Comments on: Hands On: 13-inch Apple MacBook Pro

The 13-inch aluminum unibody MacBook has been promoted to join the MacBook Pro family. It's a move that makes sense, as the differences between the two lines were becoming increasingly blurred.

[tipoo_]

So close...But once again the GPU in the 13 inch is holding me back. As a comparison Sony just released a 13" SR with an AMD4570, which almost equals a 9600 GT.

So much for 9 months of evolution. And with OpenCL supported in Snow Leopard, the "macs arent for gaming" thing doesn't make a difference. OpenCL is an open standard which AMD supports strongly, so thats no excuse either.

[jjkurczak]

Can you PLEASE comment on the screen quality and viewing angles? The screen on the previous "aluminum macbook" looked terrible from anywhere but head-on, and not anywhere near a 15" macbook pro. Are they finally up to par?

[jim0266]

I would like to second this plea to give some impressions of the new screen. I'm hoping to make it to the Apple Store Friday evening to see for myself. As much as people ******* about the old MB screens you'd think someone would be clued in enough to make this a major point.

[PaulMpanga]

This is preposterous, yes they have added features but They have just isolated an entire market. my make the battery unreplaceable. Some of us live gazillions os miles away from an apple store, we need to replace the batteries our ourselves and als o use better batteries from other manufacturers. PCs are computers for the world, Appple is screaming am for the USA (plus other countries.) As much as I love my Mac, it is time to switch.

[aaronlancet]

I really struggle to see how this computer can be called "Pro" without a GPU. Apple actually raised the entry price for MacBook Pros with GPUs with this iteration, since the cheapest 15" no longer has a GPU in it. Bad Apple!

[RCrazy001]

The 13-inch Macbook Pro does have a GPU... It has the NVIDIA GeForce 9400M.

[pellets007]

Typically a GPU refers to discrete graphics cards only. In this case, the 13" Pro has an IGPU commonly expressed as IGP.

[sigma8]

author: Why complain about the lack of an SD-card reader on previous MacBook Pro's? I'd prefer having an ExpressCard slot--for which I could BUY a flush SD-card reader as one of many possibilities--rather than be stuck with ONLY SD-card reading abilities.

jjkurczak: The author sad the glossy screen was highly reflective and he wished they offered a matte option. Does that not answer your question about how it's different? It sounds exactly like unibody MacBook (normal) to me.

PaulMpanga: If you were complaining about 7 hour flights where you can't replace the battery mid-flight, I'd be right with you. But if you're talking about whole battery lifespan, I don't see what you're griping about. They are offering a battery that reputedly will not need to be replaced for at least 5 years (let's say 3-5). All my "normal" Apple laptop batteries have become noticeably worse after 1 year, and useless after 3. After 3 years, I usually consider upgrading my laptop. And if I wasn't upgrading my laptop, I should point out that after 3 years, not only should your battery still have another 2 years of viability (allegedly), but it will be out of warranty, so if you're not upgrading your laptop within that two years, you can always order a replacement online and do it yourself. I have read it's really not that difficult to do.

My main complaints about the new macbook pro's are:
#1. the lack of an expresscard slot....which to me just seems infinitely more useful than an SD card slot. I mean, why would I want to be stuck with an SD slot, when I could buy something like this? http://tinyurl.com/m9lczg

#2. glossy screen only (on 13" and 15" models)

#3. lack of any conceivable way to operate the laptop without a power outlet for 10 hours straight

One of those things, I can overlook. And the only laptop that Apple now makes with only one of those problems is the 17", which I guess means my next laptop will be ginormous.

[atgrammer]

I'm I the only person here who finds the Mac OS way more confusing than Windows?

[cyclonica1980]

@atgrammer

not to sound like a PC fanboy but yeah I do tend to agree. Maybe that cause I have a-lot more experience with Windows than OS8, 9 and 10.

[molotov]

If you do the Star Trek sign on the Macbook touch-pad... yeah, I saw a demonstration and it wasn't all that exciting for me - the guy presenting was excited though. He should lay off the fanboy juice [?]

[SuPaGrAm]

Why is this non-removable battery such a problem?

If the charge is full, stop charging. You can run it down for two hours and just charge it back up there is no memory effect with these batteries.

When the hell will you be away from an outlet for seven hours anyways?

[gcouriel]

When am i away from an outlet for 7 hours? on a flight to europe (8+ hours from Florida), at a conference, when a hurricane hits (again, i'm in FLORIDA, so this is something i need to take into account).

all in all, the update and price drop sounds very promising. Now that my Dell is 4+ years old, i may consider a 15" Macbook Pro as a replacement, so long as running Windows won't be difficult.

