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New MacBook Pro series

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Re: New MacBook Pro series

#191

Post by wisty »

sandGorgon wrote: post #100

hmm - you need to go to 1799$ before you end up with a half decent graphics card and 2199$ for a decent card. Compare it with a Dell XPS 15 Sandy Bridge - $1049 for i7 2620M, 1920X1080 display, nVidia GT525 Optimus card, HD Camera. For a first time possible mac buyer (me) - is it well justified ?

The Dell XPS is a desktop-replacement laptop. Fast, but bulky. I doubt it has wonderful battery life. It's probably got a cheap case. Resale value will be low.

Comparing Apples to Apples, you might look at high-end Sony laptops. The MBP 13" close to the S series, both in price and quality. The F series (big, bulky powerhouse) is much cheaper, and has much better specs - but it's a desktop replacement (like the Dell XPS 15).

Apple doesn't make desktop-replacement laptops. It doesn't even make desktops! I wish it did - I'd love a $1500 Apple mini-tower, and a $1000 MacBook (not Pro) 17", but it's just not going to happen.

Re: New MacBook Pro series

#192

Post by HSO »

ugh wrote: post #112
KeithMajhor wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've never seen a more beautiful laptop. What can they really do besides include faster components and add features to software?

Ditch the two spinning drives and build in a SSD by default? That would allow for a redesign as well as a larger battery and would certainly warrant an event. After the MacBook Air, it’s only a matter of time until they do just that, maybe next year. (I can only hope. I’m actually seriously considering schlepping my 2007 MacBook Pro around another year.)

I'm with you. On the other hand, considering that I had just bought a top-of-the-line 17'' MBP 3 months ago, the frugal part of me was actually dreading the prospect of an MBA-like MBP sans optical drive, because that's pretty much my dream machine right now. Would have been pretty hard to resist doing the foolish thing and upgrade again after just 3 months. As it is, I look forward to upgrade next year, pretty sure that's gonna be the date then. Personally speaking, makes that much more financial sense now. ;-) Now I just need to decide whether to spring for an optibay in the meantime...

Re: New MacBook Pro series

#193

Post by dlevine »

hackermom wrote: post #97
wheels wrote: post #18

Color me disappointed. I was hoping for: • Ditching the optical media for longer battery life • 4 cores in the 13" • Max RAM of 12 GB (this one isn't listed ... maybe?) • The higher resolution 1440x900 resolution in the 13" that the Macbook Air has Altogether it's a pretty wussy update. Basically it looks like the diff (on the 13" model, which is what I care about) is: • Faster CPU (finally!) • Thunderbolt port (coun…

I almost choked on a sip of tea when I noticed that the 13" "Pro" is still stuck with a 1280*800 display. Talk about boneheaded move.

Why is that a boneheaded move? I think that 1280x800 fits plenty of information on a 13" screen. I usually run an external display for more space.

If anything, 1400x900 on the new MBA seems a little bit small (and Apple doesn't allow you to bump the size of everything up like you can in Windows). It's interesting that 1680x1050 is still an upcharge on the 15".

Re: New MacBook Pro series

#194

Post by weaksauce »

felxh wrote: post #172
sandGorgon wrote: post #100

hmm - you need to go to 1799$ before you end up with a half decent graphics card and 2199$ for a decent card. Compare it with a Dell XPS 15 Sandy Bridge - $1049 for i7 2620M, 1920X1080 display, nVidia GT525 Optimus card, HD Camera. For a first time possible mac buyer (me) - is it well justified ?

I think many times a big chunk of the price difference comes from the display on Apple laptops. Someone with more knowledge on this could probably explain it better, but I usually notice a better viewing angle and brighter, more vivid colors. In addition to that you've got the battery life, the thinness and the great touch pad

I think they use s-ips screens in the 15" and up. Not sure about the newer 13" but the older one was tn which is junk. A lot of manufacturers use tn which has probably the lowest quality of the different types of screens.

Re: New MacBook Pro series

#195

Post by tsuraan »

SandB0x wrote: post #78

Didn't get as much coverage, but there are also new ThinkPads this week: http://www.engadget.com/2011/02/22/lenovo-trots-out-new-thin... The 14" models look good: 30 hours (claimed) battery on the T420, 0.83" ultrathin T420s with discrete graphics. Edit: Here's the official announcement, which took a bit of digging around to find: http://news.lenovo.com/article_display.cfm?article_id=1421 . synacksynack has posted a…

Any news on the resolution on the 14" models? I'm still looking for a competitor for the display on my three or four year old sony: 13.3" with a 1600x900 display. The new Sony laptops do full 1080p at 13.3", but Sony really doesn't like linux, so I'd love to get a different brand. If only there were somebody else making high-DPI laptops...

UPDATED:

Noticed the Tech Specs PDF. Looks like the 14" does offer a 1600x900 resolution, so that's really cool. I'll have to see what the configurations look like once that part of the page is working (in late march, apparently). Thanks for the link!

