After making Mac loyalists wait quite a while Apple has finally updated the MacBook Pro range of notebooks with improved processors and graphics. The 15" and 17" models have received Core i5 and Core i7 processors with new NVIDIA 330M discrete graphics, whereas the 13" model got faster Core 2 Duo processors and NVIDIA 320M graphics. The graphics on the 15" and 17" models can automatically change to the on-board Intel HD graphics according to graphics requirements to save power. Another major change was the higher battery life, with Apple claiming an unbelievable 10 hours of battery life for the 13" MacBook Pro and 8-9 hours for the 15" and 17" models. We received the base 15" model, with 2.4GHz Core i5 and 4GB of RAM for testing. Let's see what this baby can do.
Design
Nothing new here. The MacBook Pros have retained the design of the previous generation models and are virtually indistinguishable from them. This isn't exactly a bad thing though as the MacBook Pros were always one of the best-looking notebooks around. However, we do have some minor issues with the design which we hoped Apple would sort out.
First is the position of the USB ports, which are too close to each other. Often we would connect a flash drive that was slightly thicker than the usual ones and the port adjacent to it would become unusable. There are also just two ports on the 13" and 15" models, and we can clearly see a lot of space which could have been utilized in spacing out the ports and adding another one. Also, the SD card slot is not available for some reason on the 17" MacBook Pro but it instead gets an ExpressCard slot that the 13" and 15" models lack.
Nothing new here. The MacBook Pros have retained the design of the previous generation models and are virtually indistinguishable from them. This isn't exactly a bad thing though as the MacBook Pros were always one of the best-looking notebooks around. However, we do have some minor issues with the design which we hoped Apple would sort out.
First is the position of the USB ports, which are too close to each other. Often we would connect a flash drive that was slightly thicker than the usual ones and the port adjacent to it would become unusable. There are also just two ports on the 13" and 15" models, and we can clearly see a lot of space which could have been utilized in spacing out the ports and adding another one. Also, the SD card slot is not available for some reason on the 17" MacBook Pro but it instead gets an ExpressCard slot that the 13" and 15" models lack.
Another flaw with the design are the sharp edges. The unibody aluminum design looks great but the edges can be a bit harsh on your skin. Some areas, such as near the display hinges, are extremely sharp. And then there is the time honored problem of overheating, which is worse than ever on the Core i5 and i7 models. Even when doing something as simple as web browsing and typing out a text document the MacBook Pro runs hotter than other notebooks.
Running something heavy, such as games, can make the notebook run hot enough to cook your lunch on it. The fans also seem quite lazy and only kick in when things start to get really hot. Of course, you can install a third party utility which will allow you to control the fan speed, but then the MacBook Pro won't be very quiet and it will also degrade the battery life. This is probably why Apple has designed the fan to kick in only at very high temperatures. Note when I say "kick in", I mean spin at a higher RPM and not actually start spinning. The fans are constantly spinning when the machine is on.
The keyboard and trackpad on the new MacBook Pros are fantastic as ever. The trackpad has now received a new feature called momentum scrolling. This is similar to the kinetic scrolling effect we see on the iPhone (and a dozen other phones now) and on the Magic Mouse. You just swipe your fingers on the trackpad and the page will continue to scroll for a while before coming to a smooth halt. This really makes scrolling a pleasure and makes the already brilliant trackpad simply unbeatable. This feature is only available on the new MacBook Pros and although it is just a software update that enables it, Apple has not provided it for owners of previous generation MacBook Pros.
One thing I would like to note here is that, since the new unibody MacBook came out we have been hearing a clicking noise from the optical drive when we suddenly move the laptop around. This was not present in the previous MacBook and MacBook Pros.
Hardware
The 15" MacBook Pro is available in three models, 2.4GHz Core i5, 2.53GHz Core i5 and 2.66GHz Core i7. The first model comes with a 320GB hard drive whereas the top two models come with a 500GB 5400 rpm hard drive. You also get the option to configure it with a 500GB 7200-rpm hard drive or 128GB, 256GB or 512GB solid state drive. The first two models have 3MB shared L3 cache whereas the top model has 4MB shared L3 cache. All models come with a 4GB of DDR3 RAM and can be configured up to 8GB.
The graphics have been updated from the on-board NVIDIA GeForce 9400M and NVIDIA GeForce 9600M GT discrete graphics to Intel HD on-board to NVIDIA GeForce 330M discrete graphics. One major difference is that unlike on the previous model, where you would log in and out to switch between the two graphics mode, in the new model the switching happens on the fly. This is somewhat similar to NIVIDIA's Optimus, but with some key differences. In Optimus, the on-board chip remains active all the time, regardless of whether the discrete graphics is active or not. When the discrete graphics is activated it outputs its signal through the on-board chip to the display.
