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Here's what I see:
I get a lot of people who come up to me showing off their new Macbook Pro 13 inch, and when watching them use it, they don't do movie editing or heavy photo editing. They just want something that they can go online with, but they also want an Apple brand computer. They don't need the i3 or i5.
That's who Apple is trying to appeal to with the base level 13''.

Then there's us who can't afford it anything better.
 
Most likely because Apple assumes that most people would be better benefitted by the super drive than the discrete graphics + i5 (at least in the 13" form factor) and the probably price increase that would come with such a change.

Not so sure about that. Most folks I talk to hardly ever use the optical drive.

edit: also since none of the i cpus in the MBPs are quad core, it really doesn't matter that the 13" stayed with C2D.

Cheers,
 
It looks like the ENVY 14 comes stock with the 2.4 GHz Core i3 370M.

Looks very tempting. Quite a big competitor for 13" MBP at that price point and with those specs. For 1175$ you get it with same CPU as low-end 15" and the GPU is better than 330M plus even the resolution is greater. That's less than base 13" MBP! Any idea on the battery? It must be the worst component in it when compared to MBP
 
I've been eyeing the Envy 14 as well. Just not too sure about HP unfortunately. The battery has not been tested but HP says 7-8 hours I think but I doubt it. Probably 4-5 on integrated. But it has switchable integrated AND discrete ATI 5650 1gb vram. NICE! 1600x900 but it's a bit bigger at 14.5" radiance screen, 14" wide, 1.1" thick. The i3-370m is a nice base 2.4Ghz processor 2core/4threads so it probably matches up nicely to a 2.66 C2D, I'm guessing even faster.

Currently have an M11x alienware, but looking into Envy 14 or MBP 13.3
 
Definitely agree re: complaints. I think it's pretty clear that Apple does not want to stick customers with the integrated Intel graphics without a discrete GPU, and given the lack of room in the 13" (both for cooling and space on the logic board), the C2D with 320m is a better option than the i3.
I honestly wouldn't mind a thicker laptop of it means a better GPU or CPU
 
Looks very tempting. Quite a big competitor for 13" MBP at that price point and with those specs. For 1175$ you get it with same CPU as low-end 15" and the GPU is better than 330M plus even the resolution is greater. That's less than base 13" MBP! Any idea on the battery? It must be the worst component in it when compared to MBP

I've been eyeing the Envy 14 as well. Just not too sure about HP unfortunately. The battery has not been tested but HP says 7-8 hours I think but I doubt it. Probably 4-5 on integrated. But it has switchable integrated AND discrete ATI 5650 1gb vram. NICE! 1600x900 but it's a bit bigger at 14.5" radiance screen, 14" wide, 1.1" thick. The i3-370m is a nice base 2.4Ghz processor 2core/4threads so it probably matches up nicely to a 2.66 C2D, I'm guessing even faster.

Currently have an M11x alienware, but looking into Envy 14 or MBP 13.3
I'm tempted by the ENVY 14 but I'll hold out for some coupons and hopefully I can get it before Bing Cashback is done for.

I've been eyeing the M11x as well but I want that 1600 x 900 display.
 
i think the real competition for the MBP13 is the new asus U35L

http://mobile.desinformado.com/index.php/2010/06/19/asus-launches-the-u35-and-u45-notebooks/

it beats the MBP in almost every way.

11,5 hour battery
<1 inch
aluminium body
real i5-430m with SHE which should run longer and cooler on a charge
nvidia 310 (not sure about that one, it is a older card but a real dedicated GPU compared to the crappy 320M).

the i3 is a joke compared to the i5 or even the C2D .. but i like this system even better then the Envy 14 which in NL is about as expensive as the MBP15.
 
i think the real competition for the MBP13 is the new asus U35L

http://mobile.desinformado.com/index.php/2010/06/19/asus-launches-the-u35-and-u45-notebooks/

it beats the MBP in almost every way.

11,5 hour battery
<1 inch
aluminium body
real i5-430m with SHE which should run longer and cooler on a charge
nvidia 310 (not sure about that one, it is a older card but a real dedicated GPU compared to the crappy 320M).

the i3 is a joke compared to the i5 or even the C2D .. but i like this system even better then the Envy 14 which in NL is about as expensive as the MBP15.

GF 310M seems to be 5-10% slower than GF 320M so not that big difference, few FPS in games
 
wouldn't people prefer dedicated graphics to an optical drive and an extra hour of battery?

Hell no!

What on earth do you people do with these laptops? Play games and HD movies all day? They're for work ffs - if you want games buy a games machine.
 
