty feature that I never use. The keys have a soft plastic feel and they are easy to type on even for hours at a time.

Power & Performance:
The battery life of the Macbook is unbelievable. Then again, I came from a laptop that could only hold two hours of battery life, this Macbook averages 8 to 9. Not quite the levels advertised, but far beyond what I need for a typical day. With the i5 chip, I find that everything is snappy and responsive. Startup takes less than 30 seconds. The only downside is the default hard drive installed, it runs at only 5400 RPM. This is noticeable to the point that the processor easily outperforms the hard drive to the point of creating a bottleneck. But there's always the option to upgrade the hard drive to 7200 RPM or an SSD.

Cons:
Relatively slow hard drive compared to processor speed & price of the machine
Two USB ports placed very close to one another, one can be easily blocked and inaccessible

Overall:
The Macbook Pro 2010 is a five star product. As a dominant Windows user, I found the OS to be highly intuitive and easy to use from the beginning. Even activating the Apple one year limited warranty was a breeze given most PC manufacturers. The only downside I see with the machine is the hard drive as I touched on above; it is a shame that such an expensive and well-built machine is limited by the speed of the HDD to the point that the user can notice the problem. Aside from this and the minor USB issue, the computer is a fantastic purchase that is well worth the extra dollars. If you're concerned about buying from Amazon or Apple directly, Amazon sells only the base units and only Apple can officially customize the machine. That said, the base unit is more than enough for most users and only a few will seek 8GB of RAM, high-resolution matte display or iWork pre-installed. If you're in search of a laptop, the Macbook Pro is a great option.

Have been using computers for nearly two decades and have owned both PCs and Macs. Use a PC laptop for work, which is great for that. But this is my first Mac laptop and I have to say, while I was grumbling at the price, you get what you pay for. Here are my thoughts.

PROS -

Trackpad --- this may be the best thing about this computer. While I read the review on CNET and they said the trackpad is great, you really have to experience it to understand. It is a transformational way of communicating with the computer. After having the computer for about a week, I am already much faster on this trackpad than I ever was on a mouse. You have to experience this to understand. The size and the functionality built into the trackpad are nothing short of astonishing.

Included software --- the included software on iLife is really useful. It has a rather full featured movie editing software for free, as well as iPhoto, iTunes, etc.

Not included bloatware --- it is nice not to have to delete all that crap from the desktop and windows system.

Fast --- very fast, especially in OSX. We got this with zero options, just the base 15" model. It is very quick with anything you throw at it.

Build quality --- you can grab this laptop from any corner and carry it. There is no flex in the casing. You can really feel the difference that building these things out of a solid block of aluminum makes.

Looks --- this is really a beautiful machine. You'll be as happy looking at is when it is off as when it is on.

Lighted keyboard --- bright enough to see, but not too bright to be distracting. Excellent view of all the keys in any lighting.

Display --- we have the base display and it is crystal clear. My brother-in-law got the resolution upgrade, and while you can tell a difference, if you don't have both the computers next to each other, you won't know what you are missing. If you do intensive graphics work, I would recommend the display resolution upgrade, otherwise, it is just bragging rights, for which I don't need to pay extra.

Battery life --- basically it goes all day with light use on one charge. There are not too many 15" laptops, if any, that can do this.

Spyware and Viruses --- yes there are none now, and that is good. Hopeuflly, there will be none for a long time.

Discounts and Rebates --- while most people would not associate discounts and rebates with Apple, this is a pretty good time to buy a new Mac. We got $200 towards an iPod Touch (making it free) and $100 towards a wireless printer (making it free). Thus, in the end, we got a wireless printer and an iPod Touch for the cost of the tax on these products alone. Also, if you are a teacher or work for the government, Apple will knock another $100 off the price. These are some nice discounts when you buy this laptop.


NEUTRAL -

OSX --- about two years ago, this would have been a tremendous positive as Vista was an unmitigated disaster. However, with Windows 7 being pretty good (and shamelessly ripping off many of OSX's features), this is less of an advantage than it sued to be. It is really a matter of taste. We happen to like OSX, especially Snow Leopard, but others may like Windows. This computer can run both.

Only two USB ports --- this is at least USB port less than the competition in this price range. However, because the track pad is so good, I don't need to fill up a USB port with a mouse like all my friends do. Also, since a wireless printer is about $100 (which Apple gives you towards the price of a new printer), that frees up another USB port. Thus, I only need a USB port for the iPod or the camera. Neither of which is connected to the laptop at all times,

Only 4GB RAM --- while it is plenty for now, I can see this not being enough in a few years.

