The One Paragraph MacBook and MacBook Pro Speed Bump Report
February 26th, 2008Once the part numbers were revealed in the Mac rumor community, it was inevitable. On Tuesday morning, Apple announced the expected refresh to its ever-popular note-book line. The main improvements for both model lines include the newest 45 nanometer Intel Core 2 Duo processors known as “Penryn,” which promises better performance and longer battery life. MacBook Pros also receive spiffier NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT graphics processors with up to 512MB of RAM and the Multi-Touch trackpad that first made its debut on the MacBook Air. Apple also claims the MacBook Pro is up to 74% faster than the original version, which came out two years ago. Otherwise, they look the same as the models they replace, and they are reportedly shipping now. Indeed, not too shabby, but, you’ll have to wait for the reviewers to get their hands on these babies to determine how well they operate in the real world.
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One omission to the MacBook Pro: Add $19 to the total to get the remote that was previously included. Looks like a nice, unspectacular (or “as expected”) update. I’ve been waiting for the multi-touch. Guess I’ll take the leap.
I have two that I don’t use nowadays. 😀
Peace,
Gene
Send me one! 😀
(I feel like my last comment was from a participant at Mardi Gras. “Heeeeeey! Throw me some beads!”) 😀
Thoroughly unimpressed. There should have been a quad-core option, and power should have gone down (back from 85 W, which cannot charge from an airline adapter, to 65W as in the G4’s. The extra performance comes entirely from faster drives, a faster graphics card and more memory. Processors are needed in laptops too. It’s shocking that the performance increase is so small after such a long wait for this update.
I really don’t understand what Apple is playing at. Why make a 2.5GHz config and a 2.6GHz one? I dare anyone without a stopwatch (or other timing device) to spot the difference. And what’s with using 667RAM in 800MHz bus machines? Sure cripple your low end machines, but the MacBook Pro is supposed to be a premium computer. Guess not.
Speaking of that lower priced model. I can’t believe Apple is still shipping combo drives. Nobody else does.
Hi there.
Well, I currently have the last generation of the G4 PowerBooks and I just found out that I am getting a larger tax refund than I expected so I definitely plan on buying one of the new 15″ MacBook Pros.
-Derek
I love the combo drive option as it let me save some $$$ when buying laptops for my wife and daughter. We have plenty of DVDRW drives in the house, so why pay for two more?
The speed bumps are underwhelming, but the equipment levels aren’t. For the same price as my MacBook (I have the $1500 black one) I would get another 200 MHz (unimportant), another GB of RAM (significant) and another 90GB of hard disk capacity (very big deal), all for the same price. Sounds like Apple’s refresh is about right in terms of bang for the buck.
The more important questions are about speed and battery life. Has anyone compared the new chips to the old? My 2.2GHz MacBook has a 4MB L2 cache, where the new 2.4GHz model has only a 3GB cache. Does the extra cache make up for the speed deficit? Does the new smaller 45nm process give a speed boost beyond clock speed? Are the new models really more power-efficient than the older ones?
THe move to Santa Rosa from the previous platform last year was a big step up. My wife and daughter have otherwise identical 2GHz white MacBooks, though my wife’s is Santa Rosa and my daughter’s isn’t. The newer GMA X3100 graphics seem a bit better than the older GMA 950, and the newer MacBooks are actually a bit lighter and really do run about a half hour longer on a battery charge (I compared using the same battery). If the new ones are noticeably faster and can add another 20 or 30 minutes of runtime it will be a significant upgrade.
One thing is certain, just as the Santa Rosa update wasn’t enough to make my daughter’s older MacBook obsolete, neither does the most recent update. Honestly I think that only owners of the initial CoreDuo MacBooks and MacBook Pros are likely to consider an upgrade, as newer models are still close-enough to cutting edge to not make much difference.
Er… sorry, but ‘Science Man’ seems to be an extreme misnomer. You’re wanting a faster, much-more-power-hungry processor (I think the quad-cores are only available in the high-end Core processors (NOT the laptop versions) and the Xeon chips. You know, the ones they use in the Mac Pro with inch-thick heatsinks?) AND you want them to use less power at the AC adapter? Excuse me?
I like that these updates dropped the price of the refurb units even more. I was waiting for the updates so I could make an informed decision whether to go with a new model or a refurb. Since I didn’t need Multi-Touch and the drive was only marginally larger, I ended up ordering a 15″ 2.4Ghz refurb for only $1650. This was the $2500 unit a couple days ago and was $2100 as a refurb a couple days ago. Seems like a good deal to me!