Apple's 13-inch MacBook Pro (Early 2010) Reviewed: Shaking the CPU/GPU Balance
by Anand Lal Shimpi on June 9, 2010 12:15 AM EST- Posted in
- Mac
- Apple
- Intel
- MacBook Pro
- NVIDIA
What About the new MacBook?
Last month Apple introduced the new MacBook. With a 13-inch 1280 x 800 display (not sure about panel quality), the new MacBook looks a lot like the 13-inch MacBook Pro but at a $200 cheaper price tag. In fact the only differences boil down to 2GB vs. 4GB of memory, plastic vs. aluminum chassis, a backlit keyboard, SD card reader and Firewire port.
The battery life and performance should be identical between the two given they're using the same hardware.
Based on specs alone, the 13-inch MacBook Pro appears to be worth it. The standard MacBook ships with 2 x 1GB DDR3 SO-DIMMs. In order to upgrade to 4GB you need 2 x 2GB modules, which will set you back around $130. You could sell the leftover modules for about $40 on eBay which makes the MacBook $110 cheaper than the 13-inch MBP. But you do get a thinner, lighter and better looking chassis, not to mention the backlit keyboard which is very nice for late night writing or on an airplane.
I haven't reviewed one yet but the price difference seems small enough where the 13-inch MacBook Pro is worth it.
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damianrobertjones - Wednesday, June 9, 2010 - link
I noticed a real world article with regards to battery life and for the life of me cannot recall the link.Anyhow, the guy grabbed six laptops of various battery life etc and simply played a dvd.
The macbook (Not sure which he used) lasted around 5.5 hours continuous play... the same as the other laptops.
Baffled??
damianrobertjones - Wednesday, June 9, 2010 - link
P.s. I also think that this article gives me nothing that hasn't been said before and wonder why it's been written?BlendMe - Wednesday, June 9, 2010 - link
AT readers have been asking for a review of the new 13" and the 320M, so he delivered.tim851 - Wednesday, June 9, 2010 - link
Seriously, am I getting so old that I am the only one who thinks 1280x800 is sufficient for a 13.3" screen?Ninjahedge - Wednesday, June 9, 2010 - link
Yes./me hands tim a pair of bifocals.
Dennis Travis - Wednesday, June 9, 2010 - link
Do you have a pair for me also? :DNinjahedge - Thursday, June 10, 2010 - link
/me snaps bifocals at bridge.Bifocal Monocles for both!!!!!!!
FATCamaro - Thursday, June 10, 2010 - link
hahahaha. nicerfadream - Wednesday, June 9, 2010 - link
Hey Anand are you sure those temps you measured are in Fahrenheit and not Celsius?jabber - Wednesday, June 9, 2010 - link
Its amazing the type of quality product you can get from using just slave labour to make it.Well done.