Apple MacBook Pro Updates with Intel Santa Rosa and LED Backlit screen

what do u mean by backlit LED? cause it look the same for the old one

 

Its actually almost 2 years old. Sony brought it out on the TX in 2005, but it had some serious light leakage issues. They made it better after a few months though.

 

Yes, the same with lenovo Thinkpad R61 & T61 ...

 

ATi/AMD really aren't doing very well right now.

 

Yes. And not only in notebbok cards, also in desktop. DX10 nvidia cards where in desktop market earlier than ATI ones

 

The -$150 for the glossy screen is gone now (regular and academic apple store). When you choose the option, the price doesn't change. This is what I figured since the option between the 2 choices doesn't say "add" or "subtract" so I figured it was a no cost optional choice between the two.

I wonder if anyone that had ordered real quick got the reduced price?

 

Apple says the LED backlit screens have no noticeable differences besides power consumption compared to older CCFL backlit screens.

To the video guru, however, there is indeed a big difference:

1) Lighting is more even - there is no 'bright spots'
2) Similar to the factor above, there is also no light leakage. Anybody with two eyes can see this difference.
3) Color gamut is improved. Only the trained eye and sometimes the amateur eyes can tell a difference. But color gamut is far, far improved over conventional CCFL.
4) Although brightness is rated the same, LED backlit units have the capacity to achieve a higher brightness than CCFL's limit (before power consumption becomes an issue) because LED uses only a fraction of CCFL's power for the same brightness.

There is a reason why nearly all high-quality flat panel LCD displays have gone to use LED backlighting (e.g. Sony for example).

 

I tried but the price jumped back when added to cart

 

Meh...I was on the fence. Good price...ugly glossy screen. There are so many choice and upcoming products right now! X61t, TZ, S37z, m1330, new mini macbook pro....head....exploding!

 

not a bad update at all!

new processor

160gb 7200 rpm drive, yessir!

new gpu

new screen, 1920x1200 available on 17" model

4 gb of ram

basically everything that can be updated has been, besides the design, which isn't a problem.

nice nice nice.

 

SSD would have made me buy one

 

Yea man im surprised they put a NVidia 8600 in there . its Quick!

i wonder what will happen now that they aint using ATI. Cool thing is more people can game now once it works in bootcamp .

 

hmm it seems no LED display on the 17" model yet? strange hope they update it by the time Leopard comes out!

 

This makes me want to buy a Macbook pro even more! Did not expect a Nivida card! =)

 

Sigh.. only if this was released back when I still had the money to buy. Guess I'd have to wait for the next refresh.

One thing I'm curious about: which screen is the LED backlit one? There seems to be only two options (glossy and matte) on the Apple website.

 

Gawd, a 17" LED backlight would push it $800+ more i bet

 

Dell will be coming out with a really nice one.

http://laptoping.com/dell-xps-m1330.html

 

The m1330 does look incredibly sweet. However, it's only 13.3"

 

Depends on the keyboard and resolution of the LCD. Can't remember if I saw that. I wish it would have been a 14" LCD.

I've already got a Macbook Pro and I upgraded the hard drive to a 160 gig myself. Not sure if there is really enough there to make me want to upgrade at this point.

 

I have been holding out for this model. I passed on the other very solid pro notebooks due to either size or not having a dedicated video card of any quality. To me, the LED backlight and 2GB RAM is just icing on the cake.

Just have to save up the $2500 now

 

This is about the Perfect Laptop for me although I do fault it for having too few USB ports and no memory card reader.

The case is getting old, but no other laptop vendor has yet to match it for form factor and looks. I guess there is no reason to change it.

I've been waiting, hording my upgrade nest egg for 8 months for this!

 

I wouldn't go that far... In particular Asus makes a few models that can match it in style IMO but are more durable.
If it came with a more modern case, build, and durability and a few more ports, I'd certainly convert from PC to Apple without a second thought...but it didn't

 

Are the new macbooks gunna be more environment friendly?
I don't really care, but it really doesnt go with the background they selected on the screen.

