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MacBook Pro 2011 predictions

I'm currently running a late 2007 13" MB which is on its way out sadly (aggresive cleaning has caused the bottom row of keys Z-M to stop working + case cracking = genuine reason for replacement).

Waiting for the 13" MBP to be refreshed and only requests are Sandy Bridge, No ODD, increased battery and an SSD. If it comes with an ODD, I'll have to look into removing it and sticking an SSD in there (this might actually be my preference so I can have a 128GB SSD for the OS/Software and a 500GB/640GB 2.5" HDD for files/storage).

Graphically, I'm not too fussed as anything will be an improvement on the horrendous Intel GMA3100 in my current MB.

Fingers crossed we get a release soon though as patience was never my forté!
 
Jdstew1234 said:
Maybe quad core and probably better battery but Lp rear camera 3G liquid metal and 5mp iSight and and graphics are not happening
Click to expand...

I think AMD graphics are very likely (and have been legitimately rumoured) but I agree with the unlikeliness of the rear camera, 3G, liquid metal and better iSight. If Light Peak happens, I think the new MBPs will be given a keynote, or at least some time in one.

I personally would like USB 3 to happen. It will happen eventually, like quad CPUs, so why not now?
 
orfeas0 said:
macbooks.png


i can't find a 256gb ssd, but 120gb ones cost 250$ (http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Intel&#...lver/1592311.p?id=1218270598219&skuId=1592311)
which means you get a macbook pro with 120gb ssd for 1450, whereas the mba (with worse processor) costs a lot more. ofc if you ask apple to put an ssd as a bto you will pay way too much, you shouldn't compare to that.
I mean they ask for 800$ for a 256gb ssd AND they keep the original drive??? that's theft!
Click to expand...

Yeah I agree witg you but I was trying to say that Apple has to lower its costs in order to make a better-balanced lineup. Thus would enable SSD standard, vs having to do it yourself. Also, aftermarket SSDs are faster, but Apple does have custom firmware optimizations in their drives that make them run a little better in OSX.
 
Erasmus said:
I think AMD graphics are very likely (and have been legitimately rumoured) but I agree with the unlikeliness of the rear camera, 3G, liquid metal and better iSight. If Light Peak happens, I think the new MBPs will be given a keynote, or at least some time in one.

I personally would like USB 3 to happen. It will happen eventually, like quad CPUs, so why not now?
Click to expand...

I'm hoping they ditch fw800 for USB3 and just put the old dog out of its misery already, And add in a higher end AMD GPU (the 330 isnt too bad, But they could do MUCH better with gaming a serious thing on OSX these days.)

I could live without the optical drive, But at the same time, They are so cheap and basic, Why not leave one in there unless they Absolutely need the space for the above upgrades. (Or perhaps a larger battery, That's always a plus, Everyone loves 8+ hr battery life!)
 
What is everyones battery guess. I am guessing

13" 12 hour and 30 days before dead
15" 10 and 30
17" 10 and 30
 
Jdstew1234 said:
What is everyones battery guess. I am guessing

13" 12 hour and 30 days before dead
15" 10 and 30
17" 10 and 30
Click to expand...

By the 30 part I assume you mean 30 days of standby mode right? If so, Holy heck I'd take that... Frankly as long as the thing got 10 hrs of any battery life Id be stoked being I'm used to between 1-5 Hrs on my Alienware M11x...
 
C01E said:
By the 30 part I assume you mean 30 days of standby mode right? If so, Holy heck I'd take that... Frankly as long as the thing got 10 hrs of any battery life Id be stoked being I'm used to between 1-5 Hrs on my Alienware M11x...
Click to expand...

I mean the deep sleep mode like the MBA has
 
I dont see the current 13" MBP as "obsolete", though their tech is a shade behind other similar laptops. The last company I worked at that was mostly mac had all their sales force on 13" MBP. They are actually pretty cost effective compared to Dell and HP's comparable enterprise level notebooks.

