MacBook Pro (mid 2009) in-depth impressions
By Nilay Patel 
posted Jun 18th 2009 1:00PM
posted Jun 18th 2009 1:00PM
So while this isn't going to be a full-on review, we think just slightly more than just our usual bullet-pointed impressions are in order -- and we think it's important to actually break things down by model. How do Apple's latest laptops stack up? Read on for more.
13-inch MacBook Pro
We thought the unibody 13-inch MacBook was a fine machine when we first reviewed it back in October 2008, and the upgrades it's been given during its Pro makeover are entirely welcome and positive -- unlike the 15-inch model, things have mostly been added here instead of taken away. Let's run 'em down:
The screen's way nicer. Apple lists the specific improvement as a 60 percent higher color gamut, but unless you're getting in there with a colorimeter and a monocle what you'll really notice is that Apple's finally shipping a mainstream 13-inch laptop with a viewing angle wider than a pencil. Compared to the disappointing MacBook screens we've seen in the past, the 13-inch Pro display is quite impressive -- we'd say it's roughly equivalent to the panel in the 15, and slightly better than the panel in the first-gen MacBook Air we have on hand. Of course, you're still stuck with that mirror-like gloss finish, but at this size and price point you don't have a lot of matte options regardless of manufacturer.
The dedicated audio-in jack has been pushed aside in favor of an SD card slot and FireWire 800 (hallelujah!). In its stead remains a single multifunction 3.5-inch audio jack which can be used with the iPhone headset for voice calls and also be set as an standard input -- you won't be able to record and monitor at the same time without a USB audio interface, but we doubt most people will care.
Speaking of the SD card slot, well -- there's an SD card slot. Hard to imagine it's taken Apple this long to put one in a consumer machine, but we're happy to finally have it. SD cards just show up as standard USB mass storage, so you can use 'em any which way you want -- hell, you can even boot from one in a pinch.
Lastly, there's the newly sealed-in battery, which is where we think the distinction between consumers and professionals is drawn into sharpest relief: we're not personally thrilled about it, but on the whole we have no doubt it'll be a win for the average person who buys this machine. In our rough testing of general use (web browsing, image and document editing, media playback) we tended to get between four and five hours of action, which is more or less twice what we're used to getting out of our black plastic MacBook, and an hour or so more than the removable battery in the original unibody machines. Considering we've never met a single person who's purchased a spare MacBook battery, that doesn't seem like a terrible tradeoff. Apple says the battery is designed to last five years, longer than most people will keep the machine, but if you do need a new one for some reason, it'll cost the same $129 as the replaceable, including service and disposal. If you happen to find a cheaper replacement elsewhere, you can install it yourself without concern -- not only does it appear to be pretty easy, but Apple says replacing the battery on any of the MacBook Pros won't void the warranty unless you break something. Sure, it doesn't completely ease the sting, but unless there's a sizable contingent of battery-swapping consumers out there we don't know about, we're guessing most people will happily accept longer life off the plug.
All in all, it's a solid revision of an already-popular machine, and we're honestly left wondering why the $999 white plastic MacBook continues to exist -- for $200 more you get a dramatically better screen, a faster processor on a speedier bus, an SD card slot, longer battery life, and rock-solid unibody construction. In fact, Apple told us they consider the $1,199 13-inch MBP configuration an entry-level machine, which we think signals a change: "Pro" no longer means "professional," but rather "aluminum." It's a semantic difference, to be sure, but it's easy to see how it blurs the line between Apple's consumer and professional machines -- just take a look at the $1,699 15-inch MacBook Pro that lacks a discrete graphics chip. It's anarchy, we tell you. Anarchy!
Don't get us wrong, all this line-blurring is great for consumers, who are now getting pro-grade features like that much-improved display at lower prices, but we don't think it works as well in reverse -- it feels a bit like Apple's forcing consumer-oriented design decisions on its professional customers.
