13" MacBook Pro Teardown and Unboxing Galleries

[Patcoola]

i like this,

it's still easy to upgrade the hdd and ram,
new 7 hours battery,
it's about time they added a SD card slot,
thank god the Firewire is back.

 

[JonHimself]

Who cares what the battery tech is, how long its runtime or lifespan is? I just said that they sacrificed a removable battery for clean lines, it's an aesthetic decision that will affect some users.

I wish I could follow your train of thought in your argument. When you ask who cares how long the run-time is or the life-span, the answer is Apple (obviously) and likely a lot of people who use their laptop as a portable computer and would prefer it to last as long as possible.
You're going in circles because we're saying (as is Apple) that the reason they went with the current battery tech is because it allows bigger (better, whatever) batteries in a smaller space than older tech batteries allow for. So based on that, the two options are 1) bigger laptop with equivalent battery specs using old tech or 2) Same size laptop, new battery tech that is not-removable in the conventional sense and still longer battery life.

You are saying that Apple did it for pure aethetic reasons. If that was the case, wouldn't they just take old battery tech, use smaller batteries and have less battery life but still have it be removable? That way they could keep the laptop the same size (which, as you say is their main purpose - aesthetics). There is an obvious advantage in terms of daily-use with the new battery that for a lot of people (while not everyone) likely outweigh not being able to swap batteries in and out as easily.

When Apple intro'd the Air, they mentioned that by having everything sealed, they could make the air as thin as possible - THAT is an admission that PART of the reason (not the entire reason) is aesthetics. With the announcements on Monday, there was no mention of using the new battery to make things smaller. Are the 15" and 13" models not the same thickness as the previous models that had the removable battery?

 

[Prof.]

As long as the HDD and RAM is user-accessible, that's all I care about.

It is UA... right?

EDIT: I guess it is. SWEET!!!

 

[geveke]

SD sticking out

I hate it that the SD Card is sticking out. It's bootable, which is nice, but what's the point when you can't put it in a bag and go out? It would have been a cheap SSD alternative to have a 16GB SD Card with the OS on it, and the hard drive for storing stuff. Very battery efficient. But with your startup disk sticking out like that... it's only a trouble shooting option to boot from it. Very strange. What's so hard about making an SD-card go all the way in? The Wii can do it. The Aspire One can do it (but it can't boot from it...).
It brings to mind Apple's Blu-Ray stance: "We'll support its development. But we won't make it available".

 

[michael.lauden]

i like this,

it's still easy to upgrade the hdd and ram,
new 7 hours battery,
it's about time they added a SD card slot,
thank god the Firewire is back.

the only thing i care about is if the new 13" pro battery is any bigger than the MacBook i have... if not - hello upgrade

 

[LaMerVipere]

I'm trying to get some feedback from those that have bought the new 13" MacBook Pro as to whether the screen is updated from the one used in the early unibody MacBooks.

I'm one of those unlucky first adopters and this screen just isn't up to par with the beautiful 15" MBP's screen.

 

[uv23]

I'm trying to get some feedback from those that have bought the new 13" MacBook Pro as to whether the screen is updated from the one used in the early unibody MacBooks.

I'm one of those unlucky first adopters and this screen just isn't up to par with the beautiful 15" MBP's screen.

Someone posted their monitor code in another thread and it didn't match any of the original UB 13" screens or the recent updated ones. So yes, it's a brand new series. I'm getting mine on Monday and will report in once I get it running.

 

[randyj]

I'm trying to get some feedback from those that have bought the new 13" MacBook Pro as to whether the screen is updated from the one used in the early unibody MacBooks.

I'm one of those unlucky first adopters and this screen just isn't up to par with the beautiful 15" MBP's screen.

Yes it has been updated. The early macbook screens looked milky and did not have a great range of colours. This screen is much better, and the viewing angle has increased. I remember seeing pics of the old macbook in the dark slighly to the side, and you couldnt see the screen. I am very happy with this 13" screen.

