Apple’s 45nm Refresh: New MacBook & MacBook Pro
by Anand Lal Shimpi on February 29, 2008 12:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Mac
The Air Update
Apple released the new Penryn notebooks on Tuesday and on Wednesday I was on a flight to Austin to visit AMD and Intel. Unfortunately, due to battery life testing, I couldn’t get all of my benchmarking done before the trip which meant either waiting until I got back Friday night to finish testing or taking a bunch of notebooks with me. Seeing as how I would be back home for a day before heading off to Germany for CeBIT, I had to take them with me.
In my carry on I had the new MacBook Pro, the new MacBook and my MacBook Air (which made for a fun trip through the security line at RDU). I needed the Air so I could have something to write on while the Pro and regular MacBook ran down their batteries in my hotel room Wednesday night, and it was the lightest thing I had available so it gave me an opportunity to really use Apple’s new ultra portable on the road.
The keyboard continues to be one of my favorite aspects of the Air, it’s so easy to write on and it does allow me to be productive on a very light notebook. I am eager to try out Lenovo’s X300 to see how it stacks up in this regard, as Lenovo and IBM before it are well known for having highly usable keyboards.
Using the MacBook and the Air back to back, the Air’s sluggish 4200RPM 1.8” HDD is very apparent. As I suggested in the MacBook Air review, it isn’t a MacBook replacement or even an upgrade. The MacBook Air is much like a horizontal promotion within a company, you’ve got the same level of responsibility and pay grade but you may be better suited for the job. The Air isn’t a clear upgrade from the regular MacBook despite its pricing, it’s simply better suited for some users thanks to its form factor.
So far I’m not missing the optical drive, but I am still getting used to having to bring the silly USB Ethernet dongle with me wherever I go just in case. For this trip I had three power bricks (one for each notebook), another for my camera and yet another for my iPhone. I had to bring along a compact flash reader and when I thought I was done with all of my cables, I forgot I needed to bring along the USB Ethernet dongle in case my hