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MacBook, MacBook Pro and Ultra-Portable Updates
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dartzorichalcos
macrumors 65816
An ultraportable to me would be:
11" 1024x768 or 12" 1280x800 resolution display
Flash Drive or 1.8" hard drive
2.0lbs or 2.5lbs
LED display
Below $1700
then I am buying it for ultra portable purposes
tennismanclay
macrumors regular
Ive been waiting to buy a Macbook for about 2 months and now i here the only update about it is a graphics card.😕 Well i still cant decide to buy now or wait till update.
any suggestions are welcome 🙂
7 macs, 1 ipod, and one stupid windows
any suggestions are welcome 🙂
7 macs, 1 ipod, and one stupid windows
rosalindavenue
macrumors 6502a
It would be an incredible blunder to not put santa rosa chipsets in the macbooks. Every other manufacturer is going whole hog with them, even in the $999 price range (google "santa rosa HP" and see what I mean.) Apple can cripple the MB in other usual ways (no graphics card, no card slot), but to stick with an old processor everyone else it ditching would be nuts.
Lone Deranger
macrumors 68000
I guess this is what differentiates the MacBook from the MacBook PRO. You want the Pro features? You'll have to get the Pro Book. There will always be a technological gap between the two lines. Makes perfect sense to me.
freddiecable
macrumors 6502a
apple would hardly release a 4:3 aspect ration laptop today. it would be widescreen. and, smaller than 13" widescreen will be pretty much useless for regular work - no? I think apple can release a ultra-portable 13" laptop. make it the size of the keyboard and without optical drive and slim display - they could probably cut the weight in half? that would do for a usable portable and connected to a second LCD a perfect "stationary" - no? I think the MB is quite small today - but still too heavy. My 15" MBP weighs pretty much the same.
No, sorry. If you think you need a CD drive on an ultra-portable, you are not the target market for an ultra-portable.
As many others have said here, optical media is all but obsolete for many of us. Install from the network, load on a flash drive, or if absolutely necessary connect an external optical drive.
There I can agree with you. I think my 12" Powerbook is perfect for my needs, and my wife loves her 12" iBook. It will be a tough decision for me at replacement time if there's not something smaller than the 15" with a better keyboard than the MacBook.
Mydel
macrumors 6502a
No way! Ultraportable are more expensive than regular notebooks. I think more like 2300-2500
One of the few non-Apple laptops I rate is the Dell D420, a product which has been mentioned as beig perfect if it came with OSX by at least one analyst. Its a 12" widescreen (1280x800)but manages to include a proper, full size keyboard, unlike the scaled down efforts used on some Sony machines. Its only just 3lbs with a battery giving at least 4 hours with backlight and wi-fi. It comes with an exernal drive, which is fine as in the 6 months since I bought it I've used the drive once.
Put a LED backlit LCD and OSX on it and really couldn't fault it. Apple really need a good, light, small machine which is comfortable to use, like the old 12" powerbook. Frankly the macbook is far to heavy as a replacement for it, and is horribly uncomfortable to type on - the front of the housing cuts your wrists.
QCassidy352
macrumors G5
no santa rosa for the macbooks?? but they need it most of all, to get that damn GMA950 out of there! The x3000 would be a huge improvement that won't mean a thing on the MBP. I don't even know what they could do to the macbooks without using SR - drop the bottom model and slash the price on the others?
QuarterSwede
macrumors G4
I completely agree. The MacBook's keyboard is just not as good as the MacBook Pro's
What's the difference in portability between an 11" and 13" screen? To me 11" or 13" wouldn't make a difference but whether it was 2 lbs. or 4 lbs. would be a bigger factor. But that's just me. Thinking about this generated the following rough breakdowns of size, weight and battery life.
Luggage size: 17" and bigger
magazine size: Around 9" or 10" and larger
Jacket pocket size (like a checkbook) about 6" or 8" diagonal
Phone size: less than 6" diagonal
Weight
More than 7 pounds: wheels required
4 lbs. or more, carryable in a shoulder bag or backpack.
2 to 4 lbs. Painless to carry
less than 2 lbs. you don't know it's there
Batter life
Under 2 hours: add the weight and volume of the charger to the specs
2 to 4 hours: Probably enough to get you through the day or on a cross country flight. Most of us don't use the computer constantly. We also eat, talk to other people and such so that the computer is not on all the time.
Better than 4 hours, amazing.
You can figure it out. For some ultraportable means an iPhone. For others, size doesn't matter as much as weight and for others batter life is the limiting factor.
Luggage size: 17" and bigger
magazine size: Around 9" or 10" and larger
Jacket pocket size (like a checkbook) about 6" or 8" diagonal
Phone size: less than 6" diagonal
Weight
More than 7 pounds: wheels required
4 lbs. or more, carryable in a shoulder bag or backpack.
2 to 4 lbs. Painless to carry
less than 2 lbs. you don't know it's there
Batter life
Under 2 hours: add the weight and volume of the charger to the specs
2 to 4 hours: Probably enough to get you through the day or on a cross country flight. Most of us don't use the computer constantly. We also eat, talk to other people and such so that the computer is not on all the time.
Better than 4 hours, amazing.
You can figure it out. For some ultraportable means an iPhone. For others, size doesn't matter as much as weight and for others batter life is the limiting factor.
Ha! Yeah right! Have you priced out any of these high-end ultraportables? I'm guessing no.
I have to echo the sentiments of other posters. To me, ultra portable has always been about optical drive-less 10-11" notebooks that hardly weigh anything.
New MacBook Pros next Tuesday!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
😉 Surprised nobody said this already.
(Although it doesn't flow off the tongue as easy as New PowerBooks next Tuesday)
😉 Surprised nobody said this already.
(Although it doesn't flow off the tongue as easy as New PowerBooks next Tuesday)
iTim314
macrumors 6502
I'm counting on a Tuesday release...
It'd be funny if they say, "Announcing the new MacBook Pro. Shipping in October with Leopard!"
Grr.
dartzorichalcos
macrumors 65816
New PowerBook G5s next Tuesday!!!😱 😛 🙂
The new MacBook Pros could be released at any time. Apple decides when they release it. It could be next week or at WWDC.
I don't quite understand why they're even bothering with an upgrade to the macbook if santa rosa and/or the led screens aren't being put in. What's there to get excited about then? n-enabled wireless cards?? i don't think apple would bother with an upgrade if that's all that's changing. im still betting we'll see santa rosa in macbooks, but no led screens
natejohnstone@g
macrumors regular
The "Ultraportable" will definitely be in the $2000 price range, quite simply because it can fetch that much based on demand. But I agree with everyone here that 13" is way too big. Even 12" is too big, even if it's only 3 pounds. The new Sony 11.1" is as big as I think you can go on a so-called "ultraportable" or else it's just a light Macbook. If this is going to be a new animal, it needs to be different.
Like how about this...put a think LED screen on a Mac Mini 🙂 jk
But seriously I hope AI is wrong and the new MacBook refresh is Santa Rosa, LED, etc. If not, I will be getting the Dell back-to-school XPS special and Apple will loose out on a LOT of other back-to-school types, because by then the MB will be $500 overpriced for it's hardware (it's close already).
Like how about this...put a think LED screen on a Mac Mini 🙂 jk
But seriously I hope AI is wrong and the new MacBook refresh is Santa Rosa, LED, etc. If not, I will be getting the Dell back-to-school XPS special and Apple will loose out on a LOT of other back-to-school types, because by then the MB will be $500 overpriced for it's hardware (it's close already).