My (realistic) wishlist for the 2010 MBPs

[wastedminutes]

I've been reading these MacRumors forums religiously, trying to find out about the impending update of the Macbook Pro line. A few people have been writing wishlists about what they'd like to see in the new notebooks, but many have been ridiculous and unrealistic. Here's what I'd like to (realistically) see.

- Intel Arrandale CPU (dual core. I think quad core seems unlikely until at least the second quarter of 2010)
- 4gb RAM standard on 13" models. 8gb standard on 15" and 17" models. RAM Configurable up to 12gb (16gb??).
- Lower prices for the SSD drives and the ability to choose whether you want SSD or HDD. HDD drives still available with capacity configurable up to 1TB (2TB for 17"). I reckon standard:

13"/low end 15" - 320gb HDD / 128gb SSD
mid/high range 15" - 500gb HDD / 256gb SSD
17" - 1TB HDD / 512gb SSD

- Battery life ~the same (noticable improvement unlikely because of the more powerful CPU)
- Unibody design stays the same, but with a smaller black border around the screen.
- This one isn't realistic, fyi: Lack of optical drive. I think I'm in the minority in hoping for this. I think blu-ray is out of the question until late 2010, even 2011, but I'd like to be able to have the option of another hard drive in place of an optical drive.
- USB 2.0. 3.0 Just won't happen until 2011, if at all.
- GPU capability increased, but not hugely.

Price: About the same as currently. Possibly a very slight reduction or increase in price. It could go either way. I'm hoping for a reduction

Released: I'd love for it to be 11th or 13th (Apple like wednesdays). Realistically, though, I'd say 22nd-27th. My money's on 26th.

What do you guys think?

 

[iDisk]

I think 8GB Will stay the limit for the time being.
You got it right with the higher SSD conversion.

Don't get your hopes up on 3.0USB... Apple is heavily invested in Light Peak and Steve himself has given it his blessing (so USB 3.0 isn't going to come or if it does it won't stay for long)

I'm game for the option optical drive. If Apple doesn't go with the ATI 5000 series GPUs then I'm sticking with my 512mb GPU 9600 Nvidia card for my 15" MBP (I MISS NVIDIA )

On a side note the ACD need a freaking update

iDisk

 

[rhysmorgan]

I've been reading these MacRumors forums religiously, trying to find out about the impending update of the Macbook Pro line. A few people have been writing wishlists about what they'd like to see in the new notebooks, but many have been ridiculous and unrealistic. Here's what I'd like to (realistically) see.

- Intel Arrandale CPU (dual core. I think quad core seems unlikely until at least the second quarter of 2010)
- 4gb RAM standard on 13" models. 8gb standard on 15" and 17" models. RAM Configurable up to 12gb (16gb??).
- Lower prices for the SSD drives and the ability to choose whether you want SSD or HDD. HDD drives still available with capacity configurable up to 1TB (2TB for 17"). I reckon standard:

13"/low end 15" - 320gb HDD / 128gb SSD
mid/high range 15" - 500gb HDD / 256gb SSD
17" - 1TB HDD / 512gb SSD

- Battery life ~the same (noticable improvement unlikely because of the more powerful CPU)
- Unibody design stays the same, but with a smaller black border around the screen.
- This one isn't realistic, fyi: Lack of optical drive. I think I'm in the minority in hoping for this. I think blu-ray is out of the question until late 2010, even 2011, but I'd like to be able to have the option of another hard drive in place of an optical drive.
- USB 2.0. 3.0 Just won't happen until 2011, if at all.
- GPU capability increased, but not hugely.

Price: About the same as currently. Possibly a very slight reduction or increase in price. It could go either way. I'm hoping for a reduction

Released: I'd love for it to be 11th or 13th (Apple like wednesdays). Realistically, though, I'd say 22nd-27th. My money's on 26th.

What do you guys think?

All you've done here is predict RAM and HDD/SSD...
I also don't think you understand Arrandale. It won't stop any possible "noticeable improvement" just because it's more powerful. Arrandale is a new chipset and it brings huge performance increase at the same wattage.
Anyway, there aren't any quad-core Arrandales. Saying Intel Arrandale CPU is obvious. It's a given, especially since Intel are trying to get Core 2 out of computers as quickly as possible and transition them to Core iX. At least give predictions for what Arrandale CPU will get into which computer. For example:
MBP 13":
Base model - Core i5-430M - 2.26GHz
Upper model - Core i5-520M - 2.4GHz
MBP 15":
Base model - Core i5-520M - 2.4GHz
Middle model - Core i5-540M - 2.53GHz
Top model - Core i7-620M - 2.67GHz
MBP 17":
Core i7-620M - 2.67GHz
Also, what about GPU? Saying GPU capability increased is rubbish. That's not a wish, that's stating the obvious.
My guess is this:
MBP 13": ATi Mobility Radeon HD 5470/5650 or nVidia GeForce 310M/330M
MBP 15/17": ATi Mobility Radeon HD 5650 or nVidia GeForce 330M.
Maybe also as a BTO on any of the models, there could be nVidia GeForce 335M.
Anyway. As I said before. This isn't a wishlist, this is a stating the obvious list. Why would there be less of a bezel around the screen, yet the unibody design stay the same? They'd have to shrink the keyboard to do that, at least on the 13", which I don't see them doing, as they'd have to have an extra production line for the smaller sized keys.
USB 3.0 is a possibility actually, with all the laptops coming out of CES with it. There are a ton of them.
Well, that's my analysis of a rather lacklustre post.
Rhys out.

