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Future of MBP's
- Thread starter BeachChair
- Start date
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When is too much storage in a device ever a bad thing? My lappy IS my desktop (external disply, etc...).
I use my optical drive about 3-4 times a year. I use my HDD every day. I really hope Apple rids future notebooks of the waste of space an optical drive is.
I would agree with you if Apple included a FW800 or USB3 port, backlit keyboard and a few other things. Otherwise it is a MacBook without the SuperDrive.
Differences between MacBook Air and MacBook:
- weight and size
- SuperDrive
- SSD
- SD slot
- Gig-ethernet
- battery life
- screen resolution
Differences between MacBook Air and MacBook Pro:
- weight and size
- SuperDrive
- SSD
- CPU
- graphics processor
- Max RAM capacity
- FW 800 port
- Gig-ethernet
- backlit keyboard
- battery indicator lights
- sleep indicator light
- ambient light sensor
- battery life
Really diggin at the bottom of the barrel for battery indicator, sleep indicator and ambient light sensor. 95% of the time the ambient light sensor just pisses me off, if it gets dark and I want to dim the screen I have keys to do it and its little self control action with keyboard backlight is just rediculous.
You can argue about how much value these have to YOU, but these have been standard features on the Pros for a few years now. The sleep indicator is pretty cool if you ask me. It is a lot of little things that separate the Airs from the Pros.
I'm just saying that the Airs are closer to the MacBooks than the Pros. That's all. I'm not sure how you would argue differently.
I think the one thing they could do and might do, to really set themselves apart from the competition ist to take all the good stuff from the Air and make a MacBook Pro.
I think of on of those 64GB SSDs but still put in one normal standard 2.5" hard drive too. Those Air SSD which they already have use very little space and they help battery life and speed tremendously. A MacBook Pro with 64GB Space or 128GB would hardly be enough for most people who want to store pictures, movies, games, a windows partition... but with the second hard drive you have everything. It would save a lot of battery life as the second drive can be power down most of the time.
It would be a serious upgrade and differentiation and also justify the price premium.
Aside from that they need more VRAM and better GPUs. The 330M was no upgrade at all. It was just the same GPU with a more mature and newer fabrication. There is more Performance at this TDP available. But VRAM really needs an upgrade as there are some who want to play an occasional game and 256mb doesn't cut it.
Also I hope we stick to 16:10 because it is simply more portable for the usable screen size. I don't have high hopes though.
At least standard high def and an IPS screen would be nice. IPS is also unlikely because the MBP have on of the best Notebookscreens in the Market already and an IPS would be much more expensive. Less margin without any competition sounds like a stupid business decision.
No optical and bigger battery would be nice. But I think even if the drive disappears the battery increase will be minimal because with 16:9 there is less space anyway. I guess the battery volumina will pretty much stay where it is or shrink.
Maybe they put new technology in and the battery Wh increase. There is at least a lot of tech out there with huge promises but most are targeted at cars and also rarely in serial production.
I think of on of those 64GB SSDs but still put in one normal standard 2.5" hard drive too. Those Air SSD which they already have use very little space and they help battery life and speed tremendously. A MacBook Pro with 64GB Space or 128GB would hardly be enough for most people who want to store pictures, movies, games, a windows partition... but with the second hard drive you have everything. It would save a lot of battery life as the second drive can be power down most of the time.
It would be a serious upgrade and differentiation and also justify the price premium.
Aside from that they need more VRAM and better GPUs. The 330M was no upgrade at all. It was just the same GPU with a more mature and newer fabrication. There is more Performance at this TDP available. But VRAM really needs an upgrade as there are some who want to play an occasional game and 256mb doesn't cut it.
Also I hope we stick to 16:10 because it is simply more portable for the usable screen size. I don't have high hopes though.
At least standard high def and an IPS screen would be nice. IPS is also unlikely because the MBP have on of the best Notebookscreens in the Market already and an IPS would be much more expensive. Less margin without any competition sounds like a stupid business decision.
No optical and bigger battery would be nice. But I think even if the drive disappears the battery increase will be minimal because with 16:9 there is less space anyway. I guess the battery volumina will pretty much stay where it is or shrink.
Maybe they put new technology in and the battery Wh increase. There is at least a lot of tech out there with huge promises but most are targeted at cars and also rarely in serial production.
I've rather see then drop the optical drive and leave it for space for an extra HDD or bigger battery personally, although I would very much doubt they drop the drives on the 15" and 17"...
