So I’ve had my new MacBook Pro for 5 full days now and honestly, I love it. I love laptop computers in general (what’s not to love?) but I doubly love my MacBook Pro. The fact that it’s shiny and an attention grabber makes it all the more better. But is it all just purely asthetics? No, it goes way beyond that.

However, let’s just stick with the asthetics, if we may. From the minute I took the MacBook Pro box out of the shipping box, I knew I was going to be in for a treat. The box itself was plenty sexy and it gave me a glimpse of the joy that it contained inside. Encased in aluminium, the notebook is a sight to behold. The big Apple logo on the top is in instant signal to everyone around that this was one special beast. Even if I don’t turn on the computer, just looking at it could cause someone to start drooling uncontrollably. The glossy screen makes everything look better and because I watch videos and have lots of photos on my computer, it just made sense to choose a glossy screen over a matte screen. Digging into the hardware…

Specifically, the model I got was the 15-inch 2.5GHz version, which is the middle of the three stock models available. It was $500 more than the low-end model but I opted for this mid-end model because it had a slightly more powerful processor, a larger cache (although honestly, I personally don’t know what the advantage is), 50GB of hard drive space, and an extra 256MB of on-board memory on the video card. As I work with graphics and photos, the better video was a big factor. Also, because I do tend to download a lot of videos and I listen to a lot of music, the extra hard drive space will be of use.

Now, did I really need to buy a new computer? No. My desktop PC works perfectly fine (although I could use some more storage space) for everything I want to do on a computer. I have all my music on it, I have my graphics software on it, I can edit/manage my website, and my photos were doing just fine. But it wasn’t a Mac. Call it brilliant marketing or call it “once you go Mac, you never go back” but once I bought my first iPod (I’m on my third now), I knew eventually I’d be a Mac user. Many of my friends were already either long-time Mac users or recent converters and I wanted to join that club.

Having a notebook computer was also something I was looking into more and more, ever since I went to New York last year. I have an old notebook computer (the battery has died so it’s not really portable anymore) that I brought with me on my trip but it was just so slow and buggy (it would turn off for no reason) that it would have been better had I not brought it. And on my recent trip to UK/Europe, having a computer would have been SO useful. Never mind the fact that I’d have my computer with me on the plane, but I went to so many Internet cafes during my trip. If it wasn’t to check my e-mails, it was to book flights. If it wasn’t to book flights, it was to find hostels and directions. And if it wasn’t for any of those tasks, it was to just simply burn my photos to a DVD. So having a computer with me would have made the trip so much easier. I had hoped that the MacBook Pros would be released before my trip so I’d be able to order one and bring it with me, but it wasn’t to be.

So what are my thoughts after 5 solid days of owning a MacBook Pro? I said it before and I’ll say it again now: I love it. It’s slick and it’s sexy. I haven’t fully utilized the portability aspect of it yet, since I don’t have a case for it and I haven’t taken it out of the house, but one day, I had to make some food in the kitchen and since I had to keep my eye on the food, I brought my MacBook Pro with me to the kitchen and was in full-on multi-tasking mode. I love the trackpad. It’s the new multi-touch trackpad that was first introduced on the MacBook Air and I find myself using the functions quite a bit, even though I have a wireless Mighty Mouse. I also love the iSight camera. It was also one of the features of the MacBook Pro that was looking forward to using. And I had my first iChat video conference with my friend on Friday and it was pretty cool

However, I think it’s more because of Mac OS X Leopard, than anything else. It just makes everything so damn simple. Installing programs is a breeze and tasks are much more easier. The widgets are brilliant and so useful. The included iLife ‘08 suite is great. I was really looking forward to using iPhoto to organize and maintain all my photos. I wish iPhoto was available for the PC. Sure, there’s Picasa, but I just like iPhoto that much better. I played with GarageBand a little bit and it’s fun messy with all the instruments (but unless I’m really trying to put a piece together, I probably won’t deal with it too much). I’m sure I can find some use for iMovie and iDVD in the future, but for now, I’m not really looking at it.

Everything I can do on the PC, I can do on the Mac. Easier, faster, and more enjoyable, I don’t think I’ll ever buy another PC computer ever again.