 

More durable, maybe, but Asus does NOT make any models that match this case for style. Hell, there's not a manufacturer out there that makes a laptop that matches the 6 y/o TiBook for style (The Sony rip-off N-series comes close, but is way too thick n heavy). Apple's case takes the cake because the bottom of the laptop is as beautifully finished and clean as the rest of the computer (which can NOT be said for any other laptops that I can think of). The back-lit lettering in the keys is also a unique feature. Face it, no laptop is as clean and modern as Apple's pro series, be it PowerBook or MacBook.

Just wish it had:
1. Higher resolution (1440x900? That's barf-inducing in a 14" screen, but a 15"? EWWWWW).
2. Integrated WWAN option (is there an extra miniPCI slot in there that we don't know about?) =OP
3. Bigger ExpressCard/PCMCIA slot.

*SIGH* Gave up my TiBook for a Dell 8600 and I love the dedicated gfx (from 8mb ATI Rage to 128mb 9600 PT) and LOVE LOVE LOVE the WUXGA+ 15" screen, but I really miss OSX. I've noticed that there's not another portable implementation as elegant as OSX on Apple hardware. I hate the boot-up time from stand-by in XP (present in my Dell and my friend's Thinkpad x60s n t42) and miss the instant-on, instant-sleep in OSX when you open/close the laptop screen. OSX in a mobile environment just seems better thought-out than XP. (I won't even get started on my Vista Ultimate nightmare).

 

Wow, I didn't even notice that! No memory card reader whatsoever? That sucks.

 

In terms of the 15.4" form factor, is this the lightest 15.4" notebook on the market? It must at least be one of the lightest. One of the reasons why I bought my MBP was that at 5.6lbs it was fairly light, and not much heavier than most 14" notebooks. These new MBPs are even lighter at 5.4lbs, which a small improvement that people don't generally mention.

 

Eh that's highly subjective. Some people think the plain look of the Thinkpad is unrivaled for style--simplicity is better. It's "cleaner" than the MBP. Others swear by the leather finish of the Asus VX2 with all the frills. There are even people consider the flashy lights of the XPS 1710 to be "stylish"

As for lit keys, the MBP, Panansonic, and Thinkpad all have them. Well, the Thinkpad has a screen illuminator, which isn't quite the same thing, but it's similar.

The MBP does look amazing, but at this point in time, there are definitely other laptops out there that not only have the looks, but also the build quality and material to go with it.

 

The new Sony FZ series, which is very compact for a 15, is 5.75 pounds, so I would say it is.

 

MBP looks good in movies and what not but it loses a lot of its elegance when you actually use it. it pales when compared to LG S1/Panasonic Y5/Toshiba R400 but then again that's just me.

 

Yeah, you did not notice because most reviews out there tend to mention the good things; they just keep saying how good MBP is.
Besides the lack of memory card reader, there are other things that I like to see improved:

1. more USB ports (this is a popular request)
2. user-replaceable HDD
3. HDD activity indicator
4. dedicated right click button
5. dedicated home/end/page up/page down/backspace/pause/PrtScn keys
6. swap the control and Fn key
7. on/off switch for the trackpad
8. make the trackpad align with the F and J keys (this is minor and can be solved by #7)

 

lol, then what's the point to get a mac? you can just use a PC since it has all these features.

 

W3J and Z70va were NICE.

Durability? My (now the wife's) TiBook ran for 6 years with zero problems. It still runs fine on AC. The battery finally gave out this year and I'd rather replace the whole laptop rather than invest $250 in an new battery.

I've used Mac's, PC's, concurrently and constantly over the past 20 years. I've always found the Apple hardware to last longer than PC's or me at least. They definitely are easier to sell used when upgrade time comes around.

 

Odd too, given Apple's focus on content creation. Importing images from a memory card is something I do a LOT, and its a pain to haul around a USB card reader.

 

Has there ever been an Apple laptop (or even any Apple desktop) with a memory card reader? Why would they suddenly add it now?

