MacBook Pro Reviews and Benchmarks

[Diatribe]

Fair enough. But people have grown to expect close to 4 hours or more out of their PBs, and getting close to the 3 hour mark is a psychological marker that is hard to allow.

By your logic, it's ok for battery life to decrease a certain amount, as long as performance rapidly rises. So if someone manages to cram a CRAY (or some other super powerful computer...I don't know who's on top now) into a MBP case and gets it to go for 10 minutes before the battery dies, that's an improvement?

No of course not. But I'd say 3 hours of battery life is acceptable for the power you get. If it is not enough for some people, just wait for Merom. It will be about 30% faster and will be 20% more power efficient.
If you ask me though, Apple should've went with the old thickness, put in a DL-Superdrive and an even bigger battery to gain 4 hours now and 5 with Merom. But we all know what they chose to do.

 

[sel1965]

Fair enough. But people have grown to expect close to 4 hours or more out of their PBs, and getting close to the 3 hour mark is a psychological marker that is hard to allow.

By your logic, it's ok for battery life to decrease a certain amount, as long as performance rapidly rises. So if someone manages to cram a CRAY (or some other super powerful computer...I don't know who's on top now) into a MBP case and gets it to go for 10 minutes before the battery dies, that's an improvement?

The only way I get 4 hours with my PB is if I walk away and let it sleep for 2 hours after working a couple of hours and then maybe working 2 more.

 

[nagromme]

I've seen several reviews now (WSJ was one I think) say that battery life is the SAME. As in, within just a couple minutes of the PowerBook G4 in similar testing.

Also, that testing is not always done with wireless off, screen brightness backed off, and other things one can do that affect battery life.

So I'm not sure where all this "certainty" has come from, that the MacBook Pro has significantly worse battery life than the PowerBook.

 

[geiger167]

Lol I was lucky to get a hour and a half battery life on my HP laptop so 3 1/2 hours sounds good to me.

As for the built in isight if someone wants to hack my machine a watch me scratching my arse for hours bring it on lol, I dont work for the C.I.A or engage in perversions in front of it that warrant a sinister Orwellian disposition that seems to be the norm nowadays (and the little light comes on when its on lol)

My new intel Imac is running like a dream, better than my last G5, better than my top of the range windows machine (by a considerable margin) and better than the Vista machine I thought it would be a laugh to set up in the last week from the BETA which has caused me more headaches than any operating systems EVER !!!

Oh and the kids like squishing there faces in photobooth as well lol

 

[weg]

But Stevie promised us the Mactels would use less power and have better battery life. NOT! Get off the crack Stevorino the damn Intel chips pull 40% more power. Did he even look at the dual core G4's that pull only 25 watts power versus 85 for the Intel dual core? What a dumbass Jobs is.

In terms of power per instruction per second, Steve definitely didn't lie to us. If you use Photoshop on a G4 on the road, you definitely need the 4-5 hours of battery life to get some work done ;-)

 

[weg]

and better than the Vista machine I thought it would be a laugh to set up in the last week from the BETA which has caused me more headaches than any operating systems EVER !!!

It may suprise you, but there's a reason why they call it a BETA ;-)

 

[YoNeX]

Yeah, my work place doesn't allow cameras of any kind, let alone the power of the isight. So, -100 from the price of the MBP and take off the camera. That will make me very happy

 

[Surreal]

Anybody know if 2GB modules are coming anytime soon? (like...a few months)

and, has anyone spotted a FW800 expresscard34 ?

 

[DTphonehome]

Yeah, my work place doesn't allow cameras of any kind, let alone the power of the isight. So, -100 from the price of the MBP and take off the camera. That will make me very happy

FYI, the camera and noncamera versions of the Treo are the same price.

 

[DTphonehome]

The only way I get 4 hours with my PB is if I walk away and let it sleep for 2 hours after working a couple of hours and then maybe working 2 more.

Then you need a new battery. I was amazed at the difference it makes. Over time you don't realize how much life is lost, but when you get it all back, WOW.

