Apple Announces New MacBook Pro, MacBook, and MacBook Air

The 9600M GT doesn't support the Boost Technology, according to NVIDIA.

http://www.nvidia.com/object/hybridsli_notebook.html

 

Is the iSight sill the same? Or did they upgrade it or something?

 

so the MBP has switchable graphic card or is it SLI?

 

Yes, you can switch between the integrated and dedicated video cards.

http://www.apple.com/macbookpro/graphics.html

 

i am sat here with £850 to blow and lust to get some sort of portable computer.

even tho i am not a mac person i am tempted by the alu chassis and nvidia graphics.

but i simply cannot bring myself to drop £950 on a macbook, i think at the price i would rather pay one third as much and get the lenovo S10.

 

I only draw back of the newer model is that is costs $150 more here in Canada...kills my student discount =/

 

thats it? Wow, i thought the premium would have been WAY more then that.

 

From what I'm understanding though is the 9600M GT doesn't benefit from GeForceBoost right now with the current 9100M integrated GPUs because it's too "slow" to offer a performance boost (which is why it's not supported).

However these new Apples are using 9400M integrated GPUs which are to be officially announced by nVidia tomorrow (?), and if the 9400M are considerably faster than the 9100M then couldn't it offer a performance increase to the 9600M if it used GeForceBoost?


Maybe we have to wait until tomorrow to find out when nVidia makes their official announcement.

 

I've been tempted by Macs before but the value just has not been there.

Two usbs? Ouch
No card reader? Ouch
Screen Resolution? Ouch
Paying at least $400 for less.....ugh

If Apple really wants to take EVEN more market-share....they need to make the price reasonable for the Macbook.

 

Well the 9600M GT isnt a huge improvement over the 8600M, but the 9400M over X3100 is certainly a big step for them. Another good improvement is the use of aluminum, which I prefer, and the thickness of the 15 is less than an inch, which is amazing because most laptops go up to 1.4" at least. Also, the LED looks to be very high quality and thin, and the frameless border is also a great touch (albeit not original). They also use DDR3, which is good.

Now for the negative things, first off the fact that there is only one button means no Windows using without a mouse. That sucks, but its always been like that. Next, there is the TWO USB PORTS!! Easily the biggest problem with these macbooks, I dont know how many the old ones had ,but really 2? Especially for the 15 they should be able to fit at least one more. It is ridiculous though, lots of 15s have up to 4 USB ports. Also, these macbooks lack HDMI output and I elieve there is no e-Sata.

 

Or firewire.

 

Yes, I thought about that after I posted the link and was trying to find some more information...I don't know really... I guess we will have to wait and see.

 

I heavily suspect that it will. If the 17" MBP is supposed to have 2 9600Ms and be a "graphics powerhouse" then one will likely be an integrated and the other dedicated. Wouldn't be true SLI but would probably offer better performance than a single 9800M.


Could explain other things as well in the notebook industry...like why Dell isn't releasing their XPS refreshes until November. They're also rumored to use Hybrid SLI.

 

cant seem go find any info on the 9400m intergrated card. if its any good as my 8400m gs, then my next computer could very well be a macbook

 

In my opinion, the performance should be similar to 8400M GS or 9300M GS

 

wow, apple you shock me. oh well. I guess I'm not buying a mac anytime soon.

 

Hit the nail on the head for me. Had a similar situation a few years ago-D630 VS. MacBook. The Mac looked amazing but I just couldn't justify the price difference, definitely didn't have good value for money. Apparently it still holds true

It's not that I don't like the new design-drop dead gorgeous, but it honestly is perplexing that the old MacBook's price isn't less, and that the new ones still don't have more USB ports and high rez screen options.

It just makes me love my D630 more and more.

 

Those keyboards and laptops are a complete joke. All of these models scream style over substance/usability. Which would be fine if they hadn't done it with the "Pro" model too.

 

LOL, it seems that Engadget already found something to complain about...

http://www.engadget.com/2008/10/14/macbook-pro-requires-logout-to-switch-graphics-modes/

 

I think that's a drivers issue.

