Apple Mac Pro (Mid 2010) Review
by Anand Lal Shimpi on October 6, 2010 9:26 PM ESTInput Devices
The Mac Pro ships with two input devices by default: the Apple USB keyboard with numeric keypad, and the Magic Mouse.
The keyboard I'm a huge fan of. If you're ok with the relatively condensed design, it's great to type on. The angle feels just right, there's good feedback from the keys and even the key travel seems just right. The biggest issue is that it isn't an ergonomic design in the style of the Microsoft Natural keyboards.
You get a row of helpful function keys along the top and two USB ports integrated into the keyboard itself. The ports are only good for delivering 100mA of power so you'll have to look elsewhere to charge your iPhone/iPod.
I've used the keyboard before, it's actually what I do most of my writing on. I'd say there's still tons of room for improvement in the comfort department so I'd like to see Apple go back to the drawing board with its now 3-year old design. The mouse however, I'd never had any real experience with.
The Mighty Mouse was Apple's first attempt at a two-button mouse with a modern Mac. By using a touch sensor in the mouse itself you could push on the right side of the mouse to simulate a right click. A nifty way of adding a right mouse button without actually capitulating to the demands of the radical two buttoners.
The successor to the Mighty Mouse is named the Magic Mouse. Stylistically the Magic Mouse is probably the best looking mouse I've ever used. It looks great on a desk. Even the on/off switch underneath is well designed. It also takes touch to the next level. Instead of using a touch sensor to simply determine left from right clicks, you can now gesture on the surface of the mouse.
The supported gestures include scrolling (both horizontally and vertically) and two finger swipe to flip through photos or web pages.
The scrolling gestures are nice. I found myself getting excited whenever I’d have a window open that I needed to scroll in. It’s just so much more effortless than using a scrollwheel, even the newer low-friction wheels. But at the end of the day I just couldn't get over the ergonomics of the mouse. Matthew Witheiler, the first AnandTech Senior GPU Editor, swears by his but I couldn't get used to it. The Magic Mouse is extremely low profile and doesn't really contour to my hand at all. I suppose it's ok for occasional mousing but I simply point too often.
The Magic Mouse also lacks the smooth tracking feel that most Microsoft and Logitech mice have. There are two plastic strips that run along the base of the mouse, serving as feet. They are solid plastic with no soft coating at all. If you use your mouse on a desk without a mousepad it feels like you're scraping the mouse across the desk rather than smoothly gliding it across. Even on a mousepad the feel isn't great.
If you like the idea of going all the way with touch on a desktop there’s also the optional Magic Trackpad. This one doesn’t come with the Mac Pro but it is a $69 option. And as its name implies, it’s a giant trackpad.
I was a lot happier with the Magic Trackpad than I was with the Magic Mouse. The gestures are easier to do and you get more of them. By far the most useful was sliding four fingers up or down on the trackpad to trigger different Exposé modes. Scrolling is also nice and smooth and the trackpad surface is arguably too big, I don’t use most of it but it’s nice to have.
My biggest issue with the Magic Trackpad is its positioning on my desk. Trackpads work on notebooks because they’re situated directly in front of your keyboard. Move your right hand down for tracking and back up for typing. On a desk the trackpad is physically a lot further away from your hands. You can position it in front of your keyboard but then it interferes with typing since the trackpad doesn’t lay flat on your desk.
You could argue that the trackpad is the same distance away from your hands as a traditional mouse, but I believe one of the benefits of a trackpad is its closer-than-a-mouse location. You lose that advantage with the Magic Trackpad.
Other than that it boils down to personal preference. While I have no problems using a trackpad on a notebook, at my desk I still use a mouse. The trackpad is nice for gestures but it’s not good for gaming and I find that I’m slower with it for precision movements than a mouse.
Both the Magic Trackpad and Magic Mouse are Bluetooth devices that rely on two AA batteries. The pairing process is simple under OS X, although it’s worth mentioning that you’ll have no mouse support until you do install Apple’s drivers under Boot Camp. That means you’ll have to go through the Windows install process without a mouse.
Assuming linear battery drain based on our testing we estimate around 6 months of battery life on the Magic Trackpad. I haven’t used the Magic Mouse enough to give you an equivalent estimate.
On the 2009 Mac Pro I noticed an issue with Bluetooth reception and the Magic Trackpad where I’d occasionally get a stuttery mouse cursor. Users have tracked this down to an issue with the Bluetooth antenna in the system not being sensitive enough. In my testing of the 2010 Mac Pro I haven’t been able to duplicate the problem but that’s not to say it’s gone entirely. It’s just that so far things have been fine.
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Nardman - Friday, October 15, 2010 - link
^^This argument becomes valid the moment a Mac Pro can pull a doughnut.Cotak, handling is a tangible, quantifiable characteristic...