In case of Apple's solution, you fully switch between the two chips where only one is active at any given time. There is also a difference in the way the two solutions switch between their graphics chips. In Optimus, it refers to an online list of applications to know which application should trigger the discrete graphics. Users also have the option to manually select applications that would use the discrete graphics. In Apple's solution the OS decides which graphics chip to use depending upon the requirements of the application. Unfortunately, as we experienced, it can be quite wrong with simple applications such as Tweetie triggering the GeForce 330M when it could have happily continue on the on-board Intel HD graphics.
Right now the only option Apple gives you regarding the graphics is to disable the switching, in which case the machine would just use the 330M graphics. However, there is no way to force it to use the Intel HD graphics to save some battery life and you would instead have to rely on the automatic switching. What's worse is that there is no way to tell which mode the machine is in currently. Luckily there is a third party utility called 'gfxCardStatus', which runs in the background and lets you know which graphics the machine is using currently and also lets you manually switch between them. I would definitely recommend it to users of the new MacBook Pro.
The 15" MacBook Pro is available in three models, 2.4GHz Core i5, 2.53GHz Core i5 and 2.66GHz Core i7. The first model comes with a 320GB hard drive whereas the top two models come with a 500GB 5400 rpm hard drive. You also get the option to configure it with a 500GB 7200-rpm hard drive or 128GB, 256GB or 512GB solid state drive. The first two models have 3MB shared L3 cache whereas the top model has 4MB shared L3 cache. All models come with a 4GB of DDR3 RAM and can be configured up to 8GB.
The graphics have been updated from the on-board NVIDIA GeForce 9400M and NVIDIA GeForce 9600M GT discrete graphics to Intel HD on-board to NVIDIA GeForce 330M discrete graphics. One major difference is that unlike on the previous model, where you would log in and out to switch between the two graphics mode, in the new model the switching happens on the fly. This is somewhat similar to NIVIDIA's Optimus, but with some key differences. In Optimus, the on-board chip remains active all the time, regardless of whether the discrete graphics is active or not. When the discrete graphics is activated it outputs its signal through the on-board chip to the display.
In case of Apple's solution, you fully switch between the two chips where only one is active at any given time. There is also a difference in the way the two solutions switch between their graphics chips. In Optimus, it refers to an online list of applications to know which application should trigger the discrete graphics. Users also have the option to manually select applications that would use the discrete graphics. In Apple's solution the OS decides which graphics chip to use depending upon the requirements of the application. Unfortunately, as we experienced, it can be quite wrong with simple applications such as Tweetie triggering the GeForce 330M when it could have happily continue on the on-board Intel HD graphics.
Right now the only option Apple gives you regarding the graphics is to disable the switching, in which case the machine would just use the 330M graphics. However, there is no way to force it to use the Intel HD graphics to save some battery life and you would instead have to rely on the automatic switching. What's worse is that there is no way to tell which mode the machine is in currently. Luckily there is a third party utility called 'gfxCardStatus', which runs in the background and lets you know which graphics the machine is using currently and also lets you manually switch between them. I would definitely recommend it to users of the new MacBook Pro.
The display on the 15" model has a resolution of 1440 x 900, the same as before. However, now you also get an option of 1680 x 1050 display by paying $100 more as well as an option to get a non glossy anti-glare display by paying $50 more.
Performance
Thanks to the new Core i5 processors, the MacBook Pro definitely feels faster than our old Core 2 Duo MacBook Pro. It is not a huge difference and for regular tasks such as web browsing you would barely notice the difference. But the higher performance is felt when it comes to playing high definition movies, working in Photoshop and when managing multiple applications at a time. Application startup time is also faster than before and the dock icon jumps a couple of times less before the app appears on your screen. Full 1080p videos work smoother without any lag. Safari struggles less when there are dozens of tabs open. As we said, it is not a huge difference but it is definitely noticeable and makes the notebook that much more better to use.
The NVIDIA GeForce 330M's prowess, however, is definitely much easily noticed. Now that Steam is available on the Mac, we finally have some good games to test on the machine. We installed Portal and maxed out all the settings and ran the game at the display's native resolution (1440 x 900). The game was fairly smooth and definitely playable but for a two-year-old game it could have been a lot better. If we were to try some of the newer games then we would definitely have to drop down the resolution and/or the graphics settings to minimum for the game to be playable. So although we appreciate that Apple has improved the graphics considerably over the previous model (we definitely weren't able to get decent frame rates on our older MacBook Pro) they should realize that gaming is no longer a niche segment. Considering the launch of Steam on Macs a lot of Mac users would be willing to game and the only thing stopping them would be the hardware limitation on the current Macs.
