Apple's introduces 15-, 17-in. MacBook Pros with quad-core i7 CPUs, AMD GPUs - Page 3

Nope, none of these are remotely good reasons....considering something called f****** USB has existed for some time now.

Oh look it's a shiny silver Mac laptop for the 11th year in a row. What a surprise!

Wow that's some price hike over the past year. I was looking at MBPs this time last year when my local AppleStore opened and seem to remember the entry level models were around £1250 & £1650. Now that's £1549 and £2099. I know VAT has gone up but that's a big jump.

The exchange rate probably changed a lot between the two updates. I don't think Apple changes prices between updates to reflect exchange rate changes.

The point is that they might consider making them an option for those users that don't use them very often.

I suspect that may come with LTE. Today, which standard should they support? GSM or CDMA? Having to "re-buy" an iPhone for a couple hundred dollars because you switched carriers is one thing. Having to replace a $2000 laptop is another thing entirely (not that you'd actually do that, you'd get another dongle, but then you are back to using a dongle).

[Yes, I realize the US and our screwed up cell phone providers are only a portion of Apple's overall market.]

It's interesting to gauge the real product from the rumors that were flying around in the last 72 hours. Here's what did and didn't happen:

Thunderbolt: Yep, we got that. 10 Gbps throughput (bi-directional!). Pretty cool. It also can provide 10 watts of power to the bus which is enough to charge an iPad...stay tuned on that one.

Sandy Bridge: Yes, we got that too. Big surprise....no Core i3 anywhere in the lineup. Apple remembered that the word "Pro" is in the name so they ditched the low-end Core i3 and started with Core i5 dual-cores and made Core i7 quads available on the 15" and standard on the 17". Benchmarks should fly but battery life is a bit down across the board (still 7 hours)

AMD Graphics: Yep, that happened. The 6750 is a respectable gaming chip with a gig of its own RAM, available on the 15" and standard on the 17". The 13" will have to live with standard Intel graphics, although much better than before.

Displays: They are all the same but you can get matte screens across the line, even in the 13" which I think is new. Professionals will love that.

What didn't happen:

Redesign of the unibody case: Apple had hinted that the MBAir design was going to be the future of the Macbook but the future now looks like 2012. Given the life cycle of Apple laptop bodies, it's not surprising that they are waiting another cycle. Unlike the iPad, the MacBook Pro line have few real competitors lining up.

Elimination of the DVD drive: This is linked to the redesign of the case. Some rumor talked about the option of eliminating the drive in this design in favor of a SSD drive for a dual drive configuration but this isn't Apple's style and would create another body SKU which can drive up overall costs. And if Apple is going to eliminate optical drives in a year, it makes no sense to do Blu-Ray now, especially since it would require OS-level DRM (by license) which Apple has already resisted.

Boot drive SSD: I'm not sure where this got started but I think it was either wishful thinking on someone's part or maybe this will be in next year's MacBook chassis redesign.

Bigger trackpad: Seems like it's the same one as before, which wasn't small.

USB 3.0/Firewire 1600: Apple has clearly decided to go with the technology that has the most upside performance potential for the next decade. Firewire, which Apple developed and dates back to the early 90s, never got wide adoption in the broader PC market. There is little advantage to updating the technology now when it wasn't going to even be faster than USB 3.0 (1.6 Gpbs & 3.2 Gpbs had been reported to be in development). Meanwhile, Apple wasn't going to stomp on the Thunderbolt message by upping USB to 3.0 at the same time. This has happened before. When USB 2.0 debuted in 2001, Apple waited until 2003 before going with it since Firewire 400 was still being actively promoted. And when they did go with it, FW800 also debuted at the same time. USB 3.0 may still happen on Macs but not until Thunderbolt gets broad industry traction.

All in all, a nice upgrade but a little disappointing to those who wanted a slimmer body with no optical drive. But the extra power in Sandy Bridge/Core i5-i7 will make up for it.

<KIDDING!!!>

Thunderbolt!!!
Dorky name. Impressive bandwidth. I love the idea of being able to have a high-speed RAID hooked up to my MacBook Pro with no performance bottlenecks. I currently have a Western Digital 4TB RAID set up as a network drive, but I'm rather disappointedanytime it goes down (I have frequent power cuts where I live), I have to restart my computer in order to see it again. Rather annoying, I must say.

As much as I'd love to rush out and buy a new 17" MBP, I think I'm gonna have to wait until the 2012 overhaul, assuming the world doesn't end first!

Sold the 17" C2Duo yesterday for $2000... bought the top of the line 17" Quad today!

When do you think we're likely to see SandyBridge make it into the iMac and Macbook Air? I have one of the original Alu Macbook and it took a big dent when I dropped it a few months back. It's still ticking over OK but I'm experiencing a few problems with it. My original plan had been to replace it for an 11" Macbook Air but I imagine the jump from Core2Duo to a SandyBridge processor would be worth holding on for..

False dichotomy. There are notebook data chipsets that can use both GSM and CDMA, and they've been around and used for a couple years now. Besides, publicly, CDMA was always said to be a non-starter until this year.


You have that option with the Air, what more do you want?

There are a lot of variants of both GSM and CDMA worldwide so they are probably waiting for LTE. If you tether with your phone, you have flexibility of whatever frequency your provider uses with only a single data plan, plus if it is GSM you get the ability to do voice simultaneously. I'm certainly not advocating AT&T cell service though, as I'm getting really fed up with the poor voice quality. I get 3 bars at home but the clarity is like the old days of international calling where the sound is all garbled and there is a delay.

