Apple's 15-inch Core i5 MacBook Pro: The One to Get?
by Anand Lal Shimpi on April 14, 2010 10:38 PM EST- Posted in
- Mac
- MacBook Pro
- Arrandale
- Core i5
- Laptops
Bigger Power Bricks, Warmer Laps
Naturally the increase in potential power consumption means we have larger 85W power bricks instead of the 60W brick that shipped with the previous entry-level MacBook Pro:
The new power brick also uses a different mag safe power connector. The connector is still the same, the plug has simply changed:
The Old Mag Safe Connector
The New One
The new MacBook Pro also gets much warmer than the old one. I'd say it's more comparable to the first gen unibody MacBook Pro. If you're going to have this thing on your lap for a while you may want to wait for the next rev of Arrandale due out later this year. It should be a bit cooler.
Cooling the Core i5 and the GT 330M requires two fans, compared to just one in the previous 2-chip solution. The new MacBook Pro is no louder than the old one in practice.
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michal1980 - Thursday, April 15, 2010 - link
thats what this place feels like now. I geuss the website redesign was timed to that reflect change.Cardio - Thursday, April 15, 2010 - link
Apples guarantees "Up To" 1,000 battery recharges is complete idiot speek. 7 recharges would comply with that guarantee. That is just the same as saying "not more than". Apple you always double-talk or just outright lie.solipsism - Thursday, April 15, 2010 - link
Wow! What an asshat comment. Apple and Sony are the only two PC vendors that I know of that report accurate battery specs."The built-in battery in the new 13-, 15-, and 17-inch MacBook Pro is designed to retain up to 80% of its original capacity at up to 1000 full charge and discharge cycles."
• http://www.apple.com/batteries/notebooks.html
I just returned a 2.5 year old battery to Apple a couple months ago because it wasn't holding a charge and only a few hundred cycles on it. It wasn't under any warranty and they gave me a new one right then and there for free.
omgrtm - Thursday, April 15, 2010 - link
Also, as a company you have to show proof (based on statistical analysis) for all your advertising claims. Not entirely sure about numbers, but something like 9 in 10 at least should meet the stated (would be 1000 recharges in this case), for you to be able to use 'up to'. You'd be incredibly unlucky to get 7 in reality.sebmel - Thursday, April 15, 2010 - link
Apple changed my last battery, too... 2.5 years old... it got the Sony problem... swelled up.The internal regulations appeared to be change if less than 300 cycles.
Mine was 320 or so and they changed it anyway.
Apple seem pretty good at offering a new battery that fails to meet their advertised expectation so I'm guessing they are going to honour these ones up to 1000 cycles.
sebmel - Thursday, April 15, 2010 - link
Error, apologies:Apple seem pretty good at offering a new battery WHEN ONE fails to meet their advertised expectation so I'm guessing they are going to honour these ones up to 1000 cycles.
tynopik - Thursday, April 15, 2010 - link
"Less than 20 fps under World of Warcraft at 800 x 600"Actually, it's 52.3
Anand Lal Shimpi - Thursday, April 15, 2010 - link
haha, wow, fixed :)Take care,
Anand
surgex - Thursday, April 15, 2010 - link
Can you tell us how this will work, or IF it will work at all?surgex - Thursday, April 15, 2010 - link
Sorry, I see it now.."Despite using a NVIDIA GPU, there's no support for Optimus under Windows 7 on the new MacBook Pro. The GeForce GT 330M is always in use there regardless of whether you use an Optimus enabled driver or the 196.21 driver that comes with the MacBook Pro."
That is really BS if you ask me, but who would expect anything less from Apple...
Do you forsee any way of a third-party enabling this functionality in the future though, or no?