I wanted a computer with plenty of power and long battery life as I was seeking a notebook that would replace the need for both a netbook and a more powerful desktop. Mainly, I sought the MacBook Pro (MBP) because of its solid reputation as a top of the line machine with plenty of power and upgrade options.  The new MBP’s support large hard drives of up to 500 GB, up to 8 GB of RAM, 802.11n wireless, FireWire 800, the NVIDIA GeForce 9400M integrated graphics processor, an integrated SD slot and a battery that’s stated to last up to 5 years or 1,000 charge cycles.

Apple MacBook Pro Specs:

• 13 inch, Aluminum Unibody
• 160 GB Serial ATA Drive @ 5400 rpm
• Backlit keyboard
• Superdrive 8x (DVDRW/CDRW)
• 2 GB 1066MHz DDR3 SDRAM
• 2.26 GHz Intel Core Duo 2
• Accessory Kit & Software

Design:
The 13 inch MacBook Pro’s unibody design gives it a more solid feel than the plastic of the white MacBook. The MBP’s LED screen appears crisper and brighter than the white MacBook. The black frame on the MBP’s screen seems to draw the eyes inward, drawing attention to whatever image or movie is being displayed.

This generation of MacBook Pros has done away with the trackpad button and replaced it with a large, clickable trackpad which trackpad allows for multitouch finger input including, three finger swipes, pinching and rotating gestures that are similar to the iPhone. The backlit keyboard provides enough light to easily see the keys quickly in a dark room. The keyboard is very similar to the white MacBook but feels much more solid.

Battery Life:
The 13 inch MBP is advertised to achieve 7 hours on a full charge with its revolutionary battery technology, although I haven’t had that experience earlier with other netbooks. It would be entirely possible to get over 6 hours with Wi-Fi and Bluetooth off and the screen dimmed when I’m surfing, watching videos and occasionally listening to music.

Software:
Apple’s Migration Assistant software easily transfers your desired data to a new Mac works flawlessly. Also, all of my documents, music, photos and applications were successfully transferred to my new MacBook Pro after following a few simple prompts.  My main concern was about transferring over 3,000 digital photos from my personal album.