Another thing that I must point here is like I mentioned before the new MacBook Pros get insanely hot when running games on them. Sure, the older ones had this problem too but the new ones become just too unbearable, even in air conditioned environments. I wouldn't even dare to game on them during the summer season with no air conditioning on.
Battery Life
Apple has boosted the battery life on the new MacBook Pros with 8-9 hours claimed for the 15" and 17" models and 10 hours for the 13" models. So to test that we took our 15" MacBook Pro and used it as one would normally do. We connected the notebook to our Wi-Fi and then browsed the web through Safari while also typing in a text document while iChat and Echofon was running in the background.
iTunes was also running and we were listening to music using headphones at about 60% volume. While browsing the web we had about 7-8 tabs open at a time, some of which had Flash content running on them. We had kept the power settings at default and the brightness was kept at 80%. In these conditions we got 5 hours and 40 minutes of usage on a full charge, which although is far from what Apple claims is still quite decent, considering the powerful hardware on-board. Also while on a HD video playback loop, we got 4 hours and 30 minutes of battery life, with the Wi-Fi switched off, display at 80% brightness level and using headphones at 70% volume. In that time you can watch two movies back to back, which, again, is pretty good.
Pricing & Verdict
The new 15" MacBook Pro is priced at Rs. 1,09,900, Rs. 1,19,000 and Rs. 1,29,900 for the 2.4Ghz, 2.53GHz and 2.66GHz respectively. The pricing is not what you would call competitive and as usual spec for spec the MacBook Pros don't hold up the competition. It's not terribly good value for money, especially when you consider that Apple shortchanges you for things like an extra USB port or providing something like the Apple Remote in the package. You would also need to get separate adaptors for things such a VGA or HDMI out, something that most notebooks these days have on-board. Then there are also other things such as support for Blu-ray drives or having bigger hard drives on-board. 250GB hard drive on a notebook costing more than Rs. 1 lakh is just being miserly.
Also, while Apple has updated the performance on these new MacBook Pros, they are not a huge step ahead to warrant an upgrade for owners of previous generations. So overall, although the new MacBook Pros are a good upgrade, we are now expecting a lot more, especially in terms of graphics. The new 15" MacBook Pro makes sense for someone used to working in a Mac environment and planning on doing some heavy duty work in Final Cut Studio or Aperture 3. For other people I would recommend buying the 13" model, which we think is a better value for money. If you want a powerhouse of a notebook that you can use as a desktop replacement then I would recommend looking over to the Windows camp as manufacturers like Dell would give you far more powerful hardware at a lower price.
Apple has boosted the battery life on the new MacBook Pros with 8-9 hours claimed for the 15" and 17" models and 10 hours for the 13" models. So to test that we took our 15" MacBook Pro and used it as one would normally do. We connected the notebook to our Wi-Fi and then browsed the web through Safari while also typing in a text document while iChat and Echofon was running in the background.
iTunes was also running and we were listening to music using headphones at about 60% volume. While browsing the web we had about 7-8 tabs open at a time, some of which had Flash content running on them. We had kept the power settings at default and the brightness was kept at 80%. In these conditions we got 5 hours and 40 minutes of usage on a full charge, which although is far from what Apple claims is still quite decent, considering the powerful hardware on-board. Also while on a HD video playback loop, we got 4 hours and 30 minutes of battery life, with the Wi-Fi switched off, display at 80% brightness level and using headphones at 70% volume. In that time you can watch two movies back to back, which, again, is pretty good.
Pricing & Verdict
The new 15" MacBook Pro is priced at Rs. 1,09,900, Rs. 1,19,000 and Rs. 1,29,900 for the 2.4Ghz, 2.53GHz and 2.66GHz respectively. The pricing is not what you would call competitive and as usual spec for spec the MacBook Pros don't hold up the competition. It's not terribly good value for money, especially when you consider that Apple shortchanges you for things like an extra USB port or providing something like the Apple Remote in the package. You would also need to get separate adaptors for things such a VGA or HDMI out, something that most notebooks these days have on-board. Then there are also other things such as support for Blu-ray drives or having bigger hard drives on-board. 250GB hard drive on a notebook costing more than Rs. 1 lakh is just being miserly.
Also, while Apple has updated the performance on these new MacBook Pros, they are not a huge step ahead to warrant an upgrade for owners of previous generations. So overall, although the new MacBook Pros are a good upgrade, we are now expecting a lot more, especially in terms of graphics. The new 15" MacBook Pro makes sense for someone used to working in a Mac environment and planning on doing some heavy duty work in Final Cut Studio or Aperture 3. For other people I would recommend buying the 13" model, which we think is a better value for money. If you want a powerhouse of a notebook that you can use as a desktop replacement then I would recommend looking over to the Windows camp as manufacturers like Dell would give you far more powerful hardware at a lower price.
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