PSA: Macbook Pros updated today (cpu, some hard drive and graphics options)

[mshan]

"Among the key changes:



13-inch MacBook Pro:

- Processor options move from 2.3 GHz dual-core Intel Core i5 and 2.7 GHz dual-core Intel Core i7 to 2.4 GHz and 2.8 GHz options.

- Hard drive options offer increased capacity, moving from 320 GB in the low-end configuration and 500 GB in the high-end configuration to 500 GB and 750 GB respectively.

15-inch MacBook Pro:

- Standard processor options move from 2.0 GHz and 2.2 GHz quad-core Intel Core i7 to 2.2 GHz and 2.4 GHz options. The high-end custom processor option at 2.3 GHz has now become a 2.5 GHz option.

- For discrete graphics, Apple had previously offered the AMD Radeon HD 6490M with 256MB of memory on the low-end configuration and the Radeon HD 6750M with 1GB of memory on the high-end configuration. Apple has now moved the 6750M to the low-end configuration with 512 MB of memory and given the high-end configuration a Radeon HD 6770M with 1 GB of memory.

- The previous build-to-order option of a 500 GB hard drive running at 7200 rpm has been bumped to a 750 GB drive at the same speed.

17-inch MacBook Pro:

- Processor speeds have been bumped from a base 2.2 GHz Intel Core i7 with a 2.3 GHz upgrade option to a 2.4 GHz base processor with a 2.5 GHz option.

- Graphics have been improved from the AMD Radeon 6750M with 1 GB of memory to the Radeon HD 6770M, also with 1 GB of memory.

- The previous build-to-order option of a 500 GB hard drive running at 7200 rpm has been bumped to a 750 GB drive at the same speed."

http://www.macrumors.com/2011/10/24...pro-with-processor-graphics-storage-upgrades/

 

[alent1234]

Enough to make me drop the MBA from consideration for this holiday and look at the 13" Mbp

 

[TheStu]

Enough to make me drop the MBA from consideration for this holiday and look at the 13" Mbp

A small speed bump, but still no SSD standard, still lower res screen.

 

[Eug]

Great thing about the 13" MBP is that the drive is user-replaceable, which means much cheaper SSD, at least if you go with a 256 GB.

 

[LOL_Wut_Axel]

The bump to the i7-2670QM as the base on the 15-inch model is appreciated, as is the jump to the HD 6750M, but still kinda overpriced. Not horribly so, but still...

Something with equivalent hardware would go for $1200 in the PC world, but if you factor in the battery life, build quality, keyboard and trackpad, and other things, then it's not bad. If they put in a better 1680x1050 matte panel as standard I think it'd be worth $1500.

 

[alent1234]

The bump to the i7-2670QM as the base on the 15-inch model is appreciated, as is the jump to the HD 6750M, but still kinda overpriced. Not horribly so, but still...

Something with equivalent hardware would go for $1200 in the PC world, but if you factor in the battery life, build quality, keyboard and trackpad, and other things, then it's not bad. If they put in a better 1680x1050 matte panel as standard I think it'd be worth $1500.

priced out a HP this morning to compare and got $1866 or so. and the HP still has no backlit keyboard, MIMO antennas, crappy geek squad/hp support. with apple i have 5 or more stores 20 minutes away i can take a product to and have it looked at same day. HP it would take longer just to wait in the phone queue

and with a Mac i can take photos on my iphone and have them streamed to iphoto automatically

 

[LOL_Wut_Axel]

priced out a HP this morning to compare and got $1866 or so. and the HP still has no backlit keyboard, MIMO antennas, crappy geek squad/hp support. with apple i have 5 or more stores 20 minutes away i can take a product to and have it looked at same day. HP it would take longer just to wait in the phone queue

and with a Mac i can take photos on my iphone and have them streamed to iphoto automatically

Really? Where?

I just spec'ed out an HP DV6T Quad-Edition and it came out to $1090. It included a Core i7-2670QM, a Radeon HD 6770M, 8GB 1333MHz DDR3, a 750GB 7200RPM HDD, a higher-capacity 6-cell Li-Ion battery, a 15.6" 1920x1080 matte display, a combo Blu-Ray Read/DVD Burner optical drive, and Wireless B/G/N + Bluetooth (yes, I do realize the MBP is superior in this aspect as it has a better wireless module). That's a lot cheaper, but it won't get the same battery life, won't have as high build quality, the wireless module isn't as good, and support isn't as good. On the upside, it does have a bigger and faster Hard Drive, double the RAM, a higher-res and anti-glare display, and a slightly faster GPU. Obviously there's a bigger premium to be paid for the MacBook Pro's higher build quality, battery life, weight, trackpad and keyboard, but $600 more is definitely not it. I think Apple should make the 1680x1050 display standard and lower the price $200 to $1500 to be worth it.

Other alternatives to OEMs are builders like XoticPC.