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Apple Launches MacBook Pros with Thunderbolt, Quad Core CPUs, AMD GPUs

Is it me or do others feel that $1200 for the bottom of the barrel Apple laptop is still wicked expensive? And that's a 13" screen. The 15" screen laptops start at $1800. Will Apple ever sell a laptop that is priced well below $1000?

I cannot fork over these kinds of payments for a laptop computer that will be matched by any other $500+ laptop doing the same things that 90% of consumers do these days (web surf, email, facebook, photo uploads, MS Office, skype, online bill pay, etc). Sure, maybe for very specific apps like Photoshop or Premiere a particular Macbook may be needed. Sure, if you have a 5 year old Macbook and hate PCs, you're willing to do an upgrade now.

I own Macs and I own PCs...but I was really looking forward to a $800 or $900 Mac laptop someday.
 
Interesting how they conveniently left the HD 3000 vs. nVidia 320M comparison off the performance page. They only compare the new ATI over the old discrete nVidia.

The big dilemma for me is the low-res on the 13". I'm really baffled by how they failed to upgrade it to 1440x900, and also left it off as a BTO option. It's not a "too cheap to get a real MacBook Pro" thing. I can afford to go up to the 15", but I'm at college and portability means a lot when I'm carrying it and using it between classes.

Frankly, I'd hoped for better with the 13" graphics, but I'm not altogether surprised. The lack of blade SSD isn't a huge shocker either. What I am (pleasantly) surprised by is the Core i7 option in the 13". I wholly expected an i3 in there. The fact that it's not even an option really makes me happy.

And to everybody who talks about how everyone expects Apple to update a lot and is disappointed when they only update a little, it's largely because Apple's refresh times have been slipping. The last two updates have been grossly overdue. Arrandale was something like 100 days late, as was Sandy Bridge. When a company only outputs one update a year, you really hope that they've been spending their time doing something spectacular. As of late, it seems Apple has not. Sure they have to wait on Intel's chip releases, but that's no excuse for not taking the time to develop some other additions.
 
Anyone know what the deal is with the light peak port? All of intel's samples and preview material has shown a connector that looks much like a usb port...did they change the final connector or is Apple just looking to sell us another proprietary adaptor?
 
Don't try to run Flash video on any of these new MBPs, you'll be very disappointed :

http://developer.apple.com/library/mac/#technotes/tn2010/tn2267.html

The Video Decode Acceleration framework is a C programming interface providing low-level access to the H.264 decoding capabilities of compatible GPUs such as the NVIDIA GeForce 9400M, GeForce 320M or GeForce GT 330M.
Click to expand...

Apple have yet to announce any Intel or ATI support for the framework that Flash uses to hardware decode its video for playback. Note this is the same Framework that players like VLC/Mplayer are implementing.
 
Just ordered my 15" 2.2G MBP 750G drive with 4G memory and high-res display on the employee discount. :D Anybody want to buy a 2007 Santa Rosa 15" MBP :)
 
A question: Will the Thunderbolt port (supporting daisy-chaining of devices) therefore allow multiple monitors to be run off the displayport. If this allows a MBP to run dual monitors this is a massive plus.
 
Pablo90 said:
It's not uncommon for Apple products... Look at the AppStore, the iTunes store, etc.. The price around the world are always higher than in the US.

Look at the iPhone...
Click to expand...

US prices don't include VAT. Europe pricing include this, so you have to add to US prices the VAT, and then start comparing. The difference is smaller as you think. But then again, you can't blame Apple for the 20% VAT in the UK... So, maybe it's easier to subtract the VAT from the Euro price, and then compare with the US price using the current conversion rate. I doubt you see much difference...
 
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boymom75 said:
Total lay-person here, so can can somebody explain to me how base model 13" went from 2.4GHz (Intel core) to 2.3GHz (dual core i5)? Isn't that slower? Or does the dual core make it faster than a higher number on Intel core?

Sorry, I'm not as techie as you guys, but my 2006 MBP (2.16GHz intel Core 2) really needs to go, and I want to understand how much better I'm doing, and why I'm not doing as well as I would've before today!

Same with the battery!
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The clock speed is lower, but that doesn't mean the CPU is slower. The i5 does more work per clock cycle. It's kinda like a transmission. When your engine is running at 3000 RPM in first gear, you don't go as fast as when the engine is running the same speed in fifth gear. The Core 2 Duo is like being in first gear. Hope that helps.

Battery life appears to have gone down because they are testing the battery with more realistic tests. The 10 hour estimates from before were probably done with the screen almost totally dimmed and not running many applications.
 
This sucks the new 13" macbook pro is cra*, and 15" is too overpriced so when are people going to start hating apple and there overpriced S*it. i wanted a decent laptop that was small and good play games pretty good, not low all.
 
boymom75 said:
Total lay-person here, so can can somebody explain to me how base model 13" went from 2.4GHz (Intel core) to 2.3GHz (dual core i5)? Isn't that slower? Or does the dual core make it faster than a higher number on Intel core?
Click to expand...

The machines went from 1st gen core to 2nd gen core ( Sandy Bridge ) processors. That alone is a huge speed increase. Here is a good review of Sandy Bridge <http://www.digitaltrends.com/computing/intel-sandy-bridge-review/>
 
funny all this talk of thunderbolt, high performance graphics, hd graphics, and still no bluray.
 
While I was kind of hoping for the 8GB RAM and High-Resolution screen as a base configuration, I am very happy. I will be getting the high-end 15in.

Now I can only hope that my friendly Apple Store will have it in stock.
 
