Macbook Pro: I am the only 1 disappointed?

Wow Dell really found a sucker with their different colored fronts didn't they? The hardware is the most important part of the computer. Many times more important than the outer design. I was about to get a Compal last year until Apple released they're new MBP with an 8600GT in it. They had me sold at that point.

 

For most members on NBR the hardware within a computer is the most important, since we have sufficient knowledge and understanding on the subject to realise its importance.
Quite a lot of Mac users use it due to its simplicity and user friendliness. Those users would be less interested in hardware, and more pulled by designs and colours. So introducing Macs in different colours would have been a good idea.

 

I wasn't saying that people wouldn't be pulled in by colors, (I would most likely still get a neutral color). The poster said screw refreshing the hardware and instead change the colors. That wouldn't fly well with a lot of Mac users, especially the people with Pros.

 

Well. I'm not going to chime in on the disappointment aspect of this thread, but I will say that I'm strongly considering selling my 1-year old MBP and getting the new one.

If only I'm not so lazy and could be so bothered to do it....

aaah decisions decisions

 

Omg.

Matlock. I love it!

"Hey look... I got a new Matlock!"

 

Good thing I wasn't talking about the Pros.

I'm writing on a Tablet and every once in a while, it misreads my crappy handwriting.

 

So yesterday, there was the big day. Rumors upfront as always, many pictures many "real" cases, a little bit like the latest ipod introduction, too much information. Too much true information. No "one last thing" and the outcome? I am totally dissappointed. I mean where is the invention? Where is a new design?

They used the same 6 year old design, it is a now coming from a one-piece-aluminum block? WOW, how impressive. A black bezel? How stylish. More rounded at the edges? Not too bad. No matte options anymore? Innovative again, and hey the got more graphic power, really useful for those gaming machines the MacBooks, as they always were. I mean, Macs and gaming?

They are thinner, yes and wow for that too, but more lightweight? The MBP has almost the same weight, the MB is 200 gramm less (sorry I am coming from Europe), where is the advantage? Better perfomance?

The trackpad, improved one or two more gestures, wow again. No HDMI, Mini Display Port is the future? Everyone is usind HDMI at their LCD and Plasmas, not Mini DP. Resolution? The same old WXGA and WGXA+? Ok they are both LED, and they will be bright as hell, but hey, to be honest, that is standard nowadays. Keyboard from the Air, good choice, the MB keyboard was as "bag of hurt" but again, wow! No BlueRay option? I mean what an excuse.

Perhaps you get more "package" for the money you spend, but let's face it, that's not the Apple we know from the older days. The could have gone with a real new design, new colours, being more brave and bringing more live into their notebook line. Of course it is a good "update" but not more or less.

But at the end they will sell their products and of course there is more in for the customer. But for the real gadget fans out there, there was more to expect and I am sad that we will see the same design for the next two years again.

 

I have no problems when people voice their opinions as opinions. When people start voicing their opinions as statements/facts, I speak up.

 

Not sure if these have sound or not, guess the only way is to wait until there is a pinout diagram from the new laptops. It's listed as having sound as an optional thing, according to that link on wikipedia.

It'd make sense if it had it, cause then you could get hdmi with sound, but the fact that apple never mentioned hdmi at all, makes me kinda think it doesnt have sound.

 

Audio over Displayport is possible, but the hardware on both sides has to support it obviously. I don't know of any devices that currently support audio over Displayport.

 

I can't say that I'm disappointed in the new MB and MBP per se, because I didn't have too much expectation and there wasn't much to disappoint me with. With that said, there's nothing special about them either, cost reduction took quite a big step forward which is why they were able to fit all the nice features into the MB. Design-wise they have definitely decided to venture into a new direction, but it was a direction that wasn't very interesting at all to me, so I decided to save money and grab one of the last MBPs on clearance. $1600 for 2.5, 250GB and 8600GT w/512mb is a good deal for a brand new MBP, and even though it doesn't have the "cool" new design, it's a classic shape with very good quality, not to mention the last matte screens from Apple.

Depending on Apple's business strategies in the future, they could very well be stepping out of their niche in the market and become a more consumer-oriented brand with broad appeal levels.

 

I posted this reply on your other thread which was closed and redirected here, so I thought I'd copy over my reply too.

Anyways, I think Apple really should do something about the rumours. Supposedly, they have been more lenient lately, and the rumours are now so accurate they are basically preannouncing the products. I'm sure a lot of the disappointment was because Apple didn't announce anything different from the rumours which makes it seems like they did nothing new. No matter how good things are, if you know about it already it won't impress you.

They did implement switchable graphics though. And they aren't going to up the resolution on the 13.3" or 15" otherwise it won't be readable for many people. I'm pretty sure the majority agree that 1280x800 on a 13.3" screen and 1440x900 on a 15.4" screen is optimal. It's just tough-luck on the minority since Apple doesn't have the volume to justify offering several different resolutions. They did standardize the 17" MBP refresh on the 1920x1200 resolution up from 1680x1050.

In terms of HDMI, it is unlikely to ever take the computer industry buy storm. And it was never meant to. HDMI was designed as an interface for TV. DVI was designed to replace VGA and DisplayPort was designed to replace DVI. Apple has gone the right direction and no doubt 2 years in the future, we will all be praising them for leading the crowd in DisplayPort adoption. It would have been better if they had used the standard DisplayPort instead of some strange mini-version.

