Macbook Pro 2011 Review
Update:
After owning it for about 2.5 years I found out that this is actually a flawed mac model which apple has not admitted yet. There are thousands of discussion posts happening on these models with failing gpu / discrete graphics that causes it to blue screen or not pass grey screen just after the logo. A temporary fix that I do is use gfxCardStatus and set it to only use integrated graphics and it's still usable for now, but a lot of people can't pass the gray or blue screen which makes their macs brick. Until apple won't do recall or admit and replace their failed product this is probably my first and last mac. Beware also that this happened to one my friends earlier model and with another with later model. Here are links on the discussions about this:
So I bought a macbook pro 2011 last april. This is my first mac, I am an ubuntu user for few years and was a windows user before that. I have been using my mac for work for few months now. I do web development mostly. I dont know what I'm thinking when I got a mac. I am always thinking that macs are just overpriced pc's, but I'm wrong, I can now safely say that my macbook pro is worth every penny.
The build quality is just something I've never owned before, I owned a sony vaio before and it was also great but you can't put osx into it, or maybe you can but its not gonna be as good with a mac hardware.
Mac OSX is also alot better than windows and ubuntu. Although ubuntu is slowly copying what mac osx looks like, it is a better alternative than windows. But ofcourse if you are a game you can always do bootcamp and run windows 7 on your mac. You get the best of both worlds. There is alot to mac osx that you just gotta experience for yourself.
Gaming on windows bootcamp:
I have only played Portal 2 on windows bootcamp and it was flawless. No lags or anything.
Gaming on Mac:
I play Team fortress 2 and counterstrike source, both works with max settings although I dont play with max settings, cause I dont see the difference and maybe try to save the lifetime of the gpu. :)
I have the maxed out specs of macbookpro 2011. So it runs everything smoothly. Have not failed on me yet. Running 8+ hours a day(plugged in).
IDE that I use:
php/web development - phpStorm
python - pyCharm
java - intelliJ
ActionScript - FlashDevelop(with parallels+windows)
Web Development frameworks that I use:
php - Zend Framework
python - web2py
javascript - Mootools
Although I probably won't be going back to using ubuntu or windows, Im not yet an apple fanboi. I would still prefer android tablet and phones over iphone and iPad. Just because I dont get used to touchscreen keyboard, and android devices gives me that choice. But I will prefer to anybody who can afford a mac to get it as a primary computing device. But if you just want web browsing there is the new chromebook by google.
After owning it for about 2.5 years I found out that this is actually a flawed mac model which apple has not admitted yet. There are thousands of discussion posts happening on these models with failing gpu / discrete graphics that causes it to blue screen or not pass grey screen just after the logo. A temporary fix that I do is use gfxCardStatus and set it to only use integrated graphics and it's still usable for now, but a lot of people can't pass the gray or blue screen which makes their macs brick. Until apple won't do recall or admit and replace their failed product this is probably my first and last mac. Beware also that this happened to one my friends earlier model and with another with later model. Here are links on the discussions about this:
- https://discussions.apple.com/message/24067593
- http://www.mbp2011.com/
- http://www.geek.com/apple/macbook-pro-2011-owners-experiencing-hard-freeze-problem-1330689/
- http://appleinsider.com/articles/13/10/14/apples-2011-macbook-pro-lineup-suffering-from-sporadic-gpu-failures
- http://www.mactrast.com/2011/03/more-problems-emerge-for-2011-macbook-pros/
- https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4637833
- https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4766577
Here is a detailed post on what really is happening and how to fix it non-apple way cause apple way will be expensive and replace the logic board that will just make the problem show up again after the repair warranty, note that if you do this you won't be eligible for recall if apple ever decides to do it (which I doubt).
So I bought a macbook pro 2011 last april. This is my first mac, I am an ubuntu user for few years and was a windows user before that. I have been using my mac for work for few months now. I do web development mostly. I dont know what I'm thinking when I got a mac. I am always thinking that macs are just overpriced pc's, but I'm wrong, I can now safely say that my macbook pro is worth every penny.
The build quality is just something I've never owned before, I owned a sony vaio before and it was also great but you can't put osx into it, or maybe you can but its not gonna be as good with a mac hardware.
Mac OSX is also alot better than windows and ubuntu. Although ubuntu is slowly copying what mac osx looks like, it is a better alternative than windows. But ofcourse if you are a game you can always do bootcamp and run windows 7 on your mac. You get the best of both worlds. There is alot to mac osx that you just gotta experience for yourself.
Gaming on windows bootcamp:
I have only played Portal 2 on windows bootcamp and it was flawless. No lags or anything.
Gaming on Mac:
I play Team fortress 2 and counterstrike source, both works with max settings although I dont play with max settings, cause I dont see the difference and maybe try to save the lifetime of the gpu. :)
I have the maxed out specs of macbookpro 2011. So it runs everything smoothly. Have not failed on me yet. Running 8+ hours a day(plugged in).
IDE that I use:
php/web development - phpStorm
python - pyCharm
java - intelliJ
ActionScript - FlashDevelop(with parallels+windows)
Web Development frameworks that I use:
php - Zend Framework
python - web2py
javascript - Mootools
Although I probably won't be going back to using ubuntu or windows, Im not yet an apple fanboi. I would still prefer android tablet and phones over iphone and iPad. Just because I dont get used to touchscreen keyboard, and android devices gives me that choice. But I will prefer to anybody who can afford a mac to get it as a primary computing device. But if you just want web browsing there is the new chromebook by google.
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