I Want My NEW MACBOOK PRO! - Page 2

Dear Friends

What do you think the chances are of Apple's releasing a MacBook Pro with display larger than 17" within the next eighteen months?

Sincerely,
Jaddie

I don't know what you do mean, but there is already from last year at least one 20" laptop model.

I'm all for a complete redesign. If we're waiting for Leopard to be installed on them there's plenty of time for refinements to the entire line. Some people want a really small laptop, some want an average sized one, some want a monster.

Personally I want the monster. If Apple is going to make a sub-notebook, they ought to make a monster sized one too. I'm not concerned about an extra pound if I can get a graphics card that isn't under-clocked. I'd take an extra pound if it meant having multiple drive bays for multiple hard drives (which is convenient with the new Time Machine).

Some people have a desktop model at home, yet others (such as myself) have a MacBook Pro as their only computer due to extensive travel. Apple ought to recognize that there are people out here who need a pro model when the pro model offered isn't pro enough.

And I'll even make a preemptive argument against what people tend to shout back at me. No, I will not travel with an iMac, nor will I travel with an Alienware laptop. The last Windows OS I used was 98 Second Edition and I'll happily never go back. I simply need a laptop that does more than what Apple currently provides with their pro lines. I'll also not travel with a bulky external hard drive. Not only is this cumbersome, but completely unrealistic. I have a large music library, tv shows, movies, a large movie library from video I shot with my High Definition camcorder, and an iPhoto library pushing 8,000 photos - all 5MP or greater (I currently shoot in 10MP). If I moved these libraries to the external hard drive (as most would suggest), I'd literally have to have it connected every time I wanted to access that media. That's simply not something I'm prepared to do all the time.

Apple did a great job with bringing the digital lifestyle together in their products, now all they have to do is make sure we can actually store all of our media in their products, which is something I currently can not do.

It seems unlikely to me as well i hae used a 19" laptop from Alienware. This seems a little off beat, it's more of a special niche market for gaming. I have a 17" MBP and it's really nice but I think that's about as big as main stream will get.

Patiently waiting for a Santa Rosa MBP

Well I have till Saturday to return this MBP 17" if I so wish... I don't think I will I got the USB modem and an extra Battery for it. Would suck if they updated the battey...

Roll with what you got man. The only reason I am waiting is becuase I already have a $3000 PC compatible laptop sitting in front of me.

If I didn't already have something, I would be all over the current MBP. It's the dogs bullocks.

Haha, yeah, I want a new laptop too. Preferably a Mac.

Several of you said that we'll see new macbooks when Santa Rosa comes out. I agree.

Penryn is also coming out this year though. I'd rather have Penryn than Santa Rosa personally, even though it would be a few more months, but releasing new macbooks within that short a period of time seems unlikely.

So, do you think we'll have the Penryn option in laptops or no?

Santa Rosa is a logic board. It'll use updated Core 2 Duo CPUs. The SR C2D MBPs will be out this spring, around May or June. About 6 months later, by November, it could be updated with Penryn CPUs. It'd be the same chipset, Santa Rosa's Crestline, but with the new 45nm CPUs.

Santa Rosa is the name of the new platform.
Crestline is the codename for Intel's mobile 965GM chipset, part of the Santa Rosa platform.
Integrated Graphics Media Accelerator X3000 will be used in the upcoming MacBooks.

Oh I have a Dell D620 with 2 gig ram, dvd burn 160 gig HD, and the top C2D in it. But it was not Macbook So I bought the MBP 17, I'm no fan boy, although I wish it had a little better res on screen and video card. I was just so sick of the Dell. The dam keys are poping off it when I type, it's been repaired 4 times in last few months.

Monday, nvida card and new processor.

While we are at it, better resolution.

Elderloc, I remember reading somewhere recently that Leopard (or maybe whatever is coming after Leopard) might have a feature called independant resolution. Someone call me up on that if it's wrong, I just remember Apple toying with the theory that things will one day no longer be dependant on pixels for measurement, meaning your display could show a whole lot more than it does currently..
Tried to find a link but got nothing..

Jimzip

I think that something like that would be used by too few people. Apple seems to be very careful not to include things that the minority will use and opts instead for what MOST people would consider useful. I mean look at even memory card readers. They are on 5 out of 10 laptops and Apple hasnt touched them.

I for one appreciate that they keep it simple and stay away from trends.

