Official Next Macbook Pro Thread
It has now become apparent, at least to me, that new hardware redesigns
will likely be reserved for the launch of Leopard. At least, this would be an
ideal time to launch newly redesigned hardware updates for one or more
of the lines as Leopard will drive hardware sales like crazy.
Although the current Macbook Pro update is nothing to shake a stick at
(I'm exceptionally pleased with Santa Rosa, LED, and the switch to a pretty
decent nVidia card) it's not quite enough for me to upgrade my well-serving
Macbook Core Duo.
Reasonable changes I'd like to see in the next Macbook Pro before upgrading:
-Penryn
-Blu-Ray/HD-DVD
-Extended Battery Life
-Case Redesign
-Frickin' Magnetic Latch!
That's currently all I lust for and would make me sell off my Macbook for
a shiny new Pro that I don't really need.
I realize this is yet another thread speculating on the next Macbook Pro specs.
but let's all do our best to try and contain ourselves to a single thread on
this topic as I am sick of seeing the forum flooded with the same topic.
So anything you might have to say concerning the next Macbook Pro
(wish list, speculation, time to buy questions) feel free to contribute.
.
will likely be reserved for the launch of Leopard. At least, this would be an
ideal time to launch newly redesigned hardware updates for one or more
of the lines as Leopard will drive hardware sales like crazy.
Although the current Macbook Pro update is nothing to shake a stick at
(I'm exceptionally pleased with Santa Rosa, LED, and the switch to a pretty
decent nVidia card) it's not quite enough for me to upgrade my well-serving
Macbook Core Duo.
Reasonable changes I'd like to see in the next Macbook Pro before upgrading:
-Penryn
-Blu-Ray/HD-DVD
-Extended Battery Life
-Case Redesign
-Frickin' Magnetic Latch!
That's currently all I lust for and would make me sell off my Macbook for
a shiny new Pro that I don't really need.
I realize this is yet another thread speculating on the next Macbook Pro specs.
but let's all do our best to try and contain ourselves to a single thread on
this topic as I am sick of seeing the forum flooded with the same topic.
So anything you might have to say concerning the next Macbook Pro
(wish list, speculation, time to buy questions) feel free to contribute.
.
Comments
It has now become apparent, at least to me, that new hardware redesigns
will likely be reserved for the launch of Leopard. At least, this would be an
ideal time to launch newly redesigned hardware updates for one or more
of the lines as Leopard will drive hardware sales like crazy.
Although the current Macbook Pro update is nothing to shake a stick at
(I'm exceptionally pleased with Santa Rosa, LED, and the switch to a pretty
decent nVidia card) it's not quite enough for me to upgrade my well-serving
Macbook Core Duo.
Reasonable changes I'd like to see in the next Macbook Pro before upgrading:
-Penryn
-Blu-Ray/HD-DVD
-Extended Battery Life
-Case Redesign
-Frickin' Magnetic Latch!
That's currently all I lust for and would make me sell off my Macbook for
a shiny new Pro that I don't really need.
I realize this is yet another thread speculating on the next Macbook Pro specs.
but let's all do our best to try and contain ourselves to a single thread on
this topic as I am sick of seeing the forum flooded with the same topic.
So anything you might have to say concerning the next Macbook Pro
(wish list, speculation, time to buy questions) feel free to contribute.
.
Agree with all buy Penryn. I don't think they will change architectures that fast. I would like to see blu-ray, mag latch, battery improvements, etc.
-Penryn
I'll be the last one to disagree with new processors. However, I think Apple should concentrate on better parts like graphics cards, newer RAM, and such. The processors are already top-notch.
-Blu-Ray/HD-DVD
Blu-ray slot drives cost about $800 at wholesale. It's nowhere near worth the price increase.
-Extended Battery Life
Good thing to improve, but since the battery can't get any wider due to space constraints, it would have to get thicker to accomodate more cells. And that means the vaunted paper-thin Apple notebook will disappear.
