Apple MacBook Pro (MBP): Review after a year of intensive use

Hello,

I have bought in September 2009 a MacBook Pro... My first Apple private computer ever. At the time, I was a pretty new at using Macintosh. At work, I was using a Mac Mini (2.1 model) for 6 months and I have grown very happy to use this tool even though I couldn't do all my daily tasks with it (.NET programming).

So, coming back to the MBP: it has been great so far. Never had a problem with it, no system crash, very quick to start and even faster to shut down, very intuitive UI that I love (Windows are far behind even with Windows 7), performance are very good, especially with 8GB of ram and a 2.66GHZ dual-core processor.
I don't play so I can't really tell about the graphic ship performance but I have carried on some 3D landscapes development and rendering time is pretty good.

One hardware piece that I really love on my MBP is the trackpad. It is like nothing I have ever experienced before! The working area is huge (almost 4 times bigger than my PC's) and the multi-touch combinaisons are very intuitive once you know them: right-click with two-fingers tap (much better than the bottom-righ-corner click), three-fingers swipes left or right for browsing navigation and simple Finder navigation and four-fingers swipe up to clear the screen of any application windows or down to activate Exposé...

Since I have upgraded the MBP to Snow Leopard, I can tell that it's a bit better but like all articles you'll read about the 10.6 version of MAC OS, the changes on the UI weren't the main ones. Still, Spaces & Exposé features were improved and I really like using them.

I will write a review about the operating system MAC OS 10.6 that I use every day as it's going to be a long one.

And if, when you look at the prices of Apple computers and say to yourself "no way! too expensive!", I would rethink that if I were you. In fact, I have been using a PC for 4 years now I had to reinstall Windows several times (at least once a year). It's cost me €1500 which exactly the same price as I paid for the MBP. The last didn't slow down a bit and I expect that it'll last for a very long time.... After all, I know someone owning a Mac Mini G4 for more than 6 years and never had a system and hardware failure.

So, have a look on Apple.com/your_country and go in the refurbished section. I bought mine there!