15-inch MacBook Pro
We'll admit to being extremely wary whenever Apple makes changes to the 15-inch MacBook Pro. 15-inch MBPs running all manner of operating systems are pervasive in the Engadget ranks, and when we hit the road at events like CES and E3 we tend to standardize on them so we can do things like... share batteries. So it's fair to say we went into testing somewhat skeptical, and after a week with the midrange $1,999 configuration we're only slightly less ambivalent about Apple's latest revision of its most popular pro machine -- it's still solid, but we just don't think mobile professionals will be as pleased with Apple's design choices as the general consumer. It's an interesting dichotomy: the exact same changes that we view positively on the 13-inch MBP seem like negatives on the 15, because on the larger machine Apple's traded features instead of simply adding them. For example, instead of just adding an SD reader, Apple's replaced the ExpressCard slot -- they told us research indicated only a small percentage of MBP owners ever used it, and those that did generally inserted an SD card reader. But where that sort of statistics-driven design decision makes sense on a consumer machine, it only serves to alienate the small number of mobile users who depend on ExpressCards to actually get work done -- yes, it's a tiny minority, but as of now your only option if you need a new Mac laptop with ExpressCard is the 17-inch MBP, which is larger and heavier than the 15 and starts at $2,499. We'll be fine switching to USB 3G sticks from our ExpressCard modems, but we just can't argue in favor of convenience over flexibility with this one -- we've heard from a lot of A/V pros who are steaming mad.
Similarly, while the sealed-in battery seems like a net win for outlet-surfing consumers buying the 13-inch machine, on the 15 it troubles us greatly, especially since we only managed to eke out four hours while we were writing this review with some light browsing here and there for research. That's only slightly more than half of what Apple claims under the same conditions, and while it's certainly good, it's not so much better than the outgoing MBP that the tradeoff seems worth it -- and keep in mind, once you drain this thing in the field, you'll need to spend around two hours tied to a wall to get fully charged up instead of just swapping a battery and taking off. Yes, we know an external battery pack like the 32-hour Sanho HyperMac is a viable solution to this problem, but we just don't see why we're being forced into accepting an hour or so of additional usage at the expense of flexibility -- did Apple get tired of selling us spare batteries?
Still, these are pretty minor changes in the grand scheme of things, and we don't think they'll deter most people from what remains an otherwise excellent machine -- we'd be willing to bet the SD reader gets used far more often than vast majority ever even pondered their ExpressCard slot, and that extra hour of battery life will likely leave quite a few pleased as punch. We're just not convinced Apple had to subtract in order to add.
Wrap-up
Here's our main takeaway from the new MacBook Pro line: Apple's made some very strong decisions about what most customers care about and followed up with equally strong design decisions across the board. Most people use SD cameras, so there's an SD slot. Most people never use audio-in and headphones at the same time, so there's just one jack on the 13. Most people never think about replacing their laptop batteries but wish they'd last longer, so a bigger cell is now sealed in. ExpressCard, who cares. It's a simple and appealing logic, and it's a great strategy in the consumer market, but we don't think it holds up as well for professionals, who require much more flexibility from their machines. Of course, you could argue that Apple's always catered to 95 percent of its users at the expense of 5, but we think that tendency has been expressed to an extreme here, and we'd like to see the pendulum swing back a bit the next time these are revved -- some matte display options would be a nice start.
That said, it's not like you have any other choices if you want a Mac laptop, and we very much doubt you'll be unhappy with any of the new MacBook Pros unless you're one of the few people dependent on ExpressCard accessories or you have a clinical aversion to external battery packs. They remain attractive, well-constructed, and high-performing, and hey -- FireWire's back.
Respect for having one of them foldable SD cards. ("SD Plus"?)
The irony of having a foldable SD card in that slot is that if you do have a foldable, you stick it in the USB port! LOL! Either way, I have owned a foldable for a while and they are invaluable, except they do of course block the second USB port on Macs. I wish Apple would do what ASUS, Dell and others do and space their USB ports apart and place them on both sides of the machine. But we know Apple, always saving a penny here or there. And putting all the I/O ports next to each other of course makes the PCB less pricey.
I know what you mean. You can always just get a little USB extension cable if you really want to.
Yeah, it' done for the sake of design, but I would prefer more spacing. I have some older usb drives that are pretty wide, and take up both usb ports.
Anyone know if they still make these in modern capacities? all I could find were 1gb ones from like 2005
The author of this article FAILED to mention the biggest downside of the new 13" and 15" "Pro" line...
THE SATA DRIVES ARE DOWNGRADED/CAPPED AT 1.5mbps!!!!! Which pretty much means that if you wanna use the SSD you will never get the full speed out of it.
I understand this if you wanna sell these notebooks to the average consumers... But please, don't call them "PRO" ffs!!!
@Glitter: I always get mine from Play.com (UK). They currently have "SanDisk 8GB SDHC Plus Ultra II" and "SanDisk 4GB Extreme SDHC+ Ducati Edition", but I got their normal 4GB SDHC+ with clearance price so keep an eye out.