-Case Redesign
I don't understand this. The anodized aluminum is sexy, and has been since the first 12" and 17" PowerBook G4's. Way better than any of the other PC's out there. Sure, maybe a custom paint job on a Falcon Northwest is a symbol of bad-assness, but I think the smooth aluminum is just as much. I can't see it getting better.
-Frickin' Magnetic Latch!
It has to do with the location of the optical/hard drives, and the fact that the case is metal. Trust me, they would if they could. A better button would be good enough for me, the current one is too thin, and I have to use a fingernail rather than my thumb.
-Penryn
-Blu-Ray/HD-DVD
-Extended Battery Life
-Case Redesign
-Frickin' Magnetic Latch!
Sure, Penryn is a possibility, but it would be hard to try and get that in time for leopard.
Blu-ray would be nice as a BTO option only, because they're crazy expensive.
Battery life improvement would be nice, but my MBP (2nd rev - core 2 duo), get way better life already than any of my friend's lappies.
Case is a nice design, maybe a slight tweaking to make it newer looking and a bit more modern.
Magnetic Latch would be nice, maybe the slight tweaking could make this possible, but I feel like it would be on them if it could be done. But if they can't, a better button would be nice. I agree with the fingernail comment.
I'll be the last one to disagree with new processors. However, I think Apple should concentrate on better parts like graphics cards, newer RAM, and such. The processors are already top-notch.
Agreed.
Blu-ray slot drives cost about $800 at wholesale. It's nowhere near worth the price increase.
Link? They're selling them retail for the same price. In six months that could drop 50%. Wholesale cost could be $300 or less by then.
Good thing to improve, but since the battery can't get any wider due to space constraints, it would have to get thicker to accomodate more cells. And that means the vaunted paper-thin Apple notebook will disappear.
Depends on if the desgin is improved. It's not a major issue for me. My battery life is good...I'm happy with it.
I don't understand this. The anodized aluminum is sexy, and has been since the first 12" and 17" PowerBook G4's. Way better than any of the other PC's out there. Sure, maybe a custom paint job on a Falcon Northwest is a symbol of bad-assness, but I think the smooth aluminum is just as much. I can't see it getting better.
Agreed.
It has to do with the location of the optical/hard drives, and the fact that the case is metal. Trust me, they would if they could. A better button would be good enough for me, the current one is too thin, and I have to use a fingernail rather than my thumb.
I think they could. But I agree that the current button is too thin.
Again, cost of the blu-ray/hd-dvd drives are much too high for it to be in the base models, and I don't see it until all displays on every MBP are standard full HD-capable. And even then, it'd have to be a BTO option because of cost. That's why they don't have faster HDs in them, because it's another $202 they don't have to add to the price, and you know how much Apple loves to raise prices.
battery life isn't an issue for 15" models, but is more of a question on the 17" models. And those are large enough as it is. I don't see Apple willing to make them any larger or heavier than they already are.
And I'm not going to put much on a new case redesign. I really, really like the aluminum of today, but I'm not going to shut out a new design if it's a good one. I don't know what it might be, but I have faith that Ive can find something that works really well.
As long as the HD and optical drive are where they are, in addition to having a metal case, it can't happen. There are too many problems that could arise with the charge travelling through the case to somewhere you don't want it to be. Perhaps with the aforementioned Ive design, something could be worked out with a different material.
The mag latch is totally doable I'm not taking any shit about optical drives and metal cases. I'm talking about a magnetic latch on a MBP here, not a G4 Cube!
Blu-ray would definitely be BTO, but give us the option! To be honest though I believe Apple will wait til someone develops a do all Superdrive.
SSD- forget about it for the next year or two. But if Samsung and San Disk keep upping those GB's and the price keeps dropping I would jump at the chance to buy an aftermarket drop-in replacement.
