Macbook pro rumors (release date, display, etc)

[JackBurton]

Resolution is fine, but I'd like Apple to implement 802.11ac and 4G LTE (similar to the iPad) on their new MacBook Air. That would make it a must buy for me.

 

[GT1999]

Resolution is fine, but I'd like Apple to implement 802.11ac and 4G LTE (similar to the iPad) on their new MacBook Air. That would make it a must buy for me.

If they put VZW 4G LTE in the Air, and it had "Retina" graphics, I would sell my iPad 3 in a heartbeat.

Those were the only two reasons from me not getting an Air instead of an iPad 3.

 

[ViviTheMage]

I plan to upgrade if 'retina' is indeed on the new air's ... once I lock in a pre order, i'll sell my mba I bought a few months ago.

 

[Koing]

If they put VZW 4G LTE in ir, and it had "Retina" graphics, I would sell my iPad 3 in a heartbeat.

Those were the only two reasons from me not getting an Air instead of an iPad 3.

I'd definitely like Retina and a faster cpu. What kept me away from buying one was the price for performance. It's not that much faster then my Mabook from 2008. Well from the last time I compared the cpus in reviews anyway I think? I'll take a look as my 2.1 C2D is not bad with 4GB of ram. I just couldn't spend that amount of money and not get a big jump from my machine that is 4yrs old.

I'll be going the SSD route as it makes the machine so fast in certain operations . I was eye balling some 128 and 256GB drives on ebay

Koing

 

[Steelbom]

This is going to be great -- I'm wanting a "retina" iMac.

 

[Eug]

I'd definitely like Retina and a faster cpu. What kept me away from buying one was the price for performance. It's not that much faster then my Mabook from 2008. Well from the last time I compared the cpus in reviews anyway I think? I'll take a look as my 2.1 C2D is not bad with 4GB of ram. I just couldn't spend that amount of money and not get a big jump from my machine that is 4yrs old.

I'll be going the SSD route as it makes the machine so fast in certain operations . I was eye balling some 128 and 256GB drives on ebay

Once I put an SSD in my 2.26 GHz C2D 13" MacBook Pro, I saw no real need to upgrade, esp. since the new machines still don't support USB 3. They should this year though, although to be honest I still don't see a specific need to upgrade, since the laptop is not my primary machine. A 2560x1600 "retina" screen would make it tempting though.

 

[Koing]

Once I put an SSD in my 2.26 GHz C2D 13" MacBook Pro, I saw no real need to upgrade, esp. since the new machines still don't support USB 3. They should this year though, although to be honest I still don't see a specific need to upgrade, since the laptop is not my primary machine. A 2560x1600 "retina" screen would make it tempting though.

My laptop is my primary machine now a days. Gone are the days of a slow 2002 desktop but with dual 23" and 24: screens .

I was thinking of going the way of a SSD but my machine is only SATA1 so it's still capped at 150MBps.

Maybe the new MBA or MBP will have USB3? That isn't much of a feature for me though.

Koing

 

[Steelbom]

My laptop is my primary machine now a days. Gone are the days of a slow 2002 desktop but with dual 23" and 24: screens .

I was thinking of going the way of a SSD but my machine is only SATA1 so it's still capped at 150MBps.

Maybe the new MBA or MBP will have USB3? That isn't much of a feature for me though.

Koing

SSDs are all about the random I/O's -- not sure if Sata1 bottlenecks that kind of thing, although the extra sequential read write is nice.

I hate hard drives.

 

[Eug]

SATA1 is not a huge problem. SSD will still feel super fast compared to a laptop hard drive.

That said, many people have had good results with the hybrid drives. The 750 GB model is going for cheap locally, and includes 8 GB flash memory built in. Best of both worlds, for cheap.

My primary machine is a 27" Core i7 iMac, with a second 24" screen. Makes all the difference with stuff like spreadsheets or even VPN or even just playing a video. Video or VPN one screen, other work on other screen. My 13" MBP is too small for that, and of course it's very slow for video encoding, at least in comparison to the 4-core i7 (with 8 virtual cores).

 

[Koing]

SSDs are all about the random I/O's -- not sure if Sata1 bottlenecks that kind of thing, although the extra sequential read write is nice.