@Milan: just so you know, Engadget already has an article about this. Apparently those shipped with SSD are not affected which, if true, is very naughty of Apple, forcing buyers to get SSD from Apple instead of elsewhere.
Those shipped with SSD are in fact 1.5gbps capped as well. Check out Macrumors.com forums. There is a person that hated life once he received his 256GB SSD macbook 15" still capped at SATA 1 speeds.
Pretty sad.
Yeah, I have to unplug my mouse to plug in a flash drive. They could have added a millimeter or two between the ports and it would be fine.
If you really like having a card reader and you have the Express card slot, you can get a card reader for it. They used to sell them at the Apple Store, but I just went there a couple days ago and all the Express card stuff is gone. :/
Yep, the SSD is only beginning and I suspect this time next year, all new computers will have them at little if any upgraded costs.
Regards,
~DD
All i wanted was a no-glare option on the 15 inch....
That is also what i wanted... but it is only offered on the 17 inch macbook pros....
well i recently bought a the new mac book pro 15 inch... n its pretty sweet. was hurting my pocket right after i paid for it.... but it all smoothed out after turning on the laptop..the intro was way better than wat windows 7 or any other windows os has.
all done n said... think it was worth the 2k i paid for the laptop... battery is great and the backlit keyboard feels great on the fingers.
@wat up!
Wait... You just spent $2000 on a computer and justified it because "the intro was way cooler" and "the backlit keys feel great on the fingers"?!
Are you a moron? What ever happened to buying a computer based on what it can do vs. the stupid OS intro?
That's like saying "I bought a VINTAGE Ford Pinto because the horn sounded awesome and the seats gripped my ass in just the right way!"
@Matt
Ass gripping is pretty important
It's all about the ass grip baby
dat ass.
In other words, just repackaged line with shinier displays? Glossy = Great!!!
Duh...
erm, better diplays, 2 extra hours of battery, bigger hard drives, faster processors, memory card slot, firewire 800 on 13 inch, backlit keyboard on all models and a price drop, little bit more than a rebadge
"what you'll really notice is that Apple's finally shipping a mainstream 13-inch laptop with a viewing angle wider than a pencil. Compared to the disappointing MacBook screens we've seen in the past, the 13-inch Pro display is quite impressive"
I love that Engadget only points out shortcomings in Apple products after they have been fixed. So they can write another stellar review, using past gripes as a way to cover for their Apple-buttbuddy-ness.
I love how you just came on here and posted the same bullshit about engadget that every other MS fanboi spews ad nauseam. Good job buddy, you’re a real winner. Man you idiots are brainwashed MS proles.
@Dillinger
Good job showing how blindly devoted you are to apple by bashing someone who's being critical about your precious company. You make the rest of us Apple users look like idiots.
@alex
I thought they covered the shortcomings pretty well in their original review, actually:
"The panel just seems, for lack of a better word... crappier. The viewing angle is reduced considerably; looking even a little bit off to the side or up above can cause a nasty amount of polarization. The brightness levels also don't seem to be what they are on the Pro. Don't get us wrong, compared with the last generation MacBooks, these are stunning -- but compared to the Pros, they're just not as impressive."
http://www.engadget.com/2008/10/21/macbook-and-macbook-pro-review/
Ooooh! Apple-buttbuddy-ness = more ass!
the glare.... it hurts....
I can't believe how much of a reflection it has.. lol.
I can't believe they don't offer the matte screen as an option. Glossy sucks in real world applications. If you don't have absolute light control, you've got a mirror. I don't like the sealed battery either (at a minimum it needs to be end user or in store replaceable) but at least that only affects you once every couple of years or so. The screen issue is an every day pain.
Typing from my older MBP with matte screen.
The battery is store replaceable.
Only a week left before i get mine, cant wait becuse thi is my first mac!!
btw a great in in-depth impressions
oh nice MACs,
I wish that i win a Lottery, so that i can buy one of them....
Yea.. them magnetically accelerated cannons are damn nice :)
And you *do* need to win a lottery to buy one.. even then.. good luck!
Oh look. It's yet another overpriced Mac. Yawn.
Normally I would agree, but if you use the HE discount the 13" MBP comes out at £18 less than than the equivilent Dell Studeio XPS 13, admittedly specs are a little worse (160gb vs 250gb & 2.23ghz vs 2.4ghz) but it has better build quality and a superior battery life.
