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Why I think everyone may be crying out for a MBP re-design

Here is a simple exercise anyone can do.

Take a piece of cardboard, not a cereal box, proper cardboard. Cut one to the size of a MacBook Air screen, cut another to the size of 17" MacBook Pro screen.

Take each one. Place this so the board is parallel to the ground and place your index finger under the centre. Each one will bend in the middle due to tension. The Air sized will be more rigid. The 17" one will sag. Now imagine making a screen as thin as the Air for 17" laptop. If you try and close it by only moving it from one side, it could damage the display. Would you be willing to put up with a failure point so obvious that the industrial designer who thought of it should be shot?

So we now have a laptop with a very thin fragile display, let's get to work on the main case. oops. We need to throw out the Superdrive as it is going to be too thick for the case at 0.8". We demand Sony build us a one off DVD/BD drive that 0.3-0.5" thick, but spins at 1600x. HDD. To big, or we use the really low capacity 80 gig 2.5" drives. CPU. Down from 2.5Ghz to Maybe 2.2GHz at most with CPU throttling. Heatsink and Fan cooling would be need to be redone completely. Making them smaller would make them less efficient. They would have less surface area. Can't just dissipate the heat through the metal. The case would get too hot and possibly warp.
 
Joko said:
My god it's just a laptop!! Get back to work and stop whining!!
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NO! NO NO!
it's not just a LAPTOP.. he's name is MAC
and the world revolves around him:D:D
( at least MAC World)

i wonder how many $ are wasted a day..
how many people, being paid for their time... and instead they're reading, typing and all the unthinkable one can do at MAcRumors.forum?:D
 
neil321 said:
It's a machine for doing a job,not a fashion statement
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Agreed. It's a design that works, doesn't need a change, and is still fresh compared to its competition (which isn't the MBA).

I'm wondering if there should be a 15" MB for this particular market - those who want the fashion accessory (and whine about its looks), and pretty much just use it only for browsing the web.
 
people demanding a new case just want to be able to show off they have a new computer. it practically breaks their heart that people might confuse it with something that isn't the latest/bestest/greatest.

really make's 'em cry.
 
tremendous said:
people demanding a new case just want to be able to show off they have a new computer. it practically breaks their heart that people might confuse it with something that isn't the latest/bestest/greatest.

really make's 'em cry.
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i so agree with you on this one..
probably the same peeps who asks... hey what car do you drive?

to which John Travolta asnwers.. doesn't matter, i got 3 planes:D
 
markrivers said:
NO! NO NO!
it's not just a LAPTOP.. he's name is MAC
and the world revolves around him:D:D
( at least MAC World)

i wonder how many $ are wasted a day..
how many people, being paid for their time... and instead they're reading, typing and all the unthinkable one can do at MAcRumors.forum?:D
Click to expand...

Granted, it's a super cool ultra rad piece of technology but I wish people would spend more time using them constructively instead of sitting on macrumors discussing who's machine is better. Penryn Merom tapered edges mag latch L2 cache geekbench vram blah blah blah blah blah blah!!!! Stop waisting your life discussing this mundane s***.
 
teleromeo said:
because the current one is obsolete and the macbook air is sexier.

Imagine a car manufacturer selling the same model of car for more than 5 years ...
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i don't know if i'm alone with this..
but have you seen the MBA and MBP with the cover facing you?
imagine walking in a coffee shop and seeing two people together using an MBP and one is an MBA...
can you really tell the difference from afar.. esp if you're a PC user?
unless you ask them to show it off to you.. make a 360 swing.. then NO

i'm not againts a hardware update for the MBP but if the only purpose is to make it STAND OUT from its ancestors.. then make it PINK! :D
or a 18 k gold with diamonds :D

have you guys seen the $1,000,000 laptop already? it's just crazy!
 
SVT Amateur said:
While the current MBP design may be dated for an Apple product it doesn't seem dated when compared to other current laptops. I was at Best Buy the other day browsing by their laptops and every single one looked cheap and ugly compared to the 5 year old MBP design. I could see why hardcore Apple fanatics would want some kind of redesign but coming from a person who has purchased two Macbooks and purchased their first Macbook Pro just one month ago the current design still seems fresh.
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Ding ding ding.

The MBP design is still very good looking and functional at the same time. Yes, it will change in time, but for good reason, not because "it's been 5 years".
 
tip said:
Agreed. It's a design that works, doesn't need a change, and is still fresh compared to its competition (which isn't the MBA).

I'm wondering if there should be a 15" MB for this particular market - those who want the fashion accessory (and whine about its looks), and pretty much just use it only for browsing the web.
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This was my point when i made that statement i use my pro for what it was
designed for pro work and run OS X not a fashion statement

Not for walking around around saying "oh look at me i have Mac" and then go home or whatever and open a e-mail up
 
Joko said:
Granted, it's a super cool ultra rad piece of technology but I wish people would spend more time using them constructively instead of sitting on macrumors discussing who's machine is better. Penryn Merom tapered edges mag latch L2 cache geekbench vram blah blah blah blah blah blah!!!! Stop waisting your life discussing this mundane s***.
Click to expand...