BJB Productions said:
Alright. Well I'm not going through the hassle to sell my late 2008 Macbook Pro for just minor updates... I'll wait another year.
Click to expand...

Originally I thought the same but the other features will benefit me as I plunge into Logic Express 9.1 and future updates.
Core i5
ThunderBolt port will help benefit external local RAID!!
I already have a faster than stock 7200RPM 240GB HDD; which with this machine I"ll order an SSD.

Its about daily use performance for me. My wife will be pleased to have my early 2009 Unibody MacBook (Aluminum); not the pro you have.
 
17'' options?

Is there a big difference (other than 2.2 vs 2.3) between the two processor options on the new 17''? What are they?
 
Well in the UK if you take the top 15" (for the decent graphics card) and up the screen res we are basically talking £2000 ($3218). Its a little hard to justify this...... :(
 
If your not happy now. When will you ever be? What we have here is a refreshed Mac book Pro, it's what we all wanted a year ago. Give or take it's a little late but it is a refresh of some sort. Just think about all the people who just got Mac pro's for Christmas those guys are the ones who may feel hurt.
 
k995 said:
So it doesnt excist? Strange logic, I worked for years with dell and never saw one cracked but I do realise that happens, just like with macbooks, this site contains enough threads about that.



Again, I have both and I see little value to choose one over the other. The only problkem remains that not all windows software is avaible on OSX, I dont know anything important that doesnt run on windows.



Wich is of nu concern to most people who use there laptop until its broke.

Besides, if it costs 700 less, even with less reslae value you still have more left after 2 years.



Not really , just a bit more openminded.
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1. threads about unibody macbooks cracking ... i would like to see such a thread. i travel a lot with mine and have put a few small dents in it, but haven't seen any cracks in the unibody. where i work, every new student gets a MBP (meaning 50 new MBPs / year so there are a few 100 around at any one time and I still haven't seen/heard of a crack ... dents maybe, cracking no).

2. i'm not saying choosing one over the other :mad: With a MBP, you can LEGALLY run OSX and Win7, you CANNOT do this on a non-Apple machine. we use a lot of OSX specific software during our daily use. running a Hackintosh is actually violating most ISPs TOS.

3. Of course the value is of concern. If it's stolen, it has a certain value versus age. That value is always higher with Mac than with a PC (% wise, not just absolute value). Using until broken is a feeble excuse for not thinking about depreciation over time. never mind the tax benefit/detriments.

4. I don't think you're open-minded, you're either anti-apple or haven't really thought about what you're speaking about.
 
Good lord! I can't believe what whiners some of the people here can be!

This is a FINE update. Maybe I'm more like your typical Mac user than a lot of the posters here, I dunno. My laptop is a March 2006 first-gen MacBook Pro. That's right, 2.0 GHz Core Duo. It's totally time for an upgrade. These guys? PERFECT. Quad Core? Three freakin' quarter TERABYTE of disk? Brand new IO port with tons of future potential? Build-to-order 1680 screen?

Man, we're living in THE FUTURE and all some people can do is complain the trackpad isn't bigger!

Well fine, be that way! Have fun being all miserable while I'm giddily enjoying my awesome new laptop! Suckeeeeerrrrrrrrrrrrs!
 
boymom75 said:
Total lay-person here, so can can somebody explain to me how base model 13" went from 2.4GHz (Intel core) to 2.3GHz (dual core i5)? Isn't that slower? Or does the dual core make it faster than a higher number on Intel core?
Click to expand...

It's slightly complicated. First, the old processor was a Core 2 Duo, the new one is an i5. There is about three years worth of improvements in the newer processor, so it will do more work at the same clock speed. It has more cache memory, which makes it faster again. It has a feature called "hyper-threading", which means it can pretend to be four cores that each run at maybe 60% of the speed of a normal core, which again makes it a bit faster (if you have software that can use four cores, you get 4 x 60% instead of 2 x 100%).

And another new feature is called "Turboboost". It means that when the temperature in the new Mac is low enough, the clock speed can be increased. The old processor would run at 2.4 GHz all the time. The new processor will run at higher speed than 2.3 GHz all the time. But if it is used only for a short time, then the clock speed will be increased. So if a new MacBook sits around doing nothing, and then you do something that uses the processor for ten seconds, it will run a lot faster for those ten seconds. Not forever because it would be too hot, but for a short time. And if only one core is used, and only one core produces heat, then the clock speed can go over 3 GHz.
 
I guess it's hard to be perfect. For the longest time everyone was wondering why Apple doesn't use quad core CPUs and high(er) end GPUs in their notebooks at least for the larger 15"/17" models and when they finally do it, they are kind of behind the times again because SSD hard drives and high-resolution screens are the latest thing. Admittedly, partially due to their own promotion. Still a pretty decent update since the CPU and GPU in the high-end 15" will be enough for me to purchase.

I really wish though that Apple donated the Firewire connector spec for Intel to use for Thunderbolt. Firewire "space" is already dedicated for high-speed I/O so that you aren't taking up the display out port which is kind of strange.
 
I love my Company's Employee Purchase Program

2.2GHz Quad-core Intel Core i7
8GB 1333MHz DDR3 SDRAM - 2x4GB
750GB Serial ATA Drive @ 5400 rpm
SuperDrive 8x (DVD±R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW)
MacBook Pro 15-inch Hi-Res Glossy Widescreen Display
Backlit Keyboard (English) & User's Guide

For the lovely price of $2,299.00 vs $2,499.00
 
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