Macbook refresh rumours....?

Rainmaker said:
So what on earth is the point of a ~£1,000 laptop that can't even play a 10GB MKV? :confused::o Apple just instantly put me back onto a Windows machine before I even had chance to migrate to them. :( :\
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You could play devils (steve's) advocate here and say that apple kit doesn't officially support blu ray, and insert a smug face.

However, I agree, yeah pretty pants.

Also, many sites have quoted bumped res on all models, but this confirmed release pic does not have bumped res as far as I can tell?

I am 90% sold on a 15" mbp tomorrow based on needing a laptop as leaving my job so lose the freebie i get, but I may have over hyped it in my mind... :(
 
Maybe my 2010 13" MBP wasn't such a bad choice after all. Smooth 1080p here, and I've got my 500GB Seagate Momentus XT I'm already getting the best of SSD and normal HD :)
 
MossyUK said:
You could play devils (steve's) advocate here and say that apple kit doesn't officially support blu ray, and insert a smug face.

However, I agree, yeah pretty pants.
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Blu-Ray would be closer to 50Mbps and I agree, I wouldn't expect any laptop to handle that unless it was designed to do so. I'd have no issue with a 13" MBP being unable to handle a straight Blu-Ray as that's not its intended purpose, at all.

However, a generic 5-10 (or even 15) GB H.264 1080p file is hardly Blu-Ray. In fact it's only about 20% as demanding (~10,000 to 15,000 kbps compared to 50,000+). Almost any modern camcorder will output this kind of quality, and we all know modern movie watching revolves heavily around ~10GB 1080p files.

To have a laptop priced so high, with "PRO" in the name and not have it capable of even basic 1080p playback is ludicrous. Especially when the last generation supported it perfectly! Surely that's not right? I'm not having a go at Apple btw, I'm saying surely this is a mistake in people's interpretation?

I mean some sites say the HD 3000 handles 1080p flawlessly, even on the older (pre-Sandy) version. Others say it can't even handle 720p. Clearly there's a lot of misinformation floating around both ways.

Would even Apple sell a Pro laptop unable to make use of iMovie and QuickTime? I'm thinking probably not?... Only one way to find out I guess and that's to try one out as soon as they hit the stores.
 
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I can just see this being a Spec Updated. If it was going to be a New design etc I think they would have called a Press Conference like they have done in the past.

I just got a MBAir at the start of the year so I can't see my self updating any time soon :)
 
Rainmaker said:
Blu-Ray would be closer to 50Mbps and I agree, I wouldn't expect any laptop to handle that unless it was designed to do so. I'd have no issue with a 13" MBP being unable to handle a straight Blu-Ray as that's not its intended purpose, at all.
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The current lineup can do that easily just not under OSX. Hardware acceleration is much more efficient under Windows due to DirectX which means ANY BluRay will work flawlessly. SandyBridge can decode H264 etc so it will be just as good although 24fps playback is not available iirc.

My 09 MBP 13 plays M2TS, MKVs etc no problem in Windows but does struggle in OSX. Plex plays back high bitrate no problem at all but cant decode HD audio leaving Windows as the only option for BluRays or their respective rips.

EDIT: http://forums.techarena.in/reviews/1387920.htm
 
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goujon945; that's a real shame. It looks like I'll be infinitely better off under a Windows laptop then in this case. Rather oxymoronic (and sad) though, given the marketing, pricing and name of the line. To not be able to easily play back 1080p in this day and age is really bad (sorry).

I was honestly committed to grabbing a MBP, and I really fell in love with them. I was literally just waiting for the update to go and grab one. Seems it's not worth bothering as it's not fit for my intended purpose. :(

I've got my eye on this instead:

Samsung RF510: Aluminium chassis, large multi-touch trackpad, Core i5 460M 2.53GHz, Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit, 15.6" WXGA LED (1366 x 768), GeForce GT330M 1GB VRAM, 6GB DDR3 RAM, 640GB HDD, DVD SuperMultiDrive, Wireless N, Bluetooth 3.0, USB3, Webcam, 3 in 1 Media Card Reader, 6 Cell Battery, Blue/Black Graduation

The price? £599. :o

EDIT: Just read this back and realised it could sound troll-ish. I apologise unreservedly if anyone takes it this way, I don't mean it to. I honestly came into this thread looking to see when I could buy my MBP - as my earlier posts show! But as I said if the MBP can't handle day-to-day multimedia then I'll have to grab a £599 Windows laptop that can - and still get USB3, Bluetooth3 etc. Maybe when I can afford a 27" iMac with a monster gfx card... :)
 
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My main issue with Windows laptops is the build quality and trackpad. My MBP is built like a tank and the trackpad is infinitely better than any Dell, Acer etc that i've used. The trade off is just about worth it to me although i also use Windows through bootcamp on occasion.

