Finally, the review I’ve been waiting for before considering my own purchase of an Apple Macbook Pro [ http://www.apple.com/macbookpro ] are here!

First, Ars Technica, long known as a good resource for product reviews and rankings, and definitely a must-stop-at place to go before purchasing a new computer or peripheral, finally got their hands on a MacBook Pro and has hammered out a review. While mostly positive, the review definitely brings up some of the sour points about the MacBook Pro, including it’s so-so battery life, the lack of Microsoft Office applications and professional editing apps that haven’t been translated to Universal Binaries (required to run under the new Intel architecture) yet, and aside from a few off-putting issues that made the reviewer uncomfortable, the machine seems solid and sturdy and worth a purchase. Check out the full Ars Technica review, with benchmarks for performance against a G4 Powerbook and a Dell Laptop:

[ Ars Technica :: MacBook Pro ]

Next, perhaps not quite as in-depth a review but still an incredibly valuable opinion is the opinion of New York Times writer David Pogue, who got his hands on a MacBook pro and while he believes it’s a solid system, definitely holds reservations about the lack of professional apps that have have been ported over to the Intel architecture so far, and the mysterious dissapearance of some features from the system, like the S-Video port and Firewire 800, as well as the built in modem, which has also dissapeared. (Apple suggests you purchase their USB modem if you’d like a Modem, but the system still comes with built-in ethernet, which is good enough for me, and a 20 dollar cable fixes the S-Video issue, although personally I think it should be included if it’s going to be a pithy 20 dollars) He believes the system has serious potential but it’s not quite there yet, and will be when the applications catch up. Read his review here:

[ New York Times :: Apple Laptop Has Looks and Brains ]