{"id":172,"date":"2011-07-16T16:06:51","date_gmt":"2011-07-16T20:06:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lschofield.net\/technical\/2011\/07\/mac-swap\/"},"modified":"2011-07-16T16:06:51","modified_gmt":"2011-07-16T20:06:51","slug":"mac-swap","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.lschofield.net\/technical\/mac-swap\/","title":{"rendered":"Mac Swap"},"content":{"rendered":"

My work computer was switched yesterday. The Mac Book Pro 17 inch<\/a> was replaced with a Mac Book Pro 15 inch<\/a>. The new one is current MBP specs; 4 G RAM, Intel i5 chip running at 2.4 GHz, 500 G hard drive, \u201cmatte\u201d LCD\/PED display. The old one was backlit LCD, Intel 1.8 GHz Duo chip, 160 G hard drive, 2.5 M RAM.<\/p>\n

I used the old one for more than 4 years. The MBP 17 inch is a premium product, and priced that way, but when you consider the long life compared to other manufacturer products it is not overpriced. The machine ran reliably for 4 years with hardly any crashes (none hardware wise). I didn\u2019t encounter the spinning beach ball of death until I started running larger Java programs, and it ran cool unless I was on a Adobe Flash site. Frankly, if it had more RAM and if I replaced the keyboard (the keyboard had some noticeably worn out keys) I could have squeezed another year out of it I imagine.<\/p>\n

It will take more time to provide a detailed comparison. The initial impressions are:<\/p>\n

Not real crazy about the screen.<\/strong> I know this is a better screen any way you measure it, and the lighting is absolutely completely even from end to end with a larger viewing angle. But, it seems to have a blue-ish cast to it compared to the 17 inch which could completely be my brain after staring at the other one for four years.<\/p>\n

Keyboard is louder.<\/strong> Im used to the more chicklet style keys from my desktop keyboard, but typing on this is much louder. There seems to be a drum type resonance from the case construction. Feel of the keys is positive and not stiff.<\/p>\n

Miss the mouse button.<\/strong> Or, hate the giant track pad. The press on the track pad requires a lot of pressure, and doesn\u2019t allow the glancing click that the large mouse button on the old laptop had. I see that there are a whole lot of multi-finger gestures, and everyone says I\u2019ll get used to it. Don\u2019t like it so far. The click and drag gesture is especially awkward for me.<\/p>\n

Better Case.<\/strong> Runs cooler, stiffer construction, lighter. The \u201cbillet\u201d approach is clearly superior to any other laptop I\u2019ve had my hands on.\u00a0 The 17 inch case actually warped a bit over time due to some weak points in the case.\u00a0 There was a noticeable bend where the CD slot was.<\/p>\n

Super Battery Life.<\/strong> Runs for hours on a charge. No wonder I was the only one carrying around a power supply to meetings lately.<\/p>\n

Seems Snappier.<\/strong> I would hope so – two generation of chips later and more RAM.<\/p>\n

Fits on a Plane Easier.<\/strong> The old one was great for my aging eyes and for a more desktop experience on the road. Really challenging to use on an airplane though.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

My work computer was switched yesterday. The Mac Book Pro 17 inch was replaced with a Mac Book Pro 15 inch. The new one is current MBP specs; 4 G RAM, Intel i5 chip running at 2.4 GHz, 500 G hard drive, \u201cmatte\u201d LCD\/PED display. The old one was backlit LCD, Intel 1.8 GHz Duo […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[11,61],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.lschofield.net\/technical\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/172"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.lschofield.net\/technical\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.lschofield.net\/technical\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.lschofield.net\/technical\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.lschofield.net\/technical\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=172"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.lschofield.net\/technical\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/172\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.lschofield.net\/technical\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=172"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.lschofield.net\/technical\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=172"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.lschofield.net\/technical\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=172"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}