New MB/MBPs - who else is disappointed?

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.

Where is WWAN? Where is eSata, switchable graphics? Where is something we all didn't exect?

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 am really dissapointed too ... I just saw the MBP and is wide and long as hell ! I mean it really looks BIG for a 15" laptop. It is really thin indeed, but once on the table I just don't notice that, instead I keep focusing how HUGE of a laptop it is. Compared to the older one (which I like) is bigger with almost 2cm from left to right!!!!

I just configured one MBP with 2.8GhzCPU and nothing else but stupid CABLES and it's about 3000$ without taxes. Why!!! How come Apple charges 100$ for a dual-dvi adapter, how do they even dare to sell you a laptop with no connector what so ever to an external display and then charge you 30$ for a VGA or 100$ for a full dual DVI ?!??! If I add another 300$ for a Vista license (I need it were I work) plus the ext warranty plus the solid stated drive plus the taxes I end up paying a lot more than 4000$ for a laptop. I mean, that is really mean !

I am pretty upset on this whole story, not that I care much about how apple does their business but now I am left with no laptop to buy, and I already waited about 3 months for this one here.

If anyone can provide an alternative, any 15" with similar performance but a smaller size (not talking about height here) and less than 6 lbs please share the info with me. I am already looking at the dell m4400 and some other laptops but they all look bulky and big compared to my Sony SZ. The new Sony let me down as well. My last hope was Apple, but I am really torn right now.

 

OP

Yup you said it. It looks nice but where is the substance. And hybrid SLI doesn't work in OS X so who cares about it, lol.

@pampas

New Dells in November. Maybe you will not be so disappointed. On another note, don't buy any extras from Apple or usually any other computer co. they just rip you off. Get that stuff from an online store or even your local best buy.

Can xoticpc help you out? Always a ton of options on those Clevos. Doesn't look like much but they are packed full of power. The Sony FWs are quite well equipped too. Not too familiar with the SZ myself.

 

How many "Who else is disappointed" threads do we need?

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=310058
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=309782

 

I'm pretty sure there is already a disappointment thread.

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.

 

Hopefully with this people would know not to expect so high with the next refresh, but I'm afraid that this question will somehow pop up again after it

 

Was thinking the same thing.

If you want to know who else is disappointed just read the threads that have that in the tittle.

 

It's no the rumors that fuel the disappointment at launch, it's the fact that Apple and Apple zealots makes such a huge deal out of nothing. Ooo let's have a big press conference and invite the media, no THE WORLD to see what we haven't done with our new products. Woot! lol it's just a sermon to the choir. Maybe the choir is starting to fall off? I don't really know or care. Still only two reasons to buy a Mac imo, OS X and Final Cut Studio. Funny how the only reasons I would buy a piece of hardware from a hardware company, is because of software.

 

Because of the multiple threads circling around, I'll close this one and ask everyone to continue their discussion in the existing threads, thanks!