Part 1 - Does it really matter anymore with Intel Macs?

I recently had the PC or Mac discussion with my sister. She was looking for a new laptop and knowing that I had a MacBook Pro, asked me if she should get one. The catch was she has nearly always been PC (Microsoft Windows), except when 7 years previously she bought one of the first PowerBooks while visiting me in the States.

Should I buy a MacBook or MacBook Pro seems to be a question I get asked a lot and to be honest it usually has the simple answer; “how much do you want to spend”.

In my opinion both laptops are great, with the main difference obviously been the screen size (13.3″ vs 15″/17″) The latest MacBook Pro now also coming with a LED display, which is more eco friendly, more efficient on battery and also slightly brighter).

This article is a mixture of a long term usage review of the older Macbook Pro updated to incorporate the newer models (my sister just bought one which I helped her setup).

I bought my first Intel based Mac back in March 2006, and apart from some initial problems with the hardware running a bit hot and noisy (its true what they say about never buying the first revision!) which Apple dealt with well albeit a bit slowly.