MacBook event wrapup

ThraxThrax 🐌Austin, TX Icrontian
edited October 2008 in Science & Tech
Apple's MacBook event which we covered here and here just wrapped up! We're walking away with a new 15" MacBook Pro, a refresh of the 17" MacBook Pro (no details yet), a brand new 13" MacBook, a price drop on the classic MacBook, and a refresh of the MacBook Air. Hit the jump for more detailed information!
New MacBook Pro 15.4"


Apple Store Link: Here

Comments

  • BuddyJBuddyJ Dept. of Propaganda OKC Icrontian
    edited October 2008
    I wonder if the shocker and 4-finger touch will come to the old macbooks.
  • jaredjared College Station, TX Icrontian
    edited October 2008
    I wonder what the comparison of the 256mb 9600M GT to the 512mb 8600M GT.

    Other than this new graphics card/chipset and trackpad I see no compelling reason to get this new gen.

    HD, processor, and ram are all virtually the same as ones available in past models.

    Overall though, decent updates - especially on the Macbook side of things.
  • NomadNomad A Small Piece of Hell Icrontian
    edited October 2008
    jared wrote:
    I wonder what the comparison of the 256mb 9600M GT to the 512mb 8600M GT.

    Other than this new graphics card/chipset and trackpad I see no compelling reason to get this new gen.

    HD, processor, and ram are all virtually the same as ones available in past models.

    Overall though, decent updates - especially on the Macbook side of things.

    Yeah, that's what a lot of us Macbook users were noticing in class, that unless you have the Core Duo Intel as opposed to the Core 2 Duo, there's no sense in upgrading. The Core Duo models came with one gig of ram stock, the Core 2 Duo is two gigs standard.

    Really, the ram and hard drive speed I've noticed most affect the Macbook's performance and handling multiple applications. A lot of the 5400 RPM hard drives are sluggish.
  • ThraxThrax 🐌 Austin, TX Icrontian
    edited October 2008
    I think most current-gen macbook owners should wait for the next round. That will be Nehalem-based. USB 3.0, Firewire 3200, 30% faster CPU, tri-channel DDR3, probably all-SSD, etc. IE, a way more significant upgrade.
  • jaredjared College Station, TX Icrontian
    edited October 2008
    I agree ^^

    I browsed Apple's current stock of refurbs and found this...
    2.5ghz CD2
    15.4-inch 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
    (and the option for a MATTE screen - zomg come on Apple!)
    ... for $1499... or 41% off its original price.

    To me this would be a much better (smarter?) choice, just throw 4gb ram in it. WITH Applecare you are still right under $2000 and it is, besides the graphics update and aesthetics, almost the same as the ones out now.

    Then again I'm one who pushes the refurbs. I bought my current MBP as a refurb and saved $500 which more than paid for the extended Applecare. I've had no issues with it at all.

    The only thing I hate is it takes them so damn long to refresh their notebooks. Average of 197 days according to MacRumor's buyers guide.

    As I said I think the Macbook update was pretty stunning, Macbook Pro... not so much.
  • Jeremiah
    edited October 2008
    I am a refurb man myself - it's really the only way to go. Or find a friend who has to have the newest thing and buy his ex-computer :-)

    I don't like the new Macbooks don't have Firewire, and although they look nice there is no reason in my mind to go hurry and buy now. Nothing revolutionary - I'll buy a new mac when I need one. The graphics improvements though, especially on the pro, would be nice for gaming.
  • jaredjared College Station, TX Icrontian
    edited October 2008
    Yeah, just wait.

    PLUS
    If you are trying to decide whether or not to get a MacBook or a MacBook Pro based on the video card, you might want to take a look at this video below. At the current moment, you cannot switch from the energy saving integrated chipset to the high performance chipset without logging out and back in again...

    [...]

    Likely, this is due to the fact that this video card is just out of the gate with Apple and the software drivers and firmware aren't on the same page. Expect updates to one or both of them in the near future that will fix them and return them to reasonable behavior.

    Kinda sucks.

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