It was a chilly February day in 2008 when I purchased my last MacBook Pro. I logged onto the online Apple Store, loaded up the customization screen for the model I wanted, and made sure that it was as loaded as my budget would allow. It arrived with the following “amazing” specs, as the late Steve Jobs would’ve said (and did say, when he announced this model):
- 2.4GHz Core2Duo processor (two cores)
- 2GB 667MHz DDR2 RAM
- 250GB hard disk drive (5400 RPM)
- nVidia GeForce 8600M GT with 256MB of VRAM
- Battery life of 4 hours
- Mac OS X 10.4 “Tiger”
And The Years, They Wore On…
I assure you, when I first got this thing, all of my friends thought that it was the most beautiful and speedy laptop they’d ever feasted their eyes on. It was a conversation piece. A coffee table ornament. A source of breezes when I loaded applications with barely even TWO dock bounces! It was, quite simply, wonderfulmazingtastic. Then, of course, it got old. Old, old, old.
I tried to stave off the entry of my MacBook Pro into the realm of disregarded Macs (which also contains my white 14″ iBook from pre-historic times) with a 6GB RAM upgrade and a new 750GB hard disk drive running at 7200 RPM. I was successful for a while, but then the video card started to melt. This is a well-known defect for my model, and I am outside the free replacement / repair window. The time, sadly enough, had come. It was time to send iDennis Jr. into that good night on my Closet Shelf of Dust-Collecting Doom.
Introducing iDennis III, the 2012 MacBook Pro
As my Mac slowed down and struggled to run Adobe Photoshop CS6, and as the video card began to get super-hot and make my fan go crazy, I began stockpiling my cash as a replacement seemed inevitable. With great fanfare (I danced with the cats), my bank account today got the final direct deposit enabling an all-cash purchase of this beauty. No credit required! Because I’m rich. And now I’m not only filthy rich, but I have (another) fantastically amazing MacBook Pro. Let’s look at how this puppy stacks up against its predecessor.
- 2.6GHz Intel Core i7 processor (four cores)
- TurboBoost to 3.6GHz
- 16GB 1600MHz DDR3 RAM
- 512GB olid state drive
- Intel Graphics HD 4000
- nVidia GeForce GT 650M with 1GB of GDDR5 memory
- Battery life of 7.5 hours
- Mac OS X 10.7 “Lion” (free upgrade to OS X 10.8 “Mountain Lion” next month)
While my previous (and first) MacBook Pro was the traditional “PowerBook” design carried over from an earlier era in Apple history, my new model is the excellent “unibody” design with the stunning black keys, glossy high-resolution display, and battery indicator LED lights. It is SO beautiful. If I weren’t dating Special K, I’d seriously consider taking this thing fine dining.
At the very least, I’m going to buy it a case. So, welcome to the family, iDennis III. You have big shoes to fill, having replaced my first MacBook Pro ever, which in turn replaced my first Mac ever (the iBook). They grow up so fast!