In his Macworld 2006 keynote, Apple CEO Steve Jobs announced
the MacBook Pro, a 15.4-inch wide-screen laptop built on Intel's
new Centrino Core Duo chipset, a dual-core processing platform
itself announced just five days ago at CES. Jobs claims that Intel's Core Duo
will deliver performance that's four to five times faster than
what you'll get from Apple's prior-generation PowerBook
G4. The 259mm thick MacBook Pro weighs 2.54 kilograms and
includes a built-in iSight
camera, an ExpressCard slot, and an Apple Remote for navigating
the company's Front Row media software. Two versions will be
available in February: an AU$3,199 model with a 1.67GHz
processor, 512MB of RAM and an 80GB hard drive; and a beefier
AU$3,999 model with a 1.83GHz processor, 1GB of RAM and a 100GB
hard drive.
Upside
Bar none, the best thing about the MacBook Pro is that Apple has
shelved IBM's plodding G4 PowerPC processor in favour of Intel's
new
Core Duo. We're also psyched to see a decent graphics card
onboard, ATI's Mobility Radeon X1600 with 256MB of memory, along
with x16 PCI Express architecture. Designwise, the MacBook Pro
looks a lot like the 15-inch
PowerBook and, at 2.5 kilograms, it weighs about the same.
Still, the MacBook Pro offers a slightly larger screen, a
nominally thinner profile, and a fetching bundle of specs.
- 1.67GHz or 1.83GHz Intel Core Duo
- 667MHz frontside bus and main memory
- PCI Express architecture
- Up to 120GB Serial ATA hard drive
- ATI Mobility Radeon X1600 with up to 256MB memory on 16-lane PCI Express
- ExpressCard/34 slot
- Dual-link DVI, VGA adapter included
- One FireWire 400 port, two USB 2.0 ports
- Optical digital and analog audio I/O, built-in microphone and stereo speakers
- Slot-loading SuperDrive
- Illuminated keyboard, scrolling TrackPad
- Built-in AirPort Extreme (802.11g), Bluetooth 2.0+EDR, and Gigabit Ethernet
- Mac OS X Tiger with iLife '06, featuring iWeb
Downside
The elephant in the room is battery life -- Jobs neglected to
mention it in his keynote. Though Intel says its dual-core
processors consume less power than the prior generation of single
cores, we're curious to see how long the new MacBook Pro will run
away from the wall socket -- a display that bright is bound to
suck a lot of power. Jobs did say that the MacBook Pro delivers
roughly four times as much performance per watt as the PowerBook
G4, but who knows exactly what that means?
Outlook
The MacBook Pro likely signals the end of the road for the entire
PowerBook line, whose G4 processors seem positively ancient as of
this morning. Nevertheless, we're truly happy to finally see an
Apple laptop with power to match its beauty. If you have AU$3,000
to spend on a laptop, the MacBook Pro gives you fewer and fewer
excuses not to go with Apple. If it delivers on Apple's
performance promises, the MacBook Pro will give Apple bragging
rights to the prettiest and most powerful laptop on the
planet.
Apple MacBook Pro
Company: Apple
Price: AU$3,199
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