Apple Announces New MacBook Pros, Updates MacBook Air

[macgruder]

Arrghh, I just got depressed looking at Dell's website here in New Zealand.

For the price of a single 2.5GHz Macbook Pro, I could buy TWO equivalent Dell laptops now (except the Dells are better spec'd - 500Gb HDD, higher res screen, etc).

Bye bye for now, Apple.

You don't seem to understand the meaning of the word 'equivalent'. Specs and quality are a different thing altogether. You can have superior specs but lower quality. The solution for you is easy: go buy the Dell - we won't miss you. When I buy a laptop/computer, I reason like this: here is a machine that I'll have more interaction with than any other. A substantial part of my working day will be spent using it - it should last at least 2 years probably 3. I could buy a Dell and save $1/day over the life of the machine and lose a few thousand in lost productivity. It's for the same reason my desktop is a MacPro with ACD - it'll last 5 years and probably will make a great server when it's done as a daily machine. A bargain in other words.

Yes, there are things that could be improved. Lack of Firewire is one. But this tiresome comparison between Mac pricing and Dell pricing is fatuous at best, ignorant at worst.

 

[ukmacmonster]

You don't seem to understand the meaning of the word 'equivalent'. Specs and quality are a different thing altogether. You can have superior specs but lower quality. The solution for you is easy: go buy the Dell - we won't miss you. When I buy a laptop/computer, I reason like this: here is a machine that I'll have more interaction with than any other. A substantial part of my working day will be spent using it - it should last at least 2 years probably 3. I could buy a Dell and save $1/day over the life of the machine and lose a few thousand in lost productivity. It's for the same reason my desktop is a MacPro with ACD - it'll last 5 years and probably will make a great server when it's done as a daily machine. A bargain in other words.

Yes, there are things that could be improved. Lack of Firewire is one. But this tiresome comparison between Mac pricing and Dell pricing is fatuous at best, ignorant at worst.

Well said. I've been using Macs at home for years because of their quality, lack of bugs and superior software. They're not perfect by any means, but far easier to get on with than equivalent PCs (which I'm forced to use at work). I tend to think of computers in terms of what I get out of them, rather than geeky performance stats. Residual values on Macs are a pleasant surprise too, so you get a fair chunk of the price difference back. I tend to trade mine in on a 3 year cycle. I got £400 back for my 3 year old G5 iMac, an equivalent PC would have been practically worthless.

 

[g00k]

You don't seem to understand the meaning of the word 'equivalent'. Specs and quality are a different thing altogether. You can have superior specs but lower quality. The solution for you is easy: go buy the Dell - we won't miss you. When I buy a laptop/computer, I reason like this: here is a machine that I'll have more interaction with than any other. A substantial part of my working day will be spent using it - it should last at least 2 years probably 3. I could buy a Dell and save $1/day over the life of the machine and lose a few thousand in lost productivity. It's for the same reason my desktop is a MacPro with ACD - it'll last 5 years and probably will make a great server when it's done as a daily machine. A bargain in other words.

Yes, there are things that could be improved. Lack of Firewire is one. But this tiresome comparison between Mac pricing and Dell pricing is fatuous at best, ignorant at worst.

maybe u both are ignorant?
apple is in no way a high quality manufractuer
neither is dell
u just could have said u buy/prefer leopard the rest u talk about is bs
if u really would care about high quality products and efficiency u never would buy an acd

 

[budidi]

You don't seem to understand the meaning of the word 'equivalent'. Specs and quality are a different thing altogether. You can have superior specs but lower quality. The solution for you is easy: go buy the Dell - we won't miss you. When I buy a laptop/computer, I reason like this: here is a machine that I'll have more interaction with than any other. A substantial part of my working day will be spent using it - it should last at least 2 years probably 3. I could buy a Dell and save $1/day over the life of the machine and lose a few thousand in lost productivity. It's for the same reason my desktop is a MacPro with ACD - it'll last 5 years and probably will make a great server when it's done as a daily machine. A bargain in other words.

Yes, there are things that could be improved. Lack of Firewire is one. But this tiresome comparison between Mac pricing and Dell pricing is fatuous at best, ignorant at worst.

You are correct in the productivity side.. but you have to agree, the specs of MBP almost didn't change since January. There are many many notebooks with a 2.4 Core2Duo processor for half the price. Since the CPU is the same, and graphics is almost the same, the memory is almost the same, the dysplay is almost the same, and the firewire ports are almost the same...where are they ... the price should be adjust!! 1999$ for a 2.4 processor?? too expensive..

 

[TuffLuffJimmy]

You are correct in the productivity side.. but you have to agree, the specs of MBP almost didn't change since January. There are many many notebooks with a 2.4 Core2Duo processor for half the price. Since the CPU is the same, and graphics is almost the same, the memory is almost the same, the dysplay is almost the same, and the firewire ports are almost the same...where are they ... the price should be adjust!! 1999$ for a 2.4 processor?? too expensive..

