Are Apple’s Current Laptops Almost Too Good To Be True? = The ‘Book Mystique
I’ve been an Apple laptop fan since the first ones rolled out in the early ’90s, finally consummating my admiration with the purchase of a PowerBook 5300 in 1996. I’ve had good service from all Apple portable models I’ve owned (even the 5300!), but do have some favorites, notably the 2000 Pismo PowerBook two examples of which I still have in active service.
However, I think it’s arguably the case that the current crop of MacBook Pros and MacBook Airs may well be the best Apple portables ever made. The Pro models unquestionably deliver more performance per purchase dollar than Apple has ever before packed into a laptop, and are only surpassed in power by a very few of Apple’s desktop models. Every review I’ve read enthusiastically praises the early 2011 MacBook Pro’s prodigious Intel Core “I raw power, and the new Thunderbolt ultra high speed I/O interface has vast potential that will be realized in the future. The aluminum unibody chassiscumenclosure feels like the solid block of machined metal it is, and for sleek looks it’s unsurpassed for understated elegance (Pro or Air), while being probably the most rugged of all non-ruggedized laptop computers.
Some even suggest that making over-achiever Mac systems has become so routine for Apple that there’s little excitement surrounding the company’s personal computer new product announcements these days. For example, within two weeks we recently saw a full tilt boogie Apple Special Event complete with a surprise keynote appearance by the ailing Steve Jobs to announce what was only a middling-modest upgrade of the iPad, while the much more substantial in content (Core “i” Sandy Bridge CPU silicon across the board plus the spectacular new Thunderbolt interface) early 2011 MacBook Pro release was accompanied by no more than a press release and a quiet update of Apple’s product and Store Websites.
As blogger Marco Arment observes, “Apple now seemingly considers most Mac hardware updates boring enough to skip any potential press event and just feature the new models on the Apple website for a while.”
The most effusive early 2011 MacBook Pro review I’ve run across so far is by InfoWorld’s Tom Yager, who calls the Thunderbolt MacBook Pro “The last notebook you’ll ever need,” and says that if the new Pro ‘Book and its amazing Thunderbolt don’t “blow your mind, you’re not paying attention.”
While the last notebook you’ll ever need is slightly over the top, early indications are that the aluminum unibodies –the oldest of which are only halfway through their third year of service — may well prove to be long-lived machines. Whether there will still be any early 2011 MacBook Pros still in production use as serious tools 2022, (the date that would correspond to my Pismo’s ages this year), is another matter. The Pismo’s prodigious longevity can be largely attributed to its easy upgradability, an attribute that’s never been matched by any Apple laptop since the Pismo was discontinued in January, 2001 at the release of the great looking but relatively fragile and non-upgradable Titanium PowerBook. My Pismos both have G4 processor upgrades, DVDburner SuperDrive optical drive expansion bay modules, hard drive and RAM upgrades, and PC CardBus slots. However, it’s the CPU especially that has been key, making it possible to extend the Pismo’s useful service life as a production platform into the Mac OS X 10.4 era, and while it’s not technically impossible to replace a processor that’s soldered to a notebook’s motherboard (as all Apple laptop CPUs since the Pismo have been), it’s not really practical as a reasonably-priced commercial alternative either.
Consequently, while Tom Yager’s last notebook you’ll ever have to buy is a forgivable bit if headline hyperbole, I think his more soberly measured observation: “After more than two weeks of continuous testing, it’s hard for me to imagine what I’d want in a notebook in three to five years that MacBook Pro doesn’t deliver right now…. I have no lingering doubt that a PC notebook maker might trump MacBook Pro. What Apple has done requires metal, glass, genius, and OS X. It can’t be replicated with plastic and Windows,” will hold up in real-world experience. Even my two-and-a-bit year old unibody aluminum Core 2 Duo MacBook still acquits itself very satisfactorily, and if it had FireWire and Thunderbolt interfaces like the current 13-inch MacBook Pro does (to say nothing of Core “i” chippery), I could easily see it being a five-year machine.
So what of planned obsolescence? One has to guess that there’s always got to be a bit of a conflict of interest for personal computer makers, given that the industry functions on two or three year hardware replacement intervals (even Tom Yager affirms that its first two years are any Mac’s prime). Especially the laptop computer sector. I suspect that’s one of the reasons why Apple abandoned service life extending facilitator features like easy processor upgrades, removable device expansion bays, and even most recently — user swappable batteries. Nevertheless, they still persist in designing and building laptop computers that are probably better than they absolutely need to be.
It’s the best time it’s ever yet been to be a Mac notebook user.