Apple recently released a new set of laptops in their Macbook Pro line. Here are some of the new and interesting features that you should know about if you are thinking of buying one.
The Feature : LED Monitor
What it is : The new widescreen monitor is based on LED technology. Not LCD, LED.
What it means : LED technology allows for an extremely bright screen while generating almost no heat. Put your hand near almost any LCD screen that has been running for a while, it is warm. The Macbook Pro’s monitor doesn’t get hot. This feature also allows for impressive colour display and resolution (up to 1400×900 resolution and millions of colours). The monitor section is also very thin.
The downside : Between the vibrancy, resolution and the fact that it’s widescreen, you can’t just use any picture as a desktop background. You pretty much need to find wallpapers specifically for widescreen Macbooks.
The Feature : Aluminum Body
What it is : The body of the Macbook is machined from a single piece of aluminum.
What it means : The Macbook is pretty. The fact that it’s made from a single block means that it is thinner and more durable.
The downside : If you would rather have a white notebook, or if you don’t like the colour gray, you are out of luck.
The Feature : Multi-touch trackpad
What it is : The trackpad on the Macbook can track multiple contact points.
What it means : You can use more than one finger to control the laptop on the mousepad. Different gestures activate different commands. For example: one finger uses the mouse as usual. Two contact points scroll the page. Move two fingers apart while viewing an image, and you will zoom in; move them together and you zoom out. In Safari, three fingers swiped to the left will activate the ‘back’ button. Three fingers swiping right will activate the ‘forward’ button. Four fingers swiped upward shows the desktop. Four swiped down shows you all the windows you have open.
The downside : It takes a bit of getting used to. It can read things other than fingers as contact points. If you have your laptop on your lap and your clothing touches the mousepad, it reads it as more than one contact point.
The Feature : Buttonless trackpad
What it is : The trackpad has no click button.
What it means: The whole trackpad is the mouse button. This gives you a lot more space to use. When combined with the multi-touch feature, this increases the usefulness of the mousepad. This is not to be confused with the ‘tap-to-click’ feature of other notebooks. The entire trackpad is actually a button. It clicks and you can feel it depressing. Tap-to-click is also available from the System Preferences application.
The downside : Again, it takes some getting used to. This feature is the origin of my greatest warning about the Macbook : go into a store and try it. It may not be for everyone. If you find that you do a lot of dragging of items, or selecting blocks of text, consider investing in a quality USB mouse. Since you have to hold down the same pad that you are moving the item on, dragging things around is not that great.
In conclusion, the new Macbook Pros are a great choice for someone looking for a new laptop. Like most Apple products, they are beautiful, well designed and easy to use. The only new feature some people might have problems with is the full-pad mouse button.
