Apple updated the 15 and 17-inch MacBook Pros this morning. Changes were limited to mostly speed changes with a switch to the Intel Santa Rosa Core 2 Duo chip, offering speeds up to 2.4GHz. The 15-inch MacBook Pro sports a LED-backlit display while the 17-inch display remains CCFL-backlit. However, unexpectedly there is a high-resolution display offered with the 17-inch MacBook Pro. The high-resolution display comes with an awe-inspiring 1920×1200 resolution (the same resolution found on current 24-inch iMacs) and the upgrade only tacks on $100 USD to the price tag.
In addition to obvious performance benefits, the Intel Santa Rosa platform saves power by detecting load and throttling the front-side bus speed as necessary (Dynamic Front Side Bus Switching).
The updated MacBook Pros come with 2GB of RAM standard and support up to 4GB (nice). Updated graphics round out the package.
Much to my dismay, there was no appearance of an ultraportable MacBook Pro. Dell, however, released an ultraportable yesterday.
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The new 15 inch model is very tempting. I’m looking for my first notebook, and I wanted to wait for something with the LED backlighting and SR chipsets. Unfortunately that Dell you mentioned isn’t actually going to be released until later this month, the size is more appealing than the 15 MBP.
I’m hoping to buy something before the end of the month, so I may take a chance and get the MBP.
I wonder why the 17″ isn’t LED backlit?
Paul, I figured that they wanted to get their higher-price items out first in time for the back-to-school buyers, and that an ultra-portable would come later on. An ultra-portable running OSX would be *very* nice.
Could someone comment on exactly what the difference will be with the LED backlight?
*Is there a noticeable difference to the appearance to the screen?
*Or is it just that it will consume less power?
*Is it brighter or dimmer than previous MacBook Pro screens?
@Joshua – LED uses much less power and has greater brightness in most uses: 300 vs 220 nits… not sure where I read that but it just pops out at me. Don’t take my word on it.
I wonder what the effect on battery life is with the LED backlight… Hopefully it’s makes a noticable difference.
2 gb now standard on the MBP’s? Sweeeet.
Apple’s website says the battery life is 6 hours. Isn’t that the same as the previous iteration of MBPs, or was it 4 hours before? With the two components that consume the most power (display and CPU) being replaced with much higher efficiency parts I’d expect some improvement in battery life…
Oh, Paul, you forget to give a little mention to the speed increase on the superdrives. They went from 6x to 8x.
@Mike Malone – My regular 13-inch MacBook gets 4 hours at most, and the MacBook Pros that are out now (not the updated ones) usually get 2-3 hours. Not sure if they are just saying theoretical maximum battery life or what..
@Paul: I think it’s a theoretical maximum sort of thing. My 15″ MBP can get almost 4 hours (actually more like 3.75) on a full charge (and with a new battery) if the screen brightness is on the lowest notch. It goes less than 2 hours if the brightness is all the way up, and I’m doing anything intensive on the machine.
I think the specs said at least 4 though… Can’t remember. If they did then 6 hours is around what I expected (I was thinking a 50% increase in battery life from the reduced power consumption of the LED).
I bought the 15″ 2.4 model and will review on http://www.appleresource.net when it arrives in a week or so.
That hi-res display will be a lot more useful once apple integrates a Bluray drive (before anyone shoots me down, thats what apple supports currently).
Saying Dell “released an ultraportable yesterday” is a little sketchy.
1. What Engadget has are leaked documents; the product is yet to be announced or acknowledged by Dell.
2. It’s hardly “ultraportable”.
m1330 = 12.5 x 9.4 x 1.1 (avg) = 129.25 in3, 4.0+ lbs
MBP 15″ = 14.1 x 9.6 x 1.0 = 135.46 in3, 5.4 lbs
Other than an inch and a half off the side, the difference is almost negligible – and the MBP has a larger screen and (presumably) better resolution.
@Joshua, Apple updated the Macbook Pro to LED because LED displays don’t contain some kind of chemical(mercury guess) that is very dangerous for the environment, read: to shut up Greenpeace.