 

[frunkis54]

I reckon standard:


17" - 1TB HDD / 512gb SSD


Price: About the same as currently. Possibly a very slight reduction or increase in price. It could go either way. I'm hoping for a reduction


What do you guys think?

a 17" mbp with 512gb ssd at same price as current model. aint gonna happen anytime soon.

 

[Spandexman]

5 reckon you're being pretty optimistic to be honest. No way there'll be 8Gb standard, that'd be a couple of hundred more outlay for Apple, even at retail, and it's almost universally unnecessary. Same with the harddrives, I can only find a few 512Gb drives, and they seem to cost about $1800! I reckon the base 13" will have 250Gb, the high end 13/low end 15" will have 320, the high end 15/low end 17 will have 500, or maybe 640.

 

[King Mook Mook]

I agree with most of your ideas, however I seriously doubt there going to be standard 8GB of RAM. More likely, it will be a standard of 4 GB again or possibly 6GB.

I also think a lack of optical drive would be good as it could either increase the battery space (for more battery life) or another hard drive could be put in.

King Mook Mook

 

[Gabriel GR]

I really hope that 4GB will become the minimum RAM. It's about time.

With 2GB the 13" macbook is like a netbook. Once you try to multitask you run out of memory.

 

[rhysmorgan]

I really hope that 4GB will become the minimum RAM. It's about time.

With 2GB the 13" macbook is like a netbook. Once you try to multitask you run out of memory.

Well, not really. Considering netbooks come with 1GB of DDR2 533 or 667, if you're lucky. Then, the absolute maximum is 2GB DDR2 533/667.
MacBook Pro 13" comes with 2GB DDR3 1066 RAM as standard, upgradable all the way up to 8GB DDR3 1066.
I'll admit that it's still fairly low, considering how most laptops now come with at least 3GB, but a) that RAM isn't dual channel and b) it's made of spares
OK, being fair, most come with 4GB DDR3 now and it would be a very welcome boost to the 13" MacBook Pro, considering that's one of two computers I might get. (The other being the phenomenal looking Alienware M11x. One or the other...)

 

[Gabriel GR]

Well, not really. Considering netbooks come with 1GB of DDR2 533 or 667, if you're lucky. Then, the absolute maximum is 2GB DDR2 533/667.
MacBook Pro 13" comes with 2GB DDR3 1066 RAM as standard, upgradable all the way up to 8GB DDR3 1066.
I'll admit that it's still fairly low, considering how most laptops now come with at least 3GB, but a) that RAM isn't dual channel and b) it's made of spares
OK, being fair, most come with 4GB DDR3 now and it would be a very welcome boost to the 13" MacBook Pro, considering that's one of two computers I might get. (The other being the phenomenal looking Alienware M11x. One or the other...)

RAM is platform agnostic. Also the performance benefit of dual channel is only marginal and gets diminished when your computer starts to page to the classes-of-magnitude-slower HDD, because you run out of memory.

4gb and a faster HDD would be enough to make the entry level 13" MBP a much faster machine for minimal cost to apple.

 

[rhysmorgan]

RAM is platform agnostic. Also the performance benefit of dual channel is only marginal and gets diminished when your computer starts to page to the classes-of-magnitude-slower HDD, because you run out of memory.

4gb and a faster HDD would be enough to make the entry level 13" MBP a much faster machine for minimal cost to apple.

Oh, I know. I was never doubting that. I was looking for reasons to point out how 2GB of RAM being standard in a 13" MBP isn't like a netbook, though.

 

[Gabriel GR]

Oh, I know. I was never doubting that. I was looking for reasons to point out how 2GB of RAM being standard in a 13" MBP isn't like a netbook, though.

Well it's equally restrictive when you're trying to do serious work using more than one program.

 

[rhysmorgan]

Well it's equally restrictive when you're trying to do serious work using more than one program.

Yeah, I completely agree. However, who's going to be doing serious work in more than one program on a netbook?
Don't worry, I'm just messing with ya. I can definitely agree that a RAM boost would be more than welcome, to the point of it being completely necessary to look even remotely competitive.