Apple Releases 17'' MacBook Pro

[iChill]

wow

i must say i am impressed with how the macbook pro is developing, but apple needs to get on the "MacBook" or whatever it will be called. That way it will be shipping buy june, just in time for the education market.

 

[dylomel]

awesome 17" ,

now just need to wait for the pictures !!!!!!


Who got it first ??

 

[lietsche]

I'm definitely working with video all the time. The issue for me is the trade off in battery life vs. missing the extra 20GB once all the applications and all their associated support files are loaded. I mean I could see easily using almost all 120 GB just for the system and applications. Couldn't you? I was really hoping for the new 160 GB Seagate inside.

BTW Seagate is about to release a 3.5" 750GB HD.

Oh yes I could use 120 gb only for the apps.
but then again I will be fine with a 100 as well.
Can I say that I am disappointed that there is not extra HD storage?
So I will be walking around not only with a quiet larger laptop that I intended to have but always with an ext. HD as well.
So the 20 gigs extra do not play the game as I am talking 250-500 extra.
So I opted for the extra speed.
I guess I will have to leave my complete date on my 20" imac and just take a selection of my libraries with me.

But, no, I don´t complain.
This thing is sweet and has the items I missed on the 15".

Some people call me HD storage junkee

 

[Multimedia]

Dell Is Missing GB Ethernet, A Huge MINUS, 53 Watt Hour Battery Pathetic

I don't see how you can say it's the most powerful windows machine:
10/100 Network Card and Modem
Primary Battery 53 WHr 6-cell Lithium Ion Primary Battery
Genuine Windows® XP Media Center 2005 Edition re-installation CD
Remote Control for Windows XP Media Center Edition
Dell Digital Entertainment Starter Entertainment Pack - Basic digital Music, Photo and Game experience

$1,920.00 with coupon code ZRFVGS97PK1F1?

http://www.pricegrabber.com/search_techspecs_full.php/masterid=16029949
And numerous other companies sell PC's with A64 X2's and Pentium D's.

You can get notebooks with SLI and dual internal hard drives now.

What is "SLI" and how do you rationalize a 5400rpm 100GB HD and NO Gigabit Ethernet? You are Screwed when you hook up to the network. The battery life is much lower. Apple's is 68 Watt Hour. And I don't see OS X being offered here.

 

[lietsche]

Nope, I can't imagine it! What all are you installing??

I have a 40 GB (37 formatted) drive with 16 GB free! I know I'm not a power user, but what apps would fill 120 GB?

Install FCS and you are in with 35 gig approx...
then music libraries, huge photo libraries, email archieves, let´s say this is part of the system files....

It IS possible...

 

[mackeeper]

$2799 is frickin expensive!

 

[all-in-my-head]

Nope, I can't imagine it! What all are you installing??

I have a 40 GB (37 formatted) drive with 16 GB free! I know I'm not a power user, but what apps would fill 120 GB?

Just installed final cut studio, from 7 discs, the total suite is 37GB!
Just software and library files.
Add that to say CS2, Macromedia(Adobe) Design Studio, Office, etc etc...

 

[Multimedia]

$2799 is frickin INexpensive! What Planet Are You On?

$2799 is frickin expensive!

$2799 is frickin INexpensive! What Planet Are You On?

Makes the Refurbished 15" MacBook Pros look expensive. . . I thought it would cost at least $2999. And I was very worried that FW800 was history. Thank GOD somebody in engineering put their foot down and insisted on it. The extra USB2 port is also very helpful. I can see using all three for a USB Mic, External Keyboard and media card reader on the desktop. In the field where there is no broadband, I can see needing the third one for an analog modem in a pinch.

Anyway I am wondering why you think $2799 is not a bargain MacKeeper? Please enlighten us with your wisdom. Should it be FREE? Or what? .

 

[AvSRoCkCO1067]

$2799 is frickin expensive!

And you were expecting...???

