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The clock speed upticks bumps are no surprise, and were virtually inevitable after Intel, also quietly, upgraded the specs. of its Core i-Series of Sandy Bridge processors in September, which will tide them over until the new Ivy Bridge family of CPUs debuts sometime in the first half of 2012. The clock speed increases are welcome but not dramatic - just 100MHz or 200MHz, depending on model.
Photo Courtesy Apple
Happily, while I haven't been able to 100 percent confirm this, it's a reasonably safe assumption that with such a minor upgrade from the hardware specs. introduced with the early 2011 switch last February to Core-i silicon, these updated MacBook Pros, while they will of course ship with OS X 10.7 Lion, should also still be able to boot from OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard, which will make them strong candidates for a few years' insurance of Snow Leopard compatibility with reasonably up-to-date hardware for those of us who are not enchanted by the changes in Lion.
As before, the 13" MacBook Pro is available in a choice of dual-core Core i5 or Core i7 CPUs, while the 15" and 17" models are all quad-core Core i7, with discrete AMD Radeon HD graphics processor units and well as the integrated Intel HD 3000 Graphics support in the Core CPUs. The Radeon GPUs also get an incremental update to model 6750M or 6770M depending on the configuration.
One thing that thankfully hasn't changed is the prices, which as before run $1199.00 for the base 13" MBP - 2.4GHz Core i5 with 4GB of 1333MHz DDR 3 RAM (which is the standard RAM spec. across the board); a 500GB, 5400rpm HDD; and Intel HD 3000 graphics - to $2499.00 for the top-end 17-incher with a 2.4GHz Core i7; also 4GB 1333MHz DDR 3; a 750GB, 5400rpm HDD; and AMD Radeon HD 6770M graphics with 1GB of dedicated GDDR 5 video memory.
The 17" model goes from 2.3 GHz to 2.4 GHz, amounting to a 9% speed improvement. In between, there are also an upscale 13-inch MacBook Pro model with a 2.8GHz dual-core Intel Core i7, and a 750 GB HDD for $1,499.00; a low-end 15" MBP model with a quad-core Core i7 clocked at 2.2GHz with a 500GB hard drive and a faster AMD Radeon HD 6750M discrete graphics card with 512MB of GDDR5 at $1,799.00; and the high-end 15-incher with a 2.4GHz Core i7, a 750GB HDD and fan AMD Radeon HD 6770M GPU with 1GB of GDDR5 video RAM selling for $2,199.00.
It had also been rumored that the refreshed MBPs would get the Bluetooth 4.0 that debuted in the iPhone 4S, but Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR is still the spec. However, carried over unchanged is the ThunderBolt ultra high speed data interface introduced with the early 2011 MBPs featuring two bi-directional channels with transfer speeds up to an 10 gigabits per second, eclipsing USB 3 and FireWire 800, Thunderbolt delivers PCI Express directly to external high performance peripherals such as RAID arrays, and can support FireWire and USB consumer devices and Gigabit Ethernet networks via adapters. Thunderbolt also supports DisplayPort for high resolution displays and works with existing adapters for HDMI, DVI and VGA displays.
Photo Courtesy Apple
In these days of space-restricted SSD data storage and increasing emphasis on the Cloud, the MacBook Pros' enhanced HHD capacities are noting to sneeze at for power users, graphics professionals and folks who just aren't ready as a matter of personal inclination to embrace the post-PC era.
Also available is a top-of-the-line build-to-order 17-inch MacBook Pro featuring a 2.5GHz quad-core Core i7 for an additional $250. The RAM configuration can be upgraded to a maximum of 8GB for another $200. All MacBook Pro models are also available with optional SSD data storage capacities up to 512GB for as much as a suck-in-your-breath $1,200.
This slate of upgrades and tweaks positions Apple's professional notebook line to remain competitive until Intel launches the next-generation Ivy Bridge family of Core-i CPUs next spring. Digitimes' Monica Chen and Steve Shen report that Intel is expected to unveil its 22nm Ivy Bridge CPUs in March 2012 at the earliest, with initial offerings focusing on dual- and quad-core models, according to sources at motherboard makers. That timing would dovetail well with Apple's traditional late April - early May calendar envelope for spring laptop upgrades. Chen and Shen note that quad-core Ivy Bridge CPUs will have thermal design power (TDP) ratings of 45W, 65W and 77W, while dual-core models will have TDP ratings of 35W and 55W, according to unnamed sources.
There had been speculation that the anticipated refreshment of Apple's professional notebooks might have been delayed until November due to Taiwan-based laptop chassis maker Catcher Technology, which is OEM supplier of about 60 percent of Apple's unibody aluminum MacBook Pro and MacBook Air enclosures, being ordered to suspend operations last week after local government received complaints from nearby residents regarding noxious gas emissions emanating from its plant at Suzhou, China. It's unclear when that problem will be rectified and full production capacity, which has fallen by as much as 40 percent, will be restored, but Digitimes' Aaron Lee and Steve Shen report that Catcher plans to invest US$2-3 million to modify equipment and manufacturing processes at the Suzhou factory, aiming to resume operations at the plant in November. Hopefully, Apple will have enough cases stockpiled that there will be no availability issues with these upgraded MBPs.
For more information, visit:
http://store.apple.com/us/browse/home/shop_mac/family/macbook_pro
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