Tuesday, January 13, 2009

The perfect Windows 7 notebook

Well, the perfect Windows 7 notebook [that I own].  I’m sitting at one of my sons wrestling matches typing this into Windows Live Writer running on Windows 7 on a Penryn Macbook Pro.  And boy is it sweet.

I’ve had either Vista or Windows Server 2008 dual booting on this Mac since the day I bought it and was never really satisfied with it. I blogged how nice it was shortly after I got it but there seemed to be some nagging issues with it.   It always seemed to get too hot.  The other main issue was that it would frequently not got to sleep properly.  It was not uncommon for m to fully charge the battery, use it for a few minutes, close the lid, and then come back the next day to a dead machine.  Very frustrating.

As soon as Windows 7 beta hit the streets I had to give it a try and I am sure glad I did.  The sleep issues seem to have been fixed.  Windows 7 picked up the built-in wireless without needing to install the Boot Camp drivers (though I did install them later to get the keyboard and iSight working).  It also doesn’t seem to get hot any longer.  I’ve used it extensively on my lap both on and off power.  Only slightly warm.   Very nice.

Oh, and the battery life.  Under Vista I really would not get any more than 2 hours.  It definitely seems better.  I would say nearly 3 hours but I don’t have specific data on that. 

What do you get when you combine the sleekness and features of a MacBook Pro with the dual boot goodness of Windows 7 and OS/X?  Get one and find out!  You won’t be disappointed.