Not to mention they throw in an iPod Touch right now as well.
@Raikiri
Did you just compare two computers and added a limited discount to only one to prove it was cheaper? Why not add the dell premier discount or EPP discount as well?
Okay the Ipod Touch isint really "free" you still have to pay 229 up front and then wait for the rebate to process.
Overpriced? More expensive that the P.O.S. you have, that's for sure.
How the hell are these things usable in the real world as you know a portable computing device? That glare is so awful and in every picture it is present, except for the lid closed picture and the one where its sitting in the dark.
not to mention their keyboard lacks dedicated Delete key, and lacks Pg Up key and lacks Pg Down key and lacks Home key and lacks End key...
I could live with the latter (Sony Vaio Z user) but dedicated Delete is a must!
But then again, the Fn key is in the corner instead of CTRL (which is sick Lenovo placement) and "ALT" is hard to find as it is no longer near Spacebar, there isn't bigger space between A and CAPS LOCK so you'll switch the most useless key in the universe far too often and when I'm "eating" I can't quickly mute my pr0n with just one hand, I need to:
1. find Fn key (takes a while, but I do realize it is in the corner after a while)
2. do a one-hand Bruce-Lee move, e.g. pressing Fn (in the corner) + particular F10-12 key
If anyone wonder why Snow Leopard is the way it is (e.g. very slow developement cycle), the layout of the Apple keyboard for their coders is the answer - contraproductive shit.
and speakers on the 13 are non-existent (no-movies in the evenings) and it gets _very_ hot on a lap in heavy-use (check notebookreview.com).
Other than that, an excellent laptop and you can get a makeup every morning in a tube without using a mirror, just open it and...
They must have signed a deal with 3M to sell a Mac Pro branded anti-glare/security screen that will start at $300 for the 13" and up to $500 for the 17".
It has both a dedicated "delete" key and "mute" button. I hope this makes your porn watching all the more sneaky.
In every picture, that is true. With adequate brightness settings, though, it's not nearly as distracting.
@ cowgar
Any useful programmer (or prOn viewer) will remap the control/fn keys within minutes of first encounter with a macbook (or mac with BT keyboard). The next few minutes will be spent prying the keys out of their places and popping them back in "correctly".
"speakers on the 13 are non-existent"
Huh? Not only are there speakers, but they are the best speakers I've had on a laptop. I can hear music all the way across my apartment clearly using them. Just because you can't see them, doesn't mean they aren't there/are crappy.
No purnell - it has a backspace key, not a delete key....
You must be a mac user - obviously dont know how useful this key is.... probably dont know keyboard shortcuts either.....
more @cowgar
Have you ever actually used one of the new MacBook Pros? I can mute mine with one hand (one finger actually, you only press the key, no Fn involved) and the caps lock almost never gets activated unless you actually press on it (it has that delay thing for activation).
I don't know what the notebookreviews people do but my unibody MacBook Pro is one of the most coolest running laptops I have, especially compared to an older MacBook Pro or my Sony. Maybe I need to do some Maya renders while it sits in my lap and I too can feel the heat.
@Phenoum maybe it is a regional thing. Are there any regional differences in hardware? I assure you that as I type this, there is a key with the word "delete" on it right above the "\" key. Maybe you are referring to its functionality within OSX as opposed to its actual labeling. It does in fact not function in the quite same way that the "delete" key does in XP/Vista although, with the inclusion of the trackpad's "smart right-click" feature, accessing "move to trash" is simpler than on previous macs. Using "control click" used to be such a pain when I was cleaning up my comp, but it is way more elegant now.
@cowgaR
And also, who wants to be looking at reflections of their tool when watching p0rn with one hand. I guess you can see people coming up behind you though, which gives you a head start on the 2-key mute...
Shift + Backspace = Delete. I know, I know, it's two keys rather than one, but it's still not the calamatous end of the world scenario it could be. :D
Oh my god, TRS, I was starting to get worried there. I'm glad you came along to tell us what we do and don't need on our keyboards. Thank you.
Page Up/Page Down are the fn key plus up/down arrow
They do NOT have real Delete keys. Period.
Mislabeling a Backspace key with "delete" doesn't change that.
There appears to be a delete key according to http://www.apple.com/macbookpro/ but there is no backspace key. Either way, whether it functions as a Windows Delete or as a Windows backspace key, there is no dedicated key for at least one action that I do all the time while typing.
