New MacBook Pros released

[kaidomac]

Argh!!! ...you buy an apple product because you are blown away and not a year later you get blown away by a newer version of that product...and...well...AHHH...gimmie gimmie gimmie...I've been waiting for mac to do LEDs...hopefully the new iMacs will have LEDs so I can finally replace my Desktop PC with my handy dandy college discount this summer.

Smeshy

I'm sure they call their marketing people Geniuses too ;P It's the same deal with cars...you'll love this year's model, but there will be a few tweaks on next year's model designed to make yours look old, outdated, and dumb. Don't look back! Enjoy what you have! lol

 

[ibookclamman300]

the videocard is kick butt from what I can tell. and up to 4gb ram? crazy................

 

[B&O]

Pretty cool, I really wanted a nividia cards. But I am going to wait until the next big jump in memory size before I will consider buying one.

 

[bobtomay]

Anyone wanna buy a 5 month old MBP?

And kaidomac, just get a new enclosure for the hard drive and switch to FW. Makes a big speed difference, but you do have to carry the power adapter for it.

8600M GT - DirectX 10 but no HDCP

 

[adler]

This is what i've been waiting for! Yes these machines are so sick! Getting mine in 57 days!

 

[kaidomac]

Anyone wanna buy a 5 month old MBP?

And kaidomac, just get a new enclosure for the hard drive and switch to FW. Makes a big speed difference, but you do have to carry the power adapter for it.

8600M GT - DirectX 10 but no HDCP

Yeah that's the only issue, power. I'm not always around a power outlet. I've got a handful of laptop drives in external enclosures already...it seems only the smaller, slower ones work on a single USB port (like 80gb 5400rpm). It also seems to depend on the case as well as on the USB port...some computers don't have enough juice on the front ports of the desktop case to let you run them with just one USB cable. Same with some laptops...my previous Gateway laptop could power them from the rear ports, but not from the side ports.

 

[DeathtoToasters]

Can someone explain or is there a site that shows the difference between the old screen and the new screens?

I just don't get it.

 

[adler]

Yea are the screens worth it for the 100 + dollar upgrade to the new resolution?

 

[kaidomac]

Can someone explain or is there a site that shows the difference between the old screen and the new screens?

I just don't get it.

LED backlighting was done to save energy, reduce heat, and help the environment. Supposedly there's no difference in brightness or viewing angle, but people have been saying that the black levels are much better on the new screens. There's some pics in this thread:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=128137&page=4

 

[flilow06]

LED backlighting was done to save energy, reduce heat, and help the environment. Supposedly there's no difference in brightness or viewing angle, but people have been saying that the black levels are much better on the new screens. There's some pics in this thread:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=128137&page=4

I don't have any experience with the previous MBP's. But I can tell you, I just watched a few minutes of Sin City on my new MBP (I use it to adjust contrast on LCD's and plasmas because of the use of black and white) and it was impressive to say the least.

 

[kaidomac]

OWC now has 4 gigs for $239. Save $511:

http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Other World Computing/53IM2DDR4GBK/

 

[kaidomac]

Just discovered that MCE Tech is offering a second hard drive bay for the MacBook Pros. The kit includes an enclosure for the SuperDrive so that you can use it externally. Dual 300gb 4200rpm, 250gb 5400rpm, or 200gb 7200rpm drives...awesome!

http://www.mcetech.com/optibay/

Edit: They said that the MB/MBP uses a non-standard 9.5mm optical drive for which no enclosures are available yet, but they give you the option of an external portable or desktop burner if you want it.

 

[kaidomac]

MCE Tech also has a 2gb module for $99. If you don't want to trade in your old ram or wait 14 days for the OWC rebate, then it's the cheapest available:

http://store.mcetech.com/Merchant2/...PC5300&Category_Code=MEMMBPRO&Product_Count=0

 

[iRye]

Holy moly...hackable MBP...who woulda thunk it

 

[kaidomac]

Holy moly...hackable MBP...who woulda thunk it

Same deal with the Mini. I'm surprised that MCE Tech has that adapter...my friend and I hacked the optical bay in the Mini last year to support two full-sized IDE drives, but we had to hunt down a company in China that made specialty adapters for laptops. It's like the only company in the world that makes a JAE 50-pin to IDE 44-pin adapter. Nice to see another company using it, I'm considering doing dual drives with an external portable Firewire burner now...

 

[cramar]

In contrast, the 13" MacBook feels a bit chunky to me. If they could slim it down a bit and maybe lost half a pound it would be much more "portable".

Huh!? How much more slimmer do you want? It is only an inch thick now! Being lighter would be nice. To compare with 13" Sony Vaio (from CND Sony store):

MacBook = 5.1 lbs.
VGNSZ420NB = 4.1 lbs.
VGNSZ450NC = 3.72 lbs.

 

[kaidomac]

Huh!? How much more slimmer do you want? It is only an inch thick now! Being lighter would be nice. To compare with 13" Sony Vaio (from CND Sony store):

MacBook = 5.1 lbs.
VGNSZ420NB = 4.1 lbs.
VGNSZ450NC = 3.72 lbs.

That's why I said slim it down "a bit" The real issue is the weight. It looks much lighter than it feels lol. When you pick it up you realize it's a nice-looking brick...a lot more hefty that the design lets on!

 

[MikeYMS]

someone had mentioned the price on memory being a bit high. If you look really really hard (coughblogcough) you might find some decently priced memory for MPBs. Buying the upgrade from Apple directly isn't for the likes of users here, y'all can do your own memory upgrade for more than half of the price they're asking. From almost ANY memory vendor.

 

[fleurya]

As a person who loves less bezel, more screen, one of the things I didn't like about the MBP's was the way they had to increase the size of the bezel at the top to accommodate the iSight. As one who doesn't use it, I found the disproportionate size of the bezel from the side to the top very unattractive.

I noticed on this recent upgrade they've made the top bezel a bit thinner and it's much more appealing IMHO. I suppose that's a very minor difference, but noticeable to me.

Are there any other minor physical differences?

 

[AndrewUK84]

I am now really glad I held out and waited for the new MBP's to come out, now I am just wondering I cant decide by the Matte or Glossy screen, I was going to go with the glossy but I sit next to a window would I get bad reflections and potentially make the screen unviewable?