No user replaceable RAM --- RAM is the cheapest way to make your computer go faster. Hopefully the computer will still go fast after the warranty expires so that I can take this apart and add more RAM. But it is annoying that there is no easy way to replace the RAM.

No user replaceable battery --- I don't know how long the battery will last, but if a problem develops, it would be nice to be able to change the battery.

CONS -

No Blu-Ray --- this was the biggest drawback for me, as I would have liked to have a Blu-Ray player in the house. However, since I don't own any Blu-Rays, it is not that big of a drawback. Also, since you can download most movies these days, this missing player is not a deal breaker.

No HDMI output --- this is another potential problem. I don't have an HDTV, so this is not a big deal, but if I get one, it is annoying to have to buy a special adapter PLUS an HDMI cable to play video from my laptop's mini-display port on my TV.

CONCLUSION -

All in all, I've liked this machine alot more than I thought I would. It feels good in the hand and great when using. The display is terrific and the machine is quite responsive. While it is tempting to look at a computer based exclusively on specifications, if you only do that, you may lose sight of what you need in a computer and how you use it. All the specifications in thw world achieve nothing if they are for features that you don't use. This computer hits a nice combination of features that people will actually use without including features and complications that they won't. For what we need, it just works.

While we looked at many laptops, we are happy we ended up with this one.

Hopefully this review helped you in your computer shopping. Best of luck.

The macbook worked right out of the box,set-up was easy.I had a pc laptop (whose company name I won't say) and had all sorts of problems (slow boot-up, and screen and registry problems) I got so fed up, I decided to get rid of it.
While looking at laptops at Best Buy store, I looked at the macbook pro "15.4" which just happened to have the new Core i5 processor. At first, I balked at the price, the more I "played" with it, the more I liked it (And this is from someone who has NEVER owned a mac of any kind) And while I plan to keep my pc desktop, the macbook has become a welcome addtion to my household.

As a long time PC user, I'd been wanting a Mac for a good while. The last time I bought a lap-top I came very close, but went with HP in a last minute burst of frugality. That frugality was short lived, the HP didn't make to its third birthday, and once again I was lusting for a Macbook. This time I went for it. I've only had the computer for a few days, so probably no genius insights and a lot of my initial observations have been said before, but I'll proceed anyway. First, and most obvious, straight out of the box it's...pretty. I mean seriously this is one darned nice looking piece of technology--nothing clunky here. Okay, like others have said, straight out of the box, it was easy to set up and worked like a charm. Because I have no Mac experience I figured I'd be on the phone with Applecare pretty quick, but the only assistance I needed was from my Internet service provider, to remind me what my wireless password is. After that I was good to go. Shocking! Not a single other glitch. As far as learning curve from Windows to Mac, it's going fairly well. Key board shortcuts are fairly intuitive--command instead of control, Finder instead of "My Computer" (I think that's right). The screen and back lighting are amazing. BTW: I have had to call Apple support and they've been very helpful, and reasonably pleasant. Also, so far, I haven't spoken to anyone in Asia.

The only negatives I've noticed, is that there's an awful lot of real estate between the edge of the computer and the key board. I'm sure there's some ergonomic plus to this; but, for me, it's just annoying. Course, I may just need a lower typing surface (dining room table is supposedly for eating? Who knew?) Also, for the cost of the computer I wish a mouse had been included, even an inexpensive usb connected one. Still, Best Buy opened at nine, and the magic mouse was on sale, so not so bad.

I had a four month old HP 18" with 8GB RAM, rocking video card, running Windows 7... and the fricken thing just about drove me crazy. It would crash (!) while playing FARMVILLE (!!) The fingerprint reader only worked when it felt like it and when it didn't it was almost impossible to input your password because the cursor would MOVE while you were typing!!!! I have never had a worse laptop, and when I had the opportunity to painlessly get rid of it, I did and bought this sweet little machine. I purchased mine at our local Apple Store, though I would usually buy on Amazon, mostly because I wanted to be sure to get the options I wanted like matte screen. I am sitting in a sunroom right now typing this and there is no reflection at all on the screen.

The real reason I am writing this review is that nobody mentions the trackpad. It really makes the whole machine for me. Click anywhere. Right click by using two fingers, scroll or track left and right with those same two fingers. Swipe with four fingers to expose the desktop, or display all open windows. I have always used a mouse with my laptops, but this trackpad is BETTER than a mouse. you can zoom in and out, rotate your photos, whatever! The only time I need a mouse is for serious gaming. And now that Steam is up and running for Mac, I can do that too...