But have no fear guys, I'm sure at some point Apple will invent the Mighty Backspace Key, which will look better than any backspace key ever has, while doing the same thing.
@TRS xactly.
I have never run into these issues that arouse so much passion in this thread. My delete key is fine, thanks for the concern. I have keyboard shortcuts for everything.
Why on earth would I want one key that deletes things left of the cursor and another one that deletes things right of the cursor? Seems rather redundant to me, a bit like a Return and an Enter key.
It has a delete key that functions as a backspace key. If you want to use the delete key as you do in windows (to delete files and such) than you can press command+delete.
The other function of the delete key (to delete characters after the curser) is just silly and pointless, and there's no reason for another dedicated key to do that.
Also, pg up and pg down are pointless, space and shift+space do the same thing, as do command+arrow keys.
Rather expensive portable mirrors, wouldn't you say?
Engadget fails to adress one of the prime factors in any laptop purchase though! Heat? Can you have it on your lap?
When I did some Handbreak ripping and encoding, it got pretty warm. Nothing alarming, but definitely noticeable. When doing all the other stuff I normally do, it was never noticeably warmer whilst sitting on my lap. As a side note, the thing is *extremely* quiet. Even in a quiet room, I haven't been able to hear a sound from the machine so far.
You can have it on your lap. I had a MBP 2006 wich got really hot and even burned my lap. The new MBP doesn't get hot. It's a bit warm but certainly not as hot as the former MBP's.
Picked the 13" one up last week. It runs smoothly and quickly and "feels" like quality. I think its strengths outweigh its weaknesses. The feature I find most impressive so far is the trackpad which seems to interpret every gesture perfectly. Having the ability to use 2 fingers to "right click" removes my main complaint about macs. I am very satisfied with it thus far.
You're not going to say it's a steaming turd after dropping over a g on it, are you?
If it was, I would I guess. I am one of those people who depends on other people's honest opinions before I make a purchase and plenty of demo time if I can swing it. If it sucked, I would say it did.
Just throwing it out there... 2 finger right click has been in the Apple Notebook line for years now. Maybe even in the last model or two before the MacBook was even introduced.
this is true, you could even configure the old iBook to do the 2 finger right click thing with some 3rd party software
The glare is very disturbing...thank God I'm a Windows person.
Will love my iPhone though!
Right... because there are no PC laptops with glossy screens. Got it.
Zak, please, shut the fuck up.
@TheLionOfAzzalle
That makes no sense. The iPhone uses a glass screen that is just as reflective as the MacBook Pro screens. If you have no problems with your iPhone's screen, then you wouldn't have problems with one of these MBPs, especially considering that an iPhone is more likely to be used outside.
"even Apple admits that it's an entry-level consumer machine"
Compared to your typical $400 BestBuy special or netbook, the "entry level" MacBook is relatively high-end as a consumer machine. If Apple considers the 13" MacBook to be "entry-level", it doesn't give much hope they'll produce a netbook in the near future.
I think Apple's REPEATED public comments against netbooks says more about their unliklihood than the prices of the current MB/MBps
yeah just like jobs saying people don't want to watch video on ipods
It's just me or Apple is in a "underwhelming" roll this year?
Shuffle
IPhone 3GS
MBP line...
They could be underwhelming, or your expectations are simply set too high.
The problem with Apple is that everyone expects them to completely reinvent and revolutionize their product lines every year. When they simply do solid product refreshes, the haters come out of the woodwork.
It's not hating to wonder why we need to be inundated by first looks, reviews, in-depth impressions, etc. of laptops that differ only very slightly from their predecessors. Can you name any other laptop that gets this sort of attention? Even when they include significant changes? No.
So why pay this much attention to Apple? Hardly anyone actually wants one which is why they're still stuck on the same 3% marketshare that they've held for the last 20 years. Adding an SD card slot isn't noteworthy except for the fact that it took them this long. They're overpriced and suffer from extremely limited software/hardware compatibility. And yet apparently I'm a hater for pointing these things out.
You're welcome to your opinion, but I think you are underestimating the interest in the Mac in the general population.
If you really think that Apple's Mac market share is only 3%, and has been for 20 years, that could explain why you are so annoyed by the coverage here on Engadget.
The reality is, the Mac is one of the more popular computer brands out there today. It may not be for you, but it is popular, and despite the widespread belief in the comment threads here, Engadget isn't paid off by Apple to give them this coverage. They give this much coverage because there is interest in these products.
