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Apple Releases Aluminum Unibody 17" MacBook Pro

UMHurricanes34 said:
I was afraid this would happen and now I'm sincerely upset.

If you're going to offer the matte option for the 17", why the hell can't you offer it for the 15"?
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EXACTLY. sucks for those of us who had to settle for the ultra glossy glass display on the 15, only for apple to add the option in for the 17. it'd suck big time if the anti-glare option was an entirely different screen. here's hoping its coating of some sort and they turn it into an option for those already with the 15 inch pros.
 
migsev said:
EXACTLY. sucks for those of us who had to settle for the ultra glossy glass display on the 15, only for apple to add the option in for the 17. it'd suck big time if the anti-glare option was an entirely different screen. here's hoping its coating of some sort and they turn it into an option for those already with the 15 inch pros.
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Yeah, you think it would make sense for Apple to offer the option for the rest of their line as well. Can't think of a good reason not to.... at least give people the option I say...
 
~Shard~ said:
Yeah, the battery is a tough one - non-removable sucks, but if it lasts longer per charge, and in general lasts 5 years as Apple claims, it may not be that big of an issue to most users - tough to say.
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I personally also had an initial knee-jerk reaction against this decision of a non-removable battery. However, when I look back over my laptop purchasing history - and indeed my current macbook - I have never been in a situation where I needed to hot-swap a battery or ever replace the battery that came with the laptop.

So honestly for me, this is not an issue and I applaud the approach of using the space for a super long-life battery and frankly hope this is adopted across the laptop range.

Vanilla
 
Vanilla said:
I personally also had an initial knee-jerk reaction against this decision of a non-removable battery. However, when I look back over my laptop purchasing history - and indeed my current macbook - I have never been in a situation where I needed to hot-swap a battery or ever replace the battery that came with the laptop.

So honestly for me, this is not an issue and I applaud the approach of using the space for a super long-life battery and frankly hope this is adopted across the laptop range.

Vanilla
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Yep, it's a tough call, as you can never please all the people all the time. I think it is a good decision as well, but can definitely appreciate where some laptops users will not like this move. Ah well, that's "progress" I guess... ;)
 
I would have loved such a battery for my MB, ah well! Guess I'll get one next time round.
Shame the HDD is limited to 320gb, a 500gb laptop drive is just £70 here and my next update.
 
Nuvi said:
Positive:

Matte option

Negative:

-Non-removable battery. If they had introduced battery with 8 hours / 1000 cycles using silver zinc I would've been impressed but this is yet another Li-ion. What if the new battery goes sony? Since its internal it can't expand without damaging other components (Phil said its packed extremely tight and close to other components).
-No Bluray
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IF it goes Sony, major recall (everyone now has to bring their macbook pros to the service centres instead of just sending in their batteries), massive hoo hah, massive dissatisfaction, and massive bad publicity for apple. So far, it hasn't happened in the macbook air. So, that may bode well for Apple's new macbook pro.
 
I imagine swapping out the HDD with a 500 giger is not going to be too hard. I don't think they can void your warranty for things like that either...
I would go with the stock HDD and RAM and buy my own if it is appreciably cheaper to do so.. Then there is that convenience factor of having it ship that way...!
 
I Know that people say this every time, but this time it's true! Worst Keynote EVER!

-No iPhone Update (Push?!?!)
-No Online iWork (I laughed so hard when he announced iWork.com and it's best feature is to share docs online)
-Integrated Battery in the 17''
-No new Mac Mini (?!?!?!?!? WTF?!!)
-No Steve (although Schiller wasn't that bad)
-Horrible band playing at the end of the keynote
-Top Songs now 1,29 (come on people, we all know that only old and unpopular songs are priced at ,69)
 
karlfranz said:
1: Non-removable is not the same as non-replaceable. The new 17" MBP battery can be removed,. It just takes removing 4 screws on the base of the computer to access the battery. The battery is not soldered in, so removing it to exchange it with a new battery is not difficult even for the mechanically challenged.

The only problem would be for those who carry an extra battery in order to get longer life during a trip. In the tradition of "the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few", this very small minority is being accommodated by the newer, longer-lasting battery.

2: Using your MBP on AC power with the battery removed is not a good idea and Apple recommends against doing so.

3: No one has said that you can't upgrade the hard drive or RAM yourself. Again, all it takes is removing the same 4 screws in the base plate of the MBP. If you have ever upgraded the memory on the new unibody MB, you know that you also have to remove the screws in the baseplate. The owners manual in the box shows you how to do this. So PLEASE learn about this before making ignorant comments about having to buy your memory upgrade from Apple at the time of purchase.

4: Those who think the new 17" MBP prices are too much, look at the model it replaces. Then keep in mind that the new one has better construction, a faster processor, more RAM, the high-res display option, longer battery life, two GPUs, etc.

5: For those disappointed by the lack of new hardware, Apple will be doing another hardware event in February. Here they will introduce the Mac mini replacement and the upgraded iMacs. These were not introduced at MWSF so as to not steal away from the thunder of Apple's own event. Introducing the 17" MBP at MWSF was a small (and already expected) token to the attendees of that show. From now on, all new product introductions will be own Apple's on schedule and not the mandatory first week in January.