 

[DTphonehome]

No of course not. But I'd say 3 hours of battery life is acceptable for the power you get. If it is not enough for some people, just wait for Merom. It will be about 30% faster and will be 20% more power efficient.
If you ask me though, Apple should've went with the old thickness, put in a DL-Superdrive and an even bigger battery to gain 4 hours now and 5 with Merom.

I agree! I didn't think the old thickness was so bad, and the new thickness is a major improvement. But maybe they wanted to go back to the "1" thin" mantra from the TiBook days.

 

[e-clipse]

Well.....upon reading this thread earlier, I began to wonder about other laptops battery life, but did not investigate.

I left for my 6pm social science class and noticed a guy working on a Dell Inspiron..blah blah model in class. He was strictly confined to a small stationary desk pressed against a wall with an outlet. I asked him what his battery life was. He did not seem to want to answer. I asked him again. He then said, " This laptop usually gets around 2 hours of battery life, and that is why I am crammed up against this wall." I told him about this thread and Apple's Macbook Pro battery life, and he seemed a little angry.

Yeah, I did attack his Dell, not meaning to,....but oh well. The only time I am going to use a Macbook Pro unplugged, is in a school library. Even in the librbary, there are task desk cubbies with outlets avaliable.

 

[Kaiser Phoenix]

I personally don't like the new Macbook Pro, here's why:

1) iSight - I don't feel secure with a camera always pointed at my face
2) size - it's wider and deeper (and insignificantly thinner)
3) no modem built in - I can't tell you how many times I've been away from home and the built in modem came in super handy
4) no built in tv output - I output to tv a lot, at home and away
5) mag safe fall out - I like to throw my laptop around and have it in weird places and angles
6) intel chip - while it may turn out to be good in the long run, right now all it means is most apps will run much slower and some may not work at all
7) battery life? - It's still not conclusive, but it looks like the battery life is less
8) Macbook Pro - the name is terrible and part of what you're buying when you buy a high end product is status, and the "Macbook Pro" does not sound like a high end product that serious cash was dropped on.

QUOTE]

1) iSight - Also you cant change the angle or direction of the cam so its abit annoying as well.
2) Size - Its annoying coz many bags that was bought for my G4PB wont fit because of that extra bit longer now!!!
3) No modem built in - Dont need modem
4) No built in tv output - Agree
5) mag safe fall out - It was quite tough actually
6) intel chip - Agreed
7) battery life? - Yeah battery life is crap IMHO
8) Macbook Pro - Agreed

 

[shokunin]

All the pc makers are going with AMD. It was when Dell announced they were changing half their production to AMD that Intel, seeing their marketshare go out the window, began putting the full court press on Apple making outrageous promises with their chip roadmap.

Uh? Link please... since when has dell announced production machines with AMD? Dell may sell AMD chips as "parts" but have never formally announced systems with AMD processors.

There are plenty of rumors going around, but nothing on an official AMD campaign by Dell. I doubt AMD could supply 50% of Dell's volume, they don't have enough fabs to cut enough wafers.

 

[Kelvin]

Battery life and performance

My 1.83GHz MBP runs about 3 hours with varying degrees of screenbright (usually about 50% is as bright as my (very) old powerbook).

Now, 3 hours isn't spectacular, but consider this: I compiled fink, fink commander, AND ethereal from source in one sitting and had enough time to play around with my network. Total all three compile from sources took about 2 hours (all while doing moderate powerpoint and websurfing in the foreground). I dare any powerbook user to try this. I bet you won't have enough battery time to finish fink and fink commander running in the fore.

Point being, performance per watt is so great that it doesn't even matter that you get less time on a bigger battery. You get MORE work done. Seriously, it's night and day vs my G5; this thing even screams past my 3GHz P4 at work.

My only issue is that it seems to use more RAM than my comparable desktops. I only have a 5400RPM HD and it is painful watching as everything grinds while the VM is paging and menumeters says my CPU is sitting at 7%/5%.

EDIT: And for the love of Bob, stop using the computer while nude.

Hey, some people use the computer exclusively while nude...

