Apple announced new Macbook Pro's today.

http://www.apple.com/macbookpro

Solid upgrade, but having to pay 135 euros extra just to get a matte display these days; does anyone agree that that kind of pricing is getting out of hand?

I was also hoping on an extra firewire port at least on the 15" en 17" and having the expresscard slot back on the 15". Oh well. Maybe in a couple of years for a slight optional pricing of 300 euros ;-)

But, in processors it's a solid upgrade, and having more battery life is always nice too.

Not really a solid upgrade at 13" which is what I was looking for. I'm really bummed. Only Intel Core 2 Duo on the 13" is a deal breaker for me.

I was also hoping on an extra firewire port at least on the 15" en 17" and having the expresscard slot back on the 15"...

Yep, Apple is sticking with their focus on pretty rather than usability. Glossy screens by default, a single FW800 port and still no ExpressCard on the 15" incher? Seems the "Pro" moniker for Mac-laptops is mostly another hyped marketing scheme by Apple; these machines are really high-end consumer devices.

By contrast you can get a Lenovo with (2) internal HDD's, ExpressCard slot, i7 CPU and a non-glossy screen by default and 8GB of RAM for a hundreds less than Apple's best offering. The hitch? It's a Windows machine.

As much as I'm a fan of the Mac OS I've absolutely no love for Apple's laptop offerings and definitely won't be purchasing a new one anytime soon - if ever if they stay this "pretty is more important than functionality" course.

>Seems the "Pro" moniker for Mac-laptops is mostly another hyped marketing scheme

Agreed. That I feel lucky they kept the ExpressCard on the 17" is ridiculous. Don't know what they are thinking.

I'm also a big fan of their software and OS, but becoming less and less a fan of their laptops. So I'm having a very similar feeling.
Pitty, because they have some very good things going from them (multi-touch, very well built, very good battery life), but I can only look at the Macbook Pro I'm working at now (bought in januari 2008) and still having to say that despite the fact that it's maybe a slower system, it still has a great matte display, and I have no problem connecting firewire-related stuff at work, not to projectors, and no problem getting EX1 footage or eSata RAIDs via the Expresscard slot...

I agree. Yet again (I think for the second or third time now) I look at my mid 2008 15 inch MBP which does everything I would want (Expresscard 34 slot for my EX3's SxS cards, 15 inch matte display, FW800 & FW400, swappable battery etc.) and wonder if Apple will every produce a MBP again that I'd rather have than this nearly 2 year old workhorse.

As for the 13 inch MBP, well they were a joke and no way "Pro" right from the start (IMHO) and this latest update changes nothing on my opinion on that!

And just for the record, the 17 incher is too big and clumsy for my needs - my worst nightmare is I drop/loose the use of my current MBP and have to get one of those as a replacement.

Shame on you Apple. From a non iPad, non iPhone, non iPod owning person (got a blummin expensive 2009 Neharlem 8-core Mac Pro though so you ought to listen!)

Yep, Apple is sticking with their focus on pretty rather than usability. Glossy screens by default, a single FW800 port and still no ExpressCard on the 15" incher? Seems the "Pro" moniker for Mac-laptops is mostly another hyped marketing scheme by Apple; these machines are really high-end consumer devices.

Apple seems to have this weird idea that "pro" features should be tied to an increase in screen size. I guess Jonathan Ives never did any production work in the field.

Ow, and another complaint, sorry to say: in Belgium for instance they upped the price of the cheapest 15" with 200 euros.

Wait! Look, just maybe Apple are starting to understand it's core customer's basic needs after all if the've finally caved in a tiny bit on that stupid mini display port thing (I've been running a 3rd party adapter cable for one of my Mac Pro's 2 big non-Apple Full HD displays for a year).

To quote...."Wait a second, can it be true? Is Apple really caving to the pressures of supporting a socket that's used by pretty much every home entertainment owner ever?"

Apple teases Mini DisplayPort to HDMI Adapter, offers no price to balk at -- Engadget (http://www.engadget.com/2010/04/13/apple-teases-mini-displayport-to-hdmi-adapter-offers-no-price-t/)

So maybe one day we'll get that mega useful (for Pro stuff) Expresscard 34 slot back on a 15 inch MBP. Yep, I know, that's a leap too far for Jobs and I'm probably in dream land...

my worst nightmare is I drop/loose the use of my current MBP and have to get one of those as a replacement.

Welcome to my world.

