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17" Unibody MacBook Pro Begins Shipping

detz said:
Everyone is trying to compare a mabook pro 17" to a cheap Dell or HP. They are after different markets, if you're in the market for a cheap computer you're not going to be looking at Apple. If you want a nice computer Apple still sells a create macbook for under $1000 which to me is pretty affordable. 95% of computer users could get away with this computer just fine.
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detz said:
To to dell.com and thinkpad.com and price out a computer with the same specs as the 17" macbook pro and check the price. :D
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In one post you say that a dell or HP is cheap and the post right afterwards you say the prices are congruent or more expensive. Which one is it?

Also, I am disappointed with the 17. It's not just the removable battery, but there is very little to distinguish it from the 15. The hardware is virtually the same. Why is everyone treating it like it's a powerhouse?
 
Why are so many ppl in this thread b*tching about price? If you don't see the value proposition then don't buy one, simple as that. That's the beauty of a free market.
 
Good Value.... I am hoping

G'day all,

I am certainly excited by the 17", yes a little disappointed that there is not a lot higher spec compared to the 15". Basically looking for a good excuse to buy the 17", so right now am selling it to myself by the fact that down the line i have the ability to upgrade the Ram and also the HD perhaps to a 300+GB SSD some time.... right now just keeping glued to see if those upgrades will be easy enough....

...An irresponsible tech addict...
 
seedster2 said:
In one post you say that a dell or HP is cheap and the post right afterwards you say the prices are congruent or more expensive. Which one is it?

Also, I am disappointed with the 17. It's not just the removable battery, but there is very little to distinguish it from the 15. The hardware is virtually the same. Why is everyone treating it like it's a powerhouse?
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Just like Apple, Dell, Lenovo and others (not HP, HP is crap) sell both consumer(cheap) models and nice expensive models. The Pro line from Apple is their expensive "elite" models not made for the majority. Their macbook line is made for the average person and those are by every means affordable for what they offer.

For a small, lightweight, and well designed laptop it is a powerhouse; it can do anything and everything I will need a computer for. To me, 2" extra inches, the ability to upgrade to 8GB and an 8 hour battery is enough of an upgrade to 15" to justify the $300 difference in price.
 
Anyone who buys one of these and plans on selling it a couple years down the road is a sucker. The 17" Mac notebooks have horrible resale value. If you buy one, plan to stay with it for a looooong time.
 
Couple of years?? I'm already planning on ditching mine as soon as the i7 MBPs come about which i'm hoping to be by year's end..
 
seedster2 said:
Also, I am disappointed with the 17. It's not just the removable battery, but there is very little to distinguish it from the 15. The hardware is virtually the same. Why is everyone treating it like it's a powerhouse?
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There is the slightly faster CPU, battery, 8 GB RAM, and higher-resolution display, but those can really all be on the 15". The distinction between the 15" and 17" is about as big as the distinction between the 13" and 15".

And the 17" a powerhouse? Tell that to all the quad-core laptops around. Or even the high-end dual-core ones for that matter.
 
tekmoe said:
Anyone who buys one of these and plans on selling it a couple years down the road is a sucker. The 17" Mac notebooks have horrible resale value. If you buy one, plan to stay with it for a looooong time.
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Every computer has terrible resale value, this is not unique to the 17", or Apple or laptops. The professional users i work with do not buy computers with the intent to replace them when the next model comes out or on an annual basis. They depreciate them fully and generally get two to four years of use from them. At which time they have little value other than for parts or as hand-me-downs
 
Corroborating Evidence

Looks like more corroborating evidence from Apple Discussions that at least some CTO 17-inchers are in the process of shipping -- someone who ordered on January 7 says he was charged today.

Link: http://bit.ly/R9z1
 
flipperfeet said:
Every computer has terrible resale value, this is not unique to the 17", or Apple or laptops. The professional users i work with do not buy computers with the intent to replace them when the next model comes out or on an annual basis. They depreciate them fully and generally get two to four years of use from them. At which time they have little value other than for parts or as hand-me-downs
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I beg to differ. A 15" Mac notebook depreciates by a considerably smaller percentage compared to a 17" Mac notebook. Don't believe me? Take a look at some completed eBay auctions.

And yes, the "professional" users are going to pound theirs into the ground. But my post is not directed towards those users.
 
tekmoe said:
I beg to differ. A 15" Mac notebook depreciates by a considerably smaller percentage compared to a 17" Mac notebook. Don't believe me? Take a look at some completed eBay auctions.

And yes, the "professional" users are going to pound theirs into the ground. But my post is not directed towards those users.
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And the MBP 17 is targeted at pro users.

there seem to be two kinds of posters here. Those who would not buy this thing unless it were priced like a Dell entry level machine and those who actually use thier computers as professional tools. $3k is not chump change, but for professionals it is just fine.
 
seedster2 said:
In one post you say that a dell or HP is cheap and the post right afterwards you say the prices are congruent or more expensive. Which one is it?