 

[thunng8]

No of course not. But I'd say 3 hours of battery life is acceptable for the power you get. If it is not enough for some people, just wait for Merom. It will be about 30% faster and will be 20% more power efficient.
If you ask me though, Apple should've went with the old thickness, put in a DL-Superdrive and an even bigger battery to gain 4 hours now and 5 with Merom. But we all know what they chose to do.

Where did you get the 30% faster and 20% more power efficient from?

30% faster is speculation and 20% more power efficient seems wrong since Intel have speced Merom with higher TDP numbers than Yonah.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intel_Next_Generation_Microarchitecture

"Merom, the mobile variant, is listed at 35 watts TDP for standard versions and 5 watts TDP for Ultra Low Voltage (ULV) versions."

BTW, Yonah is specced at 31W for standard version

 

[Diatribe]

Where did you get the 30% faster and 20% more power efficient from?

30% faster is speculation and 20% more power efficient seems wrong since Intel have speced Merom with higher TDP numbers than Yonah.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intel_Next_Generation_Microarchitecture

"Merom, the mobile variant, is listed at 35 watts TDP for standard versions and 5 watts TDP for Ultra Low Voltage (ULV) versions."

BTW, Yonah is specced at 31W for standard version

Good question. I read that recently. I'll try to digg it up. But the one thing I know for sure is that Merom uses more efficient power saving than Yonah.

 

[Bobajobbob]

I still don't knwo why they didnt call it the PowerMacBook.

After reading the review I'm gonna get me a Dell






Joke

 

[janstett]

I personally don't like the new Macbook Pro, here's why:

1) iSight - I don't feel secure with a camera always pointed at my face
2) size - it's wider and deeper (and insignificantly thinner)
3) no modem built in - I can't tell you how many times I've been away from home and the built in modem came in super handy
4) no built in tv output - I output to tv a lot, at home and away
5) mag safe fall out - I like to throw my laptop around and have it in weird places and angles
6) intel chip - while it may turn out to be good in the long run, right now all it means is most apps will run much slower and some may not work at all
7) battery life? - It's still not conclusive, but it looks like the battery life is less
8) Macbook Pro - the name is terrible and part of what you're buying when you buy a high end product is status, and the "Macbook Pro" does not sound like a high end product that serious cash was dropped on.

I own a MBP 2.0 GHz, here's my answer as someone who has several hours of seat time with one.

(1) I suppose if you're paranoid, many web cams come with a physical shutter, Apple should have added one.
(2) I'd rather see Apple get serious about the 12" ultraportables where they are WAAAAAY behind; for a 15" the MBP is fine, and it is slightly SMALLER than the PB.
(3) Modem? I've been to Germany, Japan (twice), and South Korea in the past year. Most urban places and hotels offer wifi. Modem access is dead. Who maintains a dial up account any more? And when travelling, you don't want to accidentally plug into a digital line and fry your modem/computer. Good riddance modem.
(4) TV out. Eh, maybe, you can buy an adapter. I care about TV out too, but I have a new HDTV with VGA/DVI/HDMI in so I am more than happy with the TV out of the MBP. Also happy with the digital SPDIF output so I can hear Dolby Digital 5.1 on my DVDs.
(5) The mag safe isn't flimsy. I have had the MBP in some cramped quarters/angles and the plug has been fine. And I've already saved myself tripping over it 2 or 3 times.
(6) Yes, short term some things won't work or will be slow. I will suffer for a few months and then the tide will come in and I'll be sitting pretty. In the instances where I've gotten native applications (like Handbrake) the MBP has D-E-S-T-R-O-Y-E-D my Mac Mini. And most other apps run well enough that I can wait for native apps. Of course that won't apply to all users.
(7) The battery life seems pretty good so far for me (around 3.5 hours but all "what if" testing not real usage yet). Again it gets destroyed by a real ultraportable like my Thinkpad X41 (8+ hours, all day computing on one charge), so I'm not worried about a small +/- versus the 15" PB.
(8) What's in a name? A rose by any other name, etc etc. The name is awkward but that ranks around a 0.01 on a scale of 1/10.

