Im surprised by the update to MBP...

Im actually very surprised at how minor the update really is. I thought they were going to update the design as well. This update does not warrant an upgrade for me. Why? Because I could get away with using a macbook for my needs.

If a new case design happened, I would probably have sold this one and ordered a new one...just for that sole reason. As long as people cant tell whether I have the old one or the new one...im happy lol.

Anyways, Im glad to say that this macbook pro that i currently have is going to stay mine until a case redesign comes along for the macbook pro.

 

Well it has a LED screen and an update platform + a much better video card. Which is DX 10 but do mac users have directx

 

Yeah, but im happy with the current screen and i dont need the gpu power. so in my case its no big deal but it may be to some.

 

The only reason they updated was because some people might say,

"Yipee ooooo look it's an update let's spend more money on it without thinking properly."

It's also an excuse for some dealers to charge more for it.

Two words: marketing ploy.

 

I think you've got everything backwards. You're saying, you'd jump on the new MacBook Pro bandwagon if the design had been changed so that no one would see you carrying an outdated version?

I must say that I really appreciate your candor.

As the idiom goes, "To each his own" !

 

i was being more sarcastic

 

I bought my mbp like 3 months ago and i was sort of like ahh should i wait or no??Now that i see that the upgrade is minor and the price jump is huge!!! im sooooo happy i didnt wait!! that would have been such a dissapointment....

 

i thought the prices were the same no?

 

Huge price jump? Looks like a price drop to me. I'm a little frustrated at my job situation right now(as I was when I purchased my MBP). I really wanted to wait for an update, but my job required me to have a laptop, so I had to take the plunge.

I'm wondering how difficult it would be to sell this one off really quick before anybody notices the price drop, and get the new one...

 

I like the LED screen, but overall I don't see anything compelling me to buy the latest one over the previous. Given equal dollars, yeah take the new one with better battery life!

For the thrifty, this is a good time to snap up a perfectly good previous-gen MBP at a discount. I expect they'll be popping up on Craigslist pretty soon....

Greg

 

I don't think this revision of MBP is aimed at current MBP owners. It's more aimed at Powerbook/PC users, who will be wooed by the LED displays, better battery life and DX10 GPU to suit their Windows needs, and keeping up to date with technology so people don't complain too much about how expensive Macs are.

 

good point budding, i love you.

there are tonnes of macbook pros popping up on ebay.

 

Haha ... I bought mine 2 months ago ... crap.

Now they come with a 160GB Serial ATA Drive @ 7200 rpm option?! WTF?! Why couldn't I have had that before? ARGH. I know that I can still put one of them in my current model, but it voids the warranty, which I think is pretty important to have. I really need that damn 7200rpm drive for my music apps & DAWS.

And the fact that they can have up to 4 GB of memory now ... DAMN!! I'm nerfed at 3GB, but only running 2GB at the moment. I've heard that running with 3GB yields slightly worse results ... but I haven't seen any real confirmation on that. If running 3GB is okay ... then I'd like to upgrade a.s.a.p.

I can't wait to see the benchmark specs between the GeForce 8600 and the ATI 1600.

 

i had no choice when i bought mine. i dropped my first macbook pro and needed a working one for my trip, and had to buy a new one. oh well, i can wait for the next update, i got nothing but time.

 

It seems to have the same screen as the old one, or am I missing something?

 

apparently the new LCD screens offer better colors and better eveness in lighting, and its supposed to extend battery life.

 

It has an LED back-lit screen which is apparently amazing.

 

well since every aspect internally was updated, I could hardly call it minor.

you shouldn't even be thinking about upgrading if you had just got a MBP, if you haven't noticed, updates to computers are never, ever, huge, at all.

if you are more worried about the hardware you have then what you are doing with it, you should probably rethink why you have it in the first place.

as for someone saying the cost went up, definitely wrong on that one, the only people that should be upset about it at all is someone who with the last 2 weeks or so purchased a MBP, I am sure there are many people who did, and could care less about the new update because they are thinking thinking more about what they are doing with their computer instead of the hardware itself, and are perfectly happy.

this kind of posting about major and minor updates and saying it is good or bad is just silly, it isn't going to change anything, how the company released computers, all it really comes down to is realizing that having the absolute fastest hardware never really means anything, especially if you aren't doing anything with it, because there are always computers out their way faster than any of us will ever own, or need for that matter. And if you do own the fastest, newest hardware, feel good about yourself for 2 or 3 weeks and then it will be over. If that's the kind of thing that makes you happy then the more power to you, but honestly, If I can create something with a 2 year old computer just as efficiently as one that is brand new I am perfectly happy, and don't even think about not having the newest hardware.

when the machine is starting to get old and get in the way of what I am trying to do, then I will definitely start thinking about hardware. when you are dealing with creativity, having the fastest hardware is always only a minor advantage when it really comes down to it.

am I excited about the new update, yeah kind of, I plan to get a MBP sometime soon so I say update away, when I need it I will get it and I will be perfectly happy with it until it starts getting in my way.

until then . . . just relax and let people enjoy their new machines

 

Nice post circa86. Couldn't have said it any better myself. Yeah, a lot of people were disappointed that there was no update to the design or no ultraportable was launched, but in terms of incremental updates, this was relatively substantial. Sometimes it's tempting to bash a new product to keep one's own on a pedestal.

 

well actually, the 160gb 7200rpm drives aren't really available at all yet, not for 4-6 weeks according to apple's site, and definitely aren't available at online retailers quite yet, I can't wait for the 250gb 7200rpm drives!!

