New MacBook, MacBook Pro, and MacBook Air Models Scheduled for Launch This Month?

[jamesemile]

Price?!

All this talk is awesome and what we want and expect but what about the price? I'm heading to college and need the MBP 15" so I don't want to be in debt from the start. It's like $1599 now with the student discounts. How much more should I expect to pay for this update?

 

[scottkifnw]

MBP Update And Hard Drives?

I am considering updating when the new version of MPB 15" comes out. I am going back and forth between a fast, capacious HDD vs. SSD.

Anyone with real world experience wit an SSD? Aside from faster start up, and opening and closing apps, are there real world speed benefits, and for what type of apps?

Thanks.

sek

A MacRumors forum poster points to a report (Google translation) from Taiwanese newspaper Apple Daily that appears to claim that new MacBook, MacBook Pro, and MacBook Air models are due for launch sometime this month.

While the Google translation leaves much to be desired in the way of clarity, the report seems to indicate that new models were planned for introduction in March but shortages of Intel's new chips pushed the launch back to this month. The report also claims that Apple will be pushing all three sizes of the MacBook to a maximum of 640 GB hard drives with 8-hour battery performance across the board. The remainder of the report primarily focuses on suppliers, with Quanta and Hon Hai (Foxconn) targeted for assembly of the devices and Innolux and AU Optronics being tapped for LCD panels.

Updates to Apple's MacBook Pro line have been widely expected for several months, although reports of possible release plans have become less frequent in recent weeks as attention has shifted to the iPad. Apple's MacBook Air is similarly due for an update, as it was last refreshed in June alongside the new MacBook Pros. The MacBook was last updated in October and thus has not necessarily been viewed as ready for an update, but we are beginning to approach its typical refresh window as well.

Article Link: New MacBook, MacBook Pro, and MacBook Air Models Scheduled for Launch This Month?

 

[Digital Skunk]

No thanks, I prefer not to squint.

They need to make it an option then. I know some want it and some don't. But I think Apple really need to offer a higher resolution on the 13" and 15" models for those that can see.

 

[u6crash]

No superdrive?

I see quite a few people want the MBP to drop the superdrive. What's with that? You're wanting it to be replaced with a supplemental SSD or what? If I get one it will be my only computer and I'd prefer not to have a bunch of external devices.

To echo one of the earlier posts, an updated Mac Mini for my parents would be nice, too.

 

[Val-kyrie]

They need to make it an option then. I know some want it and some don't. But I think Apple really need to offer a higher resolution on the 13" and 15" models for those that can see.

An option is a great idea. I just don't want them to remove the current standard resolution or charge more for it, like they did with the matte screens, which are now a BTO "option." However, I think the current resolutions will remain the standard for a while because I do think Apple treats all MBPs as mainline machines, with the exception of the 17".

 

[azentropy]

I see quite a few people want the MBP to drop the superdrive. What's with that? You're wanting it to be replaced with a supplemental SSD or what? If I get one it will be my only computer and I'd prefer not to have a bunch of external devices.

Many people don't use the drive and would prefer to either:
a) save the space and the weight and have a lighter and thinner design
or
b) use the space and the weight for something else like a larger battery, a second HD or SSD, or additional port space like HDMI or eSATA...

 

[vegas-steven]

Nice. I just screwed up my mbp .... Spilt damn can of beer on it. Went to apple store to see bout repair n guy said be about $1200


So I'm just gonna stick it out n wait for new one. Nothing wrong cept keyboard all up. Funny he told me I can post on bay and at least get few $$$$$ for it. Right now just got a keyboard plugged in n its getting me hru
Damn I'm PO'd. I never mess my stuff up

in general the keyboard is the easiest and cheapest part to repair. Get one on eBay and ifixit.com likely has a guide to installing it

dunno how much it costs for a mbp keyboard but can't be that much

 

[AidenShaw]

Have you ever used one? The text on a 1900 x 1200 on a 15" screen strains my eyes. A higher resolution is not necessarily better.

If your OS has reasonable support for resolution independence, it's fine.

I have a T61p with 1920x1200 15.4" screen, and it's fine. I've set text to 125%, so things are easy to read. Lightroom and Photoshop, though, let me see photos in the same resolution as my desktop. Far better than the "wide screen" fraud of 1440 by 900.

Higher resolution *is* better - if you OS can support it and selectively change the size of text and UI elements appropriately. Apparently, your OS does not.

 

[Digital Skunk]

An option is a great idea. I just don't want them to remove the current standard resolution or charge more for it, like they did with the matte screens, which are now a BTO "option." However, I think the current resolutions will remain the standard for a while because I do think Apple treats all MBPs as mainline machines, with the exception of the 17".