I get the digs on ODD, I dont get the irritation folks feel with 1394. USB3 does not duplicate what firewire does. There arent any pro level AV boxes I know of that use USB 3.0 yet. I think lightpeak holds more promise in that area, but its chicken or the egg again. There have to be boxes with the connector, and there have to be computers that talk to those boxes.
 
Future macs should have Light Peak and USB 3. USB 3 is a replacement of USB 2. LightPeak is a replacement of ethernet, and maybe firewire. Light Peak is not a replacement of USB.

For that reason, I would expect Firewire to stay until Light Peak (either optical or not) is available in MBPs, and is independent of what happens with USB. There will certainly be Light Peak to every port you can think of adapters soon enough after the transition.

Although I doubt either will find their way into the next MBP, unfortunately.
 
Erasmus said:
Future macs should have Light Peak and USB 3. USB 3 is a replacement of USB 2. LightPeak is a replacement of ethernet, and maybe firewire. Light Peak is not a replacement of USB.

For that reason, I would expect Firewire to stay until Light Peak (either optical or not) is available in MBPs, and is independent of what happens with USB. There will certainly be Light Peak to every port you can think of adapters soon enough after the transition.

Although I doubt either will find their way into the next MBP, unfortunately.
Click to expand...

Actually, paired with the proper wiring internally, light peak can replace every port. It can replace displayport, HDMI, USB, you name it. The whole point was that it could simultaneously send data in both directions at incredibly high speeds. Downside was no power can be supplied, but paired with some copper, it would be fine.
 
With the latest Sandy Bridge issues, I thought the apparently bad news for Sandy Bridge on any products would make computer makers suffer a long delay.

However, with the articles and speculation that Intel will start addressing the issues mostly by the end of this month, I don't think SB will be delayed by that much.

Let's get SB Core i5 for entry and mid level MBP and go up from there. Macbook should get SB Core i3 and we need to graduate from Core 2 Duo.
 
Jdstew1234 said:
What is everyones battery guess. I am guessing

13" 12 hour
15" 10 hour
17" 10 hour
Click to expand...

The current MBPs already have a pretty good battery life. They already have over 6 hours of real-world usage which is good enough for a full day of mobile work.

I would like to see improvements in the feature department (GPU, processor, Ram, screen resolution, etc) rather than on the battery life. Battery is pretty decent as it is already.

I dont know, I think that the MBP family (specially the 13" model) needs to beef up big time in order to remain competitive with the premium PC market. Let's not forget that price-wise, MBPs are competing with the likes of Sony Vaio VZ, Alienware, HP Envy, etc, and those machines as CLEARLY superior to MBPs in specs.
 
Last edited:
axu539 said:
Actually, paired with the proper wiring internally, light peak can replace every port. It can replace displayport, HDMI, USB, you name it. The whole point was that it could simultaneously send data in both directions at incredibly high speeds. Downside was no power can be supplied, but paired with some copper, it would be fine.
Click to expand...

Light Peak CAN replace USB, but it won't. Light Peak ports will be expensive (and probably have large internal boards) due to the ultrafast silicon pulse lasers and receivers. USB connections are cheap, and small.

You won't find a Light Peak thumb drive very easily. USB 3 thumb drives already exist.
 
Erasmus said:
Future macs should have Light Peak and USB 3. USB 3 is a replacement of USB 2. LightPeak is a replacement of ethernet, and maybe firewire. Light Peak is not a replacement of USB.

For that reason, I would expect Firewire to stay until Light Peak (either optical or not) is available in MBPs, and is independent of what happens with USB. There will certainly be Light Peak to every port you can think of adapters soon enough after the transition.

Although I doubt either will find their way into the next MBP, unfortunately.
Click to expand...

LP should be able to replace most of the existing ports as has been pointed out above already. I'm curious to know why you think LP is a replacement for ethernet, why do you say that?
 
grahamnp said:
LP should be able to replace most of the existing ports as has been pointed out above already. I'm curious to know why you think LP is a replacement for ethernet, why do you say that?
Click to expand...

