Following Apple’s announcement at the WWDC, we now have three machines in the MacBook Pro line (both the original 15- and 17-inch notebooks, plus a 13-inch unit), all at prices that are more affordable than any Apple-branded computer has ever been. All three machines now house the same internal battery panel originally used in the 17-inch model, which boosts battery life (+/- 5 years) at the expense of not being able to make replacements without opening up the unit.
Battery Unit
The new battery unit is a big deal, as it turns out from tests. Used at typical work settings, it now offers close to four hours of operation, over an hour jump from the previous batteries (on both 13 and 15 inch MacBook Pros).
Display
All three notebooks benefit from a new LED-backlit display panel, which offers a 60% greater range of colors than previous MacBook Pros. The bump-up is highly noticeable as soon as you put a new machine side-by-side with an older model – better viewing at virtually any angle and decent visibility even from a distance.
Internals
Processors have been summarily bumped up to 2.53GHz Core 2 Duos and it’s apparent in benchmarks tests. While we’ve never encountered speed problems on our machines in the past (it’s not like we try to play Crysis on them), it does seem to perform even better now. A bit of disappointment is the absence of the removable latch to get to the hard drive and RAM. In the new MacBook Pros, you’ll have to work with screws (yep, Steve Jobs goes away for a while and his computers get screws).
Others
I love the fact that both the 13- and 15-inch machines get an SD card slot in favor of the ExpressCard. The 17-incher, however, remains relatively the same and doesn’t enjoy the privilege. On the whole, the biggest updates this time around are reflected in the battery (for the two smaller units) and the price. It’s a cheaper (although still more expensive than other computers), faster and longer-lasting MacBook Pro – take that, Laptop Hunter ads!
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