I had the last non-unibody 2.5Ghz 15" inch MBP *with* the express-card slot and it worked beautifully. I was using my wonderful 2-bay eSATA array (Firmtek) with the Sonnet Pro Expresscard adapter and it absolutely flowed FCS sequences almost as nicely as my old Mac Pro tower.

But, it was having the god-awful video issues associated with the Nvidia 8600M recall and after 2 main-board replacements Apple couldn't resolve the problems - it was so bad that you couldn't read any part of the screen at all.

So, they took my old machine and replaced it with the unibody 2.8Ghz version - at no cost to me. That's wonderful customer service BUT...

- I lost my Expresscard slot so no more super-fast external eSATA array, and I was forced to migrate over all my media to an external FW 2-drive setup. Much, much slower and it's painful.

- Only one FW port, now I can't connect any camera and offload footage to my FW array, I'll have to purchase a powered FW hub.

- Had to purchase the $100 mini dual-link DVI adapter to run my 30" ACD.

- The damned laptop screen is glossy; absolutely near-useless in the field without a shade or hood blocking ambient light. Really, really pissed about that.

Is it nice that Apple gave me a new machine at no cost? Totally. Is it faster than my 667Mhz bus-speed "old" version? You bet, CPU clock speeds and general usage is definitely faster. However my capabilities are also markedly hobbled without the EC34, only one FW port and a glossy screen.

Oh, and I can't simply remove the battery either when it's in "desktop mode" and save a non-required charging cycle (which also opens-up a big space for cooling). Nope, I'd have to uncork the lower case and physically unscrew the battery it from it's perma-mount. And all I can do is hope and pray the charging unit doesn't become defective and fry the battery - and the case - as I've seen happen in a few of the newer 17" inch models.

It's pretty, but it's dumbed-down and less capable. Totally backwards thinking, Apple.

What for use is all that extra computer power, if you can't even use it normally because you need all these kinds of workarounds for the most simple things?

Seems like they should just drop the "pro" & extend the macbook line.

I was looking at an upgrade & giving my 2007 2.2 to my daughter for college, oh well...
Guess we'll just update her G3 ibook to OS 10.4 for this year.

Only one FW port, now I can't connect any camera and offload footage to my FW array, I'll have to purchase a powered FW hub..

Robert, doesn't the Mac Pro support daisy chaining on your drives? That's why firewire drives have the second firewire port. Plug your camera into that. I'm pretty sure I've done it on a PC but it's been a while, so I don't remember the specifics.

I know I've recently daisy chained two drives on my PC with no issues.

I've found going all the way back to the G4 Powerbook that daisy-chaining during capture is a recipie for trouble; all that data IO easily leads to bottlenecking especially with DV50/100 bitrates. It can be done but it's not as robust as having a second, discrete FW channel - which I could easily get if I could use an ExpressCard-FW adapter and the array on the main bus.

Thankfully all my company's work is P2-based so it's a non-issue but when I get client tape-based work it's a whole different story.

But with this new machine even the "old" style workaround isn't possible which is more to the point; Apple "updates" the hardware and introduces more work and less efficiency for the working pro. And this is progress?

Yep, Apple is sticking with their focus on pretty rather than usability. Glossy screens by default, a single FW800 port and still no ExpressCard on the 15" incher? Seems the "Pro" moniker for Mac-laptops is mostly another hyped marketing scheme by Apple; these machines are really high-end consumer devices.

By contrast you can get a Lenovo with (2) internal HDD's, ExpressCard slot, i7 CPU and a non-glossy screen by default and 8GB of RAM for a hundreds less than Apple's best offering. The hitch? It's a Windows machine.

As much as I'm a fan of the Mac OS I've absolutely no love for Apple's laptop offerings and definitely won't be purchasing a new one anytime soon - if ever if they stay this "pretty is more important than functionality" course.

prob is I just sent back a brand new lenovo, top of the line machine, fully loaded, paid a fortune (yes, even by Apple stdd) and .... what a disgusting shock when I opened it. Yes, I have used Apple forever. But guys, the build quality of those lenovocrap machines is ridiculous, the next day the wifi card was no longer working, and those disgusting little mouse buttons all over the place. And did you see the mouse pad ? Man, I tried, but no way.

I don't disagree conceptually with what you say, but it isn't as easy as saying "get a lenovo". I wish it was. I tried. It just is not.

I do it all the time with my old MBP and old FW drive. But yes, on large project may be not the most robust path.