Ethernet and Light Peak are long distance, high speed connections. If you have Light Peak ports, you don't need Ethernet anymore, as you can just make the port pretend it's Ethernet.

USB is a short range, cheap connection. Which is why it will remain the port of choice for cheap devices that don't need to be more than a metre away from a computer to communicate, and/or don't need to do so at 10 Gbit/s bi-directional.
 
Erasmus said:
Ethernet and Light Peak are long distance, high speed connections. If you have Light Peak ports, you don't need Ethernet anymore, as you can just make the port pretend it's Ethernet.

USB is a short range, cheap connection. Which is why it will remain the port of choice for cheap devices that don't need to be more than a metre away from a computer to communicate, and/or don't need to do so at 10 Gbit/s bi-directional.
Click to expand...

Everyone needs to realize that it isn’t that easy to just get rid of Ethernet on a computer, there is way too much infrastructure built around Ethernet, it would be too costly for enterprises to go in and switch all the cables, switches, routers, and also learn all the new protocols to switch to light peak. The other great thing about Ethernet is that it is very cost effective, and there are faster versions that are becoming more popular such as 10 gbps.
 
Brettla said:
Everyone needs to realize that it isn’t that easy to just get rid of Ethernet on a computer, there is way too much infrastructure built around Ethernet, it would be too costly for enterprises to go in and switch all the cables, switches, routers, and also learn all the new protocols to switch to light peak. The other great thing about Ethernet is that it is very cost effective, and there are faster versions that are becoming more popular such as 10 gbps.
Click to expand...

If Apple replaced Ethernet with Light Peak (especially copper version) all you would need to do is buy a 10 dollar adapter, and you'd be able to connect at full speed to 10 Gbit/s ethernet networks.

There is no protocol work to be done, as Light Peak can transmit Ethernet protocol, amongst many others. If the user uses an adapter, there is no other infrastructure work to be done either.

The main advantage of Light Peak is one type of port can replace Firewire, Ethernet, most display ports, and more. And if you want to use something that doesn't run on Light Peak, you just buy an adapter.
 
Erasmus said:
If Apple replaced Ethernet with Light Peak (especially copper version) all you would need to do is buy a 10 dollar adapter, and you'd be able to connect at full speed to 10 Gbit/s ethernet networks.

There is no protocol work to be done, as Light Peak can transmit Ethernet protocol, amongst many others. If the user uses an adapter, there is no other infrastructure work to be done either.

The main advantage of Light Peak is one type of port can replace Firewire, Ethernet, most display ports, and more. And if you want to use something that doesn't run on Light Peak, you just buy an adapter.
Click to expand...

From a consumer stand point I can see your point, but from a Network admin point of view I really like having the physical port built into the computer, there is one less point of failure with the Ethernet directly on the board instead of having an adapter plugged into light peak, and I wouldn’t have to worry about having an adapter with me just to be able to plug in to a network.
 
Erasmus said:
Light Peak CAN replace USB, but it won't. Light Peak ports will be expensive (and probably have large internal boards) due to the ultrafast silicon pulse lasers and receivers. USB connections are cheap, and small.

You won't find a Light Peak thumb drive very easily. USB 3 thumb drives already exist.
Click to expand...

Light Peak can't replace USB straightaway but in the long run it might. Intel is the leading CPU and chipset manufacturer so everything depends on how they play their cards. Adding LP support to all chipsets while dropping USB support would be pretty much the death of USB. If Intel wants to kill USB, they can easily do that.
 
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One port to rule them all? Cool
 
animatedude said:
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One port to rule them all? Cool
Click to expand...

One port to find them,
One port to bring them all,
and in the darkness bind them.

/Lord of the rings quote
 
What they really need is hybrid storage. Small SSD for applications and HD for data. That would be cost and performance effective...
 
Is it definite that the Macbooks refresh is March 11th and they will all have sandy bridge processors including the 13"? Could swear I saw that on the news other day.

Would be cool if we could do dual ssd's, my friends HP Envy has dual ssd setup and it's blazing fast for everything.
 
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