From Notebookcheck.com:

 

**** IT APPLE

...now I'm going to have to make the hardest choice in the world...

Sony Vaio SR or Apple Macbook?

 

It might be an OS issue, either way you will have to log out.

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3207


Not that I care, I have other reasons not to like it as I said before.


Btw, guys stop taking anything you see on Notebookcheck as a gospel, this is about the most unreliable source of information you can find.

 

wow, nice specs. nice i mean, no more intel gpu on their notebook
thanks for the update. neat stuff.

@Vizel , yeah, cant decide. waiting for user review. it also make it harder to choose whether to go for Z or mbp.. switchable nvidia!

 

Anyone care to speculate on how the 9400M compares to the HD 3200?

 

The greatest let down would be the screens on the mbp, glossy with no matte options and whats with that screen resolution 1440 by 900 for a 15 inch at the end of 2008 ? And no other upgrade options for screen ?
The rest of the small let downs i can slowly accept them , like 2 usbs, hybrid SLI which is not true sli. But the screen! i want to get a mac for games graphic design, and 1440 by 900 is seriously not enough for me, well at least in my own opinion

 

I think the new 13.3 Macbook is not bad, but I think its a bit expensive.

The Canadian price is off the roof. If you get the 2.4 Ghz version cost $1749.

Depending on the province you live, you will be paying 1950 after tax.

The new Macbook looks good but with that kind of money you can get a really good laptop like the Lenovo T400 with better spec and A LOT battery life.

 

apple is making money

 

you are absolutely correct. Apple once again missed the boat here, and people wonder why market share is so low. High prices, no hdmi port, no blue ray. We waited all this time for this and I am just no really wow'd here, this is very underwhelming. I can go buy an hp or dell or what have you for a fraction of the price and load them up full glory.

 

I will never again make the mistake of paying a hefty premium for a Macbook product when there are PC laptops with twice the resources available for half the money.

 

I just read a bit on Samsung coming into the US market finally will be here around next spring. I bet they will blow apple out of the water along with other competitors.

the major competitive advantage samsung has is the fact that majority of components in the notebooks are all made by samsung unlike other vendors that have various components from various third party vendors.

 

Right now is a great time to buy a refurb MBP. Personally this is a deal:

Refurbished MacBook Pro 2.5GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
15.4-inch glossy widescreen display
2GB memory
250GB hard drive
8x SuperDrive (DVD±R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW)
NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT with 512MB of GDDR3 memory
Built-in iSight Camera

Original price: $2,499.00
Your price: $1,499.00

Estimated Ship:
Within 24 hours
Free Shipping

 

Not a major fan of the new designs; think they should've stuck with the "all aluminum" look. The only good thing I see is about the announcement is the inclusion is the integrated GeForce 9400M graphics. Which is sad really, since you can get a similarly priced Windows-based notebook with a faster dedicated GPU. All in all, a major dissapointment.

edit: BTW, is the 9400M Apple exclusive?

 

http://www.notebookcheck.net/NVIDIA-GeForce-9300M-GS.9452.0.html

i think so too, in the above link...the 9400M is placed in same Class 3 with both of the cards you mentioned.

while the 9600M GT is Class 2, not even a Class 1.

 

Now the real question is, when will these be shipped to my local Apple store so I can go play with one of these.

 

I picked up the previous generation mbp (2.4GHz, 200GB, 2G) new for 1399 today; what do you all think? Should i keep this one or get the new one? Besides the cosmetic change, new touchpad, and slight bump in speed from faster RAM & GPU, old model for $500 less seemed like a good deal.

 

I saw that mac was coming out with their new comps so i decided to wait to see what they are going to be like.
Extra glossy screens with glass over the screen, retarded, maybe it will double as a mirror? No firewire on the macbook, dumm dumm, no esata, that's not to bad, but it is the future of fast data transfers. no memory card reader, stupid, 2 usb, that is bad, but livable. I also wonder what windows guys are going to have to do without touch pad buttons.
resolution sort of sucks too, should have a WSXGA+ option for the 15.4" and WXGA+ for the 13.3".
How can mac maintain that they are media / art oriented computers without firewire on their macbook!