Re: New MacBook Pro series

#196

Post by fluidcruft »

SandB0x wrote: post #78

Didn't get as much coverage, but there are also new ThinkPads this week: http://www.engadget.com/2011/02/22/lenovo-trots-out-new-thin... The 14" models look good: 30 hours (claimed) battery on the T420, 0.83" ultrathin T420s with discrete graphics. Edit: Here's the official announcement, which took a bit of digging around to find: http://news.lenovo.com/article_display.cfm?article_id=1421 . synacksynack has posted a…

Lenovo needs to get its head out of it's ass and release anything so I can upgrade my 4:3 X61s. I hate widescreen.

Re: New MacBook Pro series

#197

Post by jhancock »

Uchikoma wrote: post #162
SandB0x wrote: post #78

Didn't get as much coverage, but there are also new ThinkPads this week: http://www.engadget.com/2011/02/22/lenovo-trots-out-new-thin... The 14" models look good: 30 hours (claimed) battery on the T420, 0.83" ultrathin T420s with discrete graphics. Edit: Here's the official announcement, which took a bit of digging around to find: http://news.lenovo.com/article_display.cfm?article_id=1421 . synacksynack has posted a…

My 2 year old X200 has 1.3 hours battery time, decreasing rapidly. The display plastic is broken, the camera is broken and the mouse tracking nob is broken. It's the worst piece of laptop hardware I've ever had (compared to older IBM Thinkpads, DELLs and iBooks, Macbooks and MacbooksPro).

Agreed. Try going 4 years older. My IBM branded X41 is the finest laptop I've owned and ubuntu works flawless on it. I bought a replacement battery for it and get a good 5 hours and a few days standby. I like it so much, I even consider not telling people so I can buy up more used ones and set aside for future parts. But hey, what's life if you don't share. Considering the cost of these on ebay (as much as some new netbooks) I think the secret is already out.

Re: New MacBook Pro series

#198

Post by kenjackson »

ericd wrote: post #132
wheels wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd be surprised if that's what happened. I suspect this is just another unrealistic number that's the same proportion of reality as the previous numbers. That said, when I'm traveling and going for extended battery life (read: trans-atlantic flights) I get pretty close to the rated number by dimming my backlight and shutting off wifi and bluetooth.

Apple reported that they were changing the way they measured/reported battery life with the last MacBook air launch, and explained that it was less favorable, but more realistic.

During transitions like this it would be nice to give both numbers on the new and old machines. This at least gives people some type of comparison point.

Re: New MacBook Pro series

#199

Post by buro9 »

mike-cardwell wrote: post #187
Uchikoma wrote: post #162

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My 2 year old X200 has 1.3 hours battery time, decreasing rapidly. The display plastic is broken, the camera is broken and the mouse tracking nob is broken. It's the worst piece of laptop hardware I've ever had (compared to older IBM Thinkpads, DELLs and iBooks, Macbooks and MacbooksPro).

Strange. I never had any problems with my Thinkpads, but my Macbook has had several. The plastic casing is brittle and just breaks off after a certain amount of time, the battery died and needed replacing, the hard drive died and needed replacing and the power supply died and needed replacing too. Seriously considering getting one of these new Thinkpads and sticking Ubuntu on it. Maybe the T420 or T520.

Your last sentence... I'm in the same camp.

I was waiting for the MBP announcement to see if the 13" would be so compelling that it would become the perfect laptop for me, but the keyboard still isn't for me, and I really wanted USB3 and was hoping to lose the CD bay in exchange for more battery.

The T420 is slightly larger than I wanted, but Ubuntu on my T61p is such a sweet thing for development and lifestyle use that the smaller T420 looks really good. If Lenovo had a 13" in the T series spec'd like that, they'd have me instantly... as it is they probably have me anyway as the MBP hasn't moved enough to be compelling to me and I can deal with the slice battery on the T420 for a long weekend of use when travelling. The Lenovo keyboards remain without compare, which I guess means I'm now talking myself into it pretty convincingly. T420 + Ubuntu seals the deal.

Edit:

Just checked out the T420 dimensions, and they're: 13.4in x 9.05in x 1.18in.

It's not bad... a little larger than the new 13" MBP (12.78in x 8.94in x 0.95in), but not by enough to dissuade me. The higher resolution on the T420 is a good trade-off for the extra bit of size.

Re: New MacBook Pro series

#200

Post by weaksauce »

nicksergeant wrote: post #49
robryan wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You'd think so, it did say something like up to 6 devices.

That's what I'm thinking. As stated here: "...including your display. And with support for video and eight-channel audio, it’s easy to connect HDMI-compatible devices — like your TV and home stereo — using the HDMI adapter you already have. Current VGA, DVI, and DisplayPort adapters are also supported." -- So, one DP monitor, another with HDMI, another with DVI.

If this allows for daisy chaining monitors I might just get the newest one.
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