I've found going all the way back to the G4 Powerbook that daisy-chaining during capture is a recipie for trouble; all that data IO easily leads to bottlenecking especially with DV50/100 bitrates. It can be done but it's not as robust as having a second, discrete FW channel

I feel your pain. But in your case, a powered firewire hub is of no use then. It's all still going over the same single firewire bus.

Can you capture temporarily to a USB drive, using the firewire to connect the camera?

Sucks to have to figure out these workarounds, though. I'm sticking with my 2008 Macbook Pro for sure, as long as it can do the job.

I don't disagree conceptually with what you say, but it isn't as easy as saying "get a lenovo". I wish it was. I tried. It just is not.

No doubt, with everything Apple isn't doing the one thing they cannot be chided about is their build quality.

Case in point: I'm smack in the middle of doing the MCE Tech Optibay "upgrade" for a 2nd internal HDD in my new unibody (it's really the only logical option for not having a second discrete external connection for captures- and the usability review is coming this weekend) and after opening up the lower case the MBP is exactly as every other Mac I've dove into in the past 8 years inside: Near perfect layout and logical cable/connector paths. I've never seen *any* Win-tel machine so wonderfully laid out - except maybe one top-drawer Sony Vaio a few years ago.

It's disappointing that Apple forces workarounds for "pro" machines and there isn't an elegant PC-replacement (not yet) but for now all I - and any pro-apps Mac user - can do is fill in the blanks with third-party devices for what Apple refuses to do natively.

Now if we can just get good 'ol Steve J. to play nice with Flash, BR and the rest of the "stupid community" people he despises so much we'd all have a much better Mac-computing experience. I'm not holding my breath. (laughs)

oh yeah and it doesn't even work out of the box:

Apple Already Issuing Patches for New MacBooks | News & Opinion | PCMag.com (http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2362615,00.asp)

Thanks Apple

Ay, every manufacturer has had a DOA or near-dead new product on release, no biggie. At least it's not a devil-possessed Prius trying to kill you off by not braking! (^_*) And unlike Toyota at least Apple came out immediately and said, "oops, sorry people..." and offered the fix.

Not great PR but it's handled.

No bluray?

...By contrast you can get a Lenovo with (2) internal HDD's, ExpressCard slot, i7 CPU and a non-glossy screen by default and 8GB of RAM for a hundreds less than Apple's best offering. The hitch? It's a Windows machine.

Really; hundreds less?!

Hmmm, maybe I'm not configuring or adding correctly here....but a look at the Lenovo site, I priced out their ThinkPad w701 configured about the same specs as the MBP 17":

8gb RAM
500gb/7200rpm HDD

And the Lenovo came up to about the same price as the MBP; actually a hundred dollars more..give or take a few dollars. And the Lenovo charges extra for a camera and Bluetooth.

No bluray?

Well unfortunately it's not the hardware that needs to be updated, it's the OS. Obviously the hardware is BR-capable otherwise BR burners wouldn't work in BootCamp, which they do just fine. So until Apple - Steve Jobs - decides he doesn't hate BR anymore we won't see it implemented. It's that simple.

Really; hundreds less?!

Hmmm, maybe I'm not configuring or adding correctly here....but a look at the Lenovo site, I priced out their ThinkPad w701 configured about the same specs as the MBP 17":

8gb RAM
500gb/7200rpm HDD

And the Lenovo came up to about the same price as the MBP; actually a hundred dollars more..give or take a few dollars. And the Lenovo charges extra for a camera and Bluetooth.

Actually it's not a direct 17" inch comparison because only Apple's 17" inch offers things like the Expresscard slot. You can get an i7 CPU with all the goodies/EC slot etc and RAM in a 15" inch for hundreds less - why anyone would specifically want a 17" inch laptop is unclear to me, it's just too bulky-wide.

But if you really want to PC-to-Mac comparison shop - especially from an aesthetics/build quality/usability standpoint then, take a look at the "F" series from Sony Vaio: you can get a great system with Win 7 Pro - 64 bit, 16.4" inch LCD, 6GB RAM; Nivida 300M w/1GB VRAM, 500GB 7200rpm HDD, EC-34 slot, and eSATA port (!), HDMI and VGA ports oh and right...a BR burner for under $1600!.

C'mon now, that's a compelling cost comparison to any Apple offering - tons more connectivity options *built-in*, no adapters needed and for literally hundreds less. But that's not a fair comparison, is it, because it includes things Apple just doesn't offer anywhere, like eSATA, BR and HDMI all built-in.

