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Verified purchase: Yes | Condition: Pre-owned
I cannot praise this machine enough, it is fast, durable, has an awesomely big screen. Simply one of those that stands the rest of time.
Verified purchase: No
I am Puzzled what that. is as I did not look at or orderit
Verified purchase: Yes | Condition: Pre-owned
My 17" late 2011 MacBook Pro has been the best laptop I have ever owned. The screen is breathtaking and although the difference between 15 and 17 doesn't sound a lot.. it is!
Verified purchase: No
Well, Apple don't do "cheap" and their stuff retains a good amount of value on the 2nd hand market. Modern revisions of this laptop are great as a desktop replacement where you might be doing HD video work, but still need to occasionally relocate. It is easily portable, but it's obviously not the most portable solution if you're not bothered about the HD display and video crunching ability. A MacBook Air + Thunderbolt display was also on my shortlist but the grunt of this 17" MacBook Pro for chomping video is pretty phenomenal, all things considered. The 4 physical cores are hyper threaded under Lion meaning the OS sees 8 CPU - nice! Plus the 8GB RAM makes the most of 64bit architecture and although Macs (somewhat deservedly) have a reputation for not "doing" games, I do intend to put the 1GB dedicated VRAM to the test once I've found something in the App store that isn't five years old ;)Read full review
A couple of years ago I was a bit mean and got the 2009 model core2duo with a reflective screen. I almost immediately regretted not having spent the difference on a later one, though at the time the final i7 late 2011 was unavailable. Getting frustrated using the 2.8gh 2009 on DxO optics, my photo-editing programme, I kept looking for faster versions, and having found it have not regretted it; the extra speed and 16Gb ram instead of 8 makes the difference between having to wait and it all going smoothly. The anti-glare screen is an added bonus and I realise how much I was pretending to be satisfied for the years with a standard. The only caution is that it was really a pig getting my info transferred from the older one. Mountain Lion is not the same programme on i7 as on core2duo, migration was a non-event and it was several weeks before I cleared the last (I hope) glitch. There is still a question mark over the 500ssd and wonder if I should have kept my 1TB 5400rpm On the whole though, if you do serious photography or similar, grab one of the last few on the market before it become noneRead full review
This is quite a bit heavier than my old Core 2 duo 15" MacBook Pro, but it is about four times faster, and the screen size is massive. It took me quite a while to make a choice as to which model I was going to get, and in the end I didn't really need the extra 10% that a late 2011 model would give, but the availability of a Thunderbolt port did, which ruled out the 2010 and earlier models. I also sort out the anti glare screen option, because my old MacBook had this, and the glossy screens are too reflective, however the blacks don't look quite as black. Boot times are better than my old MacBook Pro at around 40secs, but I can fit a SSD later to half this when they come down in price, like I have down with older laptops in the family. Battery life is excellent, especially if you dim the screen, and just using wifi and internet browsing at around 8 hrs plus. Obviously it takes a hit ripping a DVD, but I'd still get 5 hours doing this. As Apple don't make the 17" anymore, and the refurb store items are still commanding top prices, you can find the odd bargain on eBay. I bought this one because it ticked the boxes, had AppleCare warranty, anti glare screen, and Thunderbolt, plus it had a quad core processor, so I'll get a couple of annual OSX upgrades out of this model. Really pleased with this laptop so far, build quality is excellent, and the extra screen size when using CAD, is well worth the extra weight. Also working away from home it makes a great "portable" desktop.Read full review