Usually Apple pushes out even the most minor of upgrades by starting with the ceremonial “We’ll Be Right Back” sticky note pasted across the online store. For the latest Macbook Pro refresh, however, Apple did everything live with no sticky at all. With that said, the upgrades aren’t anything to write home about — small CPU and GPU upgrades. Still, for those wanting the latest and greatest Apple has to offer…
- 13-inch: Base 13″ MBP now comes with a 2.4 GHz CPU and 500 GB hard drive.
- 15-inch: The 15 incher begins life with a 2.2 GHz Core i7 CPU and can be fitted with up to a 2.4 GHz option. Graphics card updates come in the form of either an AMD 6750M (512 MB) or 6770M (1 GB) while hard drive options (in basic configuration) are 500 GB and 750 GB.
- 17-inch: Base processor has been bumped up from the 2.2 GHz Core i7 to a slightly faster 2.4 GHz Core i7 with an accompanying AMD 6770M GPU.
Pricing has remained unchanged with the 13″ starting at $1,199 (base) and rising to $2,499 (base) for the 17″.
Pick up a new 2011 Macbook Pro recently and noticed an issue with any Class 10 Sandisk SD paraphernalia you may have lying around? Don’t worry. You’re not going crazy (we assume). A growing thread on Apple’s support forums highlights an apparent issue with newer 2011 Macbook Pros and Sandisk’s super speedy Class 10 SD cards capable of 45 MB/s transfer speeds.
Specifically, the cards either fail to be recognized by the computer or take some elaborate insert/eject/delete image/insert into different computer dance to work properly. Another solution is to restart the machine and boot up with the card already inserted in the SD slot — not exactly the finest solution. Depending on which Genius you talk to it’s a “known issue” with some people being asked to submit their machines for detailed inspection.
We don’t have a 2011 Macbook Pro to test ourselves but would love to hear from anyone out there with similar problems. On that note, we’ll be sure to update you when we hear something from Apple in regards to any type of fix.
Feel free to watch a video of the issue in question and drop a comment or 30 after the break…
- February 23, 2011 7:05 am
We haven’t said much about the various MacBook Pro refresh rumors thus far, but with this morning’s more legitimate claims from an ever growing list of sources we can’t hold off any longer. First up, the 16GB SSD OS/boot drive rumors are all but confirmed. This dual-mode solution gives you a super fast boot/shutdown times and over OS responsiveness while the second HDD will allow you to store heaps of files. We’re hearing that Apple will also allow customers to swap out the Superdrive for a second SSD.
Display options include a new, higher resolution 1440 x 900 option for the 13″ MBPs along with a matte-screen choice for the higher end MBP baby. The 15″ MBP will gain a 1680 x 1050 resolution panel (1920 x 1080 still available as an upgrade). Finally, the 13″ and 15″ MBPs will ship with 4GB of RAM standard with the 17″ getting a nice boost to 8GB out the door.
Even better than the above goodies comes by way of a claimed 12 hour battery life for the 13″ MBP and still plenty respectable 11-hour battery life for the 15 incher.
But the one rumor that has most people in an uproar currently is that these latest MBPs will feature Intel’s new LightPeak technology (rebranded “ThunderBolt”), which offers 10Gb/s transfers rates — double that of USB 3.0. Further adding fuel to the fire, an image leaked showing a new mysterious port on a MBP. Whether it is Light Peak (or even a MBP) are still unconfirmed.
Of course, it will take a bit of time for hardware manufacturers to build peripherals and accessories for the new technology. But having it standard on Apple hardware moving forward could provide very fruitful for adoption. Intel is holding a Light Peak even on Thursday, with Apple’s unveiling supposedly happening later the same day.
Stay tuned as we’ll be all over it!
Update
German Apple site fscklog has what they claim to be a snapshot of the 13″ MBP spec sheet. Looks like these “rumors” are getting more real as the morning goes on.
In other news, I have a MBP for sale…
Are new Macbook Pros right around the corner? You could say the leaked images a couple of days back showing a Core i7 Macbook Pro being put through the paces as nothing more than some clever Photoshop mastery. I’m more of an optimist however. I’m choosing to take the higher road. A road which eventually leads to new, more powerful Macbook Pros. You could say my head is stuck up in the clouds and that I’m a too much of a dreamer. That may be true, but the images above combined with new evidence of disappearing SKU’s in store inventory points to the inevitable — that’s right, new Macbook Pros.
What of these disappearing SKU’s? The image above comes courtesy of some random Best Buy employee. What you’re looking at is the internal system page for the Macbook Pro 13″ — no longer available for order. I haven’t heard of any bizarre display, aluminum, silicon, ram, etc. shortages within the last month so why would they disappear if something newer and better wasn’t about to replace it?
If Apple were still attending Macworld, I’m sure we’d hear of the new hardware then. But, seeing as how they up and left that party, it appears we’ll have to wait until Apple announces their own little shindig or simply uploads the new goods to the store on a Tuesday some not too distant Tuesday morning.
I really don’t care how they do it. I just want my Core i7 17″ Macbook Pro. Anyone else getting antsy?
TUAW
Those with itchy trigger/mouse fingers longing to order a new top-o-the-line Macbook Pro need to get control of themselves and holster their weapons for a brighter horizon is upon us. Would you be so eager to drop 2-3 large on a MBP knowing that Arrandale (read: Core i5/i7) processors are just around the corner from release, bringing a new generation of speed and power in the smallest most energy efficient package yet? Hmm, worded like that, even the king edition of a MBP somehow loses a bit of its luster. Don’t get me wrong, current MBP’s are the fastest iterations ever. But with Core i5/i7 quad cores packing speeds of 2.4GHz and 2.66GHz respectively, how could you not want to wait? Of course, those of you fortunate enough to have the bank account(s) to support buying new $2K+ computers every couple of months do not apply. I hate you. (Just kidding…I envy you).
How long until we can poke and prod such fine examples of beauty and power? According to Fudzilla, such treats could come as soon as January 3rd. There’s only one problem with that date — Apple never releases anything on Sunday or the weekend for that matter. Other than that, an early January release doesn’t seem too far off. I mean, the MBP line is due for a refresh in early 2010 if past refresh cycles are followed coupled with the introduction of newer Core i5/i7 architecture in the iMac line a couple months back.
Early 2010 seem plausible for Arrandale based MBP’s? January 3rd is highly unlikely. In fact, I wouldn’t hold your breath. But January/early 2010…? Now we’re talkin’
Maclife
