MobileTechReview Forum, News and Reviews: New MacBook Pro Santa Rosa First Look with Benchmarks

The new, new, new MacBook Pro hit the shelves today. This latest third revision to the MacBook Pro line follows quickly behind the updates to the regular MacBook; speed and memory. It's more of the same here with a processor upgrade from 2.33 to 2.4Ghz, an nVidia 8600m GT graphics processor replacing the ATI X1600 and a switch to Intel's new "Santa Rosa" mobile chipset offering 800Mhz front-side bus and support for 4Gb of RAM.

None of this can be seen from the outside but the new LED illuminated screen can be, promising lower power needs and a more 'white' light I've seen great results on other laptops but, well, it's very nice, which is a polite way of saying that the original was very good already and the new one, whilst also great is little different; it's great, perhaps a little let down but I'm not sure what I was expecting really. The MacBook Pro still sits at the top of all of 'Laptop-dom' though in the screen stakes.

Anything else? Well, it's been working out over the winter and has trimmed a little fat weighing in at 5.4 pounds (2.45Kg). This is reassuringly heavy but Apple, if you're reading don't fix that, it's not broken!

The range includes 15" 1440x900 resolution and 17" 1680x1050 resolution display units with the LED only available on the 15" at the moment. Processors have jumped to 2.2 and 2.4GHz on the 15" and 2.4Ghz only for the 17". One last change is the move from an Hitachi hard disk to a Fujitsu; largely the same specification and capacity so perhaps just a supply change. 120Gb or 160Gb for the 15" and 160Gb for the 17". Base pricing runs from $2,000 to $2,800 but all get 2Gb RAM and the 8x Dual-Layer SuperDrive, or DVD burner as we call it. Options include 4Gb RAM, 7200rpm disk drives at 160Gb and 250Gb hard disks though only 4200rpm. New is the option for a higher resolution (1920x1200) display on the 17" - worth it in my opinion.

Software installed is unchanged; Mac OS-X 10.4.x but remember, Apples aren't just for Mac OS-X anymore, Apples run Windows XP and Vista too. They run Vista particularly well and Apple have released the version 1.3 update to its 'BootCamp' software that includes the drivers for this new models Intel Chipset and, as plus for other MacBook PRO users; drivers for the keyboard lighting - Hurrah! BootCamp can be found at http://www.apple.com/bootcamp

No write up on any Apple product can get by without asking the question "Why would I spend so much on an Apple when I could buy an X from Y for just $Z?" Let's look at the new MacBook PRO; in 15" screen with 2Gb RAM and 256 meg graphics, it's $2,499... I could buy THREE Dell laptops for that sort of money; seriously; check out the Inspiring 6400 or whatever it's called but, I reckon that, as you've read this far, you're with me... you don't want a Dell, not even three of them. You want a cool laptop... join me as we go over to the dark side of premium consumer products.

The previous model MacBook Pro and the new MacBook Pro.

I'm a premium consumer, there I said it. I have a cheap laptop, it's fine, it does what it's supposed to do but I'm un-inspired by it. What I need out of my products is a certain 'X' factor, that thing that makes you forget about the cost ten minutes after the purchase and leaves you feeling good every time you use it and with Apple; the 'X' factor comes in spades... heaps of it. Did you know that the insides of the MacBook Pro are all cast aluminum? No, it is, the hard disk is held in place, not by plastic moldings, but by little rubber cones that suspend the hard disk in air, touching nothing... And you wonder why you can't hear it? That's quality, quality that makes you feel that your investment was worthwhile. There's loads of that stuff like that in the MacBook and the latest version just adds more.

Performance:

Apple have always cherry picked the best parts; there is a reason that they've always been expensive! The latest MacBook PRO is no exception.

Here's how the new stacks up against the old... In short, it's just faster. The graphics sub-system and the memory show the greatest gains though, in some tasks the older ATI was better; typically, early graphics adapter drivers can show this trait, let's see if an update will turn that around. A rough number of 6% across the board as an improvement is nice. I used Passmark Performance test 6.1 under Windows Vista to benchmark the machine.

Here's how the new stacks up against the old... In short, it's just faster. The graphics sub-system was slower but I suspect that is more about how I jammed the desktop driver into the system so I'm going to ignore that which leaves me with a rough number of 10% as an improvement which is nice. If you'd like to see the complete benchmark results as a (large!) image, click here.

It's early to say how the LED screen will improve power but on full everything the previous model lasted about 2 hours, this one is reporting some more; about 2.5 hours; so, that's 6% more computing power with an extra 25% battery life.

To sum up, it's an incremental step forward; advancing an already top flight system, if you have a MacBook PRO already, enjoy it, it's a very nice piece of hardware, if you don't have one, well, Apple have just given you another great incentive. Buy it.

-- Michael Thwaite

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Lisa Gade
Editor in Chief, MobileTechReview

Edited by LisaG (06/07/07 08:14 PM)

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