MacBook Pro 17-inch unibody unboxing and hands-on
By Joshua Topolsky 
posted February 25th 2009 10:38AM
posted February 25th 2009 10:38AM
posted February 25th 2009 10:38AM
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Great... You guys should REALLY send me one... :)
So you have to pay for the 17 inch to get rid of the horrid black border?
why don't you guys put this up on your recession antidote? that'd be really cool of you, engadget.
The Air doesn't have the black border. ;)
I would be soooooo grateful if this was given away and I won it. I'm going to have to buy a MacBook anyway.
@Rollins - true, but only a schmuck would buy the Air.
Guess I’m a schmuck! Oh well. Need a Mac, and wanted it as light as possible. attach a 24" and it works as a desktop! For much of my work, the thing works just fine. Perforce, Xcode, and Interface builder, along with Illustrator and Photoshop allow me to design and demonstrate apps anywhere. Had a 17", lovely, but for desk work the screen could still be larger. It is fast enough, but heavy lifting still needs to be accomplished elsewhere.
Glad the idea of one size fits all, and everybody but me is dumb survives. Who knows, those genes may have useful benefits too!
@AmishPirate
Doubt this one is gonna show up as a give away. Being its atleast $5,099, thats a lotta coin to just give away.
No, the 17-inch comes in glossy or matte. No extra charge, your choice.
@earthlingdave
You're wrong. There is a 50 USD charge for the antiglare.
So Apple's new thing is providing more RAM than storage space? ^_^
Ha! Nice spotting. Fixed!
You guys should really put a line in when you update or edit the article. It poor journalism when you don't.
It = It's
@JAmerican -- When we update a single letter? Really?
good morning, joshua topolsky
@JAmerican
Too bad you couldn't go back and edit your comment.
Yes, really, try proof-reading the article nex time if you dont like making your errors public. Comments were already made about the error, if you dont say anything, it turns odd.
@Macdelaney
Seriously?
uh, ya really. Look at how many comments below refer to a typo which no longer exists, with no explanation, whether it is one character or 20. Engadget makes A LOT of typos. Not only should they proofread more carefully, they should indicate when the original posting has been edited.
Would also be very nice for us to be able to edit our posts as well. Maybe someday.
Now in OS X, you can easily mount RAM as a RAM disk, as I wouldn't mind 256GB of RAM disk space :D
256 MB? or GB? Other than that, this looks cool. Finally an Anti glare screen :)
Ha! As soon as I read that, I knew that people would be jumping all over it in the comments!
Thanks for not letting me down.
so where does the battery go...
No recession for Engadget I see.
:c
they already, upgrade it. now is 256 G :)
I'll say. they just spent 5k+ on a laptop.
Seriously.
So the matt screen has an 'old model' grey surround. Looks rather dated, I must say I prefer the look of my glossy MBP...
I second that.
I don't Being a designer, there's nothing better than having the neutral gray tone around the screen. This helps the eye see the true colors. I was so mad about the black...
In the gallery, pressing next in photo 4 jumps to photo 14.
Eww... I don't like the screen design, but I guess that's the only way they could get it to work.
I'm not a fan of 17" laptops either. Just too damn big for my liking.
I'm also not digging the silver bezel......just looks odd.
Yeah, I feel that. The silver bezel makes it look like an old Powerbook rather than a new-fangled super machine. Apple's latest innovation is so innovative it doesn't even need to actually innovate!
Ok, maybe I'm just dense (wouldn't surprise me) but why dosen't Apple take advantage of the larger footprint to use a full size keyboard, with full size scroll arrows, and a numerical keypad on this model? Wouldn't that be much more functional than a larger speaker grille? I just don't understand why they wouldn't do this - it would really help differentiate it from the MBP 15" (other than the non-glare screen, which is almost a criminal exclusion from the Macbook and 15" MBP).
Cost, uniformity of design, things like that.
I hate off centre keyboards. It just screws up your typing, and seeing as the trackpad on this is large enough to park an A380 with no problems, your hand would brush the trackpad, and stop whatever you were typing. I mean, this is happening to me, and I'm on an Early 2008 Macbook Pro, 15". Can you imagine the new ones?
Well, I personally think the reason that Apple refuses to put numerical keypads on all but their basic keyboards is that numerical keypads are used mostly by people who do spreadsheets and other office work.
You know, the kind of people who Apple have been steadfastly ridiculing and destroying for the better part of a decade.
@Kizorblade:
Go to System Preferences -> Trackpad -> Ignore accidental trackpad input. You're welcome!
I believe the late model MacBooks do this by default.
@Michael Rondinelli
Hmm, I checked just now, but there wasn't any option for that.. crap.
Early 2008 model here. Maybe it's just the ones later in the year?
@CJ, I think you nailed it on that one.
It's because keyboard and trackpad centering was deemed more important than having a num pad. I've seen how HP and others have incorporated a num pad on theirs by moving the keyboard and trackpad ways off centre and for this reason Apple has done it this way and I think it's the right way. People who use a num pad all the time won't like this but you can't please everyone.
I just got mine! Haha.
Considering that I would not have bought this $3000 laptop if it had a numpad with off-center keyboard, I think the reasoning goes something like this:
Let X be the number of people who would buy the MBP 17" only if it had a numpad. Let Z be the number of people who would only buy the MBP 17" if it had a centered keyboard.
Z > X.
Note that people who like numpads but would not really buy a MBP17 for some other reason don't count.
You know, if you want to use your iPhone as an external numpad, there's an app for that.
Or, if you've got enough cash to spring for a MBP 17", (and you're the kind of person that does office-type stuff) surely you can afford an external numpad.
So it's like fitting the previous version MacBook Pro 17" 's Matt Panel inside the case?
It's sliiiightly rounded more on the edges. Slightly. Maybe they just chopped a bit off the old model's bezel and stuck it on there?
The matte screen looks rather sloppily thrown together and really doesn't mesh with the new unibody design. Rather disappointing.
When the laptop is closed the gap between the body and the screen is big and wider in the center... I thought Apple talked about precision cases...
I thought that too, but look at the rest of the pictures. I think you are seeing lens distortion.
I have a new 17" MacBook Pro, just picked it up at the Apple Store yesterday.
It is absolutely perfect, what you see in the pictures is definitely lens distortion. Engadget should be using Macro lenses with less distortion.
Also, I bought the glossy and I LOVE it. I use it in two places, one is in my office with no windows, and one is in my bedroom on a small desk facing the window. No reflection problems for me, and I don't have to stare at the hideous bezel that is on the matte version.