Anyone who does real work on a laptop is not going to buy an Air. With its 1.4Ghz - 1.86Ghz Core 2 Duo, its great for updating your Facebook status and that's about it.

Not as easy as it seems. Making it an option means producing a new case for those who don't need a slot on the side, which means double the number of possible configurations for the model affected.

Wow I'm surprised no one is saying much about the 6750M at 1GB! This is a major leap in GPU power... I was originally just planning on the entry level 15" MBP but when I saw the GPU on the higher end.... haha going to have to save a bit more money :P... Can't wait to game on the windows partition I'll probably make and also excited for the mac side as well...

The DVD drive is still needed by enough users that it is justified. I work for a post facility and we still make hundreds of viewing DVDs for people every couple of months. They might have video or data it just depends. Since most of our clients are advertising agencies they like to have something to put on a shelf for future reference.

And we don't make BluRays. Almost no one asks for them.

I'm really surprised virtually no one is excited or surprised by quad-core processors being standard in the 15 and 17" MacBook Pros, considering it marks a first for quad-cores in an Apple laptop.

Im very happy about that too!

I rarely do any of that anymore. I haven't use the optical drive in my MBP in nearly a year.

You poor, misguided soul. Don't you know that it's waaay more fun to bitch about the fantastical, rumored features that never made the cut (or that the laws of physics simply won't allow)?? Quad-core, schmad-core. Where's my 4D, wet-wired, trans-phasic, immersive interface, dammit??? Dude, I'm gettin' a Dell.

When will BestBuy have these macbook pros in stockk?

First Thunderbolt peripheral I have found:
http://www.lacie.com/us/technologies...y.htm?id=10039

Everything you say is true.

I remember in 2002 I had friends who worked at a post facility. They were making internal and preview work on 3/4 inch U-matic tape for ad agencies. 3/4 inch is a tape format from the 70's. The reason it was still used is because it was cheap and everyone had decks.

The post house was trying to push its clients to adopt DVD. Which was faster and easier to create and send out than U-matic tapes.

Sounds like it hasn't changed. Today uploading a digital file that can be accessed through a secure password is far easier and faster than dealing with a DVD.

Huh? They raised the prices? The prices look the same to me.

Strange that AI hasn't specifically mentioned the (expensive) $150 BTO option on the 15 inch version for a non-glossy screen. A much discussed issue, yet ignored. $50 on the 17 inch version, which is the same as with the previous version, as I recall.

Sample libraries.

That didn't stop Apple from offering just one variant it with the iPad.

Besides, one Gobi chipset covers 9 cellular data variants, another covers 11. If you can't find a good carrier that offers one of those, then you're probably screwed anyway.

Funny, I thought the exact opposite...

That's funny. It's like saying I want that BMW without the CD drive, and the response is 'Then get a Honda'.

I want the pro level machine with more battery life and no ODD. Not sure why that desire threatens folks so much.

OK. That's a lot of samples. I ask because I usually keep a couple dozen programs and services running on my Mac Pro and I've not exceeded 8GB in years.

I think this is a matter of unavailable chips because I haven't found any compatible RAM cards that offer more than 4GB a stick. For that matter, I haven't found any kind of SODIMM for sale that is larger than 4GB per stick. When 8GB sticks are available, I'm pretty sure the computers can use them.

Sorry, it was a parody / joke that apparently didn't work.

I agree with that. And Apple is probably not going back to making the accessory replaceable. How cool would it be if we could put in a battery, ODD or a hard drive. The 2 that don't require the slot could fill it in.

1. The tilted keyboard of the air feels so much nicer. It supports your wrists in a natural way. With the current macbook pro you really need to lay your wrists on the laptop. Which feels awkward after a while. I do realise that they can only offer a tilted keyboard when they drop the superdrive …
   
2. Integrating the power button in the keyboard is a great way to reduce clutter. Again, a great design feature from the Air that did not find his way onto the new macbook pro.

I guess we will have to wait until October (and santa Claus) for a redesigned Macbook Pro

I think when we get to the point where we have quad core processors that throttle from 2.3GHz to 3.4GHz. Pretty much makes the CPU a commodity item.

I think from this point out GPU and SDD will become more important in system performance.

I for one am getting a pimped out 15", come on, a quad core in a laptop is pretty sweet.
This will run rings around my 2006 iMac.
The only thing is that a 256GB SSD is a 500€ option, a bit much if you ask me. Will probably get a 7200 RPM Harddrive and upgrade to an SSD when they become a bit more affordable.

WOW, what a joke -- STILL NO BLU-RAY options!!!

There are people who would still prefer receiving broadcast work for review on a DVD, as it's completely foolproof. No hunting for FTP log-ins, no usernames or passwords required, no codec issues, no stuttering playback from an underpowered computer, no room for connectivity issues or slow loadtimes, and no broken links. And when you're sending lots of spots or long-format videos, using DVD makes even greater sense.

DVD is fool proof? You've never burned a DVD and for some reason it played in some DVD players and does not play in others? DVD has become an entrenched way of doing things and industries are slow to adapt to new ways of doing things.

You far over play the problems with streaming media. If it was as much of a problem as you describe we would not have iTunes, Netflix, and YouTube.

Well when they do offer built-in cell data it will most likely come with GPS as well which I think is cool for using map searching. Maybe eliminating the ODD could offset the cost of the added radios.

Oh, got it. Just bought the new machine, sense of humor must have flown out the door with the 2500 bucks!