Sorry, but I believe the general consensus last night was 2999. I think we're all a bit shocked that it was priced so low, especially compared to the top-of-the-line 15" MacBook Pro (although the 1999 Mac-Book Pro remains a good deal in my book )

 

[nagromme]

$2799 is frickin expensive!

Look at all the specs and do some comparison shopping: it's not at all.

it's a high-end machine, with a price/features balance better than Dell or others offer... including OS X and iLife.

Put FW800 on a 15" (or even better a 13" *dreaming*) and then I'll upgrade in a second.

I'd love 11-13" with full pro features, from a decent GPU to dual cores to lighted keys. We'll see what we get. Meanwhile, the ExpressCard slot on a 15" will allow FW800 (an adapter from Belkin or someone).

 

[lietsche]

$2799 is frickin expensive!

no way.

I was about to order a 15" mbp today but with this INEXPENSIVE offer (for what you get) I could not resist and ordered the big one.

 

[tonyl]

And you were expecting...???

Sorry, but I believe the general consensus last night was 2999. I think we're all a bit shocked that it was priced so low, especially compared to the top-of-the-line 15" MacBook Pro (although the 1999 Mac-Book Pro remains a good deal in my book )

Right if you compare with 15".

 

[PlayUltimate]

Hell Yeah!!!

$200 cheaper than I thought it might be, but I was seriously thinking that they were gonna introduce it at $3299 [same as the original 17" G4 PowerBook], so actually it's $500 less than I thought it would be.

It really looks to me like we may see both 15" MBP's come down $200 each when the processors price's drop at the end of May. Maybe even by as early as tomorrow or sometime this week in order to keep the Apple hype going at NAB and to really celebrate Apple's 30th! I wish this would be the case, but if the price reductions happen, they might happen alongside a MacBook announcement [shipping at the end of May of course ] later this week... or next Tuesday.

Only $300 difference between the 17" & 15" is way too little as far as I'm concerned. At least the $2499 model has gotta come down to $2299. If the $1999 model were to come down to $1799... schweeeet.

At these prices, I see the elimination, as rumored, of the 12" Pro and the 14" iBook. More consolidation of the product line. Probably will release the 12"/13.3" in two configurations.

 

[MacUser4_20]

Is the Chip socketed? Does anyone know?

 

[bodeh6]

NO PC comes close with its 1-inch enclosure, DL drive, powerful GPU, iSight, FR and FW800...a stunning machine!

Not entirely true. There are pc laptops available with better GPU (even 512 vram) and higher screen resolution. There are also laptops that go up to 4 gigs of ram (not sure if that's four slots or 2G chips). But they're generally more expensive than this one. Still a great laptop at a good price point though.

But those are not 1".

 

[mpw]

Just wondering why the New 17inch macbook is £430/$766 more expensive in the UK than it in the states?...

It is not. We seem to have to go through this at every product release.

       US         UK           Euro (Fr) UK Premium      EU Premium  
MBP17  £1572.74   £1701.28     £1677.55  £128.54 or ~8%  £104.81 or ~6.6%

Apple want to set a price for their product which can remain constant for as long as possible, they also want to market their product at a specific price point in whichever market they're competing in. To do this they have to take into account various factors, one being exchange rates and they build in a margin of error so that if exchange rates move against them they don't have change the selling price to avoid reduced profit. I think 8% is probably a fair premium to pay considering the smaller market in the UK and additional cost incurred selling there.

If you do a search I did the same comparison over a year ago on some other products (displays I think) and Apple actual gave a better deal to the UK than it was to the US at the time. Also compare DELL's products in the UK/US and you'll see much biggar differentials.

 

[daneoni]

I'm extremely tempted to get the 17" MacBook Pro but alas i can't i have to wait for meroms shipping OS Leopard and iLife 07...hopefully those 17"MBP will have the 2.33GHz Core Duo Option.

 

[jonharris200]

Just wondering why the New 17inch macbook is £430/$766 more expensive in the UK than it in the states?

They are not made in the states, or go via the states when they are shipped are they? So it's not a geographical cost. Why the extra cost? or are English mac users just richer or prepared to pay more?

