Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

New macbook pro 15" i7 2.66 first impressions

H

harmonica01

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Jul 30, 2007
253
0
Got the anti glare screen, love it, love 1680 resolution native in monitor

I seem to be getting considerably slower wireless speed when compared side by side to my 1st gen 13" macbook unibody (19 vs 5 megabit) considerable difference, have tried turning off the 13" to see if it was hogging connection, but same results.

Speakers are quieter than my old 13" which is very startling. I am hoping this is just a defect and Apple can take care of it this weekend

Did a test in imovie converting into idvd and is much quicker than 13" 2.4 c2d I had

Importing into 160bit AAC file from cd same speed as expected, as is burn speed

when opening a handful of applications, it seems to be same speed initially, then the i7 suddenly pops them all open at once it seems

The 13" has my 7200rpm 500gb hitachi, I am currently writing on the 5400rpm 500gb stock HD from apple. Will have to move the HD over.

After fully charging cpu after testing these trivial details, disconnected cord. Am right now only running finder+safari+wireless and only one window opened on safari. Brightness at 50%. Reading 6 hrs 13 minutes at 98% charge.

Turning brightness down to only one dot as to be expected when working. 6 hrs 19 minutes at 97%.

Brightness at max still only one safari window, finder and wireless activated: 4 hrs 57 minutes 97% battery.

I expect the 7200rpm drive to lessen battery life as much if not more than what it did on my 13" so I expect 4 hrs battery life from full charge with 1-2 applications open and brightness at half. So, not nearly as impressive as I expected it would be on energy efficiency. But, that is fine.

Would be interested in seeing some replies on here with battery life and conditions.
 
Full brightness, full volume, wireless, safari on youtube in window not enlarged to full screen battery reading 2 hrs 46 minutes
 
Alright, have had computer for about 2 hours now. RAM is comfy with my moment to moment affairs. Tried a freeware game called Warzone 2100 from apple downloads. First boot took about 20 seconds. Second boot instantaneous.

First boot on Warcraft III FT about half a minute, 2nd boot instantaneous

I'm satisfied, screw the quieter speakers and slower internet, may just need a break in period.
 
So I have the 17' i7 anti-glare Macbook and am seeing the best and brightest colors on this Macbook than I have ever seen on a laptop, so why does there seem to be some hate with people saying the Glossy blows away the matte (antiglare) colors, etc.?
 
I have the exact same computer, and I'm loving everything so far. I'm just not seeing these 8-9 hour battery life numbers they are promising. When I first got it, I let the battery die out (it lasted 3 hours and 50 minutes) and then let it charge/sit like you're supposed to when calibrating it.

Now I've booted it up again and when I unplug it, it says I have 6 hours battery life. Not bad... but it's no 8-9 hours! I do have wireless on, but not Bluetooth and no peripherals attached. coconutBattery says I still have full battery capacity, so I know it's not defective.

I guess this is probably normal... but I was thinking it was truly going to be a super battery.
 
You might see improvements over time when the battery gets fully discharged and charged a few times more.

Also check the brightness level, that seems to be an important factor. And don't run Flash videos ;)
 
Installed my 500gb 7200rpm hitachi drive from my former 13"

When I had the 15" apart I noticed a few things with the 13" also in pieces.

1. the battery is maybe 1inch longer and half inch taller, but they had another cm or so to work with by my eyesight which might suck
2. ram is from MTI china
3. 5400rpm 500gb HD is Toshiba's http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822149087 8mb cache is the major down side and can see power stats on it

With that in mind I recommend replacing the HD with hitachi's 7200rpm drives. Their one generation old 320gb 7200rpm has significantly better battery life than their 500gb both at 16mb cache. Not sure why cuse #s place both near identical. But results from my testing are what they are.

Antiglare screen is marvelous, I can't say how happy I am to have one again and the colours are better even than the glossy 13" unibody I have. 1680 flukes with some options and preferences in my applications and on finder but easily eliminated and fixed, just takes a few moments of tinkering.

When installing HD from a previous computer as I did, I could only get it to work after using the 15" install dvd to repair permissions and the usual trick of pressing the back button and back arrow once each after going through menu. However, after doing so it boots incredibly fast.

I am noticing deteriorating battery life as somebody else posted. After 1 cycle am at 97% battery life on istat nano. Not sure if an update needs to be downloaded to their widget for better accuracy, just noting what I am seeing thus far.

Nobody should be disappointed with this machine, the i7 really does shine when you start doing some intensive work. Otherwise, computer is silent and sturdy. Well, as I write that, it slides across my desk. Rubber pads on the bottom suck but computer is level on them. Happy hunting
 
You should really do a clean install as opposed to using the OS X installation on the hard drive from your 13"... assuming I understand you right.
 
Good honest real review. I like it.

Re: the battery was never going to get 8-9 hours. The new i5 are 35w processors compared to the 25w core2duos, and the battery size only increased by a small amount, and not at all on the 17 inch. So the times are about right. Not revolutionary as Apple and anandtech would have you believe.
 
Kilamite said:
You should really do a clean install as opposed to using the OS X installation on the hard drive from your 13"... assuming I understand you right.
Click to expand...

I've heard many pro's and cons to this argument.
What I'm afraid of is what happened last time I did a full restore from time machine's backup and preferences were unkept, documents had issues opening in "Yep" and "Pages 09". I originally blamed it on my external and bought a newer OTC elite one, but I'd rather not go through it again. I'll keep backups for when I really do have to rely on them. Doing the update to OSX and boot disc is more than sufficient. And you don't have to waste time copying over from your external. Zero issues this way, but I hope my bad experience with time machine was more of a fluke. But I keep a spare matching 2.5 as a portable for mirror copy as well just in case. I really can't see any benefit to a clean install on an HD that is barely a month old in the first place anyways.

