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Now new Airs have landed we can start speculating about new MacBook Pros

post #1 of 7
8/3/11 at 5:53am
Thread Starter 
I like the new Airs very much. The performance upgrade is impressive and hats off to Apple for listening to everyone who asked for the return of a backlit keyboard. But...

...I need more on-board memory.

...I like a 15" screen.

...I like the horsepower of my MacBook Pro.

...I like the discrete graphics processor.

What I don't like is the weight of the 15" MacBook Pro, let alone the 17". I mean seriously, who totes around that machine on a daily basis? (I can recommend a good back doctor in London if you do.) Heck, i find that even the 13" MacBook Pro weighs down my briefcase when travelling.

So what I want is a machine with the svelte-like proportions of the new Air but the power of a MacBook Pro. We've discussed the possibility of a MacBook Air 15", but what I'm interested to see is how the MacBook Pro evolves. Actually, both could be the same thing. I am sure that the next 15" MacBook Pro will in effect be a 15" Air. I just hope it doesn't way more than 3.5 lbs.

If a 15" MPro with Air proportions is a certainty, what about a 17"? A 17" laptop that weighs less than 5 lbs could be a killer machine for professionals.

Before we get too excited, I see two bumps in the road. One is the wait for the Ivy Bridge architecture, which is not expected to debut before Q2 next year. The other is larger capacity SSDs (500 GB, 1 TB and 2TB) at reasonable prices. So while we may see new enclosure designs this year, the quantum leap in performance we all hope and dream about probably won't materialise until June 2012.

While wait for it, I am soooo tempted by the new 13" Air.
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post #2 of 7
8/3/11 at 9:03am
I say AIR like because the PRO laptops still need certain features. These features are a discrete GPU, a HD slot, more RAM and of course better performance.

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Originally Posted by Tailpipe View Post

I like the new Airs very much. The performance upgrade is impressive and hats off to Apple for listening to everyone who asked for the return of a backlit keyboard. But...

...I need more on-board memory.

I unfortunately agree with that. Either more RAM or Apple fixes Safari.
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...I like a 15" screen.

Yep old age makes that a requirement.
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...I like the horsepower of my MacBook Pro.

Since even the AIRs can run rings around my old 2008 MBP I would expect a big upgrade in performance.
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...I like the discrete graphics processor.

This may change in a year or two but right now it is a worthwhile expense. It is one of the things about the AIRs that currently bothers me.
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What I don't like is the weight of the 15" MacBook Pro, let alone the 17". I mean seriously, who totes around that machine on a daily basis?

That is ridiculous. The machine isn't that heavy. In fact when looking at the AIRs I don't even consider the weight, other features are far more impressive.
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(I can recommend a good back doctor in London if you do.) Heck, i find that even the 13" MacBook Pro weighs down my briefcase when travelling.

LOL. Maybe a protein bar would helP.
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So what I want is a machine with the svelte-like proportions of the new Air but the power of a MacBook Pro. We've discussed the possibility of a MacBook Air 15", but what I'm interested to see is how the MacBook Pro evolves. Actually, both could be the same thing. I am sure that the next 15" MacBook Pro will in effect be a 15" Air. I just hope it doesn't way more than 3.5 lbs.

I think there is room for both models.
Quote:
If a 15" MPro with Air proportions is a certainty, what about a 17"? A 17" laptop that weighs less than 5 lbs could be a killer machine for professionals.

Before we get too excited, I see two bumps in the road. One is the wait for the Ivy Bridge architecture, which is not expected to debut before Q2 next year. The other is larger capacity SSDs (500 GB, 1 TB and 2TB) at reasonable prices. So while we may see new enclosure designs this year, the quantum leap in performance we all hope and dream about probably won't materialise until June 2012.

You don't need Ivy Bridge to do a 15" AIR. Further you can always put in a HD slot for bulk storage. A 15" AIR doesn't have to be so thin that a HD wouldn't fit. They are packing a lot of space into 9 mm drives these days.
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While wait for it, I am soooo tempted by the new 13" Air.

Yeah it is very nice. If there was an easy path to 512GB Iand an OpenCL supporting GPU I'd be tempted. However I think I would struggle with the small screen. Modern software seems to want the bigger wider screens.
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post #3 of 7
8/4/11 at 3:10am
I'm in the camp that says the weight of the MacBook Pro models is a huge problem. For some people, it's too heavy to carry. For others (including me), the problem is the 7 or 8 kg limit that some airlines enforce for carry-on bags. The primary reason why I want to replace my 15" MacBook Pro with a 15" MacBook Air is weight.

I do not expect a 15" MacBook Air to include an HD. 512GB mSATA SSD sticks will be possible soon. Someone else suggested the possibility that Apple could include two mSATA slots. The discontinuation of the MacBook (along with the adoption of mSATA in the MacBook Air) suggests to me that Apple may want to eliminate HDs in laptops.

