Mossberg: Apple’s MacBook Pro gives users a ‘much better OS with vastly better built-in software’

21 years ago

“I am writing these words on a sleek, fast laptop computer powered by an Intel processor. But unlike the vast majority of Intel-powered laptops, this machine isn’t running Microsoft Windows. It’s the latest Macintosh laptop from Apple Computer, and the first Apple portable to run on Intel processors. Like all Apple computers, it uses the company’s excellent Mac OS X operating system instead of Windows,” Walter S. Mossberg writes for The Wall Street Journal. “The new laptop, called a MacBook Pro, is the successor to Apple’s PowerBook models.”

“I’ve been testing the MacBook Pro and comparing it to both a late-model PowerBook and a roughly similar Windows laptop, the new H-P Pavilion dv5000t. All three machines have 15-inch-wide screen displays,” Mossberg writes. “My verdict: The MacBook Pro is better than the PowerBook and better than the H-P, though it has some drawbacks. It is faster than previous Apple laptops, but the speedup isn’t as great as Apple’s claims suggest. At a starting price of $1,999, the same as the PowerBook it replaces, the MacBook Pro costs more than the H-P. But in my opinion, the price premium is more than justified by its superior design and features.”

“In my harsh battery test, where I turn off all power-saving features and play an endless loop of music, the MacBook Pro lasted two hours and 59 minutes, exactly the same as the PowerBook and 12 minutes longer than the H-P. In more normal conditions, I estimate the MacBook’s battery life could approach four hours,” Mossberg reports. A similarly-equipped H-P dv5000t costs $230 less than Apple’s MacBook Pro, but “you get a much better operating system; vastly better built-in software for Web surfing, email, photos, videos and music; a much brighter screen with much higher resolution than the H-P’s; twice the dedicated video memory; and the built-in camera. Plus, the H-P is quite bulky compared with the Apple. It’s a pound heavier than the Mac, and up to 77% thicker. Also, despite the recent discovery of a couple of harmless viruses for the Mac, the H-P is much, much more vulnerable to viruses and spyware than the Apple.”

Mossberg concludes, “The MacBook Pro isn’t revolutionary, but it’s a promising start to the era of Intel-powered Apple laptops.”

More in the full review here.

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