First volley of MacBook Pros: received

Well, maybe it's not fair to say this is the first round of MacBook Pro unboxing pics after the series we got over the weekend (supposedly shot from within Apple headquarters), but the point here is that people who pre-ordered are starting to receive their MacBooks. We're all very excited for them, in a grinding-teeth-considering-grand-theft kinda way, but can we put that on hold for a second here and look closely at the freaking size of that power adapter? It looks roughly twice the size of the PowerBook's, even larger than an Airport Express. We're not sure what this thing's got inside that needs the kind of juice a brick like that can output, but we're really hoping it's not the Core Duo -- and we really hope the speculation about poor battery life isn't about to come true. Guess we'll find out in a few hours as the first people start charging (and discharging) theirs for the first time to find out. Anyone who's received theirs care to comment?

[Tucker @ Feb 21st 2006 11:18AM]

At least it's not an Xbox360 power supply...?

Sorry, had to get that in there.

[Tom @ Feb 21st 2006 11:18AM]

Want one of those bad!

[Lawry Goldstein @ Feb 21st 2006 11:19AM]

Ah how the mighty fall. You may have a nice and light computer but with a tiny battary life and a huge adapter you will soon be wishing you just bought the bigger, better, PC, laptop.

[Kyle @ Feb 21st 2006 11:24AM]

I got mine this morning as I was leaving for work. God bless the Fed Ex lady, as if she'd been ten minutes later I would have had to wait all day.

Having gotten to work, opened it and then spent the last hour playing with it, I have to say that it finally completes the dark empty hole inside of me that I've been trying to fill with consumerism for the last five or ten years.

I'm presently installing WoW, even though the servers are down.

If anyone has any particular questions, I'd be happy to answer them.

[pimp @ Feb 21st 2006 11:24AM]

*Badly*

Adverbs are our friends.

[John R @ Feb 21st 2006 11:29AM]

Too bad I bought my PB in December, else I would have had on eof these babies!!!

[Mat @ Feb 21st 2006 11:30AM]

Kyle - I'd like to hear how WoW performs (and how it looks) :)

[Chris @ Feb 21st 2006 11:32AM]

Lawry, stfu.

[thecan @ Feb 21st 2006 11:32AM]

Initial reports coming in:
battery life is "3:31, with Normal consumption settings."

http://forums.macrumors.com/showpost.php?p=2159346&postcount=220

[Dustin @ Feb 21st 2006 11:33AM]

How is the battery life?

[Eric @ Feb 21st 2006 11:33AM]

Hows OSx86 handle Aqua and all the transparency/moving windows?
I know Windows would choke, just need to assure myself that programming is at fault not the architecture.

[jimmy @ Feb 21st 2006 11:34AM]

PowerBrick is teh Huge!

[DaMaDo @ Feb 21st 2006 11:37AM]

Kyle, let us know how WoW runs on it once the servers are up. If I get one, it would have to run WoW well. My 2 year old IBM thinkpad with a fireGL runs it perfectly so I hope the macbook pro does also.

[Ed @ Feb 21st 2006 11:37AM]

Can someone read the mAh rating on the battery? I would have liked one, but ended up getting a Sony SZ120 instead, because I needed one that ran Windows now. The Sony (smaller and lighter than the MacBook) has a 5400 mAh battery and is supposedly rated (not tested by me) for 6 hours of work.

[Kyle @ Feb 21st 2006 11:38AM]

Eric, keep in mind that my last Mac laptop was a G4 550, so it was a *bit* on the sluggish side, but this thing seems blisteringly fast with regard to moving windows, transparency, multiple windows open at the same time, switching back and forth into Front Row, etc, etc...

As for battery life - I don't have any notion. It's plugged into the wall and has only been alive for about an hour. The mag connector seems really cool. I was kind of shocked when I went to plug in the power and it actually yanked it right into the hole.

[GregGrunge @ Feb 21st 2006 11:39AM]

Quote: "you will soon be wishing you just bought the bigger, better, PC, laptop."


Highly unlikely. As the vast majority of people who purchase "alternative" systems are doing so just so they won't have to deal with Windows. I know that's why I don't buy them and quit building them as well. And that's also why my wife's PC laptop will quickly be drop-kicked off our roof as soon as she has her undergrad.

[PodMonkeys @ Feb 21st 2006 11:40AM]

That is a rather large powerbrick. It seems odd considering the G4 powerbook adapters could put out 85W at their small size.

Anyone have the specs on the new power brick power specs?

