The early 2011 MacBook Pro is honestly Apple's best effort to date. Only using quad-core CPUs on the 15 and 17-inch models, and offering an optional Thunderbolt Display that can act as a modern day dock makes this platform, particularly the 15-inch model, the perfect candidate for users who want the power and flexibility of a desktop with the portability of a notebook. Apple gets the mobile revolution in more ways than one, and its MacBook Pro/Thunderbolt Display combo is the perfect example of that.

It's this very combination that I've been using, partially since the introduction of the Sandy Bridge MacBook Pro earlier this year (the Thunderbolt Display didn't arrive until later). I've been quite happy with the setup. With the exception of lackluster Quick Sync adoption by Apple and obviously limited GPU options, I have very few major complaints.

Late last month, Apple updated its 2011 MacBook Pro lineup - likely the first and last update before Apple adopts Ivy Bridge in Q2 next year. We got our hands on the new base 15-inch MacBook Pro configuration, which received one of the more substantial upgrades over the previous model.

Read on for our review of the updated MacBook Pro!

Last year at the iPad introduction Steve Jobs announced that Apple is a mobile device company. Just last week Steve returned to introduce the iPad 2 and point out that the majority of Apple's revenue now comes from products that run iOS. The breakdown is as follows:

Just looking at iPad and iPhone, that's 56% of Apple's sales. All Macs put together? Only 20%. Granted 20% of $26.7 billion in sales is still $5.3 billion, but the iOS crew gets most of the attention these days.

It shouldn't come as a surprise that when Apple launched its 2011 MacBook Pro lineup last week that it did so with little fanfare. There was no special press event and no video of an unusually charismatic man on a white background describing the latest features of the systems. All we got two weeks ago were a few pages describing the high level features of the lineup, a short outage on the Mac Store and five new configurations available for sale.

We've been working non-stop since the launch on our review of the new 13-inch and 15-inch MacBook Pros. Despite the lack of fanfare, this is a pretty serious upgrade. Read on for our in-depth analysis!

Apple fans, please forgive me, and feel free to skip this post. I have been testing out a MacBook Pro 13 running Windows 7 and have put it through our entire PC notebook benchmark suite. We were pretty interested to see how the NVIDIA 320M IGP in the MacBook and MacBook Pro 13 fared compared to low end dedicated cards like the G 310M and the HD 4330, and also to see how much the old Core 2 Duo processor hamstrung the MacBook Pro compared to newer and faster PC notebooks. And on a more subjective level, we wanted to see how the latest MacBooks were as BootCamped systems running mostly in Windows. For those willing to fathom the idea of running Windows 7 as the primary operating system on a Mac portable, keep reading to see how the latest MacBook Pro 13 fares as a Windows 7 laptop.

Earlier this year Apple updated its entire MacBook Pro lineup. The update wasn't cosmetic, the 2nd generation unibody design carried over from 2009. Instead the 15-inch and 17-inch notebooks got Core i5/i7 CPUs paired with NVIDIA GeForce GT 330M GPUs. The 13-inch model was left with a Core 2 Duo and only saw a big improvement in GPU spec with the integrated GeForce 320M.

Clearly valuing a consistent GPU experience over a faster CPU, Apple decided to keep the Core i-family of CPUs out of its most popular MacBook Pro. As a result the new MacBook Pro offers roughly twice the 3D gaming performance of its predecessor, but only a small improvement in CPU performance. The standard memory size is now doubled to a respectable 4GB.

Battery life has also improved pretty significantly. The new 13-inch MacBook Pro now offers the best battery life in Apple's entire lineup. In our light web browsing test we measured a full 9.75 hours of battery life on a single charge. Our worst case scenario? 3.56 hours.

Check out our full review for everything from battery life to display quality and thermals.

If you recall from our 15-inch Core i5 MacBook Pro review, one of our only criticisms was the inability for users to manually change between lower-power integrated Intel HD graphics and the discrete NVIDIA GeForce GT 330M GPU. As it stands, within OS X users can only disable the Intel HD graphics in favor of using the discrete, but more power-hungry GT 330M full-time. Since being tipped in the comments section on one of our MacBook Pro articles, we've been keeping our eyes on a particular utility developed by independent OS X developer Cody Krieger called gfxCardStatus. Until now, this has been a useful tool exclusively for reporting at-a-glance which GPU was in use in the menu bar. But now, there's something more:

Dynamically change GPUs - Now whenever you feel like it

Now, in verison 1.6, users can manually change GPUs on the fly, whenever they so desire.

Update 2: With version 1.7, users can lock the graphics subsystem to either the discrete 330M GPU or the intel integrated HD graphics full time, disabling dynamic OS X determined switching.

Apple is in a position that’s enviable by any consumer facing company. It drums up genuine excitement for nearly every product it launches. Apple has somehow found a way to make something as small as just another processor refresh exciting.

It’s not all smoke and mirrors though. The previous generation unibody MacBook Pro posted some incredible battery life numbers. And two weeks ago Apple paired it with Intel’s Core i5 and i7 mobile CPUs, delivering the sort of desktop-like performance we’ve been waiting for.

Since the release we’ve had the time to answer a few more questions about the new systems. We updated our launch article with Core i5 vs. Core i7 results. But today, in response to many of your requests, we’ve got more battery life results and a full evaluation of the 15-inch MacBook Pro’s display quality. Apple is often the go-to manufacturer for creative professionals; we put our colorimeter on the MacBook Pro to find out if they’re making the right choice.

If you've followed our Mac coverage over the past year you know I've been telling everyone to wait until Apple brought Arrandale into its MacBook Pro lineup. The time has finally come and this week Apple updated its entire MacBook Pro lineup.

While the 13-inch models still sport Core 2 Duo CPUs, the 15 and 17-inch models now ship with your choice of Core i5-M or Core i7-M processors. In a somewhat unexpected twist, all of the new models ship with discrete graphics courtesy of NVIDIA's GeForce GT 330M. 

Intel gets to sell Apple some chipsets again and NVIDIA gets its GPUs in the new systems (possibly making even more money than before). But do you all benefit? Read on to find out!

Update: We've added benchmarks of the Core i7 model as well on Page 3!