And the lack of Blu-ray, particularly on the MBP, may have been a consequence of the switchable graphics that you support. Since the entire Blu-ray decode and viewing process needs to be encrypted, Apple probably ran into problems in the switching relays between the IGP and discrete GPU. If Apple couldn't get Blu-ray "to just work" with both the IGP and discrete GPU, they probably decided not to introduce it yet. And seeing it hasn't taken off yet, they're probably hoping it'll just die off and save them the trouble.

 

Why would a member of the BDA, not only a member, but a company on the Board of Directors for the BDA, the highest level of the BDA, want blu-ray to die? That makes no sense. It's $50,000 a year to be on the BDA. While that's really a plink in the bucket for Apple, I don't think they're that unscrupulous with their money to just throw it away. Heck they could give that $50,000 to a charity and increase their reputation in the public just a tiny bit.

 

I have some thoughts..

1440х900 ? Is this 2008? Let me check my calendar..
What exactly was wrong with Montevina? Nvidia chipsets haven't been exactly "superb" lately.
No matte? Wow..
9600m? Really? Why even bother changing 8600m then..
Apple started hating students, I guess educational discount was uber abused.
What's up with those display port adapter prices? They are crazy.

All in all, this is a huge disappointment to me, I guess waiting another update.

 

I'm not actually sure how active Apple is in promoting Blu-ray anymore. Apple's position on the Blu-Ray Board may well be a holdover from their codec wars with Microsoft. Microsoft was trying to push their own VC-1 codec which I believe is a variant of WMV9 as the next-generation high-def codec to replace MPEG-2. Apple was pushing their own h.264. I believe both are used, but given the better visibility and usage of h.264, Apple pretty much won. Their board seat was probably their way of ensuring h.264 was implemented. And as you say, $50,000 isn't that big an investment to stay on.

 

I strongly disagree, look at the VAIO Z and you'll know what i mean..

 

9600gt scores >6k in 3dmark.

 

Maybe Apple got tired of people abusing the student discount......ever consider that?

 

Didn't I write that?

 

Have to agree with all the disappointed people. To me there is absolutely nothing new. Better GPU but not really by all that much. Hybrid SLi components but no way to use them. I think my switch back to non Mac's will be alot easier now. (Only when this MBP gives hehehehe I still love this baby though)

Apple could have certainly come up with something better then this.

Oh when are the 17" models being released?

 

I am waiting for the 17" but if the 17" doesn't support 1920x1200 then i will not buy it.

If the 17" doesn't have BLU RAY i am not going to buy it either - certainly not at that price. I am silly not stupid.

 

I didn't even know about student discount I bought the outgoing model for my daughter and never a discount out of it

 

The pro labelling is just a branding exercise now. Both the MBP and Macbook are from the same product line. I can't say I'm particularly disappointed however I do know a couple of graphic designers and a photographer who were waiting to see what the new models were like who are now seriously thinking about an HP, Dell or Lenovo because of their new displays.

I doubt Apple will worry much it's pretty clear that all their notebook models are largely consumer orientated.

My real gripe is just the complete lack of options with these notebooks now beyond the size of hard drive and slightly different processor specs.

If that's where the sales are in ever increasingly difficult economic times you can understand it.

 

Really? In 3dmark06? Thats pretty bad-a**, where did you find that out?

 

Do you mean the $2,499 version with 4 gigs of ram and higher CPU?
And that's not bad at all...

 

As a current MBP (Santa Rosa) owner, I'm far more enticed by the MB than the new MBP. I don't need Firewire or the 9600GT, so the MB's only downside for me is the lower resolution.

Also, subjectively, because both are the same design, but the MB is smaller, I prefer the MB's look.

 

The student discount only applies to college students... not your 8 year old.

A couple of months ago, you made it sound like you had money to burn on a laptop, and you didn't care how much it cost... What happened between then and now?

 

He most likely found it from the PC Mag review:
http://www.pcmag.com/image_popup/0,1871,iid=219440,00.asp

The 6k+ is misleading because they obtained that result at 1024x768. Seriously, people need to start mentioning the resolutions used. The standard is 1280x1024 (obviously the new 15" MBP can only go up to 1440x900 but if you convert both to total # of pixels it's not that much of a difference). Since the result obtained from the test at native resolution should be within a few percentage points of what it would be at standard resolution, we should assume that, based on the PC Mag benchmarks, the average 3dmark06 score of the new MBP would be somewhere around 5k or so. If I remember correctly, the 8600m GT in the Penryn MBP generally scored in the low 4000s with up to date drivers at standard resolution so there is a noticeable increase in performance, at least in terms of 3dmark06 scores.

Note that the PC Mag 3dmark06 scores for the Penryn MBP are not very reliable due to the fact that they were based on results obtained from their review of the Penryn MBP published on 3/26/2008. It is likely that driver updates have pushed that number over 4k at native resolution.

 

Oh okay, since I scored a 6023 on a 1280, I was impressed that the MBPs 9600 did the same...guess not.

 

The lack of options actually is geared towards their resell market. They are trying to help the 2nd hand market with making easier decisions.

They are virtually training the used market buyer and making easier for them to sell as the used market will have less choices to make.

 

This is more like it:



Posted by TRF-Inferno.