I just posted my thoughts and review of the new unibody MacBook Pro on my website. If your looking for a fast machine take a gander. And if you want me to test something let me know I will run it through its paces.
Mattepainter review of 17" Unibody Macbook
Currently looking for a replacement machine, my laptop is nearly four years old and is due to die soon. They dont build them like they used to.
Your review was very good, I am running adobe production premium, sibelius, carrara, sketch up and shortly will be getting auto stitch and image modeller.
Will the mac run this quickly?
Fed up with slow renders, opening files, the fact that I have had to turn off open gl.
I didnt really want a laptop, however your review may sway it, can you put in a external monitor, and is it true that you can run pc apps on the computer?
Many thanks in advance Cliff,
Rich
PS love your site. 
RiKToR
#3
Those apps should run a heck of a lot quicker and efficient compared to your current machine. I can speak for the Adobe line and say they are a huge jump over my 3 year old MacBook. As for external monitors, Apple makes a 24" Cinema Display which is designed specifically to be a external for the MacBook Pro line. It is very vibrant and from what I understand calibrates well. Its actually pretty cool you can leave a keyboard and mouse connected at your desk and then you plug the closed sleeping laptop in to the display port, usb port, and the bundled mag-safe power cord, and then you have a desktop more powerful then most new iMacs. As for non-apple monitors, I would wait to see if DVI issue gets resolved with the adaptor. Its still an issue for driving monitors over 1600 x 1200.
Other then that, the laptop is pretty rugged with the unibody design. It doesnt flex or have any give like the previous aluminum books, though their give was small anyway. Since you have tendancy to go out in the field that may be your best feature, along with the matte screen and long battery life. One issue though is that you cant swap batteries which people out in the field typically do when they are away from power for a long time. Its the give for having a battery that is twice as long as its predocessors.
You can dual boot windows on it or run Parallels or VMWare Fusion if you dont want to reboot. As for using it as desktop replacement… I am, its now my only machine and I am content with that because it does absolutely everything, I need or want.
Hope that helps Rich.
Cliff
Cheers Cliff,
Thanks for settling my worries, my bank will be hit big time next month. My laptop at the moment is hot enough to cook crepes on.
I have no worries about field work as I have a charging system in the car and I as a matter of course and charge on route.
I think the 24 inch screen is a good idea. I have been told to use look up tables for compositing when I find out how that works the better.
Many thanks mate.
Rich
PS how is the little one doing?
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