They could re-cycle a good idea from the WallStreet: removable components. Remember that?ezekielrage_99 said:
1st battery
(2nd battery)
floppy disk drive
optical disk drive
--> choose any two
Nowadays maybe you could select from SSD/HDD, OD, supplementary battery, ExpressCard/34, etc.
cheers,
Henry
Good post. It will take a significant revision to get me to upgrade from my Santa Rosa MBP and to justify the extreme price differential between MBPs and similarly specced PC-laptops. The way I see it, there used to be tons of features that were unique to Apple's laptops and which sort of made the high prices more palatable. Nowadays, other manufacturers have stepped up their game, so Apple needs to do the same. Unibody + glass trackpad + OS X is a nice collection of more or less unique characteristics, but it's not enough. I'd like to see decent GPUs (the 8600 was awesome for its time; the 330 is a disgrace), hi-res IPS displays, a combination of (fast) SSDs and hard drives, the elimination of the optical drive, USB 3 and/or Light Peak, and quad-cores. Once that stuff is implemented, I'll upgrade. The current MBPs aren't very future-proof, IMO, at least not enough to get me to sell my SR: still dual-core, still bloated by useless SuperDrives without Blu-Ray-capabilities, still held back by horrible GPUs, still left without next-gen connectivity (USB 2 - LOL), still marred by low resolutions (I'd like FullHD on the 15-incher, please).
I think Apple should do a strategic redesign to the MBP line by changing the screen size.
I see no point on having a 13" MBP anymore because the MBA 13" is a great alternative in similar price, considering the market for such entry level product.
Apple should move to 2 configurations 14" MBP and 16" MBP. I thought of the 13" MBP being too small for real "PRO" productivity. The screen and resolution is too limiting. On the other hand the 15" MBP is too big and too heavy of a machine for a PRO consistently on the move (Professional photographers and such). So the best solution would be a 14" MBP with a 1600x900 resolution.
Such a product would offer slightly bigger chassis for a better Sandy Bridge CPU+Dedicated GPU (ATI 5650 or 6xxx) and as well as keep the 10 hours of claimed battery life.
On the other hand Apple should fuse the 15" and 17" MBP into a 16" MBP with 1920x1080 resolution for the ultimate PRO. This computer will be almost the same size of the 15.4" but with much greater resolution and better battery life.
Of course all the above scenarios include the removing of the super drive because it is too much of a trade off for such a product.
MacBook Pro 14"
14" 1600x900 IPS LED backlit
Intel Sandy Bridge dual core
ATI 5650 with 1GB GDDR3
9 hours of battery life with the new battery tests
Uniformly .9" thick
Starting @ 1599
MacBook Pro 16"
16" 1920x1080 IPS LED backlit
Intel Sandy bridge dual core
ATI 5770 with 1 GB GDDR3
9 hours of battery life with the new battery tests
Starting @ 1999
I am trying to be realistic with prices considering that this is Apple.
Please Apple bring back the PRO line to the actual PRO users
I see no point on having a 13" MBP anymore because the MBA 13" is a great alternative in similar price, considering the market for such entry level product.
Apple should move to 2 configurations 14" MBP and 16" MBP. I thought of the 13" MBP being too small for real "PRO" productivity. The screen and resolution is too limiting. On the other hand the 15" MBP is too big and too heavy of a machine for a PRO consistently on the move (Professional photographers and such). So the best solution would be a 14" MBP with a 1600x900 resolution.
Such a product would offer slightly bigger chassis for a better Sandy Bridge CPU+Dedicated GPU (ATI 5650 or 6xxx) and as well as keep the 10 hours of claimed battery life.
On the other hand Apple should fuse the 15" and 17" MBP into a 16" MBP with 1920x1080 resolution for the ultimate PRO. This computer will be almost the same size of the 15.4" but with much greater resolution and better battery life.
Of course all the above scenarios include the removing of the super drive because it is too much of a trade off for such a product.
MacBook Pro 14"
14" 1600x900 IPS LED backlit
Intel Sandy Bridge dual core
ATI 5650 with 1GB GDDR3
9 hours of battery life with the new battery tests
Uniformly .9" thick
Starting @ 1599
MacBook Pro 16"
16" 1920x1080 IPS LED backlit
Intel Sandy bridge dual core
ATI 5770 with 1 GB GDDR3
9 hours of battery life with the new battery tests
Starting @ 1999
I am trying to be realistic with prices considering that this is Apple.
Please Apple bring back the PRO line to the actual PRO users
o brother....
the 17" is the same size as some 15" laptops from other vendors, and slimmer as well.
Any pro photographer worth their weight who is doing a location shoot won't wince over the 2.1 lb difference between the 13" and the 17". Pelican cases weigh more than that.
the 17" is the same size as some 15" laptops from other vendors, and slimmer as well.
Any pro photographer worth their weight who is doing a location shoot won't wince over the 2.1 lb difference between the 13" and the 17". Pelican cases weigh more than that.
The absolute earliest we could see them would be in January. I think a launch between February and April is much more likely however.
As another member said previously, using the same 64GB SSD that's in the Air for OS X and applications, PLUS a secondary HDD for everything else, would be awesome.
Apple would have room for this for all this in the 13", as well as discrete graphics... all they have to do is ditch the optical drive!
Apple would have room for this for all this in the 13", as well as discrete graphics... all they have to do is ditch the optical drive!
Future MacBook Pro predictions...