I love!!!! the fact that Apple keeps there price points the same, they are definitely expensive, but the fact that they keep their notebooks updated and keep the price the same is great. it is just up to the buyer to know when to buy when they are looking for a new machine.

 

well said yourself sir I have been looking at this site for quite awhile now, and I know how easy it is to get obsessed with the hardware, when in fact that isn't the point at all, people have computers to make new things possible and their lives more efficient, the people that turn it into a contest have completely missed the point, I am going to push this idea like crazy from now on I think

sure it is fine to really be interested in the hardware and new updates etc. but I don't think that should be a consumer's only or main concern.

 

The new MacBook Pros seem to have the same crappy low resolution.

 

have you ever seen a MBP screen? the resolution is perfectly fine, I don't understand the people that want a 1680x1050 15.4" screen???? 1680X1050 works well for 20.1" widescreens definitely not for 15" models in my opinion.

not to mention 17" models in fact do have a high res option, but again only useful if reading text is not a main priority, but when would that ever be the case? not matter what you are doing you need to be able to read text.

saying it is crappy is ridiculous, it is higher than the majority of this size of computer, and how many companies even make a 15.4" panel at 1680x1050? 1 or 2 maybe? and how is the quality of those panels? who knows?

 

well said, don't let an update get in the way of what you are using it for.

 

I prefer WUXGA (1920x1200) resolution for 15.4" laptops, but I will settle for WSXGA+ (1680x1050).

EDIT:????? Almost every laptop company offers WSXGA+ resolution for 15.4" laptops. Dell and HP offer WUXGA resolution for 15.4" laptops. MacBook Pro monitors are inadequate.

 

i have seen WUXGA on a 15.4" Dell and it was not not not at all efficient for much other than just photoshop work, like if you were using the laptop as an external monitor, with no menu's or pallets on it, other than that????

what do you use that high of resolution for? i am sure there is something it is useful for, but on a 15" model?? really??? haha I am pretty amazed by this.

but like I said, there are nearly no companies producing panels like this, and again, the demand for that res of screen is definitely not there at all, so I believe you are definitely out of luck, but you shouldn't be complaining as your opinion definitely defers from the norm.

 

I am out of luck. Lenovo canceled their orders for 14.1" T61s with WSXGA+ resolution and Dell will not introduce a WXGA+ resolution 13.3" laptop.

 

I think WXGA+ is perfect for 15.4", for me at least, and I wish it were offered on more models.

I read that Apple was working on features in Leopard related to supporting different resolutions -- sounded like the DPI adjustment feature in Windows -- so it wouldn't surprise me if Apple started offering higher-res screen options after Leopard came out. I saw that they are offering a higher res. today on the 17" -- I was surprised by that.

 

ahh, well I hope you can find a model you like, but still, why do you prefer that high of resolution? i have never used a laptop with that high of resolution for a significant amount of time, with good reason, so maybe I am missing something?

or maybe it is just personal preference?

 

I spend most of my time typing on Word, Excel and looking at Web pages. It makes it easier for me because I can see more of a page at once rather then scrolling up and down.

 

Quite happy with the update. I've been holding out for a 12" MBP version - but the 15"er will do just fine, given it's lighter than most other 15" notebooks out there.

The GPU upgrade was the best part for me ... glad to see an upgrade there (yes, I use my Mac for some gaming).

Display resolution is very much a personal preference. 1440x on a 15.4 is just what I'm looking for. Have 1680x1050 on my current 15.4" notebook - and it's a little on the small side for me (text wise).

My new MBP has been ordered!

 

So, who died and made you the militant screen resolution god?

FWIW, my E1505 Dell has a 1680x1050 screen and I love it, but thanks for making your "opinion" on this so well known, if not particularly well articulated.

High-res screens are almost always "optional" so if you don't want it, don't get it, but don't think that it should not be offered since you are so irrationally opposed to it.

 

was I irrational about it? I am the only one that has even mentioned why having that high res of a screen would be useful?

i have no idea what FWIW means and don't care to know, but please tell me why that res is more efficient than the normal resolution for those screens? why is your 1680x1050 more efficient than the 1440x900 of your MBP? like I said, I don't doubt that it may be for you, I am just interested in how it may be, so in the future I could answer people's questions about this type of screen.

hey, I am not saying it should not be offered, but I am saying I don't think the buyers would be there, that is all, maybe I am wrong.

 

I spend most of my time typing on Word, Excel and looking at Web pages. It makes it easier for me because I can see more of a page at once rather then scrolling up and down.

 

I actually really enjoy high resolution displays, not for text/excel + browsing but for development. It's so much easier to have a web browser + Dreamweaver/Photoshop open side by side when doing web design stuff than having to switch back and forth. For that reason I'm looking to upgrade this 20.1" WS LCD to a 24". I just can't get enough of that resolution goodness.

A WSXGA option would've been nice on the MacBook Pro 15.4". The Z71V I've got has that and was one of the big reasons I purchased it when I was without a desktop. Now that I do my dev work on the desktop, it doesn't really matter too much for me. 1280x800 sucks still.

 

i think that the high res option is long over (1920x1200) - and if they are going to offer 1920x1200 across a 17" screen, why not be consistent and offer 1680x 1050 or whatever across the 15" screen? offer an increment in both screen resolutions?

personally - i think 1440x900 is perfect for 15" and i even enjoy my larger 19" i guess widescreen at 1440x900. everything is very clear and sharp and games can run in native resolution, fast.

i *hope* the 8600m gt can pump out games at 1440x900.