Reasonable changes I'd like to see in the next Macbook Pro before upgrading:
-Penryn
Yup, that's what I'm waiting for now. Won't be ready in time for Leopard, but it does mean that any Penryn MacBook Pro will have Leopard installed.
-Blu-Ray/HD-DVD
Would be nice, but will definitely still be pricey. Also, I'm not sure as to what the capabilities of these drives are with respect to DVD and CD reading/burning. I wouldn't want to sacrifice any speed or compatibility for those formats for the sake of HD-DVD or Blu-ray.
-Extended Battery Life
Will be delivered courtesy of Penryn.
-Case Redesign
If you mean easier access to HDD a la MacBook (non-pro), then yes. Otherwise, I like it as it is. I'm not sure if I'd buy one myself, but I reckon it'd be worth Apple's while to make a black anodised version and sell it at a premium - there's no doubt in my mind people would buy it.
-Frickin' Magnetic Latch!
Yes.
Agreed, they probably won't. But Penryn is nothing more than a drop in replacement for Merom that plays nicely with Santa Rosa.
Exactly. And it'll have SSE4 (much faster multimedia e.g. video compression), be manufactured on "Hi-K" silicon (lower power consumption, less heat), have more LII cache (speeds up lots of stuff), and have slightly higher clock speeds.
Also, it's suppose to be dropping sometime in September/October. Apple was reasonably quick to implement Santa Rosa so it's not entire unreasonable to think it would adopt Penryn quickly given that Apple was so gangbusters about Intel's "roadmap".
When originally announced, "Penryn" was the codename just for the laptop part - i.e. the Merom replacement. But then Intel decided to adopt the "Penryn" codename for all processors made on the new 45 nm "Hi-K" silicon process. The Penryn parts that should be shipping in September/October are desktop parts; the laptop parts will follow later. I'm hoping to see them in MacBook Pros in January.
I'll be the last one to disagree with new processors ?The processors are already top-notch.
Good thing to improve, but since the battery can't get any wider due to space constraints, it would have to get thicker to accomodate more cells. And that means the vaunted paper-thin Apple notebook will disappear.
Increased battery life will be provided by Penryn without the need for a bigger battery.
The "paper-thin Apple notebook" will have to use Intel's super-low power consumption parts, which are more expensive and have much lower clock-speed.
I don't understand this. The anodized aluminum is sexy, and has been since the first 12" and 17" PowerBook G4's. Way better than any of the other PC's out there. Sure, maybe a custom paint job on a Falcon Northwest is a symbol of bad-assness, but I think the smooth aluminum is just as much. I can't see it getting better.
For the most part, I agree, but as I said earlier, an update to give us easier HDD replacement, and the MacBook magnetic latch, would be welcome.
It has to do with the location of the optical/hard drives, and the fact that the case is metal.
The case being metal has no effect at all. It would have an effect if the magnet had a constantly fluxing magnetic field (e.g. like the magnetic field produced by a coil when you pass A.C. current through it), but it uses a permanent magnet with a non-changing magnetic field, so the metal case has no effect.
The magnetic field also isn't strong enough to disrupt the operations of the HDD or optical drive.
The case being metal has no effect at all. It would have an effect if the magnet had a constantly fluxing magnetic field (e.g. like the magnetic field produced by a coil when you pass A.C. current through it), but it uses a permanent magnet with a non-changing magnetic field, so the metal case has no effect.
The magnetic field also isn't strong enough to disrupt the operations of the HDD or optical drive.
...so you'd like to have paperclips, scissors, and other such things sticking to your MBP? Or worse, would you like your MBP to stick to metal airport seat armrests? Or lampposts? etc?
...so you'd rather have paperclips, scissors, and other such things sticking to your MBP? Or worse, would you like your MBP to stick to metal airport seat armrests? Or lampposts? etc?
Er what??? None of that happens to my MacBook.
