Apple OS X Snow Leopard review: first look

We also really like the new Expose features, which firstly arrange tiles more easily, but also now shows applications specific windows when you hold your mouse over an app in the dock. You can also preview your apps from within the Expose view by hitting space bar when a window is selected.

Ironically, when in Expose I found myself looking to be able to shut down apps from that view, aka Windows 7 aero peek.

Other small touches abound such as the Airport feature that now shows the signal strength of each hotspot and when you eject USB disks from the Finder, it now tells you which app is hogging it, if it won’t relinquish it in immediately.

In use, the OS does feel snappier and more responsive and the 9GB of hard disk spaced it freed up isn’t to be sniffed at either. It also shut down in six seconds rather than eight, though the start up time to the login screen only improved by a second or so.

The overall impression is of a slick, nicely touched up OS that is worth the £25, including VAT upgrade fee, but we feel that greater things are still to come, once developers really get to grips with the underlying enhancements and deliver apps to match.