Fujitsu announced a 250 and 300GB 2.5" hard drives back in December. They should be out any time now. Other than that, top end:

santa rosa chipset
300GB HD
2.6GHZ c2d
4GB ram
17" screem
Nvidia 8600 256 or 512 ram
blu-ray
Leopard

Announced at key note WWDC.

I love 17" screems.
Especially when they're announced at the WWDC..

Jimzip

Yes they are working on the resolution thang. But higher resolution would still be nice. I believe that just means that the Icons and Text will not be linked to the screen res. Not 100% sure what it means could not find it on ADC.

pretty sure thats mainly what it does

According to HKEPC, we are on for a nice surprise.

Launch date of the new mobile C2D is May 6th and prices are down:
T7700 2.4GHz/800FSB/4MB $530, the current C2D 2.33GHz is $637
T7500 2.2GHz/800FSB/4MB $316, the current C2D 2.16GHz is $423
T7300 2.0GHz/800FSB/4MB $241, the current C2D 2.00GHz is $294
T7100 1.8GHz/800FSB/4MB $209, the current C2D 1.83GHz is $241

Low-Voltage:
L7500 1.6GHz/800FSB/4MB $316
L7300 1.4GHz/800FSB/4MB $241

And for Q3:
X7800 2.6GHz/800FSB/4MB $851

That means to me that Apple should be able to keep the same price points, even if the motherboard is more expensive (965 chipset) and add some features: NAND, new GPUs, new displays...

Yet, I don't believe Penryn (45nm chips) will be available before 2008 in mobile flavor. The latest rumors, I've read are for Xeon version first (Q4), then desktop (late Q4 or Q1'2008.) and finally mobile (Q1'2008.). Conroe will have a FSB speedbump to 1333 in Q3 before going 45nm.

Mac mini (one model):
1.8GHz, 1GB RAM, 5400rpm 80HD, SD, GMA3000 GPU $599

MacBook:
1.8GHz white, 1GB RAM, 5400rpm 80HD, SD, GMA3000 GPU $1099
2.0GHz white, 1GB RAM, 5400rpm 120HD, SD, GMA3000 GPU $1299
2.0GHz black, 1GB RAM, 5400rpm 160HD, SD, GMA3000 GPU $1499

iMac:
1.8GHz 17", 1GB RAM, 7200rpm 80HD, SD, GMA3000 GPU $999
2.0GHz 17", 1GB RAM, 7200rpm 160HD, SD, discreet GPU $1199
2.2GHz 20", 1GB RAM, 7200rpm 250HD, SD, discreet GPU $1499
2.4GHz 24", 1GB RAM, 7200rpm 250HD, SD, discreet GPU+ $1999

MacBook Pro:
2.2GHz 15", 1GB RAM, 7200rpm 160HD + NAND, SD, discreet GPU $1999
2.4GHz 15", 2GB RAM, 7200rpm 160HD + NANDx2, SD, discreet GPU $2499
2.4GHz 17", 2GB RAM, 7200rpm 160HD + NANDx2, SD, discreet GPU+ $2799

You're basically right.

Programs will no longer draw using actual pixel units, they will draw using "virtual" pixel units, which the OS will map to an arbitrary number of actual pixels on screen.

Currently if you find that text or icons are too small you have the option of reducing your screen rez, but at the cost of making everything blocky because in effect you are just making the pixels bigger *. But device-independent resolution will mean that if you set your screen to 800 by 600 "virtual" pixels resolution, everything will be rendered using more pixels per character or icon, so they remain sharp, instead of just making the pixels bigger.

* In reality, you can't make screen pixels bigger, but what the OS currently does when you reduce your screen resolution is scale up the image so the pixels look bigger (e.g. 1 image pixel gets drawn using 4 screen pixels). This may sound like the same thing as device independence, but it's not. Although the pixels being used are virtual, it is still the pixels themselves which are being made bigger. In device independent rendering, the pixels stay the same size, and the OS uses more of them to draw the picture, so the resultant image still has nice crisp edges.

This will basically mean that we could start buying 300dpi screens without either a) having the text be too small to read in most programs, or b) having to lower the resolution to make them act exactly like 72dpi screens, in which case we could have just bought a 72dpi display in the first place.

I hope that makes sense. The distinction between physical screen pixels, virtual screen pixels and image pixels is kind of hard to explain.

