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Sizing Up The New Revision C MacBook Pros

Since you're reading this column, you're almost certainly aware that a week ago Apple updated its MacBook Pro line of notebooks with the latest Intel Core 2 Duo T7500 processors, some eight months after the last MacBook Pro refresh in October, 2006, which introduced the Core 2 Duo chips.


If you were anticipating revolutionary changes, you're probably a little disappointed, but this is a solid and substantive update, with a new family of Intel "Santa Rosa" processors and LED display backlighting on the 15" model being the most notable highlights.

Other enhancements include a 33 percent increase in the memory expansion limit, to a much more practical 4 GB from 3 GB, the latter being awkward on machines that prefer memory pairing, and 2 GB of 667 MHz DDR2 SDRAM is now standard on all models, configured in two 1GB SO-DIMMs) of PC2-5300 (667MHz) DDR2 memory filling the MacBook Pro's two SO-DIMM slots, which provides the technical advantage of RAM "pairing," but means that you will need to remove both SO-DIMMs and replace them with 2 GB ones if you want to expand the notebook's RAM capacity to the maximum-supported 4 GB (which will cost you a whopping $750 if you BTO it from Apple, but should be obtainable for a street price of $250 - $300).

There is also a new NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT graphics processing unit that Apple claims is more than 50 percent faster than the one in the original Core Duo MacBook Pro, and comes with either 128 MB or 256 MB of VRAM.

The Santa Rosa processor, which sports 4MB of shared L2 cache and an 800 MHz frontside bus (which can be slowed down to 533 MHz to save power), is still being called a Core 2 Duo rather than a Centrino Duo as with Santa Rosa based PC notebooks that include Intel's "Robson" Turbo Memory technology, which incorporates solid state NAND flash memory as a 'smart storage' buffer between system RAM and the hard drive. Presumably Apple determined that Turbo Memory, which is reportedly optimized for Windows Vista, would not offer enough benefit running under the mac OS to justify its extra cost, so opted to just go with the basic Santa Rosa chipset and CPU. perhaps they will revisit the Turbo Memory feature in the next MacBook Pro revision after OS 10.5 Leopard is on the prowl.

In the meantime, the Santa Rosa chips provide the faster bus speed, the ability to address 4 GB of RAM, and is less power-hungry (and presumably runs cooler).

Along with the new CPUs comes a very modest speed bump from 2.16 GHz to 2.2 GHz on the base 15" MacBook Pro and from 2.33 GHz to 2.4 GHz on the high-end 15-incher and the 17-inch model. Those increases amount to the low single digits percentage-wise, so in and of themselves are nothing to get up in the night and write home about, but should increase performance marginally.

Another specification upgrade is built-in 802.11n wireless networking, which Apple says provides up to five times the performance and twice the range of the 802.11g spec., and the 17" model gets better low frequency response audio speakers.

Internal hard drives of up to 250GB capacity are now supported. The 15" MacBook Pros gets an 8x SuperDrive, and the 15" 2.4GHz MacBook Pro now comes with a 160GB hard drive.

The MacBook Pro form factors remain exactly the same as they have been since the original MacBook Pro introductions in January and March 2006 respectively, and indeed are very little changed since they debuted as the 17" and 15" aluminum PowerBooks back in 2003. However, the design has aged very gracefully, and there would seem to be no compelling reason to change it other than for the sake of change. Remember, Porsche has stuck with the essential 911 form factor for more than 40 years. I can't think of a PC notebook that exudes the charm, understated elegance and tasteful classiness that the MacBook Pros do. Mind you, I would be delighted if the ease of hard drive swapping introduced with the MacBook Pro could be grafted into the MacBook Pro, but I expect we’ll have to wait for the next form factor revision for that.

The new Santa Rosa CPU, NVidia's 8600m GT GPU, and the LED backlighting all use less power than their predecessors, contributing to longer battery life. Santa Rosa'a improved power consumption profile increases Apple's projected charge life for the 15-inch MacBook Pro's 60-watt-hour Lithium-polymer battery to six hours, up from the previous model's claimed five hours, while the 68-watt-hour battery in the 17" model now has a theoretical run time of 5.75 hours. None of these optimistic figures is likely to be achieved in real-world conditions..

Returning good stuff includes built-in 10/100/1000 BASE-T Gigabit Ethernet for, Bluetooth 2.0+EDR (Enhanced Data Rate), FireWire 800 FireWire 400 ports, a backlit illuminated keyboard, an ambient light sensor, an ExpressCard/34 expansion card slot, a DVI video output to connect up to a 30-inch Apple Cinema HD Display, a built-in iSight video camera, and Apple's sudden motion sensor, scrolling trackpad, and MagSafe magnetic AC power adapter connector technologies. Bundled software includes iLife '06 featuring iPhoto, iMovie HD, iDVD, GarageBand and iWeb.

The new 15" MacBook Pro is the industry's first full-size notebook to ship with an LED backlit display, offering the advantages of lower power consumption, increased brightness (and also can dim more without turning off) with more even light distribution, sharper contrast, instant full brightness, won't get dimmer with age, and "greener" mercury-free construction. The 17" model will have to soldier on for a while yet with conventional Cold Cathode Fluorescent Lighting (CCFL) display backlighting until LED illuminated screens become available, but the 17-incher does get a new optional 1920-by-1200 high-resolution display, which provides in excess of 30 percent more screen real estate than the standard 1680-by-1050 display. All the MacBook Pro displays are available in either gloss or matte screen finish versions.