Are you serious? You're not going to notice any difference between a 2.4GHz processor and a 3.0GHz. There were some big changes to the new Macbook Pro, right down to the manufacturing process. And the memory is not the same it is DDR3, the display is not the same (although it is the same panel) it's made of glass, making it much crisper and more rigid. The graphics are no where near the same! There are two graphics cards in the new Macbook Pro, much faster and higher performance than the old one and not so prone to failure.

 

[bwbeta]

you forgot one thing

So a pro machine... 'clearing throat' A TRUE pro machine would look like this...
2 Firewire ports (Separate Bus for each) 1 fw400+fw800 or 2 fw800...
esata port
express card slot
2 hard drive option
Matte screen option
8 gb of ram (future Nahalem)

good list ... what the hell , let's just slap on BluRay while were at it

 

[budidi]

Are you serious? You're not going to notice any difference between a 2.4GHz processor and a 3.0GHz. There were some big changes to the new Macbook Pro, right down to the manufacturing process. And the memory is not the same it is DDR3, the display is not the same (although it is the same panel) it's made of glass, making it much crisper and more rigid. The graphics are no where near the same! There are two graphics cards in the new Macbook Pro, much faster and higher performance than the old one and not so prone to failure.

no way!!
www.anandtech.com -> go to MAC tab and see for yourself reviews from previous processors in mac's. even in 2.4 vs 2.53 you can see differences with just a different cache size. it is expected with Nehalem an increase of 40% (but that's not for now), but later it is expected to see higher differences in CPU's speed. Think about this, if snow leopard OpenCL is using GPU unit to help the CPU work...imagine what could happen if you have a faster CPU!!... it's all about speed

.oh and btw, 2 graphic "cards" but only one at a time! and the difference between 9600gt and 8600gt is not that much.sad but true. why didn't they compare 9600gt with 8600gt in the keynote? why to compare 8600 and 9600 only with the intel chip??

 

[MagicWok]

Just wondering... When you boot up the 'new' MBP's - which graphic card comes on as default?

 

[paja]

Arrghh, I just got depressed looking at Dell's website here in New Zealand.

For the price of a single 2.5GHz Macbook Pro, I could buy TWO equivalent Dell laptops now (except the Dells are better spec'd - 500Gb HDD, higher res screen, etc).

Bye bye for now, Apple.

See ya

 

[slackpacker]

Just wondering... When you boot up the 'new' MBP's - which graphic card comes on as default?

the built in 9400 at first boot. Once you change the setting to the 9600m it seems to boot up that way as well. but I hardly ever turn my MacBook Pro off anyway.

 

[Brad Trent]

"...I'm intrigued as to why you appeared to have joined Mac Rumours to make a single post insulting me and wave the flag for Brad Trent. In a manner remarkably similar to Brad Trent's posts in this thread.
Are you possibly Brad Trent, using a pseudonym to hide behind whilst being so rude?"

Wow!!!

Holy ****......you are one paranoid little dude!

I Am Rude...damn straight! But if I wanna be rude to you to make my point, I hardly hafta pose as somebody else to do it!

BT in NYC

 

[kabunaru]

I think we can see the iMac going down this exact same route using this chipset.

I think the iMac will still use ATI video cards. Apple does not want to ruin their relationship with ATI.

 

[brkov]

Oh the new Acer... errr... Dell... I mean Fujitsu-Siemens Notebook... oh again wrong, its a Mac.

Well, i digged Macs and Mac Pros for the unique Design but I guess Jobs & Co decided to take one step back from uniqueness and look like aaaall the other notebooks out there on the market. I'm out!

 

[strikeinsilence]

9600M GT... Are you kidding me? 2GB standard...What a ****** leap. At least a 9700M GT or HD3850 and 4GB for $2000.

Apple released outdated hardware in "new" laptops. How cool is that?

Pretty cool, since it's not like they haven't done this sort of thing before.

 

[budidi]

MacBook Pro's are much prettier than HP's.. I don't understand how people insist to say that. I'm looking forward to see one in person. HP's are only made of palstic. How can you compare that to aluminium?!?!

 

[Tosser]

MacBook Pro's are much prettier than HP's.. I don't understand how people insist to say that. I'm looking forward to see one in person. HP's are only made of palstic. How can you compare that to aluminium?!?!

How can anyone even buy a computer because it's "prettier", unless _all else_ is equal or close to equal?

 

[brkov]

How can anyone even buy a computer because it's "prettier", unless _all else_ is equal or close to equal?

Houses, Clothes, Dates, Cars even sth eat if the packaging looks right... I think its done every day, millions of times because of exact the same reason... it looks better.

 

[Tosser]

Houses, Clothes, Dates, Cars even sth eat if the packaging looks right... I think its done every day, millions of times because of exact the same reason... it looks better.

Well, there are way too many numbnuts in the world with too much money (relatively) and too small a brain. Yay for the recession!!!