Indeed I’m still wondering how Dell got away with slapping on the ultraportable moniker. I had an old Dell 300m that was a real ultraportable – no optical drive, 12-inch screen and a weight of 3lbs.
Nice. The MBP 15″ looks good. HOWEVER, what’s Steve going to announce on Monday during his keynote? He can’t keep talking about only the iPhone. I’d bet there will be an announcement of some new cool product, like the 12,or 13, or whatever screen size it’ll have, ultraportable MBP, or some tablet-like, giant iPhone-type computer similar, but more powerful than the Palm Mobile Companion. Before you tell me it’s not going to happen … I can dream, can’t I …
I don’t think Dell slapped on the Ultra-portable label. Pretty much whenever anyone sees
EDIT: Oops, I had a ‘less than’ symbol in there and it cut the rest of my comment. Here it is in its entirety.
I don’t think Dell slapped on the Ultra-portable label. Pretty much whenever anyone sees less than 13.3″ they call it an ‘ultra-portable’. In fact I’d say weight is just as important, if not more important that size.
The LED backlight in this case will only lead to better contrast, more accurate colors, slightly less weight, quicker to power up and less power consumption. Apple decided to keep the brightness at 300cd/m^3, the same as the older CCFL backlit displays.
I believe previously, the 15.4″ MBP was supposed to get 5 hours of battery life according to Apple and they’ve increased that now to 6. Not bad, especially since there’s also a faster video card. (8600GT) I’d also imagine the brightness settings will have less impact on battery life, compared to before.
I’m seriously considering a MBP… it’s awfully tempting. The only thing is, I heard it scratches/dents quite easily? Sounds like very thin aluminum casing or something to me.
The base model looks pretty tempting, 2gb standard really gives me a reason to make the jump to a mac :-)
Hey Paul, I’ve been holding off getting a MBP for Leopard to come out and any possible hardware upgrades–do you think this is gonna be the last upgrade before Leopard is released? I’m trying to decide if I should wait or if this would be a good time to buy my first mac and then just upgrade to Leopard. Thanks for the help!
I’m with David on this one. I was all ready to wait it out until October but now this announcement has gotten my wheels spinning. What are your thoughts? Right now, I think I’m just suffering from some “analysis paralysis” and should just pull the trigger…but, essentially, I’m stuck.
I’ve been seriously considering moving over to a Mac over the past week or so, but being completely honest, I haven’t much of a clue of what to get. Initially, a Macbook looked like it was giving more bang-for-buck, but with this announcement maybe that’s no longer the case. The 15″ Macbook Pro looks like a steal now.
Can you give a bloke advice Paul? Do you know of any upcoming announcements concerning the Macbook?
Oh, and how come they are so much cheaper in America?? £300 cheaper than the UK, and £220 cheaper than Oz!
Still insanely priced, but that’s okay.
Still way too expensive in the UK to be worth it. Still, worth waiting for the release of Leopard and then maybe with the new OS pre-installed it would be worth the jump.
Or i could just put Ubuntu on my old laptop and stick a mac theme on it? Cheaper option certainly.
No new macbook updates until at least october and the pro certainly will not see updates till at least then. If you want one get it now. Leopard upgrade is cheap enough and the standalone version is not locked to a machine.
@Armen thats the way life is, its down to taxes and various other economic variations.
@Adam….too expensive? For what it is the price is spot on. It wont get any cheaper.
I’m glad and sad they didn’t announce a macbook mini. I still am toteing around my 12″ PowerBook and would want to upgrade it. Which can’t happen for a while since I just spent all my money on a Mac Pro.
You guys know that we still have a major conference to look forward to next week, right?
So don’t rule out a MacBook mini just yet. ;)
@Don, never going to happen. These new MBPs would still be within there 14day cooling off period so apple would face a lot of returns from this week.
So I’m buying my first mac this week, getting the MBP, glad I waited a few weeks for the upgrade. I’m really excited, but wondering what software if any should I get? I plan on running windows xp pro on it so I can do my work. thoughts???? Thanks!
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