My MacBook Pro Sucks
September 10th, 2006 Filed in: Reviews, Mac Jump to commentsI recently bought a new MacBook Pro (my first Apple computer). Yes, I am one of the switchers. I have been a PC user for a while until Apple introduced Intel-based Mac notebook. I was tempted by the MacBook Pro and brought a 15.4-inch display, 2.16GHz Intel Core Duo, with 2GB of RAM (upgraded from 1GB). After couple hours of fun playing around with the Mac OS X, I installed Adobe CS2 and did couple test runs. I was so disappointed on its performance. It even runs slower than my old PC laptop (1.5GHz Centrino with 1GB RAM). That is impossible since the new MacBook has 2.16GHz CPU with 2GB of RAM. I thought it could be my Adobe software issue. So I went to install Macromedia Studio 8 to see how it perform. Same result - slow.
I got frustrated and did a quick search on Google. I found this review from MacWorld. Apparently, neither Adobe CS2 nor Macromedia Studio 8 supports Intel-based Macs (running on Rosetta) yet. Fortunately, Adobe has announced that they will fix this issue to support Intel-based Mac computers in the next versions. So, if you are planning to get a MacBook Pro as your work computer, you’ll be better off waiting until Adobe release the next version of Creative Suite.
Note: Universal application like Safari, iLife and Mail are running fine and smoothy on my MacBook.
Update
June 6, 2007
I’m now using Adobe CS3 on my MacBook and they run very nice. However, I still have problem with the heat issues (extremely hot when charging). I heard the second generation released in Oct 2006 is faster than my first generation and the heat issue is resolved.
October 23rd, 2008 at 12:22 am
I’m a PC! Specifically, a 2.5GHz Core2Duo (T9300) w/ 4GB RAM and two (2) hard drives spinning at 7200RPM and I can kick your MacBook Pros butt around the block. Photoshop CS3 opens in about 1 second. Dig it, kids. Yeah, Vista Business: no crashes, period. Rock solid stable, no joke. And best of all, I can put my laptop on my lap! Yeah!
October 15th, 2008 at 12:43 am
Macbook Pro doesn’t come with HDMI?? what the? I won’t buy unless it comes with HTMI. How am i to hook it up with my HDTV. I don’t want to use two cables -1 for Video and -2 for Sound? what were you thinking Steve Jobs?
October 11th, 2008 at 3:40 pm
Use Adobe CS3 for you Macbook Pro. It worked fine to me. I have no problem so far… Very fast…
September 25th, 2008 at 5:14 pm
AHHHH.. I switched and I hate it.Im also eating crow because I bragged about it so much in the begining before reality set in.
It has been a full year now. I have 2 MBPs. One for work and one for home. CS3, MS Office etc and Im on them from the time I wake up til bed.
WHAT A JOKE! They are slow and clumsy, Seems that Apple is more worried about making my icons bounce around and reflect that to worry about running my programs.
Perfect example of FUNCTION FOLLOWING FORM for which Apple is known.
After 1 year, I installed XP (bootcamp) on my work mac. WOW! It really screams! I have never had a faster PC. To compare, I can count to 20 to open Excel for mac. I cant get to TWO on the MBP running XP. The difference is night and day. But it does get HOT! I left my home machine a mac because I dont use it for anything of importance that requires efficiency. If you are totally computer illiterate (like all our mac users at work or my grandma) and all you do is email, itunes and surf web, mac my be for you.
OS X is dumbed down to the lowest common denominator for grandma’s and stoners. But not for people who need to actually get something done. It attracts people the same way shiny objects attract crows. PS. You are not really creative just because you use a drag n drop, “creativity in a can” template that some designer at apple created for you and lets you tweak.
MS Entourage is NOT a replacement for Outlook. If your business runs on exchange, DONT EVEN THINK OF RUNNING OSX!!!!
August 27th, 2008 at 5:33 pm
Okay that is weird. I just bought a macbook pro, and Adobe Photoshop CS2 is working fine on my computer. I dont have any problems with it.
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August 14th, 2008 at 12:15 pm
Hi, let me tell you that the Adobe Photoshop CS2 was not made for Intel Core Processor, so you need to use the CS3 version on your apple, i use it and i have really good perfomance on my Mac (same as you).
August 13th, 2008 at 5:27 pm
Well, Im not impressed with the MBP dual core 2 Duo 2.33Ghz. I am very upset with this computer. Shortly after I purchased the unit, Apple released a Flash update and trashed the mother board. They replaced the board on Warranty. I have had many issues that were repaired via patch, but some that have never been resolved. My Gigabit Ethernet locks up when my computer is under a heavy load, and doesn’t come back unless it is rebooted. The internal LG GWA4080MA died shortly after a service patch for it updated the firmware to AE39 and now the drive has many faults. The patch was quietly pulled from Apple.
When connected to a Monitor and external keyboard, the right USB goes to sleep leaving me with one USB port.
Not good for the work I do, not enough bandwidth for my work. I have a 6 year old HP with Solaris 10u5 on it and it is much more stable and reliable then the MBP. This was my first and last Apple computer.
August 7th, 2008 at 3:42 am
Hello guys!!
since many years ago i work in both platforms, win and mac. Got a G4, G5, MacBook and plenty of PCs.
I don’t know the reason but news Mac certainly sucks on powerful. Maybe it’s caused by Intel processors, I don’t know, but my G4 (700MH & 768 MB RAM) it’s almost fast than news G5 with 2.4 GHz and 4 Gb RAM.
Don’t know the reason but it’s real.
’bout windows platforms they just better since win2k and new PCs are really fast and stable. Ops, with the exception on Vista: it’s horrible, programs crashes continuosly…
July 29th, 2008 at 10:22 am
Adobe is a windows native product. It runs slow because the mac has to use rosetta to translate everything. A large part of the performance issues that you speak of are a result of this translation and are not truely CPU or GPU oriented. Solution would be to install XP with bootcamp and use XP for adobe software.