Apple's 2009 MacBook Pro: Battery Life to Die For
by Anand Lal Shimpi on June 12, 2009 12:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Mac
SSD: Optional and Non-Intel
My only major complaint about the MacBook Pro is, once again, that it does not come with a SSD standard. I understand, however, to cut costs and do such a thing would be impossible today. For $350 Apple will upgrade your hard drive to the latest 128GB Samsung MLC SSD; for $800 you'll get 256GB. I can't stress how much you shouldn't buy the 256GB drive; prices are dropping too quickly for that to be a good deal. If you can hold out until next year you'll be able to get that capacity at half the price.
My other major complaint is Apple's refusal to offer Intel's X25-M as an option on its MacBook Pro line. The Samsung drive Apple uses is the same drive Corsair is selling right now. It's a decent drive, offers good compatibility and reliability, but in terms of worst case scenario performance I haven't found it nearly as good as the Intel drive.
I'm not saying that Apple should only offer the Intel drive, but it should at least be an option. For a company obviously concerned with the overall package, it seems odd to leave out one of the strongest SSDs on the market. Especially given how close Apple and Intel are already.
A good, standard SSD is the only thing separating this MacBook Pro from perfection.
Update on Build Quality and Trackpad
The build quality of the new MacBook Pro remains unchanged and unparalleled. This thing is solid, and it looks pretty sweet too.
The glass covered trackpad that I had issues with in my original review now works totally fine. I no longer have any problems with clicks not registering under OS X. Within a month of the first unibody MacBook Pro release Apple put out an update designed to address those issues, so I believe this has been fixed for a while.
Thanks to the cool running Penryn core, the MacBook Pro doesn't really get more than warm at its base. The glass covered display is still quite glare happy, but indoors it looks great and in certain situations outdoors it’s acceptable.
I won’t go too much further into the displays or other features of the unibody MacBook Pro, I already did that in our original coverage of the machine.
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BushLin - Tuesday, June 16, 2009 - link
Right now, you may not care that your battery isn't removable. After 13 months, when it's failed and Apple want to charge you the price of a netbook to take it in and replace it, you may do.Johnmcl7 - Sunday, June 14, 2009 - link
It's been done already long before Apple (as with most of their innovations) plenty of companies have produced laptops with extremely long batterylife but without fixing the battery.Apple's solution is nothing clever as all they've done is sacrifice the removeable battery, I just really hope other companies don't do this as well as has been happening in the mp3 player market particularly with Sandisk.
iwodo - Saturday, June 13, 2009 - link
From an environmental standpoint, having battery built in means you will have to bring the Notebook back to Apple to buy a new battery. This would means your old battery is properly deposited.I am surely there will be third party, or possibly even apple would make an External battery for all Macbook that plugs into the power plug.
djuero - Saturday, July 4, 2009 - link
Those products (external batteries) are available from different companies already...sendai - Sunday, June 14, 2009 - link
Yup, they've been around for ages, though I'd say Apple have energised the market for them:http://www.batterygeek.net/SearchResults.asp?Cat=7...">http://www.batterygeek.net/SearchResults.asp?Cat=7...
http://www.hyperdrive.com/HyperMac-External-MacBoo...">http://www.hyperdrive.com/HyperMac-External-MacBoo...
http://www.quickertek.com/products/macbook_air_cha...">http://www.quickertek.com/products/macbook_air_cha...
iwodo - Sunday, June 14, 2009 - link
Now it has been proven that there are massive amount of external power out there. I wonder why the need for a removable 2nd battery?With Internal battery, you get more space, longer battery, and more environmental friendly. Why would you need a 2nd battery when you can do the same with external power?
PlasmaBomb - Saturday, June 13, 2009 - link
That is an interesting thought. Wonder how feasible it is...Pandamonium - Saturday, June 13, 2009 - link
I'm looking at the specs and can't help but think Apple moved the 13" unibody MB into their MBP line and added a price cut to boot. My wife just got a "free" 13" unibody. (Her MB was a legit lemon, and after 5 or 6 Applecare repairs, the store just gave her a replacement) Anyway, the specs of her replacement are in line with what I see here for the MBP version. We don't have the machine with us to compare removable batteries, but we'll definitely do that after our honeymoon.gcor - Saturday, June 13, 2009 - link
For a truly portable machine for getting stuff done, wouldn't an 11" netbook be a better option than a MacBook?Right now I don't think any of the MacBooks stack up as well as machines like the Acer Aspire 11.6".
11-12 inch netbooks seems to; tick all my must haves (see below), have excellent weight, and great form factor. While I would prefer an OS-X machine, MacBooks that meet my must haves are twice the weight and 4 times the price of a comparable netbook.
For my needs at university. I've settled on the following requirements:
Absolute must haves are:
- Display sufficient to view and skim read multi-column research papers:
>= 1200x800
>= 11"
- Suffient performance to:
- quickly flick thourgh PDFs and powerpoints
- create and edit files using MS Office
- surf the web
- >= 8 hours battery for the functions above
- fullsize laptop keyboard
- OS-X or Windows (no Linux due to MS Office:-( )
- WiFi, tackpad, >=20Gb free disk, USB, speakers.
In addition, my nice to haves are:
- OS-X over Windows
- Light
- Thin
- Low price
iwodo - Saturday, June 13, 2009 - link
Snow Leopard were suppose to speed things up, May be it will bring some even greater battery life. May be a retest once SL is out?I can imagine future Macbook Pro having 12 hours battery life if it has an SSD and OLED display.
Apple could surely make an interesting Netbook or Cheaper Macbook Air with Dual Core Atom with these Battery inside.