So, is now a good time to buy a MacBook Pro? Sure! This latest revision definitely adds significant value, especially in the 15" models with the LED backlighting, while holding the existing price points, and it's definitely a step up from the original Core Duo MacBook Pros

On the other hand, if you have a Revision B Core 2 Duo MacBook Pro, there's no need to be suffering buyer's' remorse. The performance improvements with the latest models are modest, and the specification upgrades, while all welcome, are not in the must-have category. Which begs the question of whether an Apple Certified Refurbished Revision B machine might not be a better buy.

It's certainly something to consider. I'm a fan of ACR units, having had an excellent experience with my current G4 PowerBook. As I post this column, The Apple Store is fresh out of ACR MacBook Pros, but when they’re in stock you can count on several hundred dollars savings from the price of a new machine, but you'll still get the same one-year warranty, AppleCare extended coverage eligibility, and a unit packaged similarly to a new Apple system, albeit in a less-fancy box.

However, if history is a reliable predictor, there should soon be Revision C MacBook Pros in the refurb. channel, which will mean a significant price cut on Revision B units, which will then be arguably the best deal of all - at least for the next several months.

The new MacBook Pro models are now shipping and will be available through the Apple Store (http://www.apple.com), Apple's retail stores and Apple Authorized Resellers.

The 2.2 GHz, 15-inch MacBook Pro, for a suggested retail price of $1,999 (US), includes:

* 15.4-inch widescreen LED-backlit 1440-by-900 LCD display;
* 2.2 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor;
* 2GB of 667 MHz DDR2 SDRAM, expandable to 4GB;
* 120GB Serial ATA hard drive running at 5400 rpm, with Sudden Motion Sensor;
* a slot-load 8x SuperDrive with double-layer support (DVD±R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW) optical drive;
* NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT with 128MB GDDR3 memory;
* DVI-out port for external display (VGA-out adapter included, Composite/S-Video out adapter sold separately);
* built-in Dual Link support for driving Apple 30-inch Cinema HD Display;
* built-in iSight video camera;
* Gigabit Ethernet port;
* built-in AirPort Extreme 802.11n wireless networking and Bluetooth 2.0+EDR;
* ExpressCard/34 expansion card slot;
* two USB 2.0 ports, one FireWire 800 port, and one FireWire 400 port;
* one audio line in and one headphone out port, each supporting optical digital audio;
* Scrolling TrackPad and illuminated keyboard;
* the infrared Apple Remote; and
* 85 Watt Apple MagSafe Power Adapter.

The 2.4 GHz, 15-inch MacBook Pro, for a suggested retail price of $2,499 (US), includes:

* 15.4-inch widescreen LED-backlit 1440-by-900 LCD display;
* 2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor;
* 2GB of 667 MHz DDR2 SDRAM, expandable to 4GB;
* 160GB Serial ATA hard drive running at 5400 rpm, with Sudden Motion Sensor;
* a slot-load 8x SuperDrive with double-layer support (DVD±R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW) optical drive;
* NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT with 256MB GDDR3 memory;
* DVI-out port for external display (VGA-out adapter included, Composite/S-Video out adapter sold separately);
* built-in Dual Link support for driving Apple 30-inch Cinema HD Display;
* built-in iSight video camera;
* Gigabit Ethernet port;
* built-in AirPort Extreme 802.11n wireless networking and Bluetooth 2.0+EDR;
* ExpressCard/34 expansion card slot;
* two USB 2.0 ports, one FireWire 800 port, and one FireWire 400 port;
* one audio line in and one headphone out port, each supporting optical digital audio;
* Scrolling TrackPad and illuminated keyboard;
* the infrared Apple Remote; and
* 85 Watt Apple MagSafe Power Adapter.

The 2.4 GHz, 17-inch MacBook Pro, for a suggested retail price of $2,799 (US), includes:

* 17-inch widescreen 1680-by-1050 LCD display;
* 2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor;
* 2GB of 667 MHz DDR2 SDRAM, expandable to 4GB;
* 160GB Serial ATA hard drive running at 5400 rpm, with Sudden Motion Sensor;
* a slot-load 8x SuperDrive with double-layer support (DVD±R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW) optical drive;
* NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT with 256MB GDDR3 memory;
* DVI-out port for external display (VGA-out adapter included, Composite/S-Video out adapter sold separately);
* built-in Dual Link support for driving Apple 30-inch Cinema HD Display;
* built-in iSight video camera;
* Gigabit Ethernet port;
* built-in AirPort Extreme 802.11n wireless networking and Bluetooth 2.0+EDR;
* ExpressCard/34 expansion card slot;
* three USB 2.0 ports, one FireWire 800 port, and one FireWire 400 port;
* one audio line in and one headphone out port, each supporting optical digital audio;
* Scrolling TrackPad and illuminated keyboard;
* the infrared Apple Remote; and
* 85 Watt Apple MagSafe Power Adapter.

Additional build-to-order options for the MacBook Pro include the ability to upgrade to a 160GB (5400 rpm), 160GB (7200 rpm), 200GB (4200 rpm) or a 250GB (4200 rpm) hard drive, up to 4GB DDR2 SDRAM, Apple MagSafe Airline Adapter, Apple USB Modem, glossy widescreen display, 17-inch 1920-by-1200 high-resolution display and the AppleCare Protection Plan. Additional build-to-order options also include pre-installed copies of iWork '06, Logic Express 7, Final Cut Express HD 3.5 and Aperture 1.5.

*AirPort Extreme is based on an IEEE 802.11n draft specification. Actual performance will vary based on range, connection rate, site conditions, size of network and other factors. iChat AV and video-conferencing require broadband internet connection; fees may apply.

**Based on estimated results comparing a pre-production 2.4 GHz Core 2 Duo MacBook Pro with a 2.16 GHz Core Duo MacBook Pro.


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cmoore@macopinion.com


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