Hell no!

What on earth do you people do with these laptops? Play games and HD movies all day? They're for work ffs - if you want games buy a games machine.

How are they for work only? :confused: Apple doesn't make a gaming system thus if you want a Mac, your only option is to get something they offer, whether it's good or bad for gaming. There aren't many options. Just because you use it for work doesn't mean that everyone does or should do. Other manufacturers can fit them fine, for example 14" ENVY, it's more powerful than Apple's high-end MBP. Apple is just too lazy to redesign the innards and add more effective cooling.
 
Hell no!

What on earth do you people do with these laptops? Play games and HD movies all day? They're for work ffs - if you want games buy a games machine.

My Mac is for work, however, doesn't mean I wouldn't like to have a system capable of doing more than my work chores. Also, some folks may need more GPU power for their work.

I did buy a dedicated gaming Windows PC buy would still consider a more powerful Mac if they ever offered one.

Cheers,
 
How are they for work only? :confused: Apple doesn't make a gaming system thus if you want a Mac, your only option is to get something they offer, whether it's good or bad for gaming. There aren't many options. Just because you use it for work doesn't mean that everyone does or should do. Other manufacturers can fit them fine, for example 14" ENVY, it's more powerful than Apple's high-end MBP. Apple is just too lazy to redesign the innards and add more effective cooling.

Ferrari doesn't make a 7 seater van, thus if you want a Ferrari, your only option is to get something they offer, whether it has 7 seats or not.

Or just buy a Toyota van too...
 
Ferrari doesn't make a 7 seater van, thus if you want a Ferrari, your only option is to get something they offer, whether it has 7 seats or not.

Or just buy a Toyota van too...

Even if Ferrari had only 2 seated cars, it doesn't mean that they won't offer 4 seated car in the future.

Not everyone has space or use for two computers, let alone money. You can't use two computers at the same time either. Even though Ferrari doesn't offer 4 seated car right now, there is always hope for one. Same applies to 13" MBP. It doesn't have dedicated GPU at the moment but in the future it might, especially because of IGPs
 
Not everyone has space or use for two computers, let alone money. You can't use two computers at the same time either. Even though Ferrari doesn't offer 4 seated car right now, there is always hope for one. Same applies to 13" MBP. It doesn't have dedicated GPU at the moment but in the future it might, especially because of IGPs

I think if you're considering the Macbook you have _plenty_ of money. Nobody doesn't have space for a DS and few couldn't accomodate a PS3.

Seriously - if the MBP became a gaming machine it would the fatter, hotter, and more expensive. And the battery wouldn't last as long. And I wouldn't buy it.
 
I think if you're considering the Macbook you have _plenty_ of money. Nobody doesn't have space for a DS and few couldn't accomodate a PS3.

Seriously - if the MBP became a gaming machine it would the fatter, hotter, and more expensive. And the battery wouldn't last as long. And I wouldn't buy it.

Do students usually have a lot of money? No. If you think everyone who buys Apple is rich and doesn't care about money, you're wrong.

I didn't mean it has to become like Alienware stuff. Just using a decent GPU is enough. Apple could have used ATI 5650 for example, it's only few watts hotter than 9400M is (don't know the TDP of 320M as it's custom) but two times faster than 320M. It wouldn't need any external redesigning. Performance and power consumption/heat doesn't always go hand in hand
 
who says battery life would drop? Use switchable graphics. Intel and then discrete ATI. bam! But anyway I'm just saying there should be some [better] options.
 
I think if you're considering the Macbook you have _plenty_ of money. Nobody doesn't have space for a DS and few couldn't accomodate a PS3.

Seriously - if the MBP became a gaming machine it would the fatter, hotter, and more expensive. And the battery wouldn't last as long. And I wouldn't buy it.

Im a broke college student who lives in innercity, it took me months of saving and abstaining from other things (clothes, eating out) but I have a macbook now. I just decided it would be worth it.
 
My opinion is still that i3/core2duo is for the macbook and the i5/i7 is for the macbook pro. Computers half the price of the macbook pro have the i3.

Going forward with the core2due in at least 2 more revisions (13" macbook and 13" macbook pro) still due to money put into Nvidia is not a good decision. But I decide where my money goes as you do and today it's not going into a 13" macbook pro for me.

The 13" macbook pro will still sell good due to it being the cheapest apple portable but it leaves us wanting more than we can get even from the start and that is a bad sell. No way around it.

i thought the C2D was going to be not manufactured any longer (after 2011?)
 
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Thats what weve seen in roadmaps
 
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