I purchased the MacBookPro 13 inch Intel Core Duo last year. It has been a good laptop overall, but since we use lots of applications and multiple user profiles, it was really slow. I decided to upgrade to the new 15 inch Intel i5. This laptop is SO fast. Immediately, we could tell the difference on Skype: the image was at least twice as clear, no skipping and the sound quality is like the other person is in the next room. The form factor is nice: not so large, but lots more screen space than the 13 inch. Battery life is great, as good as the 13 inch if not better. If you just need the basics: Word, Excel, Mail, Browsing, Skype, this is the laptop for you. If you are serious gamer or have other special requirements, you might want to opt for the faster 15 inch or the 17 inch.

I replaced my 2009 13" macbook pro with this 15" 2010 model. I wanted a little more resolution and a better processor for some of the things I do that needed horsepower.

I had a bunch of the lower rated power cables from my 13" MBP, and they work fine with the 15 to keep it charged and running, but it won't fill up the battery while you're using it, just maintains where it was at. But that's all I need for the places I have those other ones permanently placed, since I carry the normal one in my laptop case, i can charge anywhere if really needed.

Screen size is nicer, better resolution, but nothing else any different really from that aspect. And from the "how does it feel" perspective, it's barely any heavier that you can tell just from holding it.

Speakers do give it better sound (but not much really, though I can see the difference between this with the speaker grills next to the keyboard and the 13" that just had them buried inside with no normal outlet).

I had to do a whole disk swap because I had upgraded my 13" to a 500GB drive, and wanted to put that in this new one. Since I also have a mac mini that runs windows 7 media center for my TV, I figured I'd take the drive from this 15" MBP, put it in there, put my 500GB drive in here, and put the small drive from the mini into my 13" MBP and clean install the OS on it to sell. So I had to wait for my drive cloning and imaging of boot camp on the mac mini before I started anything with the laptops. Then finally I could clone the laptop, using CCC, and that ran over four hours. I didn't know what all I would have to go through to try to get my system back up and running, but wanted to have all the options. So my time machine drive was current, i made that CCC image, and then I pulled the 500GB out of my 13" and put it into the 15". I booted it to see if it'd boot, maybe find the changes int he system board, processor, and display and video, and i could save the trouble of reinstalling everything or recovering some from the images and backups.

And imagine my shock when it worked.

Booted right into snow leopard, right display, saw all 8GB of memory (since I swapped RAM with the 13" as well), saw the right video, etc. Rebooted to boot camp, and even there it automatically found everything but the video driver (which was an easy download from Nvidia).

There's a huge difference in the speed of things now, with the i5 compared to the Core 2 duo, especially when I'm transcoding things. And on the windows side, things went from a benchmark scores of 5.2 (graphics, the slowest) and 5.9 (hard drive and CPU) to this new 15" I5 unit coming in at 5.9 for the drive as now the slowest, but everything else was 6.9...

If it weren't for my 5400 RPM SATA drive, the scores would've jumped to 6.7 I think was the only other low one from the rest of the 6.9's.

Screen looks as good as all the mac screens do, the lit keyboard is something that I never really liked until I got my first MBP last year, and realized I just cannot live without it. Same with the nice ambient lighting sensor on the display to dynamically adjust brightness... It's these small touches that you can go without, but once you've experienced them, you can't go without anymore.

Chicklet keyboard is as good as ever, still only surpassed by the thinkpad keyboards since those are still my favorite.

People talked about heat, and when I was doing the benchmarking and transcoding, it did get hot in the same spot it seems all the MBP's get toasty, but it wasn't uncomfortable or anything even when on my lap. And the dual cooling fans do a great job of keeping it cool without being too obtrusive unless you crank 'em up to high (I use SMC fan control so I can override when I want).

Hinge is great, but not quite as solid as the 13" since it's got more mass now so if I have it open on my lap and pick it up so that the keyboard is perpendicular to the ground, the screen at a right angle to that, there's a tendency for the screen to close a little bit from gravity pulling it down. Not much, but that's something my 13" never did. But when you have it sitting flat on the desk there's no looseness, no give, even in a car moving, it stays where it should. Ever since my first MBP, I've loved their hinge system better than any other I've ever had, and i go through laptops about one every 12 to 18 months so i've had every manufacturer's to compare to in real use...

All in all, an outstanding product, which was what I've come to expect from the macbook pro line. More expensive, especially when you hit the 15" size (since the 13" is still priced right there with anyone else), but at least in this instance it IS a case of you get what you pay for. And I like it very much...