It is worth noting though that just because Apple doesn't use DirectX it doesn't mean that their OpenGL hardware acceleration wont improve. It will, just maybe not greatly until OSX Lion in the Summer.
 
goujon945 said:
My main issue with Windows laptops is the build quality and trackpad. My MBP is built like a tank and the trackpad is infinitely better than any Dell, Acer etc that i've used. The trade off is just about worth it to me although i also use Windows through bootcamp on occasion.

It is worth noting though that just because Apple doesn't use DirectX it doesn't mean that their OpenGL hardware acceleration wont improve. It will, just maybe not greatly until OSX Lion in the Summer.
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Quite true, and fair play. :) But it's not worth it to me to pay 2x the price on the hope that a crucial feature (for me) is implemented soon enough for me to enjoy it.

On a related note - would Bootcamp + Windows 7 not give me DXVA and proper 1080p playback, with the option of returning to OS X for my 'real' work? (I wasn't lying about not trolling - I WANT this MBP lol)
 
Thats whats Bootcamps for to dual boot OSX and Win 7 ;). Tho the main issue of having just integrated GFX still is quite an hurdle for decent 1080p (high bit-rate)

ps3ud0 :cool:
 
Rainmaker said:
On a related note - would Bootcamp + Windows 7 not give me DXVA and proper 1080p playback, with the option of returning to OS X for my 'real' work? (I wasn't lying about not trolling - I WANT this MBP lol)
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Yeah that is what I do at the minute and it works well. I use XBMC and MPC-HC it DXVA works flawlessly

It's still annoying though because i agree with you, not being able to do it under OSX is pretty laughable. If and that is a big if, Apple ever put BluRay drives in their computers then i'm sure hardware acceleration would improve pretty much instantly but as it stands i guess they are under no real pressure to do so.
 
ps3ud0 said:
Thats whats Bootcamps for to dual boot OSX and Win 7 ;). Tho the main issue of having just integrated GFX still is quite an hurdle for decent 1080p (high bit-rate)

ps3ud0 :cool:
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Well the reviews suggest it isn't but with sandbridge being so new the software has trouble enabling HW. Should, should be fixed pretty quick i would think if its just a software or driver issue
 
I hope that they don't put integrated graphics into the 15" - Otherwise, that would be a pretty big blow for me...
 
what makes that spec list 'confirmed' ? lower screen res than the 13" air ? i5 in a 13" ? a 10gb/s port and 5400rpm hdd ?

will be damn disappointed if the screen res is the same as my 4year old plastic book !
 
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The leaked specs are for the low-end 13".

I expect the higher-end 13" to have a better screen and bigger HDD/maybe SSD.
 
17" (Looks like the high end version)
HOeFv.png


15" (Looks like the mid range version)
hdTw4.png



http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=1101665
 
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Hxc said:
Store is down.
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Could be good news :D

Edit:

MacBook Pros Moving from NVIDIA to AMD/ATI Graphics?

While we've heard a lot about Apple's new low end 13-Inch MacBook Pro, there's been hardly any information about the upcoming 15" and 17" models. CNet provides a rundown of what they've heard about today's announcements.

First, as we've heard, Light Peak is officially being branded as "Thunderbolt". We've seen the photos already showing it on the 13" MacBook Pro.
Thunderbolt is a new interface that will let consumers connect peripheral devices that need to move a lot of data quickly, such as an array of disk drives, or an external device that requires very high-speed connections.

Thunderbolt will be found on the new MacBook Pros. Next, as we knew, Intel's latest Sandy Bridge processors will be used in the new MacBook Pros. And, the 13" MacBook Pro will only use Intel's integrated graphics chip.

CNet, however, also reveals that the 15" and 17" MacBook Pros will use AMD (formerly ATI) discrete graphics cards alongside Intel's integrated solution.
As in previous MacBook Pros, the discrete graphics chip is only fired up when heavy lifting is needed. When power savings is paramount or high-end graphics processing is not necessary, the system defaults to Intel's graphics.

CNet offers no specifics about which AMD graphics card models Apple will be offering. Current 15" and 17" MacBook Pros have NVIDIA graphics cards built in.
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Source: MacRumors
 
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