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Ultra-thin 12'' MacBook Pro?

Romulus said:
I would have gone for it... But already got my MacBook and I am quite happy with it. The 13in screen is really good, and I think 12in widescreen would be quite hard to work with. A 12in worked quite well in the regular 4:3 format allowing enough vertical space. A widescreen does not have enough vertical space with not much to work with.

I would have loved though, what somebody else already said, a 12" with minimum frame on the screen and keyboard, allowing to shave at least 1-2in from the width and depth of the macbook... Oh well, we'll see what will take place with time, who knows...
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:confused:

Umm..it's the height in *pixels* that matters not the height in inches!!!

If the 12" PB was 1024x768, and the 12" MBP is 1280x800, then the MBP would hactually have just as much vertical real estate!!!

800 > 768

P.S. I've also seen Sony's 11.1" widescreen and it's also quite readable at 1280x800.
 
Not yet, wait a few more months

I don't think the time is quite right. This would be the perfect machine to unveil Leopard on, with a super-res screen, say 1600x900, scaled to suit by the new OS and driven by a ATI 1600 or nVidia 7300 mobile GPU. Along with a flexible optical/battery/blank bay. It would be a spendy little guy, no doubt, but execs and hardened geeks would eat it up. No compromise ultra portable.
 
This will not happen. There's no way that Apple would allow a computer to steal sales away from the MacBook. There isn't as much of a demand for a 12" portable as some would think. The only thing I could imagine happening is maybe making a better equipped MacBook.
 
Inexpensive RAM?

mhar4 said:
I finally just upgraded the memory of my 12" PowerBook to 1.25GB and have had nary a sight of the beachball since. It's really a new lease of life and gives me pause before an upgrade. Not that one of these 12" MBPs don't sound very attractive, though!
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That's good to know! I have a 1Ghz 12-inch PowerBook with 768 MB RAM. It's still a great computer, but it could use a boost. Where did you get your RAM? Crucial has a 1GB chip for about 180 bucks. Does that sound about right, or is that overpriced?

I was going to get a 13-inch MB, but I want to run Aperture (and run it well), so I'm going to pony up the cash for the MBP. An ultra portable would be nice, but I'm really looking forward to having that extra screen real estate and that great graphics card! Plus, nothing says I can't keep the 12-inch around for traveling. I'm sure it'll meet all my traveling needs for many years.
 
Linito said:
it would be nice also to see them doing a ~$700 MB for students, not everyone can afford a $1100 portable :(
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A student-discounted MB is $1049... but one should consider not only the price, but the investment in yourself for the next four years. Life expectancy of PC laptops are rarely quoted as 4 years - I have been using my Mac (iMac G4 swivel neck) for 6 years and it still works great - so you have two choices: Buy a $700 "affordable" PC which will die or become unusable within 2-3 years, or buy a $1200 Mac which will last you long after college is through.

Apple doesn't sell crap. That's why it's more expensive. If someone is too cheap to put out a little more money for a long-term self-investment, then they deserve to be trapped using their imminently dying PCs.

I haven't even made an argument about OS & bundled software... but really... need I?

And also, as long as you're paying 12+ grand/yr for college, what's another $1200 of student loans? I know a guy who took out a $3000 loan to buy a Dell XPS so he could play World of WarCraft between classes. It's college, and college loans exist for a reason. So you can pay for the things you need while you're in college. If a mid-class WoW fix is what you need, buy a freaking XPS, or MBP or whatever it takes. You'll only have that opportunity once.

-Clive
 
An 12" ultra portable MBP. Hmmm. Sounds great :D If apple releases one of these things, it's gonna give me a great excuse to buy my frist mactop.
 
Warbrain said:
This will not happen. There's no way that Apple would allow a computer to steal sales away from the MacBook. There isn't as much of a demand for a 12" portable as some would think. The only thing I could imagine happening is maybe making a better equipped MacBook.
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Apple would happily sacrifice sales of a $1000-1300 consumer machine to a $1700-1800 professional machine. The problem is that I see this taking more sales away from the Macbook Pro. Many people, including myself, like the form and size of the Macbook, but the glossy screen, keyboard, and video card are all deal-breakers and so we get a Macbook Pro instead because it is the smallest mac laptop with the features we want.
 
bigbossbmb said:
Apple would happily sacrifice sales of a $1000-1300 consumer machine to a $1700-1800 professional machine. The problem is that I see this taking more sales away from the Macbook Pro. Many people, including myself, like the form and size of the Macbook, but the glossy screen, keyboard, and video card are all deal-breakers and so we get a Macbook Pro instead because it is the smallest mac laptop with the features we want.
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you make a good point. for some, the macbook does everything they need and can be seen as a 12"PB replacement. i fall into this camp. i bought a 12" PB for portability and the sound in port. at the time, the ibook didn't have sound in so i opted for the PB. i would have loved to save the money but really needed the sound in.

the new macbooks have sound in and therefor can act as a replacement for my aging rev a 12"PB. im still waiting for tax return so i can make this upgrade from powerbook to macbook. :rolleyes:

but for others, other features are important and still only found on the pro line...you name them above.

i think apple is doing a good job of providing what people need at the appropriate price.

~kyle
 
I would be all over this if it came out.