[thecan @ Feb 21st 2006 11:46AM]

Battery benchmarks are officially in:
The Results:
When I first got to a desktop the battery menu bar item was estimating that I had 3 hours and 7 minutes of run time available, but the actual results were less impressive. I got the first low battery warning after exactly 2 hours and 30 minutes of run time and the involuntary sleep after 2 hours and 38 minutes.

http://www.powerpage.org/archives/2006/02/macbook_pro_battery_benchmarks.html

[thecan @ Feb 21st 2006 11:50AM]

New adapter specs from apple:
85W Power Adapter with MagSafe Connector and cable management system

[Toke Nygaard @ Feb 21st 2006 11:51AM]

Brace yourself for some bound-to-happen 1 Gen laptop hickups.. Sorry to spoil the party. I have returned 5 Apple laptops in my time, 3 of those were first generation - the Curse of The Early Adaptor! (Would never switch to Windows regardless)

[Jeff @ Feb 21st 2006 11:52AM]

The bigger power adaptor might be necessary to comply with the new legislation requiring manufacturers to use lower power consumption power adaptors.

[Zack @ Feb 21st 2006 11:57AM]

Actually, the G4 PowerBooks use 45W & 65W power adapters. This new model is 85W. I'm just suprised it's so huge, since the 45 and 65s are the same size.

Oh, and to the gamers, I'm pretty sure the 256MB X1600 will work for you just fine.

[justin @ Feb 21st 2006 11:57AM]

http://www.coconut-flavour.com/coconutbattery/

benchmark with this and unload some screen shots on us. please?

[DAN @ Feb 21st 2006 12:00PM]

Hey Pimp,
It's idiomatic, bee-yatch!

> *Badly*
>
> Adverbs are our friends.
>
> >
> > Want one of those bad!

[Jcee @ Feb 21st 2006 12:10PM]

Battery life SUCKS!

[Doug @ Feb 21st 2006 12:18PM]

Wow, it's battery life might suck almost as bad as that of a PC laptop. :)

[Hank Cazorp @ Feb 21st 2006 12:18PM]

Well, here's another amazing piece of Apple hardware, hobbled by the absurdity of having a single mouse button. I don't care how sleek, sexy or fast it is, Apple ain't gettin' my laptop bucks until they join the rest of us here in the future.

[Mike @ Feb 21st 2006 12:23PM]

Shouldn't you guys at least let the battery calibrate first before you start posting the battery life? Charge it up all the way, drain it completely then drain it again.

[BoxOfSnoo @ Feb 21st 2006 12:24PM]

Wow, 26 comments before the highly regarded, eagerly anticipated "one mouse button" comment.

Personally, I *love* putting my thumb out of joint to use the other mouse button on my thinkpad.

[Oli @ Feb 21st 2006 12:27PM]

For all of you who complain about the single mouse button, you should know that you can right click by holding ctrl and clicking. Also, Apple computers support a mouse with multiple buttons. Stop complaining about something you know nothing about.

[Chris W @ Feb 21st 2006 12:31PM]

lets see...
much brighter screen when not on battery, the GPU takes a lot more power, and there is a lot more stuff in it (ya have two cores, the iSight stuff, need to power the IR reciver, all of these little things add up).
Just because it needs more power when pluged in doesnt mean the power saving profiles wont cut down power consumption while on battery.

[NipsMG @ Feb 21st 2006 12:36PM]

Actually, the single mouse button is why I'm not buying one.

I planned on buying it to legally run OS X and Vista on the same machine. Maybe Ctrl-Click works in OSX but not in windows (I just tested it to verify). I'm a developer, and there's a ton of useful functionality (in visual studio and other IDEs) that isn't easily gotten to without a right click, and I'd like to be able to pull out my laptop and use it without having to lug a mouse around with me.

Yeah I know it's possible, but come on! The laptop is beautiful, but Apple stop trying to be "unique" and grow up. How hard is it to put on one more friggin button?

[Paul @ Feb 21st 2006 12:37PM]

Oh lord. Here we go with the 1 vs 2 buttons thing.

Every time a Mac person says something like "Duh, you ctrl and click...you pathetic windoze slave!" I can mentally picture having to perform a one handed operation (thumb moves over 1 inch) with TWO HANDS (one to press a button and one to click) or spreading one hand 5 or 6 inches and splaying your fingers to reach the key and track button with one hand. Doofus, indeed.

[Andrew Logan @ Feb 21st 2006 12:37PM]

I guess the 17"er will need a nuclear core to have any decent battery life.

[MrE @ Feb 21st 2006 12:40PM]

That power brick isn't so bad. I bought a Compaq Presario AMD64 lappy last year. That power brick is damn near the size of the X-Box 360 brick. 85watts and its passive (no fan)? Nice.

[Benson Leung @ Feb 21st 2006 12:44PM]

Battery life estimates from PowerPage should be taken with a grain of salt... so all of you who screamed "crappy battery life" should recognize that was with both wireless interfaces enabled, the screen set to 75% brightness, and the dim feature disabled.

[Barry @ Feb 21st 2006 12:47PM]

The single mouse button crap is the Godwin's law of mac conversations.

I ordered a Macbook. I'm pretty excited about it. It's due to ship 3/15 but if it turns out that battery life is significantly less than 4 hours, I may cancel the order and 'switch' to a Thinkpad instead. The Thinkpad's 7 hours is more my style, and I'd save enough that I could afford to get a Mini, too. I'm not blindly brand or OS loyal, I just want to get the most bang for my buck. $2k is a hefty chunk of change, and a three and a half hour battery is not a lot of 'bang' in 2006, I'm sorry.

