Apple Bumps MacBook Pro with Processor, Graphics, Storage Upgrades

[blackhand1001]

Why is Apple holding so resolutely to those terribly slow 5400rpm hard drives? 7200rpm hard drives go for dirt cheap now...

The bigger question is why is it a $150 bto option to get 7200rpm drive. At hp they charge you $10 if the system doesn't already come with 7200rpm. I could by three 7200rpm drives for that kinda money and still have the original 5400rpm drive. 100 just to get more storage (your getting a drive that costs about 5 dollars more than the base one) is also ridiculous since these drives cost about $50 total and way less for apple.

 

[blue22]

I wouldn't settle for less...

O hell, my local Apple Store just cut prices on all previous models with €200 (let's say $200). Now what do I do?

I'm in the market for the lower 15" model, but is it worth it to buy the new one? Or should I just take advantage of the offer and buy last week's model?

Today's new "low end" 15" model was, literally, yesterday's "mid-range" model, but at £200 less; unless you just want to save some quids, it'd go for that one if you're in the hunt for a new computer right now.

 

[lapeno]

Had hoped for ssd to become standard

 

[blackhand1001]

They never mark anything as new if it's just a minor spec bump.

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Because they're still cheaper. They have to keep everything under that $xx99 price mark; adding a more expensive drive as standard would mean they'd have to roll the price up another $100, regardless of what the upgrade cost, or have to deal with even thinner profit margins.. they make very little on the computers they sell as it is. Plus then they can charge more for them as upgrades

I dunno though, remember when 4200 RPM was standard, and 5400 RPM was the upgrade? At 750 GB/5400 RPM, they're not so terribly poky anymore

Wow lets stretch the truth a little more, apple making little on their machines, you have got to be kidding me. You realize the difference in costs between a 5400rpm drive and 7200rpm is less than $5
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822145454
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822145455

 

[MacSince1990]

Nope.

It must be only apple buyers who think this way. Every other computer manufacturer updates its products weekly. There are always spec boosts, new models coming in, old models going out, sales, discounts etc. Apple is different. They only sell three laptop models and you really can't customize them, and they only update them twice a year. Its a whole different game, and they can play it because people go along with it because its Apple. If you buy a book and a new edition comes out the next day, do you get a a partial refund? If you buy a car and a new model comes out two weeks later do you get a rebate for getting a car that was on the way out? Nope sorry, apple is a nice company but they aren't that nice. If its really a problem then return it and buy a new one. But its not worth your time, because you would honestly never notice the difference in performance.

Apple has actually offered rebates before in cases like this, although not often.

And no other company updates their lines WEEKLY. Check Lenovo.. they update a few times a year.

And yes, you can customize them, some more than others. You can customize screen resolution, processor speed, and hard drive speed/space/type.

NOT updating constantly, and buying components in the unified, bulk manner that Apple does helps drive down costs considerably, both for them and for customers; and it also helps them increase their profit margin as the model runs through its life cycle.

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Had hoped for ssd to become standard

How could you possibly think it'd be standard when the 128 GB is $100 more than the 750 GB HDD? Apple isn't going to start making these things standard until they're at least 512 GB, and cost under $200.

IF you want one, buy one.

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Wow lets stretch the truth a little more, apple making little on their machines, you have got to be kidding me. You realize the difference in costs between a 5400rpm drive and 7200rpm is less than $5
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822145454
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822145455

....Those are 320 GB drives... from Hitachi, no less. Find me a price difference of only $5 between two 750 GB 5400/7200 RPM drives and I'll be sold.

And yes, Apple's profit margins on their computers kinda suck. Ever seen them?

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The bigger question is why is it a $150 bto option to get 7200rpm drive. At hp they charge you $10 if the system doesn't already come with 7200rpm. I could by three 7200rpm drives for that kinda money and still have the original 5400rpm drive. 100 just to get more storage (your getting a drive that costs about 5 dollars more than the base one) is also ridiculous since these drives cost about $50 total and way less for apple.

...it's an extra $50, not $150 from a 750 -->750.

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Whats the point of the 13" pro if it doesn't even have a dedicated graphics card? Might as well get the 13" MBA that has the same integrated graphics.

Well they're just rebadged MacBooks with the new Aluminum unibody. What'd you expect?

 

[rockyroad55]

MBA13 with8gb ram and 512mbSSD
MBA13 with8gb ram and 512mbSSD
MBA13 with8gb ram and 512mbSSD
MBA13 with8gb ram and 512mbSSD
MBA13 with8gb ram and 512mbSSD
MBA13 with8gb ram and 512mbSSD
MBA13 with8gb ram and 512mbSSD
MBA13 with8gb ram and 512mbSSD
MBA13 with8gb ram and 512mbSSD


Everything else can stay the same

That's it?