6: BD will not be coming to the Mac lineup any time soon, because it conflicts with Apple's business model for iTunes.

7: The anti-glare option is indeed the same as the "matte" option in prior models. It costs more simply because it is a build to order (BTO) option which costs Apple more from a business logistics point of view.

8: Those who predict that Apple is crazy with its pricing or is unaware of the current world economy should take a look at the top selling computers as ranked by Amazon. 6 of the top 25 best selling notebook computers are Macbooks and Macbook Pros. Except for the Toshiba L305, all other models are sub-$500 netbooks. This means that no other notebook computers in the "over $500" category (except for the L305) sell better than Apple's offerings.
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Great summary...well thought out.

I am surprised by the lack of any a video adapters or remote on a machine of this price. Not that I've ever used any of the ones that came with my 17" ;)
The options list is starting to look like a Mercedes or Porsche...just added all of them except the software and extra display... $5823 :eek:
Mind you...then you do have one very sweet computer.

Please be right about the Mini in Feb...I just can't take another disappointment like today.
 
I too was anticipating a quad-core. Anything short of that and it's clear this top of the line MacBook is not Snow Leopard ready and wasn't built for it. The work I do now greatly benefits from multi-core processing. Four cores would be great, especially the new low power low price intels. I imagine the macbook pro 17'' will experience an update around when Snow Leopard hits, sometime in the summer.

While I agree that BD won't be coming soon, I don't see how BD conflicts with the iTunes business any more than DVDs do. They should stop fighting it, BD is the future, it's not going anywhere.
 
takao said:
looking through my favourite price crawling machine i found a few others as well from Acer, Fujitsu Siemens, HP and a Toshiba in the 18" category

with 17" screens there are only plenty of 1920x1200 which can display 1080p but only with black bars

looking further there are actually even 15,4" laptops with 1080p support (and some with the higher 1920x1200): An Acer, HP, Fujitsu Siemens, Samsung and a Sony
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i have used 15 inchers with that high of resolution: it is terrible. everything is tiny and unreadable. that said, i am only somewhat impressed with the 17inch.

the battery sounds great: as noted, apple say to not take your battery out anyway as it supplies charge to your computer even when plugged into the mains. as long as it does not go pear-shaped, i think this is one of the best options yet: i hope it filters to macbook and 15 inch as well.

the screen: will be nice to hear about it when people start to buy. wish it would filter down soon.

the hard disk: apple are waiting on technology too like everyone else. unless i missed something bit, no 500gb 7200 exist for notebooks yet.

removing the hd: why would it be any different to the new macbooks?

bluray: im confused. whether or not it is not good for apple's appletv, they need to have it in. like someone said: what in hell are you going to do with your bluray buys? who cares about apple's business strat when they will force you to buy outside of it by not supplying hardware that can handle it?

f
 
MysterMac said:
gobsmackingly disappointing keynote. the latest macbooks dont have this new tech battery ? that was a kick in the nuts
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Hold on, are you implying Rev. A products are bad!? :eek:


hint: sarcasm, of course Rev. A products are bad. But yes, it does suck they didn't introduce this option for the current 15" MBPs.
 
I'll probably order mine tomorrow. Base model and wait for ram to go down and order a 500GB drive of newegg.
 
Ok, my turn to complain!

The price is outrageous! Why can't they offer the anti-glare option for the 15" MacBook Pro?

Anyway, while we're in the middle of a recession, and might be heading in to a depression, we don't need $3000 dollar computers in the market.

ciao.

Michael
 
PumaGuy said:
The price is outrageous! Why can't they offer the anti-glare option for the 15" MacBook Pro?

Anyway, while we're in the middle of a recession, and might be heading in to a depression, we don't need $3000 dollar computers in the market.

ciao.

Michael
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The 17" has always been 2800. same price I paid for a 1.33 GHz G4 in 2003
You just a lot more bang for you buck now. Also, with a little inflation it's actually cheaper.
 
WTF? USB on the left side? I prefer wired mouse and find that the ports on both sides are great for a mobile user.

Anti-glare option sounds useful. Should be offered on cinema display...

mark88 said:
ok, can someone explain the 1000 charges to me? it doesn't sound like much to me. My laptops are constantly being plugged and unplugged.
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Currently the warranty covers 1 year or 300 cycles.
 
hiimamac said:
While I know the mac has POWER SAVING abilities, that just turns down brightness and the likes, what we really need is lower FPC/CPU/GPU when doing easy WORD/iWORK/WEB stuff and get the most we can out of the batteries.
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It does far more then just turn down the brightness... Many of the sub-system on laptop are actively power managed when running on battery (and many are still done even when plugged into the wall). This includes down scaling clock rate, core voltage, and various "power off" capabilities of the hardware (CPU, GPU, etc.) depending on work load and thermal concerns.

Additionally some system tasks are deferred while on battery.
 
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