13” MacBook Pro (2010) First Impressions

So i am writing this on my new MacBook Pro, this is not my first Mac but it is the first time i have owned a MacBook Pro, having used MacBooks for the last 3 years or so. 

My last MacBook was the 2.4ghz Unibody model from 2008, while i loved this machine very much, i missed the firewire port. With the new batch of 2010 models coming out and a decent offer on my macbook, i took advantage of education pricing and upgraded for a few hundred pounds.

When comparing the machines, there were a few area which really drew me to the MacBook Pro to make the investment:

Battery Life:

While my old MacBook had a decent battery life (up to about 4 hours) i was starting to come up against the edge more frequently. I have been away from power for longer periods at university. I think the longer battery life of this machine will hold me in good stead for the next two years of study and work. I am looking forward to the next barcamp when i wont have to worry about loosing power right before my presentation!

Ports & Slot:

The other big hardware difference would be the new IO options. As i mentioned in the introduction my misgivings about the lack of firewire port on my old Macbook turned out to be true. While i have been working around the limitations, a few things i have been wanting to do have not been possible for example, i often work from home where i have a iMac, the ability to pop the MacBook Pro into target disk mode and use it to boot the imac means i can take advantage of the great iMac screen. The SD card slot i have played with and generally i like it, am looking forward to playing with booting from it in the future.

Software & Other Things

Not all of the changes are hardware based, this is also the first time i have been running snow leopard on my work machine. I have been using it on the home machines for a while, but as my work machine was running fine i held off upgrading. The migration was quick and i have found a few bits very interesting:

• Time Machine is much much faster
• iLife 09 (in particular iMovie & iPhoto) is a nice upgrade over 08, i have already made a little video using iMovie and been very pleased with what it offer. iPhoto 08 feels snappier, though i am not sure how much the beefier graphics play into this.

So thats about all, overall i found the migration went smooth and quickly (even if a dodgy router was mucking me around), the machine feels quick and responsive. The screen has blown me away and overall i am very very happy with my purchase.