After using my new MacBook Pro for almost a week now with multiple applications I am read to give a more formal opinion about it. I will be writing further about my experience with Mac over the next few months as I get to use it more often. This review will be split into a few sections, Hardware and Software, with the OSX, built in apps and 3rd party apps being separate.

Hardware
When it comes to most Apple products, especially the Pro line, Apple does not disappoint. Everything about this laptop was thought out. You can tell whoever designed this went to bed every night and stayed awake thinking about how they could better lay something out. The difference is like comparing an old dodge Neon to a brand new Benz. The tolerances in the door gaps etc would be a world of difference. The same is true for the MacBook Pro. Every millimeter is accounted for. Some people wanted a complete redesign with new keyboard and magnetic latches. I thought I wanted the same until I used it. The keyboard cradles my fingertips so they land in the center of the key every time. The magnetic latch that drops the hooks to latch the display works with amazing precision. I donít like the button to pop the lid (like the hood of a car) The button is a bit to flush and thin to push easily ( which can be good or bad) not really annoying but maybe one of the few things that I donít like so much.

The power button is a pleasure to press (not that I would ever want to press it to turn it off) I am a big fan of the Vandal Resistant power buttons used in PC mods everywhere with their brushed Al. and precision fit and function and this button is like a miniature version of that. The speakers sound more amazing than any other laptop I have heard, I thought with the strange placement of them on the right and left I would not get good sound coming at me. I was wrong. I wasnít sure how I would like the screen with the reversed hinge because it doesnít open as far as some but its great because it creates the illusion that the screen is bigger and the laptop is smaller.

I have to say itís a relief to not have ports on the bottom of the laptop for once. While I seems like a good location at first, in practice it is so awkward to find the port you want with out flipping your laptop over or around. I am slightly disappointed that their arenít more USB ports on the sides (only2) but I guess if I needed more I would have a hub at home anyway. I would like a SD card reader on the side but I donít use the ExpressCard slot so I got an ExpressCard SD reader. It should be here later this week so that will be nice because it will sit flush with the port. I am excited to get a Firewire 800 hard drive so I can test out the port, I will use it for video editing and or backups.

Itís the little touches that make the MacBook Pro such an amazing piece of hardware. The magsafe power adaptor is amazing. The slot loading DVD drive that is great to use and I love that its facing me not on the sides, much more useful. The heat and the fans have not been an issue. I forget my laptop is on and it hasnít gotten more than warm ever. Even the way the battery charge LEDs light up on the battery, gradually to show power shows how much thought went into this machine. The remote is amazing to use for an IR device. The one thing I donít like is how the laptop has to go to sleep when you close the lid. I want to close the lid and leave it on sometimes or I want to hibernate it and put it in my bag for the day. I donít want to leave it on sleep because then it might over heat. The iSight is the best web camera I have ever used, and for its size I cant believe what it does! Overall this is the best piece of computer hardware I have ever owned.

Software
OSX
OSX blows the doors off Vista and Linux hands down in features and usability from the moment you take it out of the box. There was no bloat ware or apps I did not want pre-installed. Expose is a great feature that I have been drooling over since I saw it on someoneís Mac. I love spaces, Linux has had this feature for some time now but Mac does it well. Vista has no useful features or visual effects for all the power it requires, OSX gives you such smooth transitions and useful features its amazing. I figured out the shortcut for the finder (Command+Space , Command+N) and in about 3 characters I can find exactly what I want. I dropped my Applications folder in the Dock and its just like having a start menu from 2000, (I hate XP and Vista start menus. It was a little difficult to wrap my head around how easy it was to install programs and do simple things in OSX, mainly because it was so simple I wasnít sure if I had done it right, I was likeÖ Thatís it? Overall its just as fast if not faster than the stripped down version of XP on my machine.

Built in Apps
The built in apps are worlds away from what you get out of the box with any other windows PC. Itís a crapshoot based on manufacture as to what software will come with you machine, most of it you donít want and some of it you cant get rid of. I tunes comes with iTunes ( which I think is the best audio program out there, not that its that amazing) iMovie, which is super easy to use, iDVD, iWeb, Garage Band etc. All free apps that are worth using. iChat is actually useable and is the best video chat app that I have used.

3rd Party Apps
I installed Firefox because I have exported all of my old bookmarks etc from my last PC. I would use it but I really got used to that 3 finger swipe to go back and forth. I downloaded a programming app called Coda. Its like dreamweaver but light weight and much nicer for what I used it for. I tried Adium for chatting. Its just as useable as iChat but has no support for video which is sad. I also tried out Skype which works well. Microsoft Office works ok for what I have used of it so far. It takes a little longer to load than on windows (using office 2003) but works fine once it loads. I have had fun downloading other mac apps, some just for fun like Liquid Mac. CS3 works just as well as it did in XP.

Other Notes
Using iStat and other monitering programs I was able to test out the differences between 2 gigs and 4 gigs of ram. When first turning on my Mac it was using 260mb of ram. It settled out around 300mb. When running apps like iTunes, iChat, and Safari it never used more than 1 gig. After a day I could not wait any longer I had to install the 4 gigs of ram. When I did the MacBook Pro just ate it up, I was surprised at the results at first but they made sense after I thought about it. This time my Mac was using 500mb of ram on startup. When running the same apps I was using well over a gig of ram. Then I scrolled through cover flow in iTunes through all of my songs. The ram used got bigger and it started flipping through my songs super fast. No lag at all. My Mac was smart enough to know it had plenty enough ram and it used it to speed up the apps that could use it instead of just leaving it sit there. This is a great computer with 2 gigs of ram and it is amazing with 4 gigs because it puts it to good use. I donít know what else to say about this computer. I have had quite a few computers, many of which I have built my self, all of which I have been excited to own and use but this is the first one that really impresses me with everything it can do out of the box and the entire community of Mac owners and developers who make outstanding applications that are generally as well thought out as the products Apple makes. In summary, I am more than happy with my decision to switch and I wont be looking back.