I'd love to own a MBP like that. Most on this board will say that you're a dreamer though and that the configuration you listed is impossible, or that Apple would never put together such a thing.

Time will tell either way.

I'd be extemely suprised to see anything of that ilk released this side of 2010. 4GB RAM, 300GB HD? Yeah, I think not.

Oh, and anybody who thinks Apple will release a laptop bigger than 17" obviously hasn't seen this. 17" is about as big as a portable can be before it stops being portable - personally, I think the 17" is too big, and the 15" is pushing it, but that's because I want my laptop to make me feel like a giant (well, moreso than I am already).

I don't think Apple will offer what you suggest as a standard option in their MacBook Pros for a good few years, no, so how about we keep the flaming to a minimum and use our indoor voices for a second. 4GB will be available before then but it certainly won't be a standard configuration, nor will a 300GB hard drive. If you seriously think a 300GB drive will be available in the MacBook Pros before 2007 comes to a close, perhaps it is "u" that is crazy.

And I'd rather not check out Dell, thank you very much.

Even as a build-to-order I think 300GB on the HD this year is perhaps a tad optimistic, as is 4GB of RAM, unless we see the new chips that can address more than 3.

I'm right there with ya. I'm with the "If I start the race at the front of the pack I won't be as far behind by the time my legs give out..." group.

Unless you're starting the race with Apple's RAM, in which case you'll be starting the race with an extremely light wallet. If a 2GB upgrade from 512 was £300 I dread to think what 4GB will be from 2.

I personally hope that both the 300GB HD and the 4GB RAM end up as BTO options with the next MBP. They are going to have to address the Time Machine issue one way or another, and I'm hoping that they don't think our hard drives aren't already full enough without dedicating several GB just to Time Machine with the anorexic drives we have offered today. As for battery life, my old Wallstreet had slots for two batteries, so no one can say that Apple hasn't offered expanded options. Personally, I'd love to have that slot be available in a new MBP, to be used either for a second battery or a second HD. Some would want the extra power, some would want the extra storage.

Either way, I'm interested in seeing what Apple does with these next MBP's. It's been a long while since we've seen a complete redesign of the entire laptop. I'm hoping that the next version will be entirely different than what we have now. Something that truly goes above and beyond anything anyone is expecting. The sad truth is, they aren't striving to be the top performance / capacity laptop out there.

Personally i'm hoping for a lightweight notebook but not an ultralight - they're just too whimpy.

I'm hoping for:
11-13" widescreen
Carbon Fibre Case (hard and very light)
Penryn CPU (yes i know i'll be waiting)
Decent Graphics (don't know the models but something on par with macbook pro models and say 128MB)
NAND say 1-4GB / Hybrid Drive but no less than 160GB capacity, pref 5400 200GB but i don't think that exists yet.
4GB RAM (why why why why can't the current models do this? i mean they take two simms but only one can be 2GB????)
Expansion Port (what do they call that, express card?)
FW800
Backlit keyboard
LED Screen backlights

**UNDER 2KG** (4.4lb for the imperial people out there)
Now i don't mind if they have the optical drive external, in fact i think that would be great, that way i can get myself a blu-ray or HD DVD or whatever later.

MMM, Carbon Fibre is a tricky one, it's hard to work with as i understand but that doesn't mean it can't be done, sony already have them in their ultralights i believe.

There are PC laptops out there under 2 kg with optical drive. Example: HP nc2400 (this one is under 1.5 kg actually). So it is more than feasible right now.

I've just received an Apple email ad for MBP and Aperture. Can't imagine they'd bother sending out an ad like that if new MBPs were in the pipeline. They'd be letting stock diminish ready for the new books - not speeding up interest in an old product. I really need a new MBP, but I don't think what I want is coming any time soon.

They'll want to get rid of it faster, if anything; if there's something new coming down the pipe then they're going to want to have as few "old" models on hand as possible.


I reckon it's been more than implicit from the offset that Time Machine was intended for use with an external drive - I'm pretty sure that's one of the driving factors behind the NAS feature of the new AirPort Extreme (a feature I love, incidentally), so that mobile users can back up to a hard drive in the house without having to be tied down in order to do it. Which, if you ask me, is not only a totally sweet feature of which I plan to take full advantage, it's also probably a better idea than having two drives in the MBP. Plus, where would a second drive go? From what I've seen - from Flickr users who either have nerves of steel or an expense account - there's not a lot of extra room kicking about inside those things.