New Macbook Pros

[TEBnewyork]

OK, the Apple store got the new MacBook Pro's in today. I picked up the 13". The whole setup took about a minute although my 36,103 emails took a little longer to download. Interesting that neither the iTunes or Safari 4 were loaded but I picked them up from a software update. The unibody design really is a thing of beauty.

[Guy Mancuso]

Sounds like you are locked and loaded now. Will make the HD change for you when you come next week. I'll tell you this maybe the best deal Apple put out this time around. This thing would be a amazing tethered setup in the field. Better stop thinking about it right now. LOL

[TEBnewyork]

Interesting how low I have the brightness of the screen turned down (actually the default was set pretty low). Moving the slider you can make the screen massively bright. I think it will be interesting to see how it calibrates. I think I will bring an eye-one with me.

[Guy Mancuso]

I have the puck. Just load the software

[stephengilbert]

Regarding Apple's claims that its computers are "green," Diglloyd says it all: "If you really want to be green, kill yourself, or at least become a vegan."

His MBP quick take is here: http://diglloyd.com/diglloyd/2009-06..._20090609Apple

[TEBnewyork]

I picked up the 2.53 GHz version of the 13" MBP (standard 4gb RAM) . This morning I swapped the standard hard drive for an Intel 160gb SSD.

My thoughts: Even before the drive swap, this machine feels noticeably faster than my spring 2008 2.4GHz 15" MBP also with 4gb RAM but I guess the older DDR2 and not the DDR3 memory. After, the drive swap not even a question.

The screen: they have definitely improved the viewing angle. I haven't found a position where it is even remotely a problem and changing my viewing angle by changing the position of the screen doesn't seem to change my perception of the colors (hard to explain but I think you may know what I'm talking about). This screen is "light years" different than the screen on my 13" black Macbook of spring 2007 vintage. The whites are white and there is more contrast but it doesn't remotely feel contrasty, the colors feel subtle. Hard to describe other than it is a pleasure to sit in front of this screen. Hard for me to compare it to the 15" as I can't set them up side by side right now.

Thank goodness for getting the firewire 800 back on this model!!!

In order to try and maximize screen real estate trying something new with hiding the dock on the left instead of the bottom.

I love the multi touch trackpads. Months ago, I wrote to Apple that I wish they would do a stand alone multi touch device so I could ditch the mouse on my desktop! No luck yet!

Bottom line this is the fastest most beautifully designed laptop I've ever had. I'll report back in next week after working at 13" on big 25mp files. Not expecting miracles as I'm sure it will be hard to adjust after using a 30" cinema display.

[TEBnewyork]

After doing all of this I made the stupid mistake of reading some information on line that shows Apple cutting the SATA speed from 3.0 down to 1.5 triggering an over 400 post thread on Macrumors and more on Apple discussions. I spent a long time on the phone with Apple Care trying to get the clarification and more information as to speed downgrade. In the meantime, Guy had me run xbench on my new configuration and then I went on the xbench site and looked at a posted test of my exact original configuration (2.53GHz, 4gb RAM, 250gb 5400 drive). Here is the difference (mine is the top portion and the one from the xbench site has the red)....

The top portion will show the big difference in overall score 198/137






Now compare at the bottom the read/write speeds. The SSD isn't giving up any speed on the write times but is substantially faster on the read times.







Finally, Guy and I just compared notes on this configuration vs. his souped up supercharged 15" MBP which is clearly faster with an overall score in the mid two hundreds.

[Guy Mancuso]

Looking good Terry and you know down the road to push CS4 along faster and work with more open programs you can always add 8 gbs of ram. You still have elbow room to grow with it by going Raid 0 if you ever wanted too.

[Lars Vinberg]

Swedish publication Macworld did a gamut comparison of the screens on Apple's two 13" offerings, results here confirm what Terry observed:

(Link to swedish page but gamut charts say a lot. The Pro covers sRGB more or less exactly.)

http://www.idg.se/2.1085/1.236166/sa...okskarmarna-at

[meilicke]

Originally Posted by jonoslack

(I can leave my main photo library at home, but not my itunes library!).

[Bob]

I bit the other bullet and ordered a 17 inch MBP with the matte screen and the 500GB 7200 rpm drive. 8GB upgrade kit was ordered from OWC.
Will see how it does after it arrives on Monday.
-bob

[Georg Baumann]

congrats Bob, stunning maschine, 8Gig, I had no idea that fits into them, I think mine, July 2008, is limitted to 4Gig.

[Bob]

OWC makes an upgrade that will raise that machine, I think, to 6GB.
see http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/memor...o/Upgrade/DDR3
-bob

[Georg Baumann]

Interesting, thanks Bob!

[Jack Flesher]

Yes indeed, I'm running 6G in my late 2007 2.6GHz MBP and it made a notable improvement.

[TEBnewyork]

Today Apple released a firmware update for the new MacBook Pros. It addressed the issue of the newly reduced SATA speed from SATA II to SATA. I am running the Intel X25M drive which is one of the drives that will benefit from the faster speed. However Apple is now saying they don't "support" these drives (whatever!). Anyway, I ran xbench on the disk performance before and after.

[Jack Flesher]

Wow, a significant difference. I can't believe Apple really thought their user base would be so stupid as to not figure this out...

[LJL]

And what is their reason for supposedly downstepping back to SATA from SATA II? This makes no sense. If I am understanding this, they originally specd machines for SATA II, then released a firmware update that supposedly respecs them for SATA, but actually has them outperforming original specs?? Sure the firmware was not to boost everything to SATA II instead of SATA? This seems all backwards somehow.