True, about the mainline machines. The sucky part is that you are right, IF the higher resolution comes as a BTO it'll probably be $50. If you want a matte screen with a higher resolution it'll be an extra $100.

 

[deconstruct60]

Well, even thought they are MacBook "Pros" Apple does focus on the mainstream user. The removal of the express card slot in exchange for an SD card slot is evidence of that.

What? Apple pegged the usage of the express card slot at less than 1%. Let's call that 1% just for talking purposes. Even if Apple's miscounted (seen little evidence that they have) and estimates are 5 times off that would put the percentage at 5% of MBP users.

"Pro" doesn't mean caters to every fringe group out there. "Pro" would mean that folks who use the computer as part of what they do to make a living use the computer. Not that they are in some specific single digit fringe group.

The SD card is a "storage slot". It will have far fewer support issues than some random PCI device will since just mount/eject storage with no custom drivers needed. ExpressCard got dropped because hardly anyone was using it. Next up in the queue to use that limited edge space was likely a SD card reader.

 

[jamesemile]

please?

anyone price guess? I'm really desperate to hear some guesses.

 

[mrgiapanta]

All this talk is awesome and what we want and expect but what about the price? I'm heading to college and need the MBP 15" so I don't want to be in debt from the start. It's like $1599 now with the student discounts. How much more should I expect to pay for this update?

I'm only a newbie to this forum but I've been using Apple since 1995. My guess is Apple will keep the price same for same size MBP model but better everything as usual.

If I were you I would consider spending $200 or more for the Apple Care. It's well worth it.
I've been using my PowerBook G4 since 2003, thanx to the Apple Care.

 

[peepboon]

anyone price guess? I'm really desperate to hear some guesses.

Most likely it will be the same price. Might be a little more because RAM prices are sky high atm.

 

[putinxyj]

usb 3.0 ???

 

[john123]

Woh man, get a degree in CE. Cache is extremely important.

Woh man, check out some benchmarks. If the cache is used suboptimally (and it often is), the difference it makes is often nominal. One doesn't need a degree in CE to read basic statistics.

 

[john123]

I am considering updating when the new version of MPB 15" comes out. I am going back and forth between a fast, capacious HDD vs. SSD.

Anyone with real world experience wit an SSD? Aside from faster start up, and opening and closing apps, are there real world speed benefits, and for what type of apps?

Thanks.

sek

I haven't used them, but, there are oodles of benchmarks on this. The SSDs beat the fastest of hard drives -- especially on the laptop side. You'll see the impacts on anything that's read-intensive (duh) -- so that means apps as you cited, plus data-intensive stuff like video, Photoshop, etc. You'd be surprised how much you hit the disk. SSDs make such a bigger difference in everyday use than anything (assuming you have sufficient RAM) -- far more than a modest bump in processor speed.

 

[AidenShaw]

I am considering updating when the new version of MPB 15" comes out. I am going back and forth between a fast, capacious HDD vs. SSD.

Anyone with real world experience wit an SSD? Aside from faster start up, and opening and closing apps, are there real world speed benefits, and for what type of apps?

I haven't used them, but, there are oodles of benchmarks on this. The SSDs beat the fastest of hard drives -- especially on the laptop side. You'll see the impacts on anything that's read-intensive (duh) -- so that means apps as you cited, plus data-intensive stuff like video, Photoshop, etc. You'd be surprised how much you hit the disk. SSDs make such a bigger difference in everyday use than anything (assuming you have sufficient RAM) -- far more than a modest bump in processor speed.

First question - do you need the space of an HDD? SSDs are expensive and small in comparison - so if the SSD isn't big enough, your question is answered.

An SSD can make your system feel much "snappier" - even Safari. Booting, logging in, launching apps are much quicker. Anything that requires disk seeks are much faster. For big sequential reads/writes, though, the SSD is not a lot better than a spinning drive. (It's better, especially in the specs, but not so much in the real world.)

I have an Intel 160 GB SSD as the system/app/work drive on one of my i7 desktops. It's fast - but I also have a pair of 2 TB WD black drives in a RAID-1 mirror on that system - because 160 GB is ridiculously small for what I do.

 

[john123]

First question - do you need the space of an HDD? SSDs are expensive and small in comparison - so if the SSD isn't big enough, your question is answered.

An SSD can make your system feel much "snappier" - even Safari. Booting, logging in, launching apps are much quicker. Anything that requires disk seeks are much faster. For big sequential reads/writes, though, the SSD is not a lot better than a spinning drive. (It's better, especially in the specs, but not so much in the real world.)

I have an Intel 160 GB SSD as the system/app/work drive on one of my i7 desktops. It's fast - but I also have a pair of 2 TB WD black drives in a RAID-1 mirror on that system - because 160 GB is ridiculously small for what I do.