Battery consumption with the 7200rpm is at 7 hrs 19 minutes at 97% charge with safari, finder, and pages and airport on. Somebody please explain how it increased. Health at 98% still
 
I'd never do a restore from Time Machine! Also, since you just swapped the drive rather than restored, the new i7 probably has new drivers it needs to work properly (do you even have the inertia scrolling?).

You should do a complete clean install and manually install all your apps etc again. Takes time but clears out any bad prefs. I'd hate to just keep re-iterating installations on a system thats years old.
 
Kilamite said:
I'd never do a restore from Time Machine! Also, since you just swapped the drive rather than restored, the new i7 probably has new drivers it needs to work properly (do you even have the inertia scrolling?).

You should do a complete clean install and manually install all your apps etc again. Takes time but clears out any bad prefs. I'd hate to just keep re-iterating installations on a system thats years old.
Click to expand...

All drivers were installed when I used the stock dvd, calm down. I guess this idea is new to you but all drivers are incorporated and working flawlessly including the iphone inertia scroll effect.

For future readers, i'll be more specific:

when moving your HD if you don't want to wait for backup restoring or don't have a mirror copy handy.

•Install HD as noted in your manual.
•On boot up you will get the apple icon, this tells you SATA is working
•insert your new mbp install disc
•go into utilities in menu after restarting via cd (hold c down at start up with disc in)
•repair permissions and repair disk
•quit disk utility
•on install screen, click back and then the back arrow to go back to starting screen asking for language, then proceed as normal not erasing your drive

This method will overwrite your old computer's drivers but not preferences in OSX w/e edition. As poster above is concerned, your cpu cannot start with old computer's HD, that part has to be fixed with the mbp osx install disc which took my cpu 34 minutes.

You'll start up with all functions working and your data as you left it no errors or long, tedious restoring. Mac OSX is not like windows in that you see any improvements starting from scratch every now and again; it is a waste of time. If there are bad preferences in any application on your mac, you did something wrong when installing it first time around or the software developer flawed their own work. Hope this helps future searchers.
 
Comparing this to a colleague's 17" past gen

6mb cache on his 17" c2d
4mb cache on my 15" i7

Doubt that's significant and prolly already noted elsewhere
 
Nice review! What about the impressions on the swap between the 5400 and the 7200 RPMs? Have you noticed some differences in:
- Battery Life
- General Performances (Boot, Shutdown, some App loading)
- Vibrations
- Heat

Thank you!
 
Sandford said:
Nice review! What about the impressions on the swap between the 5400 and the 7200 RPMs? Have you noticed some differences in:
- Battery Life
- General Performances (Boot, Shutdown, some App loading)
- Vibrations
- Heat

Thank you!
Click to expand...

hitachi's 7200rpm drives are just superior to anything I've played with

Even on 5400rpm applications were starting after first launch in a second or two

Battery life went up surprisingly on the 7200rpm drive, not sure how
no added vibrations (again goes back to hitachi's technology)
Cpu gets pretty warm when gaming, but that's expected. Normal use in word processing and internet browsing no heat.

Here is link to the hitachi drive, I dont think they have their mail in rebate anymore but worth the money

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822145275
 
harmonica01 said:
hitachi's 7200rpm drives are just superior to anything I've played with

Even on 5400rpm applications were starting after first launch in a second or two

Battery life went up surprisingly on the 7200rpm drive, not sure how
no added vibrations (again goes back to hitachi's technology)
Cpu gets pretty warm when gaming, but that's expected. Normal use in word processing and internet browsing no heat.

Here is link to the hitachi drive, I dont think they have their mail in rebate anymore but worth the money

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822145275
Click to expand...

Amazing! (To say it with Uncle Steve ;-))
So you suggest to buy the MBP with the 5400 RPMs and then swap with the Hitachi? (So don't buy the 7200 from Apple).

Another question, talking about HDDs technology. I read about WD's Scorpio Black 7200rpm series (Ultra-cool and quiet). Can you tell how it is compared to Hitachi's technology?

Thank you again!
 
Wife's white book has a WD drive, they are comparable but I outlast her on battery and doc loading speed which could be more than HD comparison variables.
 
Update on battery with 7200rpm

Health is up to 100%, charge 100%

Finder+mail+pages09+safari+airport+macrumors page+dashboard+ half brightness

Fluctuates between 6 hrs 46 min and 7 hrs 55 min

At minimum brightness +1 dot 8 hrs 16 min
 
Pix

Results from just now photographed.

Again my setup now is 7200rpm 500gb Hitachi drive, 4gb ram, 15" i7 2.66ghz, hi res 1680 antiglare screen

Pictures taken immediately after removing cable, after scrolling up and down a few times, then after opening dashboard and mail and then returning to safari up front brightness at 1/4 capacity where I think most use it at while on battery under most circumstance

12 hrs - ~10.5 hrs - ~7.75 hrs

All time with pages and safari opened as pictured with airport on. Hope this puts some tangible evidences out there though I know this doesnt cover every variable I could have

Taken on iphone camera in my office so lighting isn't quite right im sure

26025_728779393466_37510450_40228507_6704221_n.jpg

26025_728779503246_37510450_40228508_6092627_n.jpg

26025_728779613026_37510450_40228509_6247129_n.jpg
 
The only sure fire way of measuring is to time from start to finish a normal day's usage. From firing up a youtube HD video or watching a movie, doing some background downloading, torrents, etc, etc.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back