Even if you dislike Apple and would never buy one of their products, you do yourself a disservice if you don't recognize that there are quite a lot of people who DO buy these machines. The fact that Microsoft themselves launched a multi-million dollar ad campaign to fight the Mac shows that Apple has serious mindshare and marketshare.
Apple marketshare was 10% as of January 09 and has been climbing pretty steadily for a number of years. So to sum it up you're a hater because you prefer windows and don't know much about Apple. You can avoid such labeling by refraining to post comments on Apple articles.
@jakem I work at an Apple store in Texas, of all places. We are packed every day, despite the economy. We don't have enough employees to handle all of our customers. I can tell from the people that come in: They are just getting sick of windows and all it's computer manufacture's. They are willing to pay the extra money for quality, of the products themselves and the operating system. Plus, at the apple store, we offer help in switching over from PC, we have a free technical support in the store for whenever you have problems, and we offer classes, workshops, for anyone that's interested (wow, do I sound like a commercial?).
A lot of people will pay for that kinda stuff.
is it just me or are you trolling again?
Apple implementing stuff later then others... when was first SD card in a laptop long time ago, this is just expecting essential things in it. Like iPhone 3GS doesn't have some basic features and apple has been criticized for that a lot, and they never get it... I would like to get hands on macs, but I have geographical and financial problems with it... and everybody says it is cheaper and has that and that... but that and that and more has existed on other laptops... this is like catch up... they need to be at same level... and you know why I am so bothered about this... Asus's laptops have more changes in them (and they come up every month or so) have more changes in them then this mac book (annual refreshment)... they have ONE YEAR to reinvent something... and that is slow ration compared to others..
we might just get a flash next your on iPhone... which will be revolutionary (sarcasm)
@Chase
What did you expect from people, why would anyone come to buy mac if they love their windows?!
so what was your point again?
you know some people switch from MAC to PC, yeah.. it is not just a myth... (send to mythbusters they will check it for you...)
Also people lack of knowledge about PC, and that is the main reason why they go to mac... and I think people want stuff to be action free and macs are not too, but it is too late to switch back...
I hope there was something where you can rent laptops and phones (few at a time) so you can compare them and the one you like you take... that would be awesome...
@Jakem
"So why pay this much attention to Apple? Hardly anyone actually wants one which is why they're still stuck on the same 3% marketshare that they've held for the last 20 years."
Thats just a plain idiotic comment. I don't have a Mac, but I do follow the industry. Although their overall marketshare is around 9%, that includes ALL notebooks purchased in the United States. This is not an accurate picture however, because it includes all the bulk corporate purchasing of Dell/HP/Lenovo/etc laptops for business which account for a large percentage of total laptop sales in America. Similarly, Apple doesn't compete in the low-end, with tens of millions of people buying $500 laptops from big box stores.
If you actually look at JUST consumer laptop sales, and just sales of laptops that are in the premium price ranges, I'd bet Apple's marketshare would be around 40-50% or higher. Macbooks and Macbooks Pros are everywhere! It seems like every other laptop I see walking around town, or at airports, coffee shops, etc is a Mac. Go to any college campus, it's Mac Mac Mac. Even on Engadget, which is full of geeks, the polls they always have about buying a new Mac shows a large minority own macs.
Obviously they are far more important for reviewers and tech sites than you'd like to believe.
Thanks for all the replys guys.
First of all, Apple's worldwide marketshare is currently around 3% based on sales, not web statistics. The 10% figure quoted above refers to web statistics from the US. The fact is that their worldwide marketshare hasn't really ever shifted. That's got nothing to do with my opinion of Apple, it's just a fact.
I'm sure that there are lots of people in an Apple store in Texas but last time I checked Texan Mac owners weren't all that representative of the US market let alone the worldwide PC market.
And loosely_coupled, this has nothing to do with being interested in technology. Dell and HP also produce technology but aren't fawned on by the blogosphere. I have no problem with an article mentioning a new MacBook. However, this upgrade doesn't deserve a full review or more than one mention. In fact, if most other laptops are anything to go by it doesn't deserve any attention at all.
Im sorry, but what you don't know could fill this entire thread. Please stop making shit up.