As for other comments about the res, it is 1280 x 800 which is not that great, however it is roughly the same pixel density of all their external screens. So what does that mean? I means that if you plug in an external monitor and drag one window from the laptop to the external screen, the size of it stays the same. Where as if the res was higher on the laptop it would expand when you drag it to the external monitor.
While this might not be that interesting for most people, for me I simply cant work on a 13" screen alone, so I have a 23" at home and a 30" at work.
I do a lot of photography in the field so the portability is the main thing for me. I can do a shoot, dump my photos, then review when I get to either of my massive screens!! The SD card slot is a weird choice as most pro cameras (inc my 5d markII) use CF, however my wife's camera has SD.
The screen by it self is fine for email, web, etc etc, but if you need to work in hires get an external screen as well. If you want the the most portable Macbook Pro, then this is a great choice.
(this was typed on one using a 30" screen!!!)

 

[iViking]

Much better viewing angle

The previous was 1280x800, as is this one. More appropriate would be 1440x900 on a 13", but unfortunately that's not the case.

I wish my 15" was 1680x1050, but it is 1440x900.

1920x1200 on a 15" is too small, IMO. I lived with a Dell workstation that had those specs, and while the desktop real estate was nice, it was just too damn small.

The resolution may be the same but the screen is much better, (I have both).

The viewing angle is better and it's not as washed out.

 

[What?Say,What?]

FireWIRE!

We all appreciate bringing firewire back... fine the whitebook can keep 400, but thank you...

I don't know about an SD card slot though... psh... whatever... an expresscard would be much more valuable... though I understand the 13 inch is already a little cramped... but on the 15" too? what the hell? We're still talking "Pro" right? What gives? If I'm pro-am, I'm shooting my digital photos with CompactFlash! I find it foolish to force a 17" purchase in order to get an expansion slot...

but the main point is FIREWIRE!!! Woooooooo!

 

[randyj]

We all appreciate bringing firewire back... fine the whitebook can keep 400, but thank you...

I don't know about an SD card slot though... psh... whatever... an expresscard would be much more valuable... though I understand the 13 inch is already a little cramped... but on the 15" too? what the hell? We're still talking "Pro" right? What gives? If I'm pro-am, I'm shooting my digital photos with CompactFlash! I find it foolish to force a 17" purchase in order to get an expansion slot...

but the main point is FIREWIRE!!! Woooooooo!

I have an expresscard for my old MBP 15" that was for e-sata.
The transfer speeds were incredible, I cant wait for the day they put those ports on the side of the laptops.
You can get a firewire 800 CF card reader. The speed is amazing with this.
Even an old firewire reader will be much quicker than a usb one. Firewire is very efficient and even though theoretically slower than usb, ( usb's 480 vs firewire's 400mbps) it is actually much faster at transferring files. I have the old lexar pro firewire adapter for CF, I just need to get a new cable that can go from FW 800 to 400.

One question for Apple, why do they go with full size usb ports???
They could use the mini usb port format like on all digital cameras. Then they could fit 3 or more of them in!!!!!!

 

[eastercat]

Why no matte, anti-glare option on the new 13" and 15" MacBook Pro's? If Apple is able to charge extra for this option for the 17", it would meet the needs of many people out there who prefer matte

IMO, Apple is setting up the 17" to be the true pro machine; hence, the matte option, express card slot, etc. Someone pointed out that the pro labels on the 13" and 15" are marketing terms to sell more computers. I agree.

BTW, some of us do care how long the battery lasts in terms of running time and how many cycles it lasts. It may be irrelevant to some people, but it's not to me.

 

[asamalikum]

one question guys, i bought a new 13" mbp yesterday which comes with 120g and 2g ram and the first thing i do is to charge it overnight before first time using it. On the other hand, I also bought a new 7200 rpm 500g hdd. Can i switch it right away after the battery is fully charged or i have to switch the comp. on and go through all the registration first?

 

[jetlife2]

one question guys, i bought a new 13" mbp yesterday which comes with 120g and 2g ram and the first thing i do is to charge it overnight before first time using it. On the other hand, I also bought a new 7200 rpm 500g hdd. Can i switch it right away after the battery is fully charged or i have to switch the comp. on and go through all the registration first?

You can do either...but it would be better to switch it on and clone that drive first, before installing the new drive. Then you will have a clone of all the machine-specific libraries. If you don't do this you will have to restore from DVD or another clone drive that is by definition not cloned from this one.