 

[Timichango]

It's unreal how angry people are to the point of willing to throw away all their OS X software and move to a much HATED platform (i.e. Windows) that is now being rationalized all over a lousy stinking $20 Firewire port that 90% of Mac users don't actually use anyway (even less in the PC world where maybe 2% even have such a port to begin with) and a glossy screen that you COULD just add a matte filter strip to.

Of course, if Psystar were to WIN their court case, the floodgates for mac clones would open and you'd be able to easily get any hardware you want to go with OS X. But 80% of Mac users were rooting their hands off for Psystar to LOSE BIG TIME against Apple just a couple of months ago and now suddenly I'm seeing a lot of Mac users actually considering a Hackintosh.... How ironic! I guess your world views depend entirely on whether you feel you are personally being screwed by Mr. Jobs. If not, people tend to think he's a demi-god. Otherwise, they suddenly hate his guts over a glossy screen.

I don't think that I'm personally being screwed, or hate Mr. Jobs. I just recognize the age-old scenario playing out again: small company gets bigger by servicing a loyal niche market, outgrows the niche market, and then starts to screw the niche market because it helps their bottom line ever so slightly. Except that in this particular case, the niche market isn't so small, since it represents probably 70%-80% of the professional communications design field (in marketing, print, and web design studios mac studios by far outweigh pc studios), and a huge chunk of both the music and video production fields.

These aren't small industries. If they don't smarten up, in the long run they'll at very least lose a heap of business in cinema displays alone (assuming they go all-glossy). Senior staff will start looking for alternatives to Mac notebooks due to the completely asinine glossy screen. Audio/Video people on a budget will buy a PC where they would have been perfectly happy buying a lower-end MacBook (yep - a "lousy $20 Firewire port" is going to cost them the sale of thousands upon thousands of MacBooks to people who can't afford an MBP, and to whom a MB is useless based upon their prior gear investments).

All in all, their current product strategy seems completely bizarre, at best, and left unimproved signals some very rough times ahead. So sad given that the turbulence is so easy to avoid - I can't see a single benefit to Apple (other than penny pinching) that could have lead to the present quagmire.

 

[Timichango]

Completely agree. For me, OS X is everything. I don't get how people can throw away the whole user experience just so they can get bleeding-edge hardware. It's why the iPhone is so successful: it doesn't have the most features on the market, but the software it uses is ***** brilliant.

That's just the thing - none of the Pros are complaining because the spec isn't bleeding edge, because we know that the spec matters a lot less than the overall usability of the machine. You cannibalize FW connectivity and/or stick a glossy screen on the front, and brother, watch us scream. Most of us would happily trade cpu speed for a better all-around tool, and unfortuntately at some point along the continuum, it is possible to overbalance the advantages of the OS with the shortcomings of the hardware. We're all hoping this isn't that point.

 

[Timichango]

Just pondering aimlessly here, but if they lose as little as 5,000 MBP sales at around $2200 after accessories and upgrades (not even counting applecare), that's $11,000,000 in lost sales.

That's not an insignificant amount of money. I find it hard to imagine that they won't be forced to remedy this issue in the long run - especially since they'll just make matte a pricey BTO option.

 

[budidi]

How can anyone even buy a computer because it's "prettier", unless _all else_ is equal or close to equal?

why do you choose a prettier girl if they (women) serve for the same thing ??

 

[Timichango]

why do you choose a prettier girl if they (women) serve for the same thing ??

I can't really tell if that was meant as a sexist comment or not, but...

 

[Tosser]

why do you choose a prettier girl if they (women) serve for the same thing ??

I might choose a good looking woman for a one night stand, but when it comes to a long term partner, looks alone isn't the selling point. Anyway, it's quite the contrived comparison, methinks, comparing tools with women and human interaction, don't you think?

Secondly, a computer is tool (and a toy, of course), and as such I don't go by looks unless all else is close to equal. I wont buy a sledgehammer of titanium weighing in at a measly 4 ounce if I need to do some actual work with the sledge – no matter how "pretty" it looks. I don't buy into form over function, but rather I will purchase stuff that actually solves a problem, stuff that makes the work enjoyable. If it happens to have good looks, then thats a bonus. I guess that's why I never bought an iPod Touch or iPhone. I do not buy things because they're "pretty" or glossy. I got over that stage at age 8.

 

[budidi]

I can't really tell if that was meant as a sexist comment or not, but...

NO! I just wanted to show that we choose many things for their looks, and i gave the example of women (kidding of course). Like my ACER is a big fat hairy guy (horrible) and a new MacBook Pro would be my Adriana Lima Looks DO care!
I'm a not a bad person..

I also don't buy things just because they are pretty..that's why i'm wainting for the Nehalem. This MacBook Pro price with January's Specs...too expensive, so I'll wait. simple as that.
about the looks, why to buy a Ferrari when you can buy a Renault ??? you have limited speed on the streets so the utility is the same!! looks do care!