Review / analysis summary of the new 17-inch MacBook Pro and Safari 4 Public Beta

Apple announced the new MacBook Pro unibody 17 inches at the last Macworld Expo in January, and launched Safari 4 Public Beta at the end of last month. The browser was made available immediately, but the laptop did not reach the first buyers until mid-February, which is why they are only starting to pop up reviews / reviews of the product.

17-inch MacBook Pro running Safari 4 Public Beta17-inch MacBook Pro running Safari 4 Public Beta

I decided to summarize everything I saw and read about them in an article for you, adding, of course, some considerations of mine. Let's go?

17-inch MacBook Pro

CNET: highlights its HD screen (with 1920 × 1200 pixel resolution), double option of graphic chipsets (they didn’t like the user having to log in for the change to take effect), trackpad and aluminum monobloc construction as highlights, despite quote your high price. They think the offer of a matte option is positive (matte) for the display, but do not agree with the extra price for its replacement.

LAPTOP: loved the new durable design, characterized it as the thinnest and lightest 17-inch notebook on the market, a plus for its new long-life battery (but a negative for not being removable) and multi-touch trackpad. They missed a Blu-ray option and a memory card reader (nothing Apple-like, by the way) and, again, they considered its price too high.

Engadget: they find it an excellent machine for advanced users who need the canvas it offers and have given many points for its renewed design. The price of replacing the internal battery is quoted as a small sum, but they conclude that anyone who pays for such a computer would not mind spending the $ 180 charged by Apple, if necessary. They call for the return of the matte screen option for the entire line, including the 15-inch models.

MACMAGAZINE: despite having touched the machine very little, i already decided that it is my next purchase (now only the money is missing). The high definition screen is just fantastic (you can hardly see the pixels with the naked eye) and I give many points for the environmental concern that Apple has had in its most recent releases. A factory setup with 4GB of RAM and 320GB of disk space on a laptop is also more than welcome.

Safari 4 Public Beta

Walt Mossberg: proved in tests in both the Mac and Windows world that the browser is, in fact, the fastest on the market. However, he hated the changes to its interface, especially the tabs at the top. Furthermore, it considers them, together with the resource Top Sites, “Copies of Google Chrome”. You miss the blue progress bar below the URL (which we have already shown how to bring back).

Paul Stamatiou: also highlights his performance, but as a developer he loved the improvements in Web Inspector, stating that the famous Firebug no longer offers so many differentials in relation to it. Finally, for a beta, he was happy with the overall stability of the browser.

Gizmodo Brazil: I don't need to comment (again) on speed, but the author was undecided (about being positive or not) about the visual novelties of the browser, although he always considers changes welcome. He liked the performance of search suggestions, but thinks that the completion of URLs could be more advanced and he misses personalized options for sites. Another one that gave point to its stability.

MACMAGAZINE: I am passionate about Firefox, but I gave Safari a new chance with the release of this new version. Right away, I had a problem with the WordPress post editing screen, which fortunately was quickly fixed in a nightly build of WebKit. The browser really fast, in fact, and I used the feature Top Sites more than I imagined at first. However, I was not able to get used to the flaps at the top (let alone the fact that, to move them, I need to use that little conezinho in the right corner) at all. Besides, it bothers me a lot to use Gmail on it and it comes from the previous version. It just doesn't work as well as it does in Firefox, the status bar continuously shows that there are items being loaded and sometimes some things just aren't loaded on the screen. For now, I'm back fox.