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MacBook Pro Core 2 Duo notes

by Dan Pourhadi Oct 24th 2006 at 9:30AM

Laurie just covered the release of the new Core 2 Duo MacBook Pros, which tout an impressive 39% speedboost (or so Apple claims). But some of the best new tidbits are hidden inside the press release:

  • All MacBook Pro models now include a FireWire 800 port -- meaning we can all rest assured in the belief that Apple isn't slowly abandoning FireWire after all. Also great news for everyone who purchased FireWire 800 hard drives during the PowerBook G4 reign.
  • The MacBook Pros also support more memory -- up to 3GB 667MHz DDR2 SDRAM.
  • Storage capacity has increased, too -- you can get a 200GB HD via Apple's online store.
  • All MacBook Pros also now come standard with a double-layer SuperDrive (I don't remember specifically if these were included in the previously-updated MBP models -- if not, they are now!)
The gap between the MacBooks and MacBooks Pros is constantly growing, as we see Apple pushing the Pros in a more Pro-line direction. At least now it's easier to justify the huge price difference.

Update: Interestingly, Apple also released a MagSafe airline adapter. From Apple: "With a MagSafe Airline Power Adapter, you'll never again worry about losing power while traveling. Just plug it into your airline seat power port and keep your MacBook or MacBook Pro powered up for the entire flight." It comes with two different connectors (EmPower and a 20mm adapter) and costs $59.00.

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Laurie just covered the release of the new Core 2 Duo MacBook Pros, which tout an impressive 39% speedboost (or so Apple claims). But some...
 

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Big Ben

Woz: yes

October 25 2006 at 10:21 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Fredrik

It sucks bigtime that Apple has stopped offering the 7200 rpm HD. Offering performance improvement on CPU, but at the same time removing a great option on HD performance.. Even called and asked, but nobody knows anything and 7200 is totally unavailable. Please make some sort of a story out of this.

October 25 2006 at 6:17 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Mark

The graphs on the Canadian version of the page are still wrong, though:

http://www.apple.com/ca/macbookpro/intel.html

October 24 2006 at 9:05 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Mark

Looks like they've fixed the graph. At http://www.apple.com/macbookpro/intel.html the graph shows:

class="bar4" style="width: 240px;" 45% faster
class="bar3" style="width: 165px;" Baseline

This is correct 165*1.45 (rounded up) is 240.

October 24 2006 at 8:50 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Mark

On the graph: I think fvquicke is right. Each bar is supposed to represent the percentage of time it took a task to complete compared to the previous model. So the bottom bar for the old model itself must represent the value 100%. The scale of the graph is therefore 50 pixels = 100%, or 1 pixel = 2%. Therefore, a value of 145% should be 72.5 pixels long.

October 24 2006 at 8:21 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
The Jeremy

What's the word on the wifi card that's built into the new MacBook Pros? Are they using the same Broadcom chip found in the current batch of iMacs that are pre-N?

October 24 2006 at 6:41 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
nfoo

I'm really feeling a little bad for my 1.83 MacBook Pro. Should I? I looked at the Core 2 Duo vs. Core Duo at barefeats.com and the C2D seems to be a lot faster ... But then again: payed only 1400 Euro for mine. (Ok, plus 200 for the 2 GB.) But 1600 for 2 GB ain't bad, or is it?

October 24 2006 at 6:23 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Dmitry

I'm very curious as to why Apple is not offering any 7200 RPM drives on their website. Could be the particular models they chose, or noise.. or.. who knows..
Waiting for the developer note.

October 24 2006 at 4:35 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Nick

Well, doesn't that just take the biscuit. I just ordered a 15-inch 2.16GHz MBP last week, and it's already on its way. At the rate Apple rolls out its upgrades, though, I don't think it's possible not to feel left behind.

October 24 2006 at 4:24 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
j

woah, I just got lucky. bought my 2.0 mbp on the 9nth of october. right after I read this article I called the apple store where i got mine and they said they'd hook me up with an exchance on thursday or friday , when the store gets them in. I'll probably have to pay the 150 restoking fee , but its cool im getting an upgarde, yes!

October 24 2006 at 3:40 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
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