I hate hard drives.

Too stingy to fork out £200 for 256GB when I'm not even getting the full potential speeds

I'm sure it'll be A LOT faster but I'm just being cheap. I've had this bad for about 4yrs now? Upgraded the ram from 1GB to 4GB and that has been a HUGE improvement.

Koing

 

[Koing]

SATA1 is not a huge problem. SSD will still feel super fast compared to a laptop hard drive.

That said, many people have had good results with the hybrid drives. The 750 GB model is going for cheap locally, and includes 8 GB flash memory built in. Best of both worlds, for cheap.

My primary machine is a 27" Core i7 iMac, with a second 24" screen. Makes all the difference with stuff like spreadsheets or even VPN or even just playing a video. Video or VPN one screen, other work on other screen. My 13" MBP is too small for that, and of course it's very slow for video encoding, at least in comparison to the 4-core i7 (with 8 virtual cores).

Nice. The MBA felt so fast at the Mac store due to the SSD drives.

I do some very light video encoding so that'll be nice to get extra speed out of that but it doesn't take too long to trim a few videos and stitch them together.

Koing

 

[Steelbom]

Too stingy to fork out £200 for 256GB when I'm not even getting the full potential speeds

I'm sure it'll be A LOT faster but I'm just being cheap. I've had this bad for about 4yrs now? Upgraded the ram from 1GB to 4GB and that has been a HUGE improvement.

Koing

Haha... well SSDs are dropping in price at the moment. Some are apparently going to hit 65 cents (US) per GB.

The main benefit to an SSD is the access times and random I/O's, not so much the sequential speeds, even though they're nice. I miss having one -- I've got an iMac, and I won't buy Apple's SSD so I'm stuck with a HDD *cries*.

 

[Nvidiaguy07]

Haha... well SSDs are dropping in price at the moment. Some are apparently going to hit 65 cents (US) per GB.

The main benefit to an SSD is the access times and random I/O's, not so much the sequential speeds, even though they're nice. I miss having one -- I've got an iMac, and I won't buy Apple's SSD so I'm stuck with a HDD *cries*.

you cant buy a different SSD and install it yourself?

 

[Steelbom]

you cant buy a different SSD and install it yourself?

You can but I, like many I suspect, aren't interested in pulling off the display to get into it. If it didn't involve pulling off the display, I'd do it for sure.

 

[ChAoTiCpInOy]

You can but I, like many I suspect, aren't interested in pulling off the display to get into it. If it didn't involve pulling off the display, I'd do it for sure.

I totally agree with you. I think with Thunderbolt enabled drives you can get some of that throughput back.

 

[TheStu]

I totally agree with you. I think with Thunderbolt enabled drives you can get some of that throughput back.

All of it. If the enclosure is properly implemented, the Thunderbolt interface is faster than any consumer SSD out there that I have read about. Thunderbolt is 10GB/s full duplex, so both up and down.

 

[ChAoTiCpInOy]

All of it. If the enclosure is properly implemented, the Thunderbolt interface is faster than any consumer SSD out there that I have read about. Thunderbolt is 10GB/s full duplex, so both up and down.

The Seagate GoFlex series I think is the best investment. They have desktop and mobile external hard drives that you can buy a Thunderbolt dock so you can connect it using Thunderbolt. Anand did a speed test with it, but I don't remember the results, just that it was really fast. The only thing is it's a regular spinning drive and not an SSD.

 

[Koing]

Haha... well SSDs are dropping in price at the moment. Some are apparently going to hit 65 cents (US) per GB.

The main benefit to an SSD is the access times and random I/O's, not so much the sequential speeds, even though they're nice. I miss having one -- I've got an iMac, and I won't buy Apple's SSD so I'm stuck with a HDD *cries*.

Can't wait for them to drop in price

Koing

 

[Steelbom]

I totally agree with you. I think with Thunderbolt enabled drives you can get some of that throughput back.

Yeah, I'd like a Thunderbolt SSD xD

All of it. If the enclosure is properly implemented, the Thunderbolt interface is faster than any consumer SSD out there that I have read about. Thunderbolt is 10GB/s full duplex, so both up and down.