 

[kinkster]

How hard would it be to switch to an ssd with this? if anyone's figured it out and found a good drive for it, let me know. otherwise I'll do a bit of research on my own.

are 2.5 ssd drives the same dimensions all around as 2.5 hdds? or can they be different lenghs and such giving problems? different connectors to watch out for?

thanks for any help on this.

 

[randyj]

How hard would it be to switch to an ssd with this? if anyone's figured it out and found a good drive for it, let me know. otherwise I'll do a bit of research on my own.

are 2.5 ssd drives the same dimensions all around as 2.5 hdds? or can they be different lenghs and such giving problems? different connectors to watch out for?

thanks for any help on this.

Should be pretty straight forward to swap, must be 2.5" with a sata connection.
i swapped out to a standard drive 500gb 7200rpm now, with the view in 6 months or a years time to go for an ssd. Hopefully by then they will have 512gb ssd drives for cheaper than what the 256 drives go for now!!

Re type of ssd, good question!
I am interested too to see other's recommendations.
Anyone know which drive Apple use in their ssd configurations?

 

[asamalikum]

You can do either...but it would be better to switch it on and clone that drive first, before installing the new drive. Then you will have a clone of all the machine-specific libraries. If you don't do this you will have to restore from DVD or another clone drive that is by definition not cloned from this one.

Basically i can just restore fresh from DVD that comes with it and go through all the process of registration on the new drive right?

 

[Sehnsucht]

How do you feel about the protruding SD card?

Fail. Here's my MemoryStick Duo ExpressCard adapter with the MemoryStick installed:

And here it is inside the ExpressCard slot:

Yummy flushness! There are SDHC adapters available too, which are also flush.

And you know what else is WIN about the ExpressCard slot on my MBP? It has a little protective flap that keeps dirt and dust out when it's not being used. The SD card slot not so much.

 

[SandynJosh]

I'm sorry but your points make no sense. Yes it's not a big revolution tu use square cells but it's also Li-Polymer instead of Li-Ion like most laptops out there today. It gives you 1000x charges vs 300-350 charges you get in a conventional battery. That's the main reason Apple decided to make an integrated battery. If you're going to change your battery in 1-2 years then integrated makes no sense, but if you can extend that period to 3-4 years then suddenly you would not need to change the battery on your laptop for it's lifetime.

It would be near impossible to fill the exact same amount of cells in an removable battery because of the frame, hinges, latches etc it uses. I thought that was clearly stated in the battery tech video. Engineering is not only about the best of the best tech, it's also about feasibility. Sure Apple could have spent billions for a compacted battery tech to fit the same capacity batteries in a removable design but that would have made the battery pack far more expensive due to the complicated process and R&D.

You're wasting your oxygen on VoR because he'd rather believe he was right then to be right. He's likely sure the world is flat because he can't see the curvature.

 

[iViking]

The resolution may be the same but the screen is much better, (I have both).

The viewing angle is better and it's not as washed out.

And just to add to that...the colors are way more vivid, too.

 

[DYER]

It was supposed to be sarcasm. Apple claims adding the SD reader is for the Pros (as a consumer I do appreciate it). But most Pro cameras use CF not SD.

sorry never was good at picking up sarcasm but in that case i totally agree

 

[Wags]

Someone posted their monitor code in another thread and it didn't match any of the original UB 13" screens or the recent updated ones. So yes, it's a brand new series. I'm getting mine on Monday and will report in once I get it running.

Just got from Apple Store......9CBD and 9C9E
13.3, 2.26 MBP display models

 

[StudioGuy]

Firewire

I guess I'm glad Firewire is back for the rest of you .

We had to buy the higher end MacBook Pro to get that 5 months ago, else replace our camcorder, which really isn't that old.

Glad to see it made it back down to the lower $ levels at least.

 

[craigiest]

I take that to mean it's NOT both in/out at the same time (or with one cable I should say) like the iPhone but that's just me thinking out loud.

I got one yesterday, and just plugged my iPhone headphones in. It's playing music from iTunes, and my voice registers in the Sound Input SysPref panel. So it does analog in and out simultaneously.

 

[craigiest]

The audio output port functions as an input port as well. Yes, you won't be able to do both at the same time, but at least it's there.

Unless you plug in a device that is input and output like iPhone headphones.