I've had this laptop for about a year or so -- basically day it came out with the core 2 duo. After using it, you get to love and hate it for all it's quirks, but all in all, it's a rock solid computer with an equally credible OS.

To start off, if you're not an avid computer user who uses their laptop everyday, just forget it. It's too pricey for that kinda operation (you might consider the regular macbook). But if you're the type that is always on your computer (freaks!) and you have some moderate cash flow, you'll want to consider it.

Here are the main points:

Build quality (5/5): This thing is great. The only gripe is that the mouse button gets jammed sometimes. Is that due to my own negligence? I don't know.. I keep it fairly clean, but it seems like something keeps it from clicking right from time to time. It does clear up so I think it's just dirty, but still -- it can and probably will get stuck here and there. Other than that, it's rock solid and I've had no defects in over a year. In fact, if I cleaned up up, it'd look pretty much new.

Heat (2/5): Ok, another gripe -- it gets a little hot, especially if you're doing some intensive multitasking. But if you're setting it down on bed covers, the back exhaust will be covered and it'll get really hot (and the fans will start going). Compared to the dell laptops, it gets much hotter than those. So if you're totally ok with those, then you might not be affected by the heat of the macbook pro. But if the dell heat bothers you, you might reconsider.

Mac OS (4/5): It takes a little getting used to it if you've been an exclusive windows user, but if you've used linux in the past, you'll get along with the OS pretty quickly. Think of Mac OS as linux with a beautiful user interface -- you get all the shell interation you've ever wanted, but you also get a snazzy front end. What a deal.

OS Stability (5/5 panther, 3/5 leopard): Panther has been really good to me, with very very few crashes (1 or 2 over a few months). I just recently installed leopard, and it's given me more problems, but that's a whole seperate review. All in all, you'd be REALLY surprised about how little you need actually need windows. But when you do, there is always parallels.

Parallels (4/5): This is pretty solid and quite frankly deserves it's own review, but it does work rather well. If you ever need windows, just install this and you get your own virtual windows. Backing up the windows 'partition' is as easy as copying a single file. And what's cool about parallells is that it grows your windows 'file' dynamically, so the more you install in windows, the bigger your windows file gets in mac. Really cool, because you don't need to designate space for windows beforehand!

Battery Life (3/5): Not that great, I get around 2.5 hours of normal use, which kinda sucks. It also has a tendancy to just drain itself for whatever reason. If you leave the laptop alone, sometimes you come back thinking it was fully charged, but somehow it's all depleted. I think it's because of two reasons -- if you don't close it, even though the monitor turns dark, it's not off, and 2) if you do close it, sometimes it doesn't really turn off. It's kinda quirky, but I've gotten used to plugging it in pretty much all the time. All in all, it's not the greatest if you really want long battery life on your laptop.

Features (5/5): Web cam, express slot (you'll need another all-in-one express card to read your digital camera SD cards), built in mic, it's got pretty much everything you'd need.

Mouse (5/5): The infamous single mouse button -- honestly folks, I griped and griped about this for eternity before I had a mac and claimed it was the achilles heel when it came to the macbook. But now that I've started to use it, I almost prefer one button. Why? Because you really don't use the right click that often, and to do so, all you have to do is put two fingers on the mouse pad to do it. You get used to it so fast, you'll stop complaining after a day of using it. Not to mention, it does amazing two finger scrolling that you'll miss on every other computer you own. So really, this all turns out to be a huge plus.

Keyboard (5/5): sometimes the keys can be a little squeaky, but by being metal, the keys stand up pretty nicely. They don't fade like typical laptop keys -- you know, how the paint starts fading or the buttons become really smooth. Unless you look REALLY closely, you won't notice any wear and tear.

RAM: you want at least 2 gb. Getting 3 gb is pricey because 2gb sticks are still fairly expensive for a laptop, and the core2 duo only has two slots. But I haven't seen any real performance issues with this beast. It's pretty dang fast.

Cost (3/5): I managed to get a really good deal due to a fluke on apple's behalf (25% off on TWO laptops! I think there was a bug when I put two in my shopping cart). If I had to pay the full price again -- I still would. Lets face it, it's the best laptop on the market and I use it pretty much all the time. Why wouldn't I get it?

I considered giving it 4 stars because it's not perfect. But considering how bad other laptops are in comparison, it's 5 stars compared to them.

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