Reasons to check out the new MacBook Pros today...

[Ben Holmes]

1. SLI graphics - utilising 2 NVidia GPU's for better performance or battery life.

2. Easily removable hard-drive (because I'm hoping there's an option to add a second media only drive. I doubt this, although I'm wondering why Apple is apparently going to so much trouble to allow a system drive to be swapped so easily, as they rarely fail these days...)

Guess we'll find out in a few hours. Can't wait to try these new ones out. Can anyone shed some light on the GPU performance gains for RED?

And yes - I know these are rumours, but it's all pretty widely reported now...

Ben

 

[Jeff Kilgroe]

No, not SLI... It's an either or situation. You can run off the 9400M or the 9600M GT, not both at the same time. But I'm happy with the new graphics options.

I'm not happy about the oversight of some key features:
No easily removable hard drive. No Blu-Ray. No eSATA.

I suppose we won't get our Blu-Ray until Apple ships FCS3 with better Blu-Ray support. I'm guessing somewhere between Macworld and NAB.

 

[Brent J. Craig]

No Fw400 port!

Gizmodo says "Both the battery and the hard drive will be easily accessible from the back."

Sounds like they have made it easier to manufacture without giving us much improvement.

 

[Curran Giddens]

no 17" or matte finish option.

 

[Sarah C.]

And it looks like an HP laptop! ..d'oh.

~S

 

[Brent J. Craig]

There is a new 17", they just didn't talk about it. See the bottom of the press release:
http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/081014/aqtu048.html?.v=75

Am I remembering this wrong, or did there used to be a 1920x1200 15" MBP available?

 

[Jeff Kilgroe]

The 1920x1200 15" was pure wishful speculation. That press release has some incomplete info or info that is possibly incorrect. I guess we'll see what shows up in the store for options. The press release does mention an anti-glare screen option for the 17" MBP. But if we are to take it literally, then the Macbook has no firewire ports at all and the 17" Pro has both FW 800 and 400...

I'm waiting to see what shows up in the store... I may go look at them later this week with my own eyes.

I doubt that I will order one now though. I think I'm going to wait until about NAB time or to see what FCS3 eventually brings us. And Intel is supposed to start shipping their quad-core mobile CPUs soon, but like the Nehalem CPUs, they have been delayed as well. I don't see any compelling reason for me to upgrade my current MBP. Right now, the lack of Blu-Ray is a deal killer for me.

 

[Curran Giddens]

I got my order in for the 15" with 512MB nVidia GPU. Seems the store is shut down again at the moment.

The press release does mention an anti-glare screen option for the 17" MBP.

That's because it wasn't updated to the new aluminum design.

 

[Jason Diamond]

the 17" got speed bumps and new nvidia chip but none of the new style 15"

 

[Ben Holmes]

Right now, the lack of Blu-Ray is a deal killer for me.

Lack of official Blu-Ray support is an issue for the Mac Pro. A lack of Blu-Ray on a laptop is just not an issue - use an external USB one if you want it for storage, but there are much better options for storing data.

I cannot see one compelling reason for Blu-Ray in a laptop, but feel free to put me straight - and don't get me wrong, as someone who has internal Blu-Ray shoe-horned into a Mac Pro and has an external Blu-Ray drive, I'm a believer in the medium.

As for the SLI, it's describe by NVidia as 'Hybrid SLI':
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080107-nvidia-unveils-hybrid-sli-geforce-9600-gt.html

I understand that's what's in the MBP, but I'm still trying to decipher all of this...

Right now, I'm going to put my MBP aside as a back-up edit device and home machine and purchase a MB for the road - the lack of discrete gfx stopped me before, but it's just the perfect size to use as an actual laptop - y'know, for going on the web, editing documents, issuing invoices (!) and so on. And the new design gives me wood.

Ben

 

[R. Schorman]

I am not impressed with this update at all. Where's the quad core, FW400, esata, etc??

 

[PatrickW]

external blu-ray?
expresscard esata?

I like the high end macbook. sweet little box to write and edit photos with.

 

[Alex Carr]

The 17" has no improvement. 800mhz FSB, and 667mhz RAM!

Ick! The 15" is handier for Red Footage, a 1066 FSB and 1066mhz RAM is a nice touch, even with no FW400.

 

[Shawn Booth]

I was hoping for the revolutionary new Mac "tablet" - iPhone but a laptop. Touch screen computing.....

What a waste... Next, the new laptops update will be = in any color!

HP makes a touch"able" desktop - for $1400....

 

[Michele Gavazzeni]

No matte finish option?????