I just saw the new sony Z in a store, freakin awesome the 13.1" 16:9 screen is cool, small, with a good amount of resolution. its a little expensive though!

I would have like to get the new dell E series or M series, but looks like they have been having quality problems...


also just noticed that apple charges $30 for displayport adapters, dell charges $15

 

doesn't matter that the ram is faster because it gets bottle necked from the cpu bus speed, there is no notable speed increase from ddr2 to ddr3, until the next generation of intel cpu's comes out next year... so if you want a faster gpu, a giant touchpad and super glossy screen then the new MBP is for you....

 

People, the 9400M is not the GS. It's the 9400M. It's an integrated solution -- not discrete in any way. nVidia will be announcing it tomorrow, so you'll have information then.

It's still far more powerful than any other integrated option available, but probably falls well short of almost any dedicated option.

 

the 16 shader nvidia gpu is roughly as powerful as the 40 shader AMD GPU with the advantage going to AMD.

 

WilliamG should be doing a review asap:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?p=4034830#post4034830

 

Just what I was thinking. Why call it a pro anymore? It should just be the 15.4" Macbook.

 

Pros have more features like switchable graphics, stronger GPU, express card and firewire.

 

those macbooks look ok, i guess, not my cup of tea but i can see why people like this design... but what's with the 'cut-your-wrists' edge in front of the wrist pad? macbook funboys are suicidal or what? (-;

 

I actually like the trackpad button combination but i wonder how right clicking works? its the one thing i hated on the last design with the single button. i would have like to seen a esata port, hdmi port in both models and maybe a blu ray drive in the macbook pro.

 

It looks like the black-display-frame-on-silver-body theme from the iMacs has found its way to the MacBooks.

I'm surprised at how similar the MacBook and MacBook pro look. I wonder where the refresh is for the MacBook Air and the 17" MacBook are? It looks like we won't be seeing a 12" PowerBook replacement anytime soon...

Interesting that touchpad is all-glass. I wonder how easily that'll break? Also, I can't stand the fact that there are no buttons, which forces you to tap on it. I always end up disabling the touchpad "tap" feature because it magically clicks on things for me otherwise. Besisdes, I prefer the feel of an actual button anyway.

The one-piece frame is pretty cool, except it'll probably be a pain to service. TIDBIT: Apple also used this one-piece technique on the iPod Mini and the little remote for their iPod Docks.

Also, it it just me, or does the top keyboard deck view resemble certain Sony VAIO notebooks? The keyboard deck view reminds me of the VAIO NR for some reason. Then again, the keyboard used was originally used by Sony...

One more thing: where the heck are all the ports?!

 

The style looks just awesome!
Now it's pretty much style vs specs when comparing Apple to other companies

 

Both will be refreshed. MBA will be available in november with 120GB HDD and 128GB SSD.

 

The 9600GT is the obvious choice.. Apple Macbooks are always ultra slim, portable, cool and quiet, light weight etc in a single body..

9800gts, gt and gtx are large, not quite cool=>not quite quiet becase of the fans etc. I think 8800gtx with revolutionary new cooling system would be much better sell point..! Alienware did it a year before, in a bigger case, but the technology is goig forward for a year!

I believe they will release models with the new ATI graphics.. ATI deserves it! I'm not quite sure if the same power efficient/dimensions from ATI gives more performance from the 9600GT, but probably does!
I think 9700GT was still possible choice even for the current new models..

Everything is so perfect and brilliant, I love love the design etc, but Apple, please update with better VGA, I know it's not easy with all the heat and power supply, but please do it! You got the technology!

Don't do the HP HDX's mistake.. "Elite" notebook with 9600GT, yeah right..

By the way, where gone the ATI models? Yes, this was only noises, but still, I want ultimate machine with the new ATI's! Why not the new platform 4***M!