Those hoping for IPS displays, dual internal drives, are going to be disappointed. Those thinking there will still be a 13", umm... good luck.
- Only available in 15" and 17" models, 13" replaced by MBA
- Adopts wedge side profile of the MBA
- Optical drive gone, internal HDD replaced by SSD in card format
- Screens go hi-res only (per retina display, bump in MBA res)
- 128GB SSD on base, 256GB SSD on one up, 512GB on custom
Those hoping for IPS displays, dual internal drives, are going to be disappointed. Those thinking there will still be a 13", umm... good luck.
If this is the case then we would be looking at a base MBP starting at $1700-$1800 depending on how much the SSD cost at the time. Which sucks because I hate the MBA's and plan to stick with the MBP's.
I highly doubt that. But then again, anything is possible. I just can't see Apple removing the internal HDD and replacing it with a proprietary card yet, at least not until there is plenty of third party support.
The only predictions I agree with you on is the high-res screen and removal of the optical drive.
All of those but the resolution bump are very unlikely. The unibody design has only been around for about 2 years. It will probably last at least another 2. Apple might do away with optical when the MBP gets a new redesign. Normal HDD/SSD won't be replaced with MBA style storage because it's too expensive for larger sizes. Your prediction would price the MBP's at ~$2099, $2649 and $3599. Many people would also find 128GB inadequate, especially considering such a pricey machine. When Jobs said next-generation of Macbooks, he was speaking long term, 2 years or so probably.
In my opinion... MBP's should have 2 HDD/SDD bays
I say ditch the superdrive for a 2nd storage bay.. SSD + HDD is kinda the rave right now and I'm surprised that apple doesn't have these options
I'm really against the proprietary ssd thing.. if Macbooks arent upgradable, apple is gonna lose it's "enthusiast" crowd
Now if the next gen MBP's can have 2 storage bays and a superdrive.. and be able to retain it's current form factor..
for life!!!!
I say ditch the superdrive for a 2nd storage bay.. SSD + HDD is kinda the rave right now and I'm surprised that apple doesn't have these options
I'm really against the proprietary ssd thing.. if Macbooks arent upgradable, apple is gonna lose it's "enthusiast" crowd
Now if the next gen MBP's can have 2 storage bays and a superdrive.. and be able to retain it's current form factor..
for life!!!!In my opinion... MBP's should have 2 HDD/SDD bays
I say ditch the superdrive for a 2nd storage bay.. SSD + HDD is kinda the rave right now and I'm surprised that apple doesn't have these options
I'm really against the proprietary ssd thing.. if Macbooks arent upgradable, apple is gonna lose it's "enthusiast" crowd
Now if the next gen MBP's can have 2 storage bays and a superdrive.. and be able to retain it's current form factor..
What about proprietary SSD card + 2.5" HDD? That's what I presume Apple would do if it were to offer 2 hard drives.
I've seen all the arguments against certain things in the past and they didn't matter in the end... like all the people that complained when Apple made the batteries non removable, like the loss of the ExpressCard 34 slot in the 15's. The new MBAs are getting tons of interest right now.
People forget SSDs are going to go down in price with better production processes for flash chips... 25nm chips are just around the corner and could double the capacity for today's price.
Look at the engineering and internal packaging of the new MBA. It would be far cheaper for them to just use simpler items like a single battery but all that is not stopping them from releasing the MBA at these price points.
And when its finally released - I bet there's going to be a huge bunch of people rushing out to buy them who protested early on. If they go with the bigger re-design, I suspect we'll see it in the 2nd half of 2011... there might be a minor spec bump type refresh with current models earlier in the year.
Mass storage is going to go off the main unit - think external drives, NAS, the could, etc.
People forget SSDs are going to go down in price with better production processes for flash chips... 25nm chips are just around the corner and could double the capacity for today's price.
Look at the engineering and internal packaging of the new MBA. It would be far cheaper for them to just use simpler items like a single battery but all that is not stopping them from releasing the MBA at these price points.
And when its finally released - I bet there's going to be a huge bunch of people rushing out to buy them who protested early on. If they go with the bigger re-design, I suspect we'll see it in the 2nd half of 2011... there might be a minor spec bump type refresh with current models earlier in the year.
Mass storage is going to go off the main unit - think external drives, NAS, the could, etc.
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There is one thing many people are over looking, LightPeak intel said it will be in consumer electronics beginning in 2011 and apple helped to develop this tech.. Could replace all ports on the next mbp's
There is one thing many people are over looking, LightPeak intel said it will be in consumer electronics beginning in 2011 and apple helped to develop this tech.. Could replace all ports on the next mbp's
I like this idea if it reduces the form factor and weight. I'm assuming that some day in the future you could replace the 2.5" HDD with a giant, low cost SSD.
That would be my dream scenario, because you could always replace the 2.5" HDD with a giant SSD down the road, when prices come down. Such a machine would actually be quite future-proof, as opposed to yet another revision with obsolete optical drives.
EDIT: Oops, beaten by Miata, sorry.