Here's my plan, FWIW:
* Order a regular MBP with a regular HDD. Right now, for the mid-15" model, that's a 320GB SATA drive.
* Buy an external 2.5" SATA enclosure. I got one for a whopping $6. These tend to be very small and very quiet (usually no fan).
* I'll buy a SSD to put in the MBP. Apple made it retardedly easy to replace the HDD in the unibody MBPs.
* I'll move my non-essential files to the external drive (e.g., various installers that I currently keep on the hard drive). This will give me plenty of headroom on my boot drive, while keeping less frequently used files on a drive that's super easy to carry around in my bag.

 

[excalibur313]

I am considering updating when the new version of MPB 15" comes out. I am going back and forth between a fast, capacious HDD vs. SSD.

Anyone with real world experience wit an SSD? Aside from faster start up, and opening and closing apps, are there real world speed benefits, and for what type of apps?

Thanks.

sek

I have an Intel 160gb ssd and it is blazingly fast. I will never go back to a normal hard drive and I would get an ssd even if I could only afford an 80 gb one or one of the sub $100 ones. The kind matters though, check out anandtech's review of them for more details. I'd also certainly install it myself rather than getting ripped off by apple.

Here's my plan, FWIW:
* Order a regular MBP with a regular HDD. Right now, for the mid-15" model, that's a 320GB SATA drive.
* Buy an external 2.5" SATA enclosure. I got one for a whopping $6. These tend to be very small and very quiet (usually no fan).
* I'll buy a SSD to put in the MBP. Apple made it retardedly easy to replace the HDD in the unibody MBPs.
* I'll move my non-essential files to the external drive (e.g., various installers that I currently keep on the hard drive). This will give me plenty of headroom on my boot drive, while keeping less frequently used files on a drive that's super easy to carry around in my bag.

Yup, that's exactly my plan too. I can't wait! I might partition the drive so I can do bootcamp too.

EDIT: Sorry, I really meant to say time machine, not bootcamp. I agree with john123 later that the performance would probably be quite poor.

 

[mdavis]

Woh man, check out some benchmarks. If the cache is used suboptimally (and it often is), the difference it makes is often nominal. One doesn't need a degree in CE to read basic statistics.

...and the cache is the only thing that's changed in this new architecture...

No, it's a trade-off. Cache is very expensive, so given other performance improvements in the chip Intel is cutting back on the cache, because they can. I'd assume this trade-off is made possible by the additional performance of main memory in this chip.

I wouldn't be surprised if we see increased cache levels for later iterations of this architecture.

Anyway not trying to be a dick, just nit-picking.

 

[laela]

Here's my plan, FWIW:
* Order a regular MBP with a regular HDD. Right now, for the mid-15" model, that's a 320GB SATA drive.
* Buy an external 2.5" SATA enclosure. I got one for a whopping $6. These tend to be very small and very quiet (usually no fan).
* I'll buy a SSD to put in the MBP. Apple made it retardedly easy to replace the HDD in the unibody MBPs.
* I'll move my non-essential files to the external drive (e.g., various installers that I currently keep on the hard drive). This will give me plenty of headroom on my boot drive, while keeping less frequently used files on a drive that's super easy to carry around in my bag.

Where did you buy the $6 SATA enclosure? Thanks!

 

[RazHyena]

Will we ever see the elusive black Macbook again? Want one so bad...

Time for a refresh...NOW. Enough about the MaxIpad, already. Give us real machines.

 

[timirving]

Here's my plan, FWIW:
* Order a regular MBP with a regular HDD. Right now, for the mid-15" model, that's a 320GB SATA drive.
* Buy an external 2.5" SATA enclosure. I got one for a whopping $6. These tend to be very small and very quiet (usually no fan).
* I'll buy a SSD to put in the MBP. Apple made it retardedly easy to replace the HDD in the unibody MBPs.
* I'll move my non-essential files to the external drive (e.g., various installers that I currently keep on the hard drive). This will give me plenty of headroom on my boot drive, while keeping less frequently used files on a drive that's super easy to carry around in my bag.

Brilliant!!! I love this idea. I have been waiting for a refresh on the MB and MBP for a while; I even thought about an ipad for a bit but it doesn't cut it for me. This is a perfect solution for me

 

[IlluminatedSage]

Love the idea of 640 GB hard drive.

but... hoping for

1- Matte version
2- BLU-RAY Playback

Apple has been stalling on BD support long enough.

 

[wovel]

Not a bad machine at all, although with the i7-720QM, the battery life will be atrocious. Still, if you're looking for pro power in a portable form factor, what you described is pretty awesome.

Does look like a nice machine. Interesting to see someone other than Apple build a high-end notebook in that form factor. Will be interesting to see what the next round of MBPs look like.