Apple MacBook Pro 15-inch (Core i7) Review

LapTop Magazine ^ | April 14, 2010 | by Michael A. Prospero

[Vision]

Apple boycotts Fox News.

[Swordmaker]

Did Apple deign to include a USB port?

Apple notebooks have included USB ports since the mid 1990s. . . before any other maker.

[Swordmaker]

Personally, if you're spending that much money, get a SSF. a 5400rpm hard drive doesn't cut it.

But the SSD has a lot smaller capacity for a lot more money. I'm not certain the trade of is worth it yet except in certain specific circumstances.

[rmlew]

But the SSD has a lot smaller capacity for a lot more money. I'm not certain the trade of is worth it yet except in certain specific circumstances.
Specific circumstances? You mean like notebooks, where the tolerance of the SSDs to being dropped and their better efficiency would be useful?
Price certainly remains a problem, especially, since there are fewer options for Macs.

[Swordmaker]

You sound knowledgeable on the subject. Do you know if you can run Access on it? I mean a native version. I don’t want to have to use bootcamp and reboot in to a Windows version to use Access.

I would love to have a Macbook for Work but I use Microsoft Office and spefically Access and Project/Visio a LOT.

You could try using CrossOverMac from Codeweaver as the least expensive way of running Access on a Mac... but it only works with Access 2003. Codeweavers gives Access a Silver medal... which means it "mostly" works. Access2007 and 2010 are "known not to work."

The other way is guaranteed to work. That is to get either VMWare or Parallels Workstation and a genuine version of WindowsXP, Vista, or 7, and run it under MacOSX...

[Swordmaker]

You can run Parallels 5.0 and not have to boot....Works great...But I believe Access is available for Apple in the native mode.

Nope, not available.

[Swordmaker]

Specific circumstances? You mean like notebooks, where the tolerance of the SSDs to being dropped and their better efficiency would be useful?

Being in a notebook is one thing to consider... but capacity is too. If i am a videographer, i might be more interested in a large capacity HD than fast access. On the other hand if I am a road-warrior, a fast access SSD, giving me quick start-up and even faster access to company data along with lighter weight might be the ticket. But at $1,300 for a 512G SSD when you can get a 1TB HD for $250? That takes a lot of need for that choice.

[ReignOfError]

But it doesn’t have a parallel port, RS-232 or a floppy drive! How are you supposed to connect it to anything?

[ReignOfError]

since there are fewer options for Macs.

Any standard 2.5" SATA drive. How many laptops have more options than that?

[zeebee]

You can get a 7200 rpm drive. It will be very fast. And if you’re thinking about a netbook, consider the 13” MacBook Pro.