Santa Rosa MacBook Pro review: The green and gold standard in high-end Intel notebooks

I got stung by my last MacBook Pro review which went to press before the unit started showing problems with build quality and durability. I would not have pronounced it so with confidence any sooner than this, but I can state now that today's MacBook Pro stands head and shoulders above Apple's prior flagship Intel notebooks, and sets a standard for performance, features, durability, eco-responsibility and quality that any PC vendor will find difficult to approach for a similar price.

The Santa Rosa MacBook Pro (named for the Intel Core 2 Duo chipset used in the notebook), perhaps also known as the LED backlit MacBook Pro, has earned its stripes. If this notebook had a frequent flier account of its own, it would have racked up enough travel miles in my carry-on bag to qualify for Gold status. I figure that this is a fitting milestone for writing this machine up, because by this point, most notebooks, including some from Apple, would be showing their age. This machine looks, feels and runs like it did when it came out of the box. Considering how sweet it was new, that's saying something.

Summary

Apple has transcended PC notebooks. The Santa Rosa MacBook Pro doesn't look or feel like any notebook you've ever driven, even if your present notebook is a Mac. It's built.

The aluminum case isn't just for style. It's armor in a meaningful way that practically begs to be used on a film set, on a seat-back table, on an international trip, in a photo studio, in a radiologist's lab, in an elite developer's lap or in the field for on-site news edits and Webcasts. The LCD panel doesn't show rainbows when you press on it from the front or the back. The magnetic lid latch and AC charger connector won't wear like spring and friction-fit alternatives do. The new LED backlight has wider extremes of dimness and brightness than common fluorescent panel backlights, and the glossy display is sharp and contrasty.

The keyboard is springy and the keys are firmly fastened; there's no hint of a clatter when you sweep your fingers across the keys. The trackpad is clearly redesigned to eliminate feedback from palms rested on either side. The display hinge holds firm in any position until you intentionally move it. With a higher memory capacity of 4 GB of RAM--I suggest that you take advantage of it, especially if an upgrade to Leopard is in your plans--making MacBook Pro your only computer is quite reasonable. When pricing next to a PC notebook, keep MacBook Pro's all-important discrete graphics processing unit (GPU) in mind. Integrated (chipset) graphics that use system memory for video RAM are ubiquitous almost everywhere but in MacBook Pro, but frankly, my dear, chipset graphics suck. Try smooth-scrolling a Web page that's jam-packed with Flash animation on a system with chipset graphics, and then do the same thing on a machine with a GPU, like MacBook Pro. Try doing anything in 3-D (OS X's awesome GUI is entirely 2-D, so it doesn't suffer) with chipset graphics. That kind of work will make any notebook run hot, but even when MacBook Pro heats up, it always keeps up. That's my standard.