Apple made 2 major improvement to its 15-inch Macbook Pro
- upgrade of processor from core 2 duo to Core i7
- automatic graphics-switching technology that makes moving from integrated to discrete graphics mode all but invisible to the user
This results in much better performance. Some test results of the 15-inch Macbook Pro with 2.66-GHz Intel core i7 and 4GB RAM:
- Running PCMark Vantage in Boot Camp score 6,699 — nearly double the mainstream average of 3,885 and also the previous 15-inch MacBook Pro’s score of 3,285
- Booting into Mac OS X 10.6 took 44 seconds; while booting into Windows 7 takes 1 minute and 25 seconds
- On 3DMark06 (running in Boot Camp), the discrete Nvidia GPU scored 6,746, double the category average and 800 points above the older 15-inch MacBook Pro
Another great thing about the new Macbook Pro is that even with the improved performance, it still manage to keep a very good battery life. Laptop Magazine gets 7 hours and 54 minutes of battery life from their test which involve continuous web surfing over Wi-Fi on this laptop; while Engadget gets 5 hours 18 minutes from their Standard definition video rundown test with 65 percent brightness.
The long battery life and superb performance is partly the result of the capability to automatically switch between integrated and Nvidia discrete GPU. When doing tasks which don’t require a lot of graphic processing power, the discrete GPU that’s not in used is shut off. When software senses that an application is using graphics frameworks such as Core Graphics, OpenGL, or Quartz Composer, it will turn on the discrete GPU. This way the laptop gets better battery life while still delivering more horsepower when needed.
Overall the new 15-inch Macbook Pro has a much better performance over the previous version. The only drawback would be the price. The base model of this laptop is now $1,799 instead of $1,699 of the previous version. But we think it’s well worth the value.
The new Apple Macbook Pro 15-inch (Core i7) is currently available on Amazon
- 2.4GHz Intel Core i5
- 320 GB Hard Drive
- 8x DVD/CD SuperDrive
- 4GB DDR3 RAM
- 15.4 inch LED-backlit display, 1440-by-900 resolution
- Intel HD Graphics and NVIDIA GeForce GT 330M with automatic graphics switching and 256 MB dedicated graphics memory
- Mac OS X v10.6 Snow Leopard Operating System
Reviews of the customer who have bought it from Amazon:
“The macbook worked right out of the box,set-up was easy.I had a pc laptop (whose company name I won’t say) and had all sorts of problems (slow boot-up, and screen and registry problems) I got so fed up, I decided to get rid of it.
While looking at laptops at Best Buy store, I looked at the macbook pro “15.4″ which..” (continue reading)
Apple Macbook Pro 15-inch (Core i7) Unboxing Video:
Source: Amazon