Apple products have sold for years based on the intangible 'worth' of them. What, exactly, makes the Mac Pro better than any other machine? That would be nothing...aside from a price tag, and marketing. Sorry, but that case is not worth $400(+)
mattgmann - Thursday, October 7, 2010 - link
I really can't understand the premium for these workstation class systems (apple or dell). There is basically a 100% mark up or more on parts. I'm sure a large business may be able to afford to just chuck money at systems, but any small business/independent designer is freaking retarded to buy a system like this. With a little shopping and a few hours of construction you can have a FAR superior system for half the price. Aside from being able to get free performance by overclocking your CPU, you can build a storage system that is quick and redundant (i.e. raid 5). Save your money for the adobe raping you'll receive every time they release a new CSX.BrooksT - Thursday, October 7, 2010 - link
Read up on fixed costs, variable costs, and overhead.Short version: these workstations sell in much lower volume than mass market machines. Yet some of the fixed costs -- R&D, design, certifications, etc -- are exactly the same, or higher. They have to spread higher costs among fewer machines, resulting in higher gross margins per machine.
Think of an extreme: if Apple (or Dell, or anyone) were going to produce just one workstation of a certain type -- only one unit made with a particular case, power supply, documentation, marketing effort, warranty service, spare parts inventory, customer support, UL certification, etc -- how much would it cost at retail, compared to the raw parts cost? A lot, right?
mattgmann - Thursday, October 7, 2010 - link
How long does it take an "engineer" to compile a parts list, and a minimum wage factory worker to slap together off the shelf components that are the equivalent of adult legos. Overhead cost is greatly exaggerated in these machines and they inflate the cost solely because the customers are "professionals".
'documentation, marketing effort, customer support etc'. These are all things that apply to every system they make and the costs are no different. I think these are more apologistic excuses rather than actual reasons.
how much would it cost at retail, compared to the raw parts cost? A lot, right?
-not really. If you think Dell and Apple are paying retail for the parts in those systems, you're crazy. They're making retail markup to start with, and then many times that amount for putting the system together.
Is this wrong? no. of course not. But these types of systems are where they make large profit margins, and there is a lot of money to be saved by doing it yourself, or even paying an individual to do it for you.
Swissalex - Thursday, October 7, 2010 - link
You are missing out on a big point, the certification for the professional application like AutoCAD and so on.The Dell Precision line comes with a complete support for many of these professional applications. And if this is your primary work tool you are not interested in troubleshooting and tweaking your system. Productivity and stability is more important.
I am not Apple expert; on the Dell website they make it very clear that they support those applications. I have not found the same for Apple. Do they offer the same level of support for software?
Swissalex - Thursday, October 7, 2010 - link
Also what is the support level on the Mac? Dell comes with a 3 year NBD service by default. There is no information on the price comparison about this one.Penti - Thursday, October 7, 2010 - link
The Mac Pros more tend to be used by the post-processing guys in Film (And TV) when it comes to high-end. Tools like Apples quicktime, and FCP becomes really important there. Together with very important third party tools. It works as well as in the Windows world, but they also has some tools that don't really exist on Windows. Where the alternative would be specialized hardware and a separate workstation that's built with custom hardware and software from a vendor in that business. Obviously Apple do and would help a vendor who's having a problem with their software, but they won't issue fixes like reverting stuff just for some app to work, but neither would Microsoft. It's up the the software vendor to support it. Like always. It's not that Dell can start doing development on the workstation graphics cards drivers.As for warranty the standard is 1 year limited even with the Mac Pro.
BrooksT, if you like a more competitive price look at Apple 2P workstation.
MGSsancho - Friday, October 8, 2010 - link
Right tools for the right job. even if you use Avid you can use either system. but in practice when shops use Fiber Channel interconnects, dual 30" screens, mixing boards and professional video (SDI) and audio (XLR) interconnects, things are not so PC vs Mac. While im sure that these $30k+ workstations don't care too much for the OS they use, these things are more like appliances. In other industries as well, maybe all your software tools, scripts, plug-ins and stuff can not be easily ported. Companies spend good money setting up these workstations and they don't care what OS they use, they have the tools they like and want results. Penti you pretty much nailed it all on the head. except with Microsoft they will write patches to get things working for you as well as the Unixes, granted those with the top level up support contracts.Real difference is the support contracts. Apple doe not yet have business support plans. no four hour support for mission critical stuff for people who want to pay for it. In the end, we must hope that businesses will get the best tools for their jobs.
rafaperez3d - Friday, October 8, 2010 - link
It's a shame where the video and tv market is going because this company. To get the job done we need two things: reliability and performance. After a lot (a loooot) of marketing, Apple put in people heads that they got those two things, far ahead from any PC. We know that is not true (Anand proved a few pages back), and the market is supporting those silly people. Please, don't tell me about high reliability on Macs. I crash Foundrys Nuke at least 12 times a day, Final Cut every single hour, Blackmagic cards give me sync and black frames time to time, Cinema 4D crashes a lot too, coworkers restarts their machines time to time... OS X is not bad, but is not perfect too.Penti - Saturday, October 9, 2010 - link
I guess you would prefer having Windows workstations, Linux workstations, OS X workstations and specialized workstations instead? In a mixture. OS X and Mac pro is a good target for the guys who ran their apps on Unix/Irix/Linux. It's good, not perfect. On Linux for example you don't have access to anything like quicktime, the film people won't start running ffmpeg, plenty in the business seems to prefer having less workstations and workstations that can do more. But for it to be working perfect? I wouldn't expect that anywhere. But you should note that I didn't make any claim for reliability, it's the same hardware as in the PC workstations, not any higher quality and not some perfect software solutions. Not from Apple neither from the third parties. Which is actually what I implied as in the support not being perfect. They do tend to support that market but not perfectly and neither does any one else. I see Apple as an OEM mainly.