Mmm, for the sequential stuff yeah, but I'm not sure what the random stuff is across Thunderbolt.

Can't wait for them to drop in price

Koing

Me too, I'm eyeing the Crucial M4 512GB. I want it for $330! xD

 

[Eug]

Random access is apparently quite speedy over Thunderbolt, which isn't surprising since it's supposed to be a very low latency interface.

In fact, you can even get good decent performance over USB 3, and USB 3 is usually a heluvalot cheaper (and of course more inter-machine cross-compatible) than Thunderbolt, which is one big reason I think it's foolish to get a Mac now if it doesn't have USB 3 (which unfortunately doesn't exist on any Mac yet).

 

[Steelbom]

Random access is apparently quite speedy over Thunderbolt, which isn't surprising since it's supposed to be a very low latency interface.

Ehh, good to know. Perhaps there's an SSD in my future.

In fact, you can even get good decent performance over USB 3, and USB 3 is usually a heluvalot cheaper (and of course more inter-machine cross-compatible) than Thunderbolt, which is one big reason I think it's foolish to get a Mac now if it doesn't have USB 3 (which unfortunately doesn't exist on any Mac yet).

Ehh well USB 3 isn't any use to me -- I barely even use USB 2.

 

[Nvidiaguy07]

Question to everyone here: Im back and forth on if i should upgrade to an IVB MBA or MBP. I use it for light gaming. The most taxing games i play right now are:
Portal 2
torchlight (also 2 when it comes out)
half-life
(havent tried Left 4 dead yet)
team fortess 2
dungeon defenders
a few others

I cant play maxed out - or even at native res at times (especially on battery power - can i turn this feature off)

Do you think its worth it to sell my MBA now, and get the new ones when its released - assuming ill be spending 200 in the process? Im not gonna need my laptop for the next few months, so i can go without it.

EDIT: I should also add this thing gets HOT when playing a game like that. Even before im in the level, portal 2 gets that fan spinning. I get nervous for some reason.

 

[scootermaster]

Is anyone else worried about the lack of info/parts that've been leaked about new Apple Laptops? I mean, WWDC is less than a week away, and there have been no part leaks, as best as I can tell (contrast that with all the supposed parts for the new iPhone, and all the iOS 6 rumors).

I remember when unibody came out, there were leaks, and when that long, extended battery (that was replaced by the built-in one) there were leaks. Even when the update to Sandy Bridge, there were leaks (although these were accompanied by a number of false rumors and were perhaps at the 23rd hour).

My point: There's ALWAYS leaks. Every time. So, I guess we'll know by, say, Thursday or Friday, but it's a little worrisome we really haven't seen ANYTHING other than the doubled resolution cues in Mountain Lion.

If Apple released/announced [substantially] different hardware next Monday and that's all we end up hearing, that would be a first. So which is going to give? 1). Are there leaks coming in the next couple of days, 2). Are there no new laptops coming, or 3). Has Apple just become [historically!] good at keeping a lid on things?

I guess I hope it's 1 or, at worst, 3.

 

[Steelbom]

Is anyone else worried about the lack of info/parts that've been leaked about new Apple Laptops? I mean, WWDC is less than a week away, and there have been no part leaks, as best as I can tell (contrast that with all the supposed parts for the new iPhone, and all the iOS 6 rumors).

I remember when unibody came out, there were leaks, and when that long, extended battery (that was replaced by the built-in one) there were leaks. Even when the update to Sandy Bridge, there were leaks (although these were accompanied by a number of false rumors and were perhaps at the 23rd hour).

My point: There's ALWAYS leaks. Every time. So, I guess we'll know by, say, Thursday or Friday, but it's a little worrisome we really haven't seen ANYTHING other than the doubled resolution cues in Mountain Lion.

If Apple released/announced [substantially] different hardware next Monday and that's all we end up hearing, that would be a first. So which is going to give? 1). Are there leaks coming in the next couple of days, 2). Are there no new laptops coming, or 3). Has Apple just become [historically!] good at keeping a lid on things?

I guess I hope it's 1 or, at worst, 3.

Well Tim did say they're going to be doubling down on security.

 

[Eug]

Is anyone else worried about the lack of info/parts that've been leaked about new Apple Laptops?

Not in the least, here.