MacBook Pro

Apple's portables have been stuck in a system bandwidth mire for years with …

Jaqui Cheng

Introduction

Apple MacBook Pro
Manufacturer: Apple (product page)
Price: US$1,999 (shop for this item)
Just about a month-and-a-half after Steve Jobs's surprisingly unsurprising announcement at the MacWorld Expo in San Francisco that the first two Intel-based Macs to be rolled out would be the iMac and the MacBook Pro—the apparently newly renamed PowerBook—MacBook Pros finally started arriving at eager users' doorsteps. The six-week gap between announcement and arrival was plenty of time for rumors to grow.
There were rumors that the floor models available at MacWorld were mere prototypes and that the final design of the MacBook Pro was not even finished yet. There were rumors of chip shortages. There were even rumors that excessive demand was driving long shipping delays that apparently no one who had ordered immediately after MacWorld was experiencing whatsoever. Luckily, these rumors appear to have been unsubstantiated, and the MacBook Pro started shipping last week exactly as expected.
Well, there was one exception. A mere day before they were originally slated to start shipping to the masses, Apple bumped the chip speed of both the high- and low-end models of the MacBook Pro from 1.83GHz to 2.0GHz and from 1.67GHz to 1.83GHz, respectively (with a 2.16GHz version available for built-to-order machines). While mystifying, no one was arguing with that, even if it did push everyone's shipping back by one more week.
That said, they're all finally rolling out, with the 2.0GHz versions shipping first and then the 1.83GHz versions in short pursuit. Here at the Orbiting HQ, we acquired a 1.83GHz MacBook Pro for review and have had an eventful time doing so.

Complete machine specs:

• CPU: 1.83GHz Intel Core Duo
• RAM: 1GB PC2-5300 DDR2 SDRAM
• Bus speed: 667MHz
• Video: ATI Mobility Radeon X1600
• VRAM: 128MB
• Hard drive: 80 GB 5400 rpm ATA/100
• Optical drive: 4x SuperDrive
• Display: 15.4" (38 cm) 24-bit 1440 x 900 color active matrix
• Size: 9.6 x 14.1 x 1.0" (259 x 357 x 25.9 mm)
• Weight: 5.6 pounds (2.54 kg)

The first generation of MacBook Pros are obviously meant to be the next step after the last model of G4 PowerBook, the 1.67GHz G4 aluminum PowerBook that was announced in October of 2005, a mere three months prior to the official unveiling of the MacBook Pro. Alas, the low-end MacBook Pro was originally meant to also be 1.67GHz (albeit faster because of the dual core chip), but even with the last-minute speed bump, the MacBook Pro is near identical in dimensions to its G4 predecessor in many ways. There are a few very subtle differences.