[soniclooking]

because it is classic apple. Some want the option to carry a fully charged battery to swap out. so yeah you get 7 hrs but now you can go 14 hrs without a plug, if the battery was swappable. Ok so these computers cost like 3 times what a nice pc would cost and there are all these draw backs. I will admit, I like windows. so I have a bit of a bias look at it, but I do like some things about the Macs. But nothing really jumps out at me and says a mac can do this for $1700 and a pc for $1700 can't. I realize that maybe the OS may work well, but lets figure out why. Apple builds the OS, computer around that OS. Windows builds the OS and then has to allow other vendors to put that on their hardware. Like I said, i'm from the windows world, but I don't know if you can go buy any old mouse and connect it to the Mac. I just don't like how mac says you can do this because we allow you to. You want to upgrade that ram. oh sorry you have to pay someone to do it for you, and it cost $500. Macs are nice computers, but i just don't feel the need for one. I want to be able to upgrade my os at a whim. Macs are limited, Windows have no limits like macs do.

One more thing. Why can't Iphone's use bluetooth stereo headphones. My winmo device can do it and it sounds great!

[myles taylor]

The non-removable battery argument is completely bogus. If you polled the number of people who actually change out their battery I'd say it's probably less than 5%.

[btr1389]

@soniclooking

First of all, you will never find ANY PC that will match build quality, power, looks and amount of features for 1/3 or even 1/2 the price of a Mac. The reason the battery life is 7 hours is because there are not mechanisms or anything that have to surround it like a non-built in battery. Also, the new iPhones supposedly support stereo bluetooth. You also can upgrade the ram and the hard drive by yourself without voiding your warranty. All you have to do is take a few screws off the back and you can get in. And lastly, you can upgrade the OS on a whim if you'd like. There is no reason why you can't.

Myles Taylor, you're very right. There can't be more than 5% of users who carry around another battery. If you really want more battery life, buy a external battery by someone like HyperMac and get twice as much life out of that than you ever will with another battery for your computer.

[jsnowbordr47]

Battery life is no problem for me. With more and more airlines now having power outlets on their planes, there's no need for extra batteries. Even before thy introduced power outlets, I never owned more than 1 battery for any of my laptops.

And if I'm in my car, I'd rather spend money on a power inverter for the cigarette outlet, an inverter is much cheaper (you don't need one of those huge expensive ones), and has much more use overall than any laptop battery ever will. You could charge your phone, laptop and power an Epson printer all at the same time.lol

[myles taylor]

I'm thinking about upgrading my 3rd Gen Macbook Pro finally. Of course, my original excitement at the price drop changed when I realized that meant giving up a graphics card, but the 2nd tier model is good and starts at the same price as the base model before. I'm speaking of course of the 15".

Overall, very good update and I was pleasantly surprised on many counts. Nothing is perfect and I still have some gripes, but very good.

[Nakarou]

I want to get a mac book because I hate vista and pc's
two big problems about the mac books is price and the overall system specs

160GBs for $1,100? doesn't seem worth it, unless the macs store a lot less stuff than the pc
sadly, I can get a 200GB laptop for almost the half the price of the macbook

If they can lower the cost to around $999 and give the macbook 100 more GBs, I would so buy it.

[kenvid]

Yes Macs are more expensive. No doubt about that--however they are undoubtedly better. I have used Macs since the beginning 1984. I now own more PCs than Macs because they are cheaper to buy. THEY ARE NOT CHEAPER TO OWN AND RUN HOWEVER. I constantly have problems with my PC's both software related and hardware. I still use a powerbook G4 from 2003 or 4 everyday. It is almost as fast and more reliable than my new HP 14.1 Special Edition Laptop. No viruses. Almost no crashes. No problems with this machine from day one. The HP was at least half the price, but you get what you pay for. The Apple design (even from 6 years ago) is better than most of the current PC's. To get a PC with as beautiful of a look, you must spend the same or more than the Mac. One area that my PC is better however is with Web Video stuff (and that is mostly because I have an older Mac. The new Macs run Windows better than a PC. If you want to use cars as an example: A Kia will cost you much less than a BMW and it will still get you to your destination at 55 MPH, however if you appreciate driving you will enjoy the ride in the BMW much much more.
I promise you, if you buy a Mac you will be fully satisfied and you will understand why people become "fans" of Apple.