Also, I am disappointed with the 17. It's not just the removable battery, but there is very little to distinguish it from the 15. The hardware is virtually the same. Why is everyone treating it like it's a powerhouse?
Click to expand...

ok im in singapore, ive ordered a 17" mbp pro, 2.93ghz,4gb ram, 320gb 7200rpm drive, anti glare screen, apple care = USD$ 3641.

ive ALSO ordered a 17" dell m6400, 2.53 core2quadExtreme, 4gb ram, 2x 500gb 7200rpm drives, nvidia quadro 3700m with 1gb, windows xp 64bit = USD$ 5760.

i need a mac and a pc for work and i hate dual booting stuff on a mac.. i will be adding red hat linux to the dell as a dual boot at a later stage... i use high end CGI related software so i wont compromise and buy a dell inspiron for USD$799

a maxed out mbp 17" and an almost maxed out dell m6400 [ it can go upto 16gb ram, which ill get once the prices come down, i WILL upgrade the mbp to 8gb as well once the prices are lower]

my laptops usually last around 3-4 years except my previous one which had a bad nvidia card :)
 
Dell Precision M6400 Mobile Workstation

Intel Core 2 Duo T9550 (2.66GHz)
Windows Vista Ultimate
WUXGA LED-backlit display (1920x1200)
3-year basic limited warranty
NVIDIA Quadro FX2700M, 512MB discrete
4GB of RAM (2 DIMMS)
320GB hard drive (7,200RPM)
8X DVD+/-RW Slot Load
9-cell battery
Intel WiFi 5300 802.11a/g/n
Dell Wireless Bluetooth with UWB
Internal English Backlit Keyboard
Integrated 2.0MP webcam with microphone
$3,915
 
tekmoe said:
I beg to differ. A 15" Mac notebook depreciates by a considerably smaller percentage compared to a 17" Mac notebook. Don't believe me? Take a look at some completed eBay auctions.

And yes, the "professional" users are going to pound theirs into the ground. But my post is not directed towards those users.
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Thats true, because less of the 17"s are Sold. Infact I bet due to the huge demand at the moment and the long delivery dates you could actually sell one for more on Ebay than you bought it now.
 
DHagan4755 said:
Dell Precision M6400 Mobile Workstation

Intel Core 2 Duo T9550 (2.66GHz)
Windows Vista Ultimate
WUXGA LED-backlit display (1920x1200)
3-year basic limited warranty
NVIDIA Quadro FX2700M, 512MB discrete
4GB of RAM (2 DIMMS)
320GB hard drive (7,200RPM)
8X DVD+/-RW Slot Load
9-cell battery
Intel WiFi 5300 802.11a/g/n
Dell Wireless Bluetooth with UWB
Internal English Backlit Keyboard
Integrated 2.0MP webcam with microphone
$3,915
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Yes, exactly. (well, I think you can get similar to MBP for around $3500) Once again, all sorts of idiots come out and say the Apple is too expensive. What are you people comparing to? The only Dell that even approximates what the MBP offers (no Firewire) costs MORE than the Apple. And Dell is supposed to be the price leader. Sony is currently the most expensive off-the-shelf laptop company, not Apple.

BTW, the Apple I compared is $2899 after adding the matte screen and 7200rpm drive.
 
JAT said:
Yes, exactly. (well, I think you can get similar to MBP for around $3500) Once again, all sorts of idiots come out and say the Apple is too expensive. What are you people comparing to? The only Dell that even approximates what the MBP offers (no Firewire) costs MORE than the Apple. And Dell is supposed to be the price leader. Sony is currently the most expensive off-the-shelf laptop company, not Apple.

BTW, the Apple I compared is $2899 after adding the matte screen and 7200rpm drive.
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um the dell m6400 laptop actually uses a workstation graphics (quadro) card not a consumer graphics card like the geforce in the mbp and it does have a firewire port. On the desktop there is usually a markup of atleast 3 times the price of the geforce for an equivelent level card so I would assume similar for the qfx 2700. You need to compare with one of the consumer models such as the latitude, xps or vostro models which in the case of the slightly lower cpu/gpu spec'd vostro (admittedly not as pretty) starts at $1200 which gives plenty of upgrade room.

You can't compare a precision with a macbook pro because apple seem to think that we don't need a true workstation graphics card in their laptops.
 
Does anyone know if apple is planning on allowing for the combination of both graphics cards for even faster graphic's processing.... I know some windows machines do this. I was a bit disappointed with not having an option to switch between the cards on the fly or combine them for super uber-graphics
 
branjosef said:
Does anyone know if apple is planning on allowing for the combination of both graphics cards for even faster graphic's processing.... I know some windows machines do this. I was a bit disappointed with not having an option to switch between the cards on the fly or combine them for super uber-graphics
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Here's an Nvidia tech note:

http://nvidia.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/nvidia.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=2243

You can switch between the Geforce 9400M motherboard GPU (called "Better Battery Life") and the Geforce 9600M GT discrete GPU (called "Higher Performance"), but you cannot use both GPU's at once in this implementation.
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Whether "this implementation" refers to the OS or the hardware isn't entirely clear, but I'd guess it implies that it's not possible at all on the MBP.
 
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