Like I say, Apple MBP's are pretty but the PC stuff is totally built for serious work. No bones about it.

If Apple followed suit with that kind of laptop offering it would be "game over" for the question of whether or not to use a Mac or PC. But as it stands now, PC's offer a very cost-effective and compelling option no matter how you look at it.

You're spot on with that assessment above. Apple only need to offer ONE 15 inch MBP with some of the connectivity Pros really need like we've been outlining (i.e. like they used to!!! - so it can't be that hard!!! - a 'MBSuperPro' or whatever the Marketing geeks want to call it...not that I'm sure!) and it would be game over...but they are so focussed on slick consumer stuff I doubt they'll regain their former place at the top of the pile.

I would think Apple needs to rethink its MBP line and go back to the innovative offerings that made it so great. Adding to the line another model would force them to price it too hi, I would think.

But the thing is, like it's been pointed out more than once in this thread, Apple just is not anymore the company some of us was used to offering innovative products for a select group of users even at a higher price because we could easily justify it. Now, with the advent of the iPod and stuff, it's merely a consumer company...ah, too bad. We just need the new Apple.

How about an eSata port? That can't be that hard and it would reduce the call for an ExpressPort on the 15". Put your external drive on the eSata and the camera/capture hardware on the FW800.

On another topic, why hasn't anybody ever made a simple VTR to file codec of your choice hardware conversion box? Like the FireStore but simpler. Hook it up to an off the shelf external drive and capture. Switch the drive to your computer and edit.

On another topic, why hasn't anybody ever made a simple VTR to file codec of your choice hardware conversion box? Like the FireStore but simpler. Hook it up to an off the shelf external drive and capture. Switch the drive to your computer and edit.

You mean like this?:

Ki Pro Recorder - AJA Video Systems (http://www.aja.com/products/ki-pro/)

Almost... The electronics in one of these things should only take up the size of a deck of cards, with battery. The connectors take up more room. I want to hook up an off the shelf hard drive and not a "storage unit" that the company retails. This way we would be free of the need to use a computer to capture video and we can use the drives of our choice. And a MacBook Pro would work fine as is. Still needs an eSATA port.

Where ever Jobs is going at least he sets a course for the company and relies on his instincts (however faulty they may prove to be or not). How many companies do that anymore? It's all marketing now with layers of focus groups and lawyers. Visionaries don't always envision practical things but at least Jobs has had a good average so far.

I'm still using FCP6 and see no reason to upgrade, and i'd sooner buy a 2 year old MBP on ebay than fork out for the latest one. That suggests to me that Apple have truly taken their eye off the ball for people such as myself.\

Robert Lane.
Good posts. Couldn't agree more, i've not yet reached the stage when i can seriously stomach a return to Windows, but Apple need to raise their game for Video people IMO.

God help me I just broke down and got a 13" MBP. It won't come for a few days. Anybody else got one yet?

...i've not yet reached the stage when i can seriously stomach a return to Windows, but Apple need to raise their game for Video people IMO.

Echoed throughout the community, to be sure.

However I do have a "bright side" to the land of other possibilities: I've been on the CS5 beta team for a bit now and have played with PP/Encore both on 10.6 and Vista-64 and I'm impressed, especially on the Windows side. I fully expected I could get the Win version to crash or at least hiccup when throwing it really heavy-duty tasks (like beta testers are supposed to) and it never did. And, it crunched the exact same test sequence faster than on the Mac-side (there are specific reasons for this that I'm not allowed to divulge as of yet).

So while I concur with your squeamishness about possibly crossing over in the future I think those fears rest with the well-known "I can crash XP by just looking at it" days; Vista-64 is rock solid with CS5 and I suspect Win-7 would be even better.

But don't misunderstand me, I'm not about to abandon my Mac-based platform anytime soon even if Apple goes completely wonky and leaves FCS in the dust for much-required updates, but what Adobe has brought forward with PP is very significant and will make both Mac and PC editors extremely happy.

Well as disappointed, angry or whatever people feel about Mr. Jobs and the direction he's taking the company; it's HIS company. He is a VERY smart individual and I wish him continued good health.

Back to the topic of the new MBP's, they are very nice. Could it be better?! Of course....but then again so can the Lenovo's, Sony's, Dell's, etc....