 

[blue22]

this is actually a good spec-bump...

Nice updates in my honest opinion.

Sweet, the biggest upgrade comes for the low end 15" macbook pro now getting the ati 6750 with 512mb vram with the same price. It doesnt hurt that it gets 2.2GHz now too! Huge upgrade imo.

Agreed. That graphics card update should help the performance of the base 15" models a pretty good bit. I'm excited.

Only a small and silent update, but very, very good actually. Makes the MBP line far, far better value for money for the average user. As said by many, the 6750M is a lot, lot faster.

This is a better mid-life upgrade than most but major updates twice a year never happen. It doesn't help that there are rumour threads in the forums misleading people.

Agreed + the truth!

A Monday release? Is nothing sacred

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 5_0 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1 Mobile/9A334 Safari/7534.48.3)
Mac uodates? On a Monday? Really?

Looks like the Tuesday release tradition is the first to go after Steve.

It ended basically right after the intel transition. While most updates are still on Tuesday, a significant amount are not on Tuesday, in fact the previous release of the macbook pro was on a Thursday, not a Tuesday.

I like how this touchpoint evolved.

A Monday release? Is nothing sacred

You've got to be kidding. Since when should any release be sacred? It's called continual improvement.

Dude, the original poster was being sarcastic.

Meh... here was me hoping for SSD to be standard (at least in the higher configs).

Why?! At current SSD prices (over $2 per GB) that wasn't a realistic expectation to have, especially if you wanted Apple to pre-install it for you.

A very uninspiring update :/ I guess I'll wait for the Ivy Bridge MBPs next year.

Also, anyone else noticed that they haven't put the little "New" icon above the MacBook Pros on the store page, like they usually do?

Anybody calling this update "uninspired" or "disappointing" hasn't been paying attention to Apple's strategy over the past 4 years. Even MacRumors has written about Apple following intel's "Tick Tock" paradigm of a major update followed by a minor boost. This is the minor boost, and I would expect next year to bring us a major change of some sort. Whether that change means unifying all laptops into the Air form factor, or something else, is to be seen.

But, this update is pretty much exactly as expected.

To add to Delegator's response: why would you have expected a major MBP update 6 months before Ivy Bridge debuts and just a week after the launch of the iPhone 4S??? You don't really know Apple's release cycle m.o. yet do you?

Also, Apple doesn't add the "new" icon to simple spec-bump updates to their products sold online, which is what this is representing. Don't worry though, Ivy Bridge will be here soon enough.

I ordered a new one on wednesday, should I cancel my order or expect to receive the new one?

They just might send you the newer one (you can tell via the specs printed on the box) but if not just take it back to the store to exchange it for the newer one; but call Customer Service first, and like another poster said try to avoid opening the box if you already know it's not the model you want. 90% of the time they'll honor this type of exchange, but no guarantees. And you have to do this within 14 days of receiving the item. Good luck!

4GB RAM in 2011?

Come on, Apple! We need 8GB RAM as standard configuration!

It's called OWC buddy.

The bigger question is why is it a $200 bto option to get 7200rom drive. At hp they charge you $10 if the system doesn't already come with 7200rpm.

Because, that's just how Apple rolls.

 

[sfsurfer]

how did you come to this conclusion? strange....

Stop using that term...it's stupid, old, and overused...

Also it doesn't apply here...

I guess my sarcasm was too thick

 

[zombrman]

Don't mean to hijack but...

NVM, wrong place.

 

[garrybedi]

13" MacBook Pro with option of Antiglare screen

Why cant Apple think of launching 13" MacBook Pro with option of Antiglare screen?
It would be glare free, smaller, light weight & convenient to carry than the 15"/17" MacBook Pro

 

[iMaconApple]

I'm do for a new MacBook pro but ill wait to see if they relase a new design

 

[diamond.g]

Not finger pointing. Nvidia and Intel were in a nasty lawsuit involving the iX series of processors/motherboards. From this article:

Intel was blocking Nvidia from developing cards for this configuration. I still haven't seen an explanation why they aren't using AMD cards for the 13", though. Maybe space concerns or something.



The 13" MBP is in an odd position. The resolution isn't as good as the MBA, and it doesn't offer the graphics power of the larger versions. I don't see why people would go for the MBP unless they need the storage space or superdrive.



Of course, this would be a good reason to get the 13" MBP. Cheaper is always good.

Ever since AMD purchased ATI, there have been no more Intel motherboards made by them.