To offer 8GB of RAM in a MacBook Air this year would require either adding about $1000 to the price or using 32 rather than 16 DRAM chips. I don't think Apple will make the latter choice. A $1000 BTO option seems possible, but the 8GB option will probably have to wait until 4Gbit DRAM chips become more affordable as yields improve.

A dual-core Sandy Bridge processor would be fine. Waiting for quad-core Ivy Bridge is not necessary.
Mac user since August 1983.
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Mac user since August 1983.
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post #4 of 7
8/4/11 at 10:48am
My in-vision of a pro will be;

+Remove Optical Drive
- its a 50/50 optical drive no longer required but this built for a different mass.
-this would allow for lighter and or slimmer

+Slimmer
-i don't mind the current size, slimming down wouldn't be too bad either, but I would rather have lighter

+Ivy Bridge Processor
goodbye 32nm hello 22nm, welcome home future!

+4GB RAM still, but new Samsung DDR3 that is 2/3 more efficient and faster

+New GPU (preferably Nvidia, perfect world, bulldozer!)

+Hard Drive same 5400RPM (to keep price low due to rest of tech)
-Upgrade to a Sanforce SSD, and even Macbook air fans will want so much RAW POWER!!!
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post #5 of 7
8/5/11 at 2:11pm
I doubt it will get Ivy Bridge although I wish it would, IB won't be ready until Q1 2012. Its going to be like when Apple introduced the new battery, they knew Intel's next and best wouldn't be ready in time so they gave another selling point. Looking at the Mini getting the ODD axe, I think its safe to say the MBP will next and it will get a thinner chassis as a result. So this won't be a big performance improvement, but it will at least be lighter, and perhaps have more battery capacity.


Too bad, Ivy Bridge's GPU improvements would have been a boon for the MBP 13'. But maybe without the ODD, that too will get a discreet card? That would be sweet.
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post #6 of 7
8/6/11 at 9:59am
Quote:
Originally Posted by accessoriesguy View Post

My in-vision of a pro will be;

+Remove Optical Drive
- its a 50/50 optical drive no longer required but this built for a different mass.
-this would allow for lighter and or slimmer

Yep needs to go to free up space for other things.
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+Slimmer
-i don't mind the current size, slimming down wouldn't be too bad either, but I would rather have lighter

I prefer durability over just about anything else weight is not a problem.
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+Ivy Bridge Processor
goodbye 32nm hello 22nm, welcome home future!

Well yeah if they go Intel. However I see you mentioned Bulldozer below, which might be a good possibility. The thing with Bulldozer is that the architecture is very new and we don't know performance behavior in a Mac environment. That being said I at times wish that Apple would implement AMD chips just to get the integrated GPUs.
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+4GB RAM still, but new Samsung DDR3 that is 2/3 more efficient and faster

You know back in 2008 I thought that 2GB of RAM would be good enough for years of use Ha! Now I think it is time for the Base MBP RAM installation to go to 8GB.
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+New GPU (preferably Nvidia, perfect world, bulldozer!)

I assume you know that Bulldozer is a CPU + GPU chip (at least in the Fusion variants). I'd actually like to see Apple completely replace Intel with AMD Fusion chips but that isn't likely to happen.
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+Hard Drive same 5400RPM (to keep price low due to rest of tech)

The HD should only be a supplement to the SSD boot module.
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-Upgrade to a Sanforce SSD, and even Macbook air fans will want so much RAW POWER!!!

Nope, the SSD needs to be the primary boot device on all future MBPs. To do otherwise would create an artificial performance barrier. However the base drive needs to be at least 256GB. You install a reasonable amount of Apps common to Pro usage and you end up with to little storage on a 128GB drive. Even a 256GB drive is a bit thin but is passable for a base model.

Oh by the way, about these SSDs Apple really needs to move to and standardize on a PCI Express card. SATA is already saturated with the latest drives so a solid PCI card would give Apple a considerable lead in performance. Plus they would have a longterm solution.
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post #7 of 7
8/22/11 at 4:52pm
Thread Starter 
I am interested to see how current MacBook Pro sales are holding out after the intro of the revised Air. My thoughts are that if sales have softened, then Apple will into due a new MBP enclosure design sooner rather than later, i.e. it won't wait for Ivy Bridge. That said, I wonder if the real bottleneck to a new MBP launch isn't the processor, but SSD pricing.

Assuming that Apple maintains two different computer lines, Air and Pro, and both junk the DVD drive, how it physically distinguishes the designs is likely to be important.

I wonder if the Air 11" and 13" will become just MacBooks and larger machines, 15" and 17", will simply be the same Air enclosure design expanded to incorporate larger screens and be called Pros?

A 15" MacBook Air with SB could actually be an Air only in form factor and offer MacBook Pro performance. Whatever this machine is, its internals could allow SB to be included now and leave room for a larger battery when IB frees up internal space next year. Like the current MBP design, the initial version was soon upgraded to a significantly better C2D.
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