Ill need a powerful computer at my desk, but will occasionaly have to take with my for projects and trips. And being able to do engineering work where I want and when will be great!
 
Make the most of those looong five weeks

balamw said:
The next five weeks are going to seem REAALLLY looong.

B
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OK, so in the next five weeks I've got to (not including work) fit two new windows, construct a bookshelf, line and paint and carpet our back bedroom otherwise the impending baby is sleeping in our room with us and those critters can get really noisy even when they're sleeping. Plus there's Christmas. Frankly the next five weeks are going to be berserk. Of course having just received my superb and astonishly fast new 15" 2.33GHz C2D MBP my interest in MacWorld is not that elevated. Getting some time to geek at all is my main issue.:rolleyes:
 
An 8 hr battery is not so far off at all. The new Toughbooks/X60's can get that and more thanks to improved processor technologies. What remains to be seen is whether Apple will focus more on portablity vs. power, (ie. Core Solo, integrated graphics, ultra-long battery life, no optical (honestly though, this shouldn't be a huge deal with USB2/FW800) vs CD2, dedicated graphics ala XPS M1202, DVDRW &ct., moderately long battery life)


I just wish they would slap a rotatable touch/digitizer-screen on this puppy. Vista should have far improved touch/tablet functionality, I would love to see Apple enter this arena again.
 
nickmdf said:
Over at http://www.dynamism.com they are available for the US market. They put it under the palmrest.
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i'm sure you'll realise the MBP's optical drive is under the palmrest.

i'm sure you'll realise that the MBP is pretty damn thin. yeah, this is thinner, but an optical drive like that on an Apple machine? god no.

i don't believe a 12" WS MBP would come with an optical drive unless it was to be classed as a normal laptop.

and ultra thin means too thin to have an internal drive. i'm sitting using one of these pictured below, right now, and it's what i'd call ultra thin - and it's how thin i'd want the MBP to be. it's got FW, USB and everything, and comes with a FW DVD drive. perfect (well almost - if it were an apple it'd be better. damn my iMac for being across the room :rolleyes: )

00033389.jpg
 
donlphi said:
This news had to come the week after I purchase my first laptop... and I tried to wait... :mad:
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JUST ENJOY YOUR NEW LAPTOP!

A couple of weeks after I got my Dual Core 3GHz Mac Pro and 30" ACD people started talking about Intel's new Quad Cores and the "soon to be released" bigger and better ACDs and how anyone who bought a new Mac Pro was stupid and should have waited.

That bummed me out for about 30 seconds and then I continued to play with my new toys. Fast forward to four months later and these new products have not been launched. However, I've had my new computer and my productivity has gone through the roof and the computer has already paid for itself!

So just enjoy what you have.
 
BackInTheSaddle said:
The MacBook is nice but it isn't really a replacement for the old 12" PB.

I wonder if they can squeeze in a lighted keyboard on a 12" MBP?? That would be sweet.
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I have to admit, one of the things that attracted me to the original 17" Power Mac was the lighted keyboard, which at the time exclusive to that model. But after using that laptop with that feature for over a year I have to admit that it's not the show stopper feature I thought it was. I often found myself turning it off for increase battery life and did not find it bright enough for, let's say a dark plane. There is so much light coming from the display, that I think it's a useless feature.

If given a choice, I would rather the MacBook's keyboard instead of the MacBook Pro's lighted keyboard.

The only thing that bothers me about the MacBook is Intel's GMA.
 
whatever said:
I have to admit, one of the things that attracted me to the original 17" Power Mac was the lighted keyboard, which at the time exclusive to that model. But after using that laptop with that feature for over a year I have to admit that it's not the show stopper feature I thought it was. I often found myself turning it off for increase battery life and did not find it bright enough for, let's say a dark plane. There is so much light coming from the display, that I think it's a useless feature.

If given a choice, I would rather the MacBook's keyboard instead of the MacBook Pro's lighted keyboard.

The only thing that bothers me about the MacBook is Intel's GMA.
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I found the keyboard illumination one of the most useful innovations on my 15" PB... :) it was really easy to see the keys, no matter how bright the screen was set.

And are you just following the crowd in your hating of the GMA, or do you actually have a reason? (Because you'd be in a minority!)
 
I pitched the idea of a 12" portable to my friend a few weeks back.

He pointed out that with no optical drive, how does one install the OS/launch in an emergency boot up or do any other system critical things that require a CD/DVD at this current moment.

How would people install Leopard? Over the internet only? What do you do if it's your only computer and you need to reinstall the OS because something odd's happened?

Believe you me. I would sell the MacBook and get one in a split second. I have the laptop for portability and secondary is power.My iMac is the workhorse. A 12" or smaller would be perfect for those of us that travel in our jobs.
 
bigandy said:
I found the keyboard illumination one of the most useful innovations on my 15" PB... :) it was really easy to see the keys, no matter how bright the screen was set.

And are you just following the crowd in your hating of the GMA, or do you actually have a reason? (Because you'd be in a minority!)
Click to expand...

I agree. I think the MacBook is an excellent machine and would buy this tiny notebook if it had the same processors and everything. The size would be enough to swing it. Hell, I wouldn't even know about a difference if people hadn't kept telling me on the net!
 
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