Slightly anooying for digital art students like me. Its almost worth flying to New York to get one from an apple store.

I know, same for me. Looks like a trip Stateside is coming up to buy a new iMac, and if I buy refurbished I could save the air ticket price or much more.

Why aren't Apple UK prices true to the US/UK exchange rate...?

 

[milo]

But those are not 1".

So? The claim was that this is the most powerful laptop available. Which is not true.

Maybe I should have trimmed less of the quote I was responding to:
"The 17" MBP is just the best machine out there, for those who need such a size...it is THE most powerful OS X mobile machine, and THE most powerful Windows mobile machine. "

 

[mpw]

At these prices, I see the elimination, as rumored, of the 12" Pro and the 14" iBook. More consolidation of the product line. Probably will release the 12"/13.3" in two configurations.

I read recently that the smaller panels cost a lot more to produce than larger panels due to the economies or scale production. I can't remember the specifics but I think the 14" panels was ~$100 cheaper than the 12". If anyone knows OEM parts pricing please confirm or de-bunk but I know my heart sunk when I read it thinking that I'll never likely see the 11.1" WS MacBook if they can build the 14" so much cheaper.

 

[gugy]

Very nice machine indeed.
Go job Apple.

The only think I would like to have is a HD screen resolution. 1920x1080.
That would make my day.

One day my dream of a 20" Macbook Pro will happen. I can't wait for that.

 

[Maccer]

I'd be surprised to see the X1600 in their consumer portable. They have to make some drastic distinctions between their pro and consumer lines. Graphics seems to be a logical place to do that since most people don't *need* a great graphics chipset. (Keep dreaming.)

I disagree. Apart from video editing, a faster graphics card will make no difference in most 2D apps used by professionals. The extra graphics power is mainly used for games. And games are played mainly by consumers, not by professional users. Therefore, the consumer portables should have fast graphics cards - at least as an option.

On the other hand, most game-playing consumers don't need - and don't want to pay extra for - FW800, PC card slots and ultra-high-resolution screens that even a good graphics card can't handle when playing demanding games in native resolution mode.

 

[bodeh6]

So? The claim was that this is the most powerful laptop available. Which is not true.

...in a compact package. But I agree with you there are a lot of models out in the PC world that whoop on every area of the 17" MBP except the size and case. The 17" MBP is at a good cost. If you wanted to get one of those extreme gaming Laptops for a couple thousand more then the 17" MBP that have 2 HDs, 2 Optical drives, Memory card slots up to wazooo, 2 GPUs in SLI, 6 USB ports, VGA/S-Video/Composite out all builtin then go ahead. I like my machine clean.

 

[bob_hearn]

Does anyone happen to have the old 17" specs on hand? The new resolution is 1680x1050. What was the old resolution? I assume that, as on the 15", some space was lost for the iSight? That really pisses me off. It's a very inelegant, inefficient way to add the camera, which many of us will rarely if ever use anway. But everybody can use more screen space.

My 17" has 1440x900, so it's still a big improvement there, but really the physical size is more important, and that's reduced. The question is, how big is a full page of text when you make it fit onscreen -- now it's smaller.

Well, I dug up the old specs... interesting. Unlike on the 15", the new 17" did NOT lose resolution vs. the old one. Both are 1680x1050. However, the new 17" is slightly larger, 1.0x15.4x10.2 in, vs. 1.0x15.4x10.4 in. And it is slightly *lighter*, 6.8 lbs. vs. 6.9 lbs. So, I take it back, kudos to Apple here... as long as that extra .2" doesn't mess up my 17" sleeve & bag!

 

[mpw]

I know, same for me. Looks like a trip Stateside is coming up to buy a new iMac, and if I buy refurbished I could save the air ticket price or much more.

Why aren't Apple UK prices true to the US/UK exchange rate...?

See my post a couple up from yours. Check the voltages your iMac is compatible with, there's one than one thread on these forums of people who plugged there US sourced iMac in to european supplies and blew their systems. Also desktop warranties are country specific unlike laptops which are worldwide.