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AnandTech Reviews the 2011 MBP Line
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Review was enough for me to conclude that this was like corvette putting a viper engine into the vette. More power.. more heat and more fuel consumption. After that review i happily killed my order of the 17" and will enjoy a different machine until apple redesigns the unibody and/or ivybridge. cya mac forum !
Anand was posting some early bench mark results via twitter last friday. It is was finally convinced me to go with the high end 15" with the 6750. Although really the 6490 really is no slouch no matter what everyone has been saying. And it is good to see that the Intel HD3000 graphics are as good, if not slightly better than the last generations entry level graphics. Is it just me though, or is the 13" MBP always off kilter with their processor vs GPU? Last generation, they were more CPU limited, and this generation they are more GPU limited. Oh well, I would guess most who are using the 13" MBP would rather have a faster CPU than GPU.
No it doesn't. Read the entire review before commenting please. It edges out the 320m on cpu centric games like starcraft 2 and hl2 engine based games.
The only notebook that Steve Jobs (aka Apple) is interested in at the moment are the Macbook Airs ... Why? Because Apple (Steve) did a keynote on them and Apple did advertising on the Airs .... You know when Apple (Steve) loves a product because they run ads on them ... The MacBook Pros are not on steves radar of importance (Haven't seen a Pro ad in awhile) ... Its all about thin and light and the iPhone, iPad, and MacBook Air fit that category .... Listen to what Steve said about the Airs, "The Future of Notebooks" and "The Future of Macbooks".
The 13" MBP is a prime example of what apple thinks about that line of "pro" notebooks (the 11"air has a better resolution the the 13" pro) talk about a slap in the face .... When was the last time Apple held a keynote on the MBP's ?? WWDC09, Apple at the moment cares about thin and light and us air owners should be glad about that.
The Pro updates were half assed in my opinion. Especially the 13" Model.
Apple should have done the following:
13" Notebooks are only Airs
Get rid of the white macbook and 13" Pro
The 11" air is the "new" entry Mac.
The 15" Models come in 2 configs 512MB VRAM and a 1GB VRAM. Hi-Rez screen standard now in either glossy or anti-glare. Standard 7200rpm 750 GB drives with the remaining options being SSD's. Obviously 4GB Ram Standard, and you can keep the SB Processors.
The usual I/O (ie: Thunderbolt, USB, Firewire).
Apple is screwing the pro market notebook user. But I'm an Air user (Ultimate) so yea.
The 13" MBP is a prime example of what apple thinks about that line of "pro" notebooks (the 11"air has a better resolution the the 13" pro) talk about a slap in the face .... When was the last time Apple held a keynote on the MBP's ?? WWDC09, Apple at the moment cares about thin and light and us air owners should be glad about that.
The Pro updates were half assed in my opinion. Especially the 13" Model.
Apple should have done the following:
13" Notebooks are only Airs
Get rid of the white macbook and 13" Pro
The 11" air is the "new" entry Mac.
The 15" Models come in 2 configs 512MB VRAM and a 1GB VRAM. Hi-Rez screen standard now in either glossy or anti-glare. Standard 7200rpm 750 GB drives with the remaining options being SSD's. Obviously 4GB Ram Standard, and you can keep the SB Processors.
The usual I/O (ie: Thunderbolt, USB, Firewire).
Apple is screwing the pro market notebook user. But I'm an Air user (Ultimate) so yea.
can someone confirm that the MIMO 3 antenna wifi is also on the 13". i might have to get a new laptop soon and this is going to be a big feature for me.
i was going to get a cheapo dell/hp and an ipad or 2 but with the MIMO and photo editing software driving up the price to 13" MBP levels i'm thinking of going apple
killing the 13" MBP would be a huge mistake. SSD's are still way too expensive and people like me want a lot of hard disk space. and most people don't want to spend $2000 on a laptop with a 15" screen. $1099 after Edu discount for a 13" laptop with nice wifi and 320GB hard drive so i can also do bootcamp is a nice deal
the battery life is probably an apple driver/OS X issue. dell/hp and other laptops got huge battery life boosts with sandy bridge. from 3 hours on average to 6 or more.
i was going to get a cheapo dell/hp and an ipad or 2 but with the MIMO and photo editing software driving up the price to 13" MBP levels i'm thinking of going apple
killing the 13" MBP would be a huge mistake. SSD's are still way too expensive and people like me want a lot of hard disk space. and most people don't want to spend $2000 on a laptop with a 15" screen. $1099 after Edu discount for a 13" laptop with nice wifi and 320GB hard drive so i can also do bootcamp is a nice deal
the battery life is probably an apple driver/OS X issue. dell/hp and other laptops got huge battery life boosts with sandy bridge. from 3 hours on average to 6 or more.
Just asked why there was no seperate 17" review via Twitter:
My tweet
@anandtech Will there be a seperate 17" MBP review or did you just title it 13/15 because the 15 and 17 are so similar as far as cpu/gpu?
Response
@Jose_Gutierrez we actually didn't get a 17. the hardware specs are very similar to the 15 so I figured it wasn't a huge deal
@Jose_Gutierrez I spent some time with a 17 - doesn't seem believe that it behaves any differently than the 15...
My tweet
@anandtech Will there be a seperate 17" MBP review or did you just title it 13/15 because the 15 and 17 are so similar as far as cpu/gpu?
Response
@Jose_Gutierrez we actually didn't get a 17. the hardware specs are very similar to the 15 so I figured it wasn't a huge deal
@Jose_Gutierrez I spent some time with a 17 - doesn't seem believe that it behaves any differently than the 15...
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The 13" is unfortunately a foster child in the lineup that will always be about providing a low end "Pro" to the average person (non-gamer, non-professional) out there at an attractive price point.
I'd love a higher option screen at least in a custom configuration but so far no go on that. The form factor is really attractive, if only it came with a 1440x900 screen option.
I'd love a higher option screen at least in a custom configuration but so far no go on that. The form factor is really attractive, if only it came with a 1440x900 screen option.
I think Apple is really dropping the ball by not allowing more customization to the 13" line. 13" HR AG with a quad core would be awesome.