Isnt that why we are members on this site :D
 
Apple has made some cosmetic changes in the last 5 years. First, the 15" MBP is .1" thinner than the 15" PowerBook, the MBP has built-in iSight camera, an IR port for Front Row, a bigger antenna for airport reception (at the hinge instead of on the sides of the screen), an expresscard slot instead of a PCMCIA, and a bigger trackpad. And there are also the huge internal changes, which are too many to list.

So, what is wrong with the MBP so that it should be redesigned?
 
Is it me that thinks the size, thickness and design is just great?

Ok the KB *might* need a little rethink but other than that, WHAT THE HELL DO YOU WANT!?!?!

What can apple possibly do with it?

Its simple, strong and as small as apple can get it.

Baffles me, it really does.

Edit: Just thought, a force field around the casing to protect it from fingerprints and dust and dirt, to keep our babies looking like they did when they first came out of the box ;)
 
Quit the whining. The MBP looks absolutely stunning, and in no way needs a redesign. It's thin enough (could be lighter, although that's probably impossible), and it works incredibly well. And a quick look at current PC laptops will tell you that it's still 5-10 years ahead of the market.
 
cazlar said:
It should have an easily replaceable HDD like the MB. Simple as that and I'd be happy. (maybe the magnetic latch too, but I'm not greedy :D )
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Have you seen the tear-down if the 15-inch MBP? Easily replaceable HDD would require some sort of SATA to proprietary adapter since, unlike in the MB, the hard drive is portrait-oriented instead of landscape-oriented.
 
DocSmitty said:
I don't know where the thought that Apple could easily have shrunk things over the last few years. Go look at the tear-down linked on Page 1, all of the components are the same size as the original Core Duo MBPs.

-HDD space has increased. Smaller form factor in Air comes at a speed and size cost.
-Optical drives can only be shrunk so much, they have moving parts and the media they read does not change sizes over time.
-RAM size does not change for years at a time. DDR3 is the same size, just with the 'notch' in a different location.
-The battery was a major issue in the Air. I don't think anyone wants to see a thinner battery in the MBP if that means it is no longer user-replaceable.

Only one of the components has advanced to the point of being smaller than the original Core Duo MBP - the processor, as it is 45nm. Even then, the chipset available today is the same size as that for Merom, as it has not changed at all. Even when Montevina is released, there is no guarantee that Apple will reduce the size of the logic board.

Right now, the only room for slimming is in the LED screens, which are several millimeters thinner than the previous fluorescent backlights. You *might* be able to get .1" out of them, and it seems to me like Apple could have redesigned the top case for the screen while leaving the rest alone. My guess is that since they still have not upgraded every 17" to LED that they will not make this change until they have a universal standard for screen depth.
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You pretty much sum up all my arguements well. I have to say that I find it pretty funny that the "skinny dragon chasers" are constantly wanting the MBP to get thinner. It's a pointless excercise unless the tech is there to support it. The optical drive can only get so small. As it is the optical drive in the 15" MBP isn't a standard size, so it costs alot more than a normal notebook drive.

Skinny=less performance, more heat and needlessly expensive. I think the current MBPs are just right. Heck, if they were 4mm thicker we'd be able to put more standard parts in and not have to pay 3X the ammount to replace parts!
 
All I really want is a freakin' magnetic latch...the tiny button on current MBPs is a PITA to get at sometimes. Yeah, I know...very anal of me.
 
neil321 said:
For me its a machine simple as that,i dont walk around saying hay everybody
look at me ive gotta a apple Mac.I bought mine to do a job & to run OS X, to
able to show clients webpages on the move etc. The pro just meets my needs

You may want it as a fashion statement and to play games on it,i need it for work
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you didnt hear my answer though, as well as others'. There is room for improvement, there is nothing BAD about current design, in fact its quite good, the point being though that it can be better and after 5 years, I think its about time for the next step.
 
ibizarocks said:
Ok so a lot of people on here are crying out for the MBP to get a new design but there are a lot of people on here who think that tht ecurrent case is fine.

Here's my 2 cents.

I personally get annoyed by people saying it doesn't need a new case. I admit yes that the current case is fine but christ knows that its OLD!!! 5 years personally in my opinion is taking the piss. Cars have quicker design changes than this. The MBP isn't perfect in it's design and therefore should evolve to improve on it. We've all seen people complaining about the bending of the CD Drive slot, to me that's a big design flaw!

I know that there isn't any point in a redesign just yet as Montevina is around is a few months away but it DOES need to be re-designed.

Finally I think THE reason why many people on these forums want a case re-design is because a lot of people who use a mac (inc myself) are designers!! As much as I like the current design I feel the 'if it isn't broke don't fix it' rule doesn't apply and this year we should see a new look MBP.

Lets face it, Apple has always based a lot of it's pride in the design of it's products... so lets see a new one!
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Ok what about pc laptops? It's pretty much the same basic design as the PowerBook circa 1991. =p
 
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