Mac Book Pro update predictions.

Anyone have any predictions for the upcoming MBP refresh?

 

The big rumor is LED screens. Who knows though.

I predict:

* Santa Rosa with wireless-n.
* Much better video.
* HD or Blueray model available.
* I cannot afford one.

Greg

 

They already have wireless-n. I think the LED screens will be the big news. Other than that, it will probably incorporate alot of the santa rosa platform.

 

I hope its the LED screen and also HDD or Blue Ray

 

Well, I'd say look for LED screen
Larger HDD choices(seeing as how you can now find up to 300gb 2.5" hard drives.
Update to Santa Rosa is for sure.
Upgraded video card is certain(will they stick with ATI or swap to nVidia?)
I doubt they'll offer HD DVD or Blue Ray just yet, as they are still very expensive(especially in something less than an inch tall)
A new form factor is kind of expected by now, it's been like 6 years since they really updated the macbook pro.

We will know for sure in a few weeks though.

 

dont expect a redesign. it will still have the same basic shell and structure- maybe a few new ports (card reader?)

if we get santa rosa, then we can expect somewhat faster processors, and somewhat longer battery life, and a newer, more stable version of 802.11n

i believe santa rosa calls for an 800mhz bus and therefore we can put 400mhz ram in there. expect apple to do that. the faster ram is more expensive, though, so you might still not see 2 gigs on the low end model

i had really hoped the mbp would ship with an hd2600 xt, but if its coming out in two weeks, that is pretty unlikely (but it could happen, apple would just be the first notebook manufacturer to ship with that card)

when you look at the dynamics of the situation though, amd consuming ati, i have a feeling that a combination of politics and the fact that the hd 2600 is still not ready might make jobs switch to nvidia for this round of macbook pros.

the 8600 cards arent really better or worse than the 2600's, from preliminary benchmarks, but the 8600's are almost guarunteed to have more power draw and run somewhat hotter, just because they are on a larger 80nm process vs 65nm on the ati card...

it might not matter at all if both cards run cooler than the x1600 did anyway. but still i would have liked to go with ati on this one, just for power reasons, and the fact that with it, we would have a real, brand new, hardware audio card in the mbp (the hd 2600 does audio too). For all the macbook pro musicians (and movie editors, or anything else where audio is involved) out there, this would be a godsend- good hardware audio is far ahead of the best integrated solutions.

of course, there is nothing specifically wrong with the audio it has now, but that isn't why we buy apple products. i want to see some forward thinking.

LED backlit screens are a lock in imo- excpect brighter screens at the same battery life cost or the ability to keep the screens at previous brightness levels and extend battery life somewhat.

Again dont expect any external changes except maybe a different port or vent arrangement. Its possible that you might get a somewhat higher quality internal mic or isight or something. i also wouldnt be surprised if they put an internal card reader in there by popular demand.

Edit: also expect bigger hard drives, that is an easy trend to continue, it makes the mbp seem more appealing without adding much cost to the system.

I really cant imagine bluray OR hddvd, even as an option, in the mbp.

slot loading bluray? slot loading hddvd? do these things even exist? its really a stretch in my mind.

MAYBE hddvd if its ready for the slot loading consumer market. but honestly who wants hddvd when there is bluray already out? for our high end market, there is no reason for us to want hddvd to beat out bluray. if it happens we just lose several GB per dvd in the long run.

these are my thoughts- pick them apart as you like.

 

masterchef said it all... It will most probably come with a Nvidia, whether it is a 8400M GT or a 8600M GS/GT is still not known... until tuesday then

 

I really want one now.

I bought a MacBook recently as a convert from Windows. Hell it runs Vista better in boot camp than my Vista laptop (I have to use this for work) and OS X is just great.

I'm in the UK, how soon after the announcement by Apple do they tend to be available? I'm going to upgrade to the full MacBook Pro and get rid of my MackBook and Windows laptop.

 

The Macbook Pro is a professional notebook, Apple wouldn't put the 8400 in there.

Seems to be a toss-up between AMD/ATI and NVidia right now, will be interesting to see. But a graphics card refresh is almost guaranteed, the X1600 is old by now and has been in there for one and a half years. LED screen is almost guaranteed also.

Santa Rosa, of course... bigger hard drives, not so sure. They might bump up the minimum specs to use the 160 GB drive and introduce another option > 200 GB, I guess.

Case redesign would likely be minor, if any. Tough to beat the perfection in looks, other than making it even thinner maybe.

Blu-ray still feels a bit early and expensive, maybe as an option though.

What I would like to see, but I don't think we will (hope dies last, though...), is an ultra-portable MBP model (preferably smaller than 13.3"). And another USB port on the 15"

 

Robson or SSD would be great, and my tiny hope for built in tuner..

 

Will get:
-Probably Santa Rosa and all it entails
-160 GB HDD for the lowest end model
-Hopefully 2 GB for the lower model and 3 for the two higher models
-I would be ecstatic if we got the LED screens. I don't know if we'll get them or not, but that would just be the icing on the cake.
-Some sort of graphics card upgrade.

We're not going to get a case redesign, SSD, Blu-Ray, or HD-DVD.

 

New chipset supports 4GB, so we should see 4GB at least as an option. I'll def be adding 4GB to mine.

 

I wouldn't expect a 2GB standard memory option. Usually that stuff comes with OS upgrades that demand it (i.e. Vista), but OS X is unlikely to change much. 1GB is still enough for OS X, so I doubt it will change.

 

yeah again after more research -

that robson flash would be really nice if osx incorporated it well (im sure it would)

also we will still be using 667mhz ram, santa rosa has an 800mhz fsb for the cpu but still takes 667mhz ram. my thought is- that with the macbook starting at 1 gig, and the macbook pro costing $1000 more, we might actually see 2 x 1 gig sticks as standard.

also- we might see an option for 1 x 2 gig stick of ram, for the potential to add another 2 gig stick.

also there wont be any 8400 or hd 2400 series card, our card will have a 6 in it. hd 2600 or 8600, hopefully gt or xt, but dont count on it.

 

The price should stay the same, now paying 2000$ for 1GB of ram and ancient x1600 is a rip off, they will upgrade with santa rosa and led so the price will be better, but they should replace this old graphics card even if it runs mac os OK(HD movies will require it). MBP will be the first with 15.4 led backlit they can charge more, anyone knows of another 15.4 with LED? The option of hybrid HDD even expensive one would be great, apple has good design but its hardware for now is not. I just dont know why I am waitting and willing to buy it so much

 

santa rosa refresh

hopefully LED screens - means 1) thinner screens 2) less power draw 3) more battery life

hd2300/ gf 8400 in lower models, hd2600/gf 8600 in higher for their HD decoding antics

no blu-ray or hdd i dont think.

no robson memory either....unless OS X leopard can make use of it.

 

i really think that some sort of flash will make it in - probably robson, or maybe as an actual part of the hard drive - both would work the same way. I would actually prefer a hybrid hard drive because the main components that die are this new robson cache (not replaceable) and the hard-drive and battery (replaceable). If robson cache is on the motherboard, once its gone, its gone. I assume you could still use the mobo, but the cache wont be accessible. But what if it was a part of the hard drive? you could replace the harddrive in the future and get access to a the newest economical hybrids- with much more hybrid flash per hdd storage. Interesting...

apple has always put in the best gpu's that will fit into their pro systems. we will either get an hd2600 / 8600 or hopefully hd2600xt / 8600gt, but definitely not anything lower than that.