LJ

[TEBnewyork]

Originally Posted by LJL

And what is their reason for supposedly downstepping back to SATA from SATA II? This makes no sense. If I am understanding this, they originally specd machines for SATA II, then released a firmware update that supposedly respecs them for SATA, but actually has them outperforming original specs?? Sure the firmware was not to boost everything to SATA II instead of SATA? This seems all backwards somehow.

LJ

No, the last batch of MacBooks and MacBook Pros were SATA II. When the new 13" and 15" machines were launched on June 8th, these machines were released with SATA. This change in specs didn't impact those with regular hard drives or some of the slower SSDs on Apples build to order options. It did impact those who went out and bought the better, newer, faster crop of SSD's like the Intel X-25 series.

I bought a 13" and swapped the drive before we knew the issue. The swap from the regular HD to the Intel SSD made a very, very significant difference in speed. However, at SATA speeds the drive was faster than the interface allowed it to run.

The chipsets in the old and new machines are exactly the same which led to the speculation that a firmware update could be accomplished. Indeed Apple did issue new firmware for the new machines today. In my test above you can see that the new firmware boosted the score in the disk test by 25%.

[LJL]

Terry,
Still not understanding this. If a machine was built to handle SATA II, it could always run drives and stuff of SATA or SATA II speeds. If it was built to SATA speed, that is all it would deliver, and the drive or whatever would throttle itself back to SATA if it was a SATA II compliant drive. They are backward compatible (SATA II to SATA). What does not make sense is Apple building new machines at slower spec speeds, and then issuing a firmware update that is supposed to render faster things non-compliant, but it actually winds up delivering the faster speeds. So your new 13" MBP originally had SATA or SATA II specs? (From what you say, it was SATA.) Yet it was running a SATA II device that only got faster with the firmware update that was supposed to render things non-compliant? Huh?

LJ

[TEBnewyork]

The chipsets apparently were SATA II (as the chips are exactly the same as the unibody machines available before June 8th which had SATA II) but Apple apparently through firmware pulled it back to SATA speed on the brand new machines.

We will never know why they did this.

Today, they issued new firmware which took the speed back to SATA II.

The warning that some faster drives are not supported would give them an out if there are data errors that come from something in OS X that has a problem running at that speed. The SSD drives that Apple uses in build to order are slower and probably barely get to the top end of SATA.

[LJL]

That makes more sense once you explain that part. My guess is that the chipset used probably could handle the fastest drives and stuff, but the software/firmware was a way to downclock things to ensure no data transfer losses or disruptions.....when it probably was not really needed at all. So this firmware update was really to bring things to SATA II from the forced SATA configuration. That was the part that was not clear in how you presented things. The machines (old and new) were SATA II capable, and the firmware released today for the newest machines was really to remove the governor that had things running at SATA speeds. That makes sense.

LJ

P.S. glad you got the speed boost, as it looks impressive.

[TEBnewyork]

Sorry, the part that you were "missing" happened back on post 57 of the thread.

[LJL]

Ah....that was probably one of those 95+ degree days we have been having here in Houston when I was out all day repainting stuff on my motorcycle trailer. So between the heat and the fumes, I probably did not carefully read all those red bars and words in the post ;-) I was merely going on what you said today, and it just seemed backwards to logic, but then Apple was being backwards in its latest delivery of MBPs......an SD slot??? Anyway, glad you are closer to an expected higher speed performance.

LJ

[TEBnewyork]

Just a quick MBP update.

This is my first SSD drive machine. It is weird to have something so silent

But the reason for this post is heat...this is the coolest running notebook I've ever had. After running for a while there is a bit or warmth but nothing like the heat I've had with my other Mac Books or Mac Book Pros.

Finally, I LIKE having an SD slot - for some of my cameras. I know some people needed the express card slot but it wasn't going to happen on the 13" anyway.

I know there isn't a lot of screen real estate on the 13" but I did fine with it on the Northern Arizona workshop and I think the specs/price are a home run.

I'm still interested to see what Apple comes up with in the netbook arena

[Lars Vinberg]

Originally Posted by TEBnewyork

I'm still interested to see what Apple comes up with in the netbook arena

Aren't we all... It's not hard to understand why that is something Apple has avoided though. Cheap devices, tiny profit margins. Apple would want to change the game somehow. Which, as you point out, is why it will be interesting to see if/when Apple enters that arena. The company is all about finding/creating markets with high margins though. A plain vanilla netbook won't be it.

[Bob]

I love my new 17 inch matte MBP,
I worry about apple's fixation on shiny things.
-bob

[TEBnewyork]

Originally Posted by Lars Vinberg

Aren't we all... It's not hard to understand why that is something Apple has avoided though. Cheap devices, tiny profit margins. Apple would want to change the game somehow. Which, as you point out, is why it will be interesting to see if/when Apple enters that arena. The company is all about finding/creating markets with high margins though. A plain vanilla netbook won't be it.

Aaah but an oversized iPhone type device would

[Bob]

If you depend on a shirt pocket to tote it around, no.
But... If you are accustomed to carrying a handbag I suppose it might.
-bob

[TEBnewyork]

Originally Posted by Bob

If you depend on a shirt pocket to tote it around, no.
But... If you are accustomed to carrying a handbag I suppose it might.
-bob

Yes, I would put it in my bag like a kindle.

[stephengilbert]

Bob,

Apple's fixation?

[Bob]

Stephen,
I went to the 17 inch only because only shiny screens were available on the 15.
I tried them in the store and thought they were obnoxious.
-bob