Apple MacBook Pro 15in
A powerful, professional piece of kit
Review The new MacBook Pro may not be the total revamp that the renewed MacBook is, but it’s an attractive – and intriguing – update nonetheless.
The aluminium chassis has been slightly modified – curved edges similar to those of the MacBook Air make it marginally slimmer and give it a less rectangular look. The display's new glass covering runs across the full width and height of the lid, so there’s no longer a metal bevel running around the edge of the screen.
Apple's MacBook Pro: stylish new look
That makes the screen seems slightly larger, although it’s actually the same 15.4in panel used in the previous model. For the most part, though, the new MacBook Pro doesn’t look drastically different.
So the real challenge for Apple with this update was how to maintain – and justify – the price difference between the MacBook Pro and the new MacBook, given that the whole purpose of the redesigned MacBook was to make it more like the MacBook Pro.
There are two versions of the new MacBook Pro available. The first costs £1399 and comes with a 2.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor, 3MB of L2 cache, 2GB of 1066MHz DDR 3 memory and a 250GB hard disk. We tested the second model, which costs £1749 and packs in a 2.53GHz processor, 6MB of L2 cache, 4GB of 1066MHz DDR 3 memory and a 320GB hard disk. Both HDDs are 5400rpm SATA units.
More slender
Both models have the same 15.4in, 1440 x 900 widescreen display, and the £1749 model can be further upgraded to a 2.8GHz processor for an extra £210, making it the most powerful laptop Apple has ever released. There’s also an option for a 128GB solid-state drive, but at an extra £490 we doubt this will appeal to many people.
COMMENTS
@ Pierre
"Now if it could switch seemlessly, it could be interesting. I must go, I just tried to think of a way to switch graphic cards without closing the applications using them and got a major headache."
It's easy in theory: clone the whole session -but with the new graphic settings- in a virtual console, then close the original session. Now you go and implement that.
Social status
That looks like a typical Mac to me. Social status accessory. Nice piece of design that can also be used as a computer. There is one major problem with this one though. That's the dual video card thing. It's so-oh-very-badly implemented. Let's see what you wrote about that...
"You don’t even need to shut the machine down to do this – although you do need to log out of your user account, and then log back in again. Alas, it's not an automatic process.
Still, logging out and in again only takes about ten seconds, but it does mean that you’ll need to shut down any open applications and save your work before switching between the two graphics processors. However, that’s a very minor inconvenience when set against the power-saving advantages of this dual graphics processor approach."
I beg your pardon? If I have to plug (or unplug) the thing, save all my stuff, close all applications, log off and log on again, shurely I could spare two more minutes for a reboot. If I can't spare two more minutes, I probably don't want to save and close everything, log off and log on either. Unless the darn thing needs 10 min to shutdown and 10 more minutes to boot up. But Leopard isn't like Vista, is it?
This feature is a major FAIL. Now if it could switch seemlessly, it could be interesting. I must go, I just tried to think of a way to switch graphic cards without closing the applications using them and got a major headache.
@Kenny Millar, Sena Gbeckor-Kove
If I understood it correctly, the dual GPU was a bit of an accident which happened because the chipset they used already includes the 9400 GPU They wanted something a little more professional for the MacBook Pro however, so they added the other. Since they now had both GPUs in the machine anyway, the design team figured they could just as well find a use for both and decided to put in the power-saving option.
Matte Screen optional?
On the Apple Store webpage, under the purchase options for the MacBook Pro 17", there is a matte screen option. I have not gone the extra step of actually ordering it, because I just learned from this article that a newer 17" MBP might be coming out in a couple of months.
@ Law
I am a creature of habit. I started with Ctrl when there was no FN, or windows key or anything else besides Ctrl and Alt (there were no other computers besides PCs where I come from). So I can make my peace with the keys between Ctrl and alt, which I rarely use, but not with Fn instead of Ctrl, because my muscle memory says, the key at the far left is the Ctrl (I am glad that I came across Suns late in my life, and thanks to Linux, I was prepared). By the way, I keep in my mind following layouts: US, Lithuanian numeric on US, Lithuanian standard, Lithuanian standard on US, French, Lithuanian standard on French, my custom Lithuanian on French, so one key renamed will not make me more confused. Nor missing, or swapped keys (type mama on French layout using US keyboard and you will be surprised). However one must have draw the line somewhere. For me the line I realised is the position of Ctrl and Fn keys and Home, End, PgUp and PgDown keys in a nice column at the far right of the keyboard.