 

[nagromme]

Just a reminder--don't forget to consider/report the following in battery tests you make:

* Airport on?

* BT on?

* Keys lit? (they can easily pop on if you go away and turn out the lights without disabling the backlight option)

* Optical mouse, USB modem, iPod, iSight etc. drawing power?

* Screen brightness (most people remember this--but it seems like half or less is what most laptops would call very bright)

* Speaker volume (if you're testing movie/music play)

* Are you testing while Spotlight is still indexing and running your HD?

* Have you calibrated, so you know you were truly starting from full charge?

* Which rpm HD are you using?

* And of course: what Ghz model? (and how much RAM?)

 

[budugu]

My 1.83GHz MBP runs about 3 hours with varying degrees of screenbright (usually about 50% is as bright as my (very) old powerbook).

Now, 3 hours isn't spectacular, but consider this: I compiled fink, fink commander, AND ethereal from source in one sitting and had enough time to play around with my network. Total all three compile from sources took about 2 hours (all while doing moderate powerpoint and websurfing in the foreground). I dare any powerbook user to try this. I bet you won't have enough battery time to finish fink and fink commander running in the fore.

Point being, performance per watt is so great that it doesn't even matter that you get less time on a bigger battery. You get MORE work done. Seriously, it's night and day vs my G5; this thing even screams past my 3GHz P4 at work.

I have 2 words for you apple apologist! period. WTF? the new measure of battery life = work done? If the battery life stinks it stinks ... just accept it and move on. Lets say you donot have to compile fink every day.. you want to watch a couple of movies on a long haul flight (see the movie in FF mode? - I see all the movie in a short time because the new ATI x1600 can pump so many pixels to your screen ) ... need to edit presentation... or some thing else that is not computationaly intensive but actually time consuming... which is what most people do ... grow up ... Apple has a stupid marketing team that can think of all sorts of crap to make the product look good and atleast get paid!

 

[ericschmerick]

If the battery life stinks it stinks ... just accept it and move on.

Gimme a break. 3+ hrs with wifi and doing lots of work, nearly 5 hrs in battery max mode. That's really not bad. The last Dell I had was 3 hours TOPS, no matter what I did.

More importantly, my PB G4 1.25 has EXACTLY THE SAME BATTERY LIFE. Let me say again - the MBP 2.0 I have sitting on my desk right next to the 1.25G4 sitting on my desk _both have the same batter life_ So what is the big deal here?

 

[budugu]

Gimme a break. 3+ hrs with wifi and doing lots of work, nearly 5 hrs in battery max mode. That's really not bad. The last Dell I had was 3 hours TOPS, no matter what I did.

More importantly, my PB G4 1.25 has EXACTLY THE SAME BATTERY LIFE. Let me say again - the MBP 2.0 I have sitting on my desk right next to the 1.25G4 sitting on my desk _both have the same batter life_ So what is the big deal here?

Forget all the spin... if apple marketing team could not find a decent wrapper so that they can put the battery life of a "notebook" on their website ... that just speaks for itself. (when they actually touted the battery life of their powerbooks so much). Well all i can say is think with out prejudice!

 

[chaos86]

what is more of a security issue for a normal user (i.e. not a camera-free-zone user)?

1) that someone could discreetly, without doing any suspicious looking damage, take apart your MBP, modify the circuitry of your isight AND put a trojan on your machine so that they could remotely activate your isight and watch you stare at your screen, maybe even pick your nose or pop a zit in your ichat mirror? honestly what do you do, hold up bank statements in front of your screen?

2) that someone could come upon your MBP, target disk it, and clone your drive. that way they could have access to all your files, unless you run filevault, in which case they would have to learn your user or root password (much easier, in my opinion, than taking apart an MBP and rewiring the isight AND installing a trojan).

i dont know why nobody has a problem with the lack of security in target disk mode, but they freak out about a camera thats almost impossible to hack.

 

[notjustjay]

they could remotely activate your isight and watch you stare at your screen, maybe even pick your nose

I welcome, with open.. er.. fingers? .. any hacker who wants to watch me do that at work all day

(Good thing I work in that camera free zone, eh? )