BIG BIG PROBLEM!!!! Seems Apple calls its products "PRO" but don't really talsks with PRO users while developping them.
Or maybe they talks with the wrong ones.

 

[Steve Sherrick]

No matte finish option?????

BIG BIG PROBLEM!!!! Seems Apple calls its products "PRO" but don't really talsks with PRO users while developping them.
Or maybe they talks with the wrong ones.

It's there, just have to read the fine print. I think they call it anti-glare screen.

Otherwise, I'm not blown away by the 17" MBP. I'll wait and see what people have to say once they get them.

 

[Eirik Tyrihjel]

no matte finish
no blu ray
no touch screen

=no business from me...

 

[Jeff Kilgroe]

Lack of official Blu-Ray support is an issue for the Mac Pro. A lack of Blu-Ray on a laptop is just not an issue - use an external USB one if you want it for storage, but there are much better options for storing data.

You obviously don't need Blu-Ray dailies or rushes, generated in the field. I'm not interested in Blu-Ray for backup or storage (it's a poor solution for that). I'm not interested in carrying extra gear with me if I don't have to. Thin-profile, slot-load Blu-Ray writers have been available for some time. Why is Apple not using them?

IMO, I think Jobs' recent statements about Blu-Ray and the lack of support for the format just show that Apple considers the format a direct competitor to iTunes. Personally, I think they're different markets. But when it comes down to competing over movie sales, this could be a big issue. And a huge factor in why we have yet to see Blu-Ray drives offered as standard upgrade options for the MBP and Mac Pro. BTW, I already have a Blu-Ray drive in my Mac Pro, that's not the issue here.

I cannot see one compelling reason for Blu-Ray in a laptop, but feel free to put me straight - and don't get me wrong, as someone who has internal Blu-Ray shoe-horned into a Mac Pro and has an external Blu-Ray drive, I'm a believer in the medium.

I just said it above... It would be nice to have, I've run into situations where I did need it and I did take my LG external USB Blu-Ray drive with me. I would order a new MBP today if I could have it with an internal Blu-Ray drive. My current MBP is 2 years old now, it was the first C2D 15" model. 2.33GHz CPU, 2GB, ATI X1600 graphics. I'd like to update, but I'm not seeing a compelling reason at this point, especially since I'd prefer a 17" for my next purchase and they didn't bother to upgrade it other than a few configuration options and a price adjustment.

As for the SLI, it's describe by NVidia as 'Hybrid SLI':
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080107-nvidia-unveils-hybrid-sli-geforce-9600-gt.html

I understand that's what's in the MBP, but I'm still trying to decipher all of this...

Yep, that's what's in there. They call it Hybrid SLI, but it shouldn't be confused with "SLI" configurations on desktop systems that use multiple cards for multiple identical GPUs in parallel. The Hybrid SLI puts a more powerful (and more power-hungry) GPU in the mix. For GPU intensive apps and games, you can switch on the "turbo mode", which kicks the more powerful GPU into action as the dominant video render engine. It appears to be a good design where it still leaves most common functionality and GPU ops to the primary GPU (the 9400M in this case), freeing the more powerful 9600M GT to do the bulk of the complex tasks at a much faster pace. It seems that some functions can work in series between the two, such as rendering 3D frames on the more powerful GPU and applying overlays or 2D effects on the lesser one. Some operations can be in parallel like calculating geometry / vertex info on one GPU and leaving rendering and shader ops for the second. But it's not going to be true "SLI" in the desktop sense, which in many ways is a good thing. This opens up the doors for a lot of good possibilities rather than typical desktop SLI where it's simply brute force of each GPU pipeline working to process its portion of an image frame or its frame in a sequence.

Right now, I'm going to put my MBP aside as a back-up edit device and home machine and purchase a MB for the road - the lack of discrete gfx stopped me before, but it's just the perfect size to use as an actual laptop - y'know, for going on the web, editing documents, issuing invoices (!) and so on. And the new design gives me wood.

I know what you mean there. For a road-warrior system or something to take with me for general use, it's perfect. I'd buy one for this purpose, but I guess I'm still holding my breath for something to replace my current MBP. As it will be relegated to this general use task at that at that time. I can make do for now. But will upgrade for sure as soon as those quad-core CPUs arrive... Blu-Ray drive or not.

 

[Paul Hazlett]

the 17" got speed bumps and new nvidia chip but none of the new style 15"

the 17" did not get anything new except a marginally faster processor and
4gb of ram installed.

no new graphics no new shell, what's up with that?

 

[Vincent Thomas]

No matte display ... After trashing the development of Shake, It's another example to make me ask if Apple really care about the professional in visual art?