I have upgraded to this model (early 2011 Quad Core i7 17 "MacBook Pro) from the first of Apple's series of" unibody "laptops (the end of 2008, Core 2 Duo 15" MacBook Pro). Both have been good, laptops, and has striking similarities given year between them. But what makes the difference here is pure raw speed.
The i7 processor has four cores each running at 2.2 GHz and the ability to "hyperthread" to work in a virtual eight key fashion. Applications should be written in a certain way to take full advantage of the many-core processor, but has another trick up its sleeve in such cases. If some of the kernels are used as processing speed of them is in use, bumped up. This leads to the breakneck speed across the board.
Other enhancements include automatic switching between the two included (and upgraded) video processors, a high performance and the other for economic power. A new "Thunderbolt" port is available, allowing for extremely high speed data transmission to and from external devices (as soon as they become available with this new standard!). This is in addition to the more familiar set of ports, including Gigabit Ethernet, FireWire 800, USB 2.0, digital audio in / out, analog audio in / out, MagSafe, etc.
Although this laptop can not physically appear to be a new model, I think it is an advantage in itself. This is my second unibody Macs, I can confirm that Apple has a brilliant case design that needs no modification. One need only pick it up immediately feel solid build quality and robustness, despite its thin and relatively light specifications. The body is carved from a solid block of aluminum, and save to the back, there are no visible seams or screws. There is a world of difference between this and most other laptops plastic.
Unfortunately, Apple has decided to saddle bag this evil-FAST tank with a relatively full house 5400rpm hard drive that ends up as a major bottleneck in performance at startup and other disk-intensive times. I appreciate the capacity is 750 GB drive, but replacing it with my current 500 GB solid state hybrid drive gave an extra performance worth the reduction in storage space. In addition, nearly all changes of the internal components seem relatively simple, since the back plate removed to show everyone.
Finally, this is a fast machine that is only visible defects are covered large, but not impressive hard drive. Replace it for a faster drive (especially a SSD) and this is a laptop that can not be filled.
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