Or are you suggesting that because the MacBook Pro is made of metal, putting a magnet inside it makes the whole thing magnetic? If you think that, you need to go back to physics class.
Er what??? None of that happens to my MacBook.
Or are you suggesting that because the MacBook Pro is made of metal, putting a magnet inside it makes the whole thing magnetic? If you think that, you need to go back to physics class.
Wait... you're right... aluminum... duhrrrrrr... please excuse my stupidity... ^^;;
Yup, that's what I'm waiting for now. Won't be ready in time for Leopard, but it does mean that any Penryn MacBook Pro will have Leopard installed.
I'll be happy. Not much else to say, lol.
Would be nice, but will definitely still be pricey. Also, I'm not sure as to what the capabilities of these drives are with respect to DVD and CD reading/burning. I wouldn't want to sacrifice any speed or compatibility for those formats for the sake of HD-DVD or Blu-ray.
Agreed.
Will be delivered courtesy of Penryn.
I hope so. But it's not like the Pro gets bad battery life as it is. More is better, though.
If you mean easier access to HDD a la MacBook (non-pro), then yes. Otherwise, I like it as it is. I'm not sure if I'd buy one myself, but I reckon it'd be worth Apple's while to make a black anodised version and sell it at a premium - there's no doubt in my mind people would buy it.
See, this I don't get. A black anodized version would kick ass, but why should it cost more? And for that matter, why does the black MacBook cost more? If they can build a Pro with a totally different LCD for no extra charge (glossy, that is), then I can imagine they can build one with a black case for no extra, as well.
Exactly. And it'll have SSE4 (much faster multimedia e.g. video compression), be manufactured on "Hi-K" silicon (lower power consumption, less heat), have more LII cache (speeds up lots of stuff), and have slightly higher clock speeds.
I imagine an 8MB cache in a dual-core is a little farther off, at least for the same price point.
Well, no kidding. I don't mean that they should stop upgrading the CPU's altogether. I just mean that it's not top priority. Would you rather get meager CPU and GPU boosts, or get no CPU boost (2.2 and 2.4 are fine for now) and a kick-ass GPU boost, like a 512MB option on the higher end units? The MBP already matches or beats competing laptops on pure CPU power, but falls behind when it comes to RAM speed and GPU power. Let that catch up, then we'll talk about new CPU's.
The "paper-thin Apple notebook" will have to use Intel's super-low power consumption parts, which are more expensive and have much lower clock-speed.
I'm not referring to a thinner Mac, I'm referring to the current Macs which are already pretty damned thin. If the L-series or U-series Core 2's ever become available, you won't catch me dead with one.
For the most part, I agree, but as I said earlier, an update to give us easier HDD replacement, and the MacBook magnetic latch, would be welcome.
Agreed, for the most part. Although the HDD replacement isn't too hard on the MBP, compared to other machines (iBook, I'm looking at you...).
The case being metal has no effect at all. It would have an effect if the magnet had a constantly fluxing magnetic field (e.g. like the magnetic field produced by a coil when you pass A.C. current through it), but it uses a permanent magnet with a non-changing magnetic field, so the metal case has no effect.
Well I stand by my original statement that they would do it if they could. Drives and metal case seem like the best explanations. I guess I should have worded it "I think it has to do with...".
Why does the MacBook Pro have to be aluminum?
I've wondered the same thing. In terms of looks alone, the TiBook is much more elegant.
One time...I left a copy (5.25" Floppy) of Kings Quest IV in the back seat of my car with a toy fridge magnet. 'WAHN-WAHN-WAAAHN.'
King's Quest IV wasn't that great a game anyway... now if it were King's Quest III, I'd be crying right along with you.
...but to stay on topic, I'll plug my usual:
Integrated Sensing Display for eye-contact video conferencing. Historically, Apple seems to like introducing new tech into the pro notebook. I suspect they would want to use the MBP to introduce video conferencing for the new millennium.