 

This was one of my biggest beefs when i shopped the MacPro vs the G2 4 mths ago.
Every photographer i know including myself could never understand why the Mac's have no card readers.
All my buds i shoot with and all the ones i know in the pro digi field who current use macs have to buy external corded CompactFlash/SD/MD or MicroDrive readers.
Its quite dumb of Mac in this day and age to not include such minimal cost devices to their laptops. Very very dumb.

 

Meh, it takes up space. Apple is more than willing to delete things that make their laptops bigger, thicker, and heavier. Including ports, card readers, and that novel concept known as a cooling system.

 

ROFL.

Is that really true (the part about the cooling system)?

Still hilarious even if it's not

 

They have a cooling system - its just drowning in thermal paste

(Actually, I think they have that problem totally solved at this point, but its still funny.)

 

Why is it that there isn't a non-Mac 15" notebook that is as thin at the MBP? If there was, I would be more interested in moving up an inch in screen size.

 

nice, but hmmmm. need a notebook and its definately tempting.
about the card reader thing something that came to mind was how adamant apple is about being creative multimedia center compared to windows but doesnt even have a card reader?
and seriously 2 usb ports wtf is with that? that hurts.
but something i commend always about the mbp is that they couple a decent graphics card with some serious battery life. but hopefully its not like the x1600 in the older mbp, it seems a bit of a waste to have that card when they do that to it.

 

The HP nc8430 is only 0.1" thicker.
The 15.4" T61 is 0.13" thicker.

 

And they both are as boxy as the Scion xB....The 8510p (replacement for the nc8430) might be competitive to the MBP in performance, but not in looks at all.

 

Heh, the MBP at least includes an expresscard slot of some type..even if it is only 34mm.

The 8510p will come with a PCMCIA slot and only an HD 2600 too, no XT (the MBP at least is a 8600M GT)

 

I'm pretty sure that he misspoke. I think he meant to ask why there aren't any laptops as thick as the Macbook range. The HP is only .1" thicker at it's thinnest edge. I'm not sure about the T-series. Used to be uniform in thickness....

 

If you had used any of the original Core Duo MacBook Pros, you would have agreed that it was true. I think they have fixed it now though.

 

I don't quite get your logic?
So the point of getting mac is just you don't want some features, no matter good or bad, that a PC has?
We are not talking about Windows.
Those are all hardware features.

 

MacBook does have a user-replaceable HD. On the other hand, adding all these things are completely against the Apple philosophy. Apple is all about minimalism and adding more lights here and buttons and keys there will simply uglify the machine. Why do you need a on/off switch for the trackpad? You can already turn off the trackpad via software when a mouse is plugged in, and the accidental input control on the MBP is actually very good (i have NEVER accidentally hit the trackpad while typing). Right click button? Mac OS X isn't as dependent on the right click as Windows, and personally, two finger tap works just as well as having a right click button. Control and Fn key?!?! why? I hardly ever use the Ctrl key on my Mac. everything works through the Apple Command key.

I do agree though more USB ports should be added, but not at the expense of making the machine thicker or uglier.

 

no fingerprint scanner for such an expensive machine as well.
i am actually very interested in getting one of these, i like the thought of a 15.4" screen in the chassis of a 14.1" size notebook, and was wondering if there is anyway to have just windows and completely removing osx? whether it isnt entirely legal doesnt matter.

 

LOL!

still... i say wait for next year if u already have macintel laptop.
next year is: -new OS (leopard)
-new chipset (montevina)
-more LED screen (probably the 17" will get one also)
-reduced cost

 

Yes, MacBook has user-replaceable HDD, but we are talking about MBP here.
Well, as for the lack of some keys (forgot about the wireless on/off switch) and the right click button, yes, you always have the option in software, but I still think having dedicated keys is more convenient. When I use Firefox I use the right click a lot. Also, I use MBP to connect to Linux so I use the Ctrl key a lot too. Of course, all these can be resolved in software and they are just minor things that I wish I had on MBP. Overall, MBP is still the best notebook I have ever had and seen.