Hmm, this update is better than I expected in some ways, but worse than I had hoped for.
I am very surprised to see that they are offering quad core processors on the 15" and 17" modelsparticularly the 15". Previously they have limited themselves to 35W processors which is why quad core models have not been available until now. I wonder if they have changed the internal design at all, or if they just run hot again like the older MacBook Pros.
I'm curious about the battery life. It seems to have dropped quite a bit. I know that Apple are saying they have changed their test methods, but didn't they say that last year as well, or was it when the MacBook Airs were released that they changed it? I'm sure the switch to higher wattage processors has played a part and it will be interesting to see how they compare in the real world.
I'm also surprised to see the switch over to AMD graphics againnot that it's a bad thing. AMD seem to have been doing better for power efficiency in recent years which makes a lot of sense for a notebook. They still have the automatic graphics switching in there, which is interesting. I wonder if it still works as it did with last year's models where it would basically be running on the dedicated GPU all the time or if it's actually going to be useful this time around. They need to be switching GPUs on a per-application basis, not when applications use specific APIs.
Thunderbolt is interesting. It's great that they
finally have a high-speed connection after skipping eSATA and USB3. It makes sense to replace the DisplayPort connector with it, as it is compatible with DisplayPort and I am sure that they will soon release updated displays which have passthrough connections on the back.
But where is the USB3 support?
Intel has previously demonstrated Lightpeak connectors that were pin-compatible with, and supported using, USB3 devices. It's one thing to have a new high speed port, and sure it's faster than USB3, but there are plenty of USB3 devices out there now that it's been in use for a couple of years and it still means that there's no way to do
video capture with a MacBook Pro, for example. This is yet another case of Apple's stubbornness hurting consumers. Even if Thunderbolt doesn't support USB3 connections in this iteration, there's no reason we should be stuck with two USB2 ports.
The screen on the 13" MacBook Pro is a real letdown with it being stuck at a very low resolution and not having an anti-glare option. It's ridiculous that their lightweight "travel" laptop has a better screen than their "Pro" model. Still waiting for a 1920x1200 option for the 15" model too, and no mention of wider gamut displays either.
Size, Resolution
11" MBA, 135 PPI
13" MBA, 128 PPI
13" MBP, 113 PPI
15" MBP, 129 PPI
17" MBP, 133 PPI
Still no Blu-ray. Sure, I'm not likely to ever watch a film on a laptop, but there's a good chance that I would hook it up to a large display to watch something (as long as I remember my DisplayPort > HDMI adapter
) and without Blu-ray I wouldn't be able to watch any film that I've bought in the last five years. It also means you can't read data discs eithersure, they're not as common as CDs, DVDs or portable drives, but they still exist. This is just another way that Apple is hurting consumersthis time to push people towards using iTunes.
I would much rather that they had no optical drive at all, but if they are going to have one, there should at least be the
option of having Blu-ray.
And more on that pointwhy isn't there an option to drop the optical drive entirely? At the very least you could double up on storage driveshave a smaller SSD for a boot/applications drive, and a large hard drive for storage. Or go with two hard drives for maximum storage (2TB) or even two SSDs.
What about putting an extended battery in the space that the optical drive takes up? Perhaps removing the optical drive would free up enough space that you could have more than a measly two USB ports on the computeronly one of which is usable at any one time when many devices are plugged in.
Many of these are the same complaints that I had last year before I decided that I still wanted a Mac and basically didn't have a choice but to get one. I sold off my previous i7 MBP around late-November if I remember correctly, expecting the SB machines to be out late 2010 or Jan 2011, so I have been waiting for this update for a while now and have the money set aside, but over the last year I've been shifting towards using more multi-platform applications and I'm not sure that I
need to be using a Mac now.
I would absolutely prefer to be using OSX rather than Windows, but considering how much more expensive Apple hardware is, and how lacking they still are in terms of connectivity, I'm not sure I can justify it any more.
If they at least had USB3 or some form of Thunderbolt with USB3 support (pin compatible, not requiring adapters) then I would probably be buying one now, but I'm not going to make that mistake again. If I did buy one, as soon as the Ivy Bridge machines come out at the end of the year/early next, I would be wanting to upgrade again, because that is when Intel will
finally support USB3 and Apple won't have any excuse to avoid supporting it.
), Thunderbolt port with devices available, SSD and no space-wasting optical drive, Lion etc.