[Razor @ Feb 21st 2006 12:51PM]

I'm waiting for the benchmarks running Photoshop on the mac intel vs. running on a core duo pc notebook....results will be hilarious!

[jimmyjames @ Feb 21st 2006 12:54PM]

um, you can right click on the newer pbooks and the older ones if you use the new trackpad driver that allows two finger scrolling. just leave two fingers on the pad when you click. one hand, no thumb dislocation.

[RM @ Feb 21st 2006 12:57PM]

I agree with #34, a notebook computer is supposed to be, well, portable. A 3.5 hour battery life in this day in age is pathetic.
The Thinkpad is looking better and better already.

[David Le @ Feb 21st 2006 1:02PM]

C'mon, the new powerbrick isn't THAT bad. I'd take a large powerbrick over those insanely hideous powerbricks that come with any PC laptop. The Apple one just looks so much cleaner and is much, much sleeker.

[julian @ Feb 21st 2006 1:07PM]

Providing the battery life is at least 3 hours I'm not really bothered, what I really want to know about is how warm it gets, specifically how warm the underside of it is and whether it's feasible to use it as a laptop, you know, on your lap.

(My MacBook shipped today, 25 days before it was due to :D).

[techyted @ Feb 21st 2006 1:07PM]

My whole existence I have used Windows, except for computer classes in Jr. High and High School, and I never thought that I would EVER like to own a Mac, but I just love the way Mac computers look and feel now. I played with an iMac Core Duo last night and I loved everything about it. I really enjoyed how the remote control magnetically stuck to the side of the iMac. To make a long story short, I can't wait for ver. 2 of the Mac Book Pro's in the next few months, because I am going to own one.

[Zorn @ Feb 21st 2006 1:08PM]

I'm confused by you guys that are suggesting "the thinkpad" as a great upgrade from the Macbook. First, which model is it that gets this 7 hour battery life? Is it using a Core Duo CPU? Or last year's Pentium M? To account for this battery life, is it a thick monster? Does it weigh 8 lbs?

All of this gets taken into consideration. I had a 1.33Ghz G4 Powerbook, and it got 2.5 hours of battery life with power saving stuff turned on, performance down. If this guy gets 2 hours 40 minutes with high brightness, Wifi & Bluetooth on, and no power saving features, that's fantastic in my view for the power of this computer.

I had a Toshiba Pentium M notebook back in the day, and when I turned on max power saving, it would get 5 real hours of battery life. Who wants to see how the Macbook does when you turn everything to max battery life settings?

[Jon @ Feb 21st 2006 1:09PM]

STFU MOFO 1 BUTTON ROXORZ MY BOXORZ! 2 BUTTON IDIOT IS 4 HOMOZ

[Rob @ Feb 21st 2006 1:11PM]

Razor, what's the point in laughing about Photoshop, when we all know it isn't built to run on this system? Does anyone even know how well Photoshop functions on the new Intel Macs? Adobe seems to think there could be some hiccups until CS3 is released (which is why I'm waiting to buy...).

[owned? @ Feb 21st 2006 1:15PM]

"I'm waiting for the benchmarks running Photoshop on the mac intel vs. running on a core duo pc notebook....results will be hilarious!" -Razor

not sure why they'll be so funny. photoshop will be running under the rosetta emulator on the macbook pro and thus will not be an accurate benchmark. if you're waiting for a true benchmark, you'll have to wait until photoshop's intel version is released. nice try.

to all those with comments about single mouse button: you just plug in a multi-button mouse to the mac and it will work. stfu pls.

if a single button is the only thing stopping you from buying this laptop, please don't talk. that's like saying you're not going to buy a technically amazing and gorgeous car because you don't like the radio knobs. GET OVER IT.

[Samuel McConnell @ Feb 21st 2006 1:20PM]

I have both an IBM ThinkPad, and a G4 Powerbook. It is so much more comfortable to chord with a Ctrl-Click (thumb for the mouse button, and pinky on Control) than it is to stretch my thumb over to a second button. In fact, I have an applet on my ThinkPad to allow me to Alt-Click.

[Jeremy @ Feb 21st 2006 1:26PM]

I would imagine if the output is the same then the new Powerbrick size is due to RoHS compliance. Transformer size seems to be taking the biggest hit compared to other components when moving power converter/inverters to RoHS compliance.

[Dave @ Feb 21st 2006 1:37PM]

Have to correct you on the "Core Duo" comment. The Core Duo has been proven to be a very power effective chip. Unfortunately the laptops that use it have experienced very poor battery performance. This puzzled the folks over at Toms Hardware for a while until it was revealed that the power problem was a Windows driver error, and not the chips.

Thus, a Core Duo in a Mac would, theoretically, gain the power savings it was designed to have.