 

[Sackvillenb]

Nice! I'm glad the upped the graphics! And the storage upgrade is a pleasant surprise as well...

Too bad the 13 still has intel graphics, oh well.

 

[ppdix]

Where are the mac pros?????

 

[oiuh151]

Ask Intel.

 

[Taz Mangus]

Well they're just rebadged MacBooks with the new Aluminum unibody. What'd you expect?

In 2010, the 13" MacBook and 13" MacBook Pro both existed. Also, the MacBook Pro came with a Firewire port whereas the MacBook did not. So it is not quite a rebadged MacBook as both had different logic boards.

 

[wikus]

Would be nice if they finally updated OS X Snow Leopard and Lion to include TRIM support seeing how theyve been selling SSD drives in macbooks for a number of years now.

NO EXCUSE at this point for omitting this.

 

[Nostromo]

"Apple quietly released"...

Sure, there's nothing much to look at in regard to specs.

Still no SSD standards start-up disc - this is a no-no for quality laptops of this price level.

I suppose most updating was in regards to performance tweaks and smoother operation - I remember many people posting heat issues in regards to the previous generation MBP (which was the one with the big bump up from 2 to 4 cores).

What really interests me is the next generation MBP.

Which must have an SSD standard as a start-up disc. And, I expect, a second hard drive for mass storage, and no super drive.

 

[master.cob]

I'm currently using the early 2008 MacBook pro, and I'm looking for an upgrade soon. Should I upgrade now, or wait for Ivy Bridge? I'm thinking of waiting, since I'm able to get by with this computer as of now, but I really want the extra power and disk space.

I'm in pretty much the same place as you. My Pro is from winter 2006, though! It's still going strong - but I've been battling HD space issues, and the screen flickering a bit when I open/close. I'm ready to get a new one. But I'm going to wait until the Ivy Bridge/chassis update in Late Q1 / early Q2 2012. It seems like it will be a pretty big update, so I think it will be worth the wait. I waited about 7 months before getting my last Pro because I knew there was a big processor update coming, and I think it was worth it.

And, if the Ivy Bridge update ends up not being all that (or the update the chassis isn't what I'm looking for), I can always snag a reburbished late-2011 Pro for a cheaper price.

 

[Eidorian]

Apple can't do anything, its Intel who is to blame for not allowing nVidia.

Well they could get rid of the optical drive in the 13" MacBook Pro. I would rather have a Radeon HD 6630M over that optical drive.

At the very least the entry 15" rids itself of the abysmal HD 6490M.

 

[anthonyreid]

Need Help

I wanted to upgrade from my MacBook Pro 13" with i5 that I have bought in May to MacBook Pro with 2.3Ghz i7, 4Gb Ram, 128Gb SSD and High Resolution screen, already found it on ebay for a very good price, but here we come - the new one came out. What do you think, should I wait for another two weeks to receive 2.5Ghz and spend another $200 extra, or get the 2.3Ghz MacBook Pro right now??? NEED YOUR ADVICE!=D

 

[iisdan]

Apple y u no make real update?

I'm looking for a Macbook air with good specs, i was hoping the macbook pro would have ditched the dvd drive and switched to SSD, i would have bought one on the spot. looks like i'll use the money towards a car instead.

 

[AppleScruff1]

No Sandy Bridge?
Well, i think I still might get it anyways... i've been wanting a mac pro for YEARS now.

It already has Sandy Bridge.

The 13" MBP is in an odd position. The resolution isn't as good as the MBA, and it doesn't offer the graphics power of the larger versions. I don't see why people would go for the MBP unless they need the storage space or superdrive.

Of course, this would be a good reason to get the 13" MBP. Cheaper is always good.

I'm sure price has a lot to do with it. It is still hundreds cheaper than a comparable MBA.

Because they're still cheaper. They have to keep everything under that $xx99 price mark; adding a more expensive drive as standard would mean they'd have to roll the price up another $100, regardless of what the upgrade cost, or have to deal with even thinner profit margins.. they make very little on the computers they sell as it is. Plus then they can charge more for them as upgrades

I dunno though, remember when 4200 RPM was standard, and 5400 RPM was the upgrade? At 750 GB/5400 RPM, they're not so terribly poky anymore

Yea, they probably only make 30% profit on the notebooks vs 6% like the rest of the industry.

 

[steve2112]

Ever since AMD purchased ATI, there have been no more Intel motherboards made by them.

Yeah, I realize that. I was just wondering why there are no AMD discrete graphics in the 13" like there are in the 15 and 17in models. I suppose space is the limiting factor.

 

[applefan227]

so when is the major update with the redesign??