@Dking
"we might just get a flash next your on iPhone... which will be revolutionary (sarcasm)"
With any luck we'll see HTML 5 kill off Flash and Silverlight so that we can stop with proprietary plugins to deliver web content. The reason why you don't see Flash on the iPhone is because Adobe seems to be completely incapable of writing a version of the Flash Player for the Mac platform what doesn't consume huge amounts of system resources just to play a YouTube video. Oddly, the Silverlight client for the Mac is much more efficient. If Adobe ever gets their act together and produces something that won't kill the battery in the iPhone or make the device spontaneously combust, then you'll see it on the iPhone.
Nilay... The new 17" MacBook Pro price point is now $2499, not $2899.
The battery life reports have varied widely. Of course this is to be expected due to different usage patterns, but it makes it hard to get a better gauge of what these new units will do for your own battery life compared to your current machine. I have a 15" Penryn MBP which does pretty good with battery already, I'm wondering how much better a 13" MBP would be (if I wanted to switch, and I'm very iffy on it of course.)
Backlighting conditions make a big difference. I used by new 13" outdoors last week, and was out of juice in just over 4 hours. Yeterday I had it taking notes in a dimly lit meeting room, and it not only went four hours+ it did so with 40% of battery remaining. Likely would have hit that 7 hours mark and then some.
wow my late 08 Macbook 17" with the matte screen firewire 800+400 and express card slot looks better and better with every Macbook Pro update.
Lol, I feel the exact same way. With my Pro 15", I can use the express with a MULTI card reader, use the firewire 400 with a DV cam and use the 800 with a HDD. Also, I can use the DVI to output to a HD screen and use it as my second monitor.
With these new machines, You have to spend alot of extra money to do the same things.
hey guys, the 17 inch macbook pro starts at 2,499, not 2,899
lol, my first car started at $2000.
It's interesting that Nilay's impressions of the 15" MacBook Pro's battery life were basically, "meh."
Anandtech did a review, and they were blown away... they got something like 8 hours of life out of the thing on a charge.
http://anandtech.com/mac/showdoc.aspx?i=3580&p=7
Hmm... No mention of SATA hobbled down from 300 to 150? Has Apple addressed this little faux pas yet?
I haven't gotten a concrete answer out of Apple on this yet, and since I only tested HDD models it wasn't an issue for me. Rest assured I'm following up.
Thanks Nilay! I'm hoping it's a firmware/driver goof, because the chipset certainly hasn't changed -- it's still the same NVIDIA 9400 as the previous unibody point release.
I bought my first mac, a 13" 2.4ghz alu macbook the day before the new one came out, can't complain. On the other hand I like the old one and don't need to update to the new. My only problem is that you still have to run windows to run other programs!
True, to run windows programs, you have to run windows. When I made the switch last year, I thought I would go out and buy a copy of Windows to install on here, but honestly, I've never encountered a need for it. Still, nice to have the option.
My wife and I looked at the new 13" mac book pro at the apple store. It seemed slugish. Would I have noticed a difference if I had restarted the thing? Is it possible a lot of things were running in the background?
Restart? Are you a windows user? Just close some programs.
Ipriest: What are you an apple user? You can close programs on windows also.
It is possible but rather unlikely. As a general rule the memory management and application design for OS X is excellent so you can happily leave applications open in the background without much impact on what happens in the foreground. However, there are exceptions to the rule. Flash-heavy web pages running in a browser can slow things down because the Flash Player for the Mac OS is garbage. Virtualisation applications like Parallels Desktop or VMWare Fusion will often consume vast amounts of system resources while they are running, depending on how they have been configured, so if one was running on the demo computer then that could also be an explanation.
Without seeing the system you were testing I cannot say for certain. If you are genuinely interested in a Mac then perhaps trying a different computer may help. You could also ask a sale representative to explain why the machine is sluggish since they may know why.
I've been using a first-gen MacBook since it first came out, as a pro designer. Depending on what type of work you're doing, the machine has gotten me through web design, from PS to coding, catalog design, some print design, etc. Generally doing web design these days means you don't need a high-end machine as the files are easily handled. As far as the print design work, if you're dealing with just vector work (1+ color packages etc) there's no problem. It's when you get into hefty PS work (1-2GB files) that you'll see issues, and even then these machines can handle it with enough RAM and a scratch disk.
Hook up a second monitor & keyboard/mouse, external scratch-disk and blammo, you have an inexpensive rig but still have mobility. These newer 13" machines really shine with the drop of the intergrated graphics card (the one deal-killer before) and the added FW800/SD reader. Nice to see lower price points as well, Snow Leopard will make this a solid choice.