Andrew Clark

"whatever people feel about Mr. Jobs and the direction he's taking the company; it's HIS company"

Well, yes. However Jobs has done very nicely out of video folks who've been very loyal to his company and have been rewarded with excellent tools up until a couple of years ago. The fact is things have drifted somewhat lately, and some of the decisions they've made have not been good for us. No Bluray, shiny screens, No Firewire for Macbooks FFS!

And one can argue that Jobs doesn't care because he's got his iphones/pads etc, but a time may come when video people decide they don't need Apple anymore, and that would be a shame.

Final Cut Pro is far and away the most popular NLE in the world, but i can see the competition moving closer if Apple are seen to be dithering.

FCS3 was a joke compared with the previous upgrade, and Apple need to pull their finger out.

I totally agree. However the creative individual that bought into & supported Apple because it was the better platform/hardware for their industry, are now backed into a corner with the choice of 2 machines. A 17" MBP and a MP and neither are at the top of their game. This equals understandable frustration.

Personally I think it might be time for these "frustrated individuals" to stand together and maybe start some kind of "public" petition. (Dissatisfied Apple pro users). Apples whole ad campaign revolves around how people love their macs, if a large group of pro users came to them with the possibility of going public with their grievances, I think Apple would have to listen.

Just curious, does anybody know if these new MBP's have a SATA I or SATA II capable interface?

I remember some talk about the previous MBP's having only SATA I capabilities until a firmware upgrade was issued. Don't know how true that is.

Can anyone shed some light on these issues?

This is why I have never been such a huge fan of laptops. You pay a premium for mediocre performance and you are usually stuck with only a few options that may not always work out for you. I see so many film students buy a 17" MBP thinking it is going to be a killer system for editing when a base model Imac would have beat the pants off of it for 1/2 the price. Heck even the Mac Mini outside of the video card was equal to every Mac laptop except the 17" I know a lot of pros laugh at the Mac Mini but if you compare the specs it has the same guts as most of the laptops and performs just as well except when using the gpu. Sure raw power isn't everything but it is when you are editing and when you are on a budget. I personally have never been a fan of editing on a laptop anyway due to ergonomics and the small screen size.

Seriously instead of buying a 17" MBP it makes more sense to buy a 21.5" Imac for $1,200.00 and a 13" MB for $1,000.00. This gives you better editing performance then the 17" plus even more mobile portability and decent performance for rough edits. It also allows you to do a network render or just use one system for rendering from your external drive while you work on your next project on the other system.

The problem I have with the new MBP's is that they are misleading as well. If you look at the Apple Store all they say is core i5 or i7 at 2.53 Ghz or 2.66 Ghz. Now if you look at the 27" Imac it says the same thing but in the case of the Imac they are true quad core cpu's while the MBP's are dual core versions of the cpu. This could trick a lot of people who don't know better to look deeper into what i5 and i7 really mean. Sure there is a little blurb that says each processor features two cores but how many people are going to miss that? Although to be fair to Apple this has more to do with the lame way Intel is naming their current cpu's.

Thomas,

this is a seperate discussion. Everyone knows a desktop always gives better performance then a laptop (often), but mobility can be VERY important in our business. And also: a laptop is powerful enough for many high end tasks, like editing HD, exporting and making graphics even, and authoring dvd's.

A 15" MBP of a couple years ago was perfectly capable of doing such things. But with cutting out the Expresscard slot they now force video pro's to buy a 17", which is much more expensive (and bigger).
And because the glossy screens are standard, now you also have to pay a premium just to have a matte screen.

An iMac i7 seems like a great machine. I'm even thinking about buying one. But only one firewire800 port without anything else? Damnit, that's limiting.
Just an Expresscardslot would do so much...
But no. You have to buy a Mac Pro for that.

Apple has now cornered video-people. They all have investments in the Apple platform (which still has a great OS, and many great software), which is often difficult to leave. But every year they make the prices higher for the machines capable for our work. Because of power? No. Because leaving out ports and connectability. Small things. A 13" MBP has enough power to edit. That's not the problem. Not being able to connect a RAID for instance, is one problem. Only having one VERY high glossy screen.

In 2008 I bought a MBP for 1800 euros with Expresscard slot, matte screen, Dual-link DVI, and 2 firewire ports.
If I want to do the same thing now, I have to spend 2500 euros.
I have to buy the 17", I have to pay a premium for the matte screen, I have to buy very expensive adapters, and i STILL only have one firewire port.
The discussion has nothing to do with choosing a laptop over a desktop. Although there you can also notice that Apple is making the prices of Mac Pro's more expensive every year. They know the video-people need these certain things, so they HAVE to pony up the money because of significant investments in software. If I hear that there was a time of 1500 euros-Powermacs, than I'm thinking: what the hell? That's a 1000 dollar difference with today for the cheapest intro-model!

Yes, Apple makes great computers. Their software is great - except for the fact that FCS is running behind the competition now in many aspects. But making your loyal customers pay 700 to 1000 euros more, just because you are artificially deciding to cut ports, cut models, and cut everything you want that they need... is just greedy. And THEN on top of that, calling these laptop models "Macbook Pro's" ... is... very sad.

How about an eSata port? That can't be that hard and it would reduce the call for an ExpressPort on the 15".

Be careful here - this may work for SOME but then keeps some from being able to use Matrox's MXO2 line. This is the FUNDAMENTAL problem: what SOME people need for their workflow isn't what others need.

EDIT: Of course, the 15" doesn't currently offer EITHER...

The reason I mention that it shouldn't be hard is that, unless I'm mistaken, SATA is built into the motherboard for the internal drive already. A little bit of engineering (how easy to say that) can bring a port to the chassis. On the other hand, I can see where the space needed for an expresscard slot is space Apple thought better used for something else, like dual video boards. Has anybody seen what is in place of the slot on the new 15"? I'm sure it has been filled up with something.

Well this is what's inside - not a lot of spare room - but to paraphrase what you wrote, if the Marketing will is there, the Engineers can make it happen. I know 'cause I spent 20 years doing just that - not with computers though!

15-inch Core i5 MacBook Pro torn asunder: no alarms and no surprises -- Engadget (http://www.engadget.com/2010/04/16/15-inch-core-i5-macbook-pro-torn-asunder-no-alarms-and-no-surpr/)

Has anybody seen what is in place of the slot on the new 15"? I'm sure it has been filled up with something.

well starting last year, when they took out the express slot they added the SD card slot, Looks like they crammed all the connections on the left side, the SD slot is in the place of the old express slot & the CD/DVD is on the right, where most of the connections are on my 07. Of course having the express slot instead, does not limit SD card users.

How many 15" laptops w/ expresscard slot would Apple have to sell to make it feasible for them to make that model in addition to the SD slot model? 1000? 10,000? How can people convince them that they would not loose 17" sales?

But what's the point. An express media reader is about $30. Currently I use Compact flash cards and no SD, so an express 34 MBP with no SD slot should please everyone.

They don't need 2 designs.

They would lose some 17" sales, but they wouldn't lose sales. Sounds like a lot of us are just holding onto our older 15" because of this.

How can people convince them that they would not loose 17" sales?

They would.
It's simple. People who used to want to buy a 17" are still going to buy a 17".
People who used to buy a 15" and didn't need the expresscard slot will still buy a 15".
But all the people who used to buy the 15" and needed the expresscard slot now buy a 17" (or switch platforms).

why anyone would specifically want a 17" inch laptop is unclear to me, it's just too bulky-wide.Not for me it's not. I like 1920x1200 resolution on my laptop but then maybe I am just awkward as I have a 30" 2560x1600 screen as the main monitor on my Mac pro with a 24" 1920x1200 as a secondary.

....why anyone would specifically want a 17" inch laptop is unclear to me, it's just too bulky-wide.

It's called personal preference.

...But if you really want to PC-to-Mac comparison shop - especially from an aesthetics/build quality/usability standpoint then, take a look at the "F" series from Sony Vaio: you can get a great system with Win 7 Pro - 64 bit, 16.4" inch LCD, 6GB RAM; Nivida 300M w/1GB VRAM, 500GB 7200rpm HDD, EC-34 slot, and eSATA port (!), HDMI and VGA ports oh and right...a BR burner for under $1600!.

The Sony "F" series screens are not LED and are glossy. VGA port?! That's a plus?!

PC's offer a very cost-effective and compelling option no matter how you look at it.

Well unless you utilize the FCS of tools, it's not!!

Not for me it's not. I like 1920x1200 resolution on my laptop but then maybe I am just awkward as I have a 30" 2560x1600 screen as the main monitor on my Mac pro with a 24" 1920x1200 as a secondary.

Agree w/you Nigel; 1920x1200 is superb for my needs as well as I figure it's always nice to have that bit of extra rez; hence your 2560x1600 30-inch monitor!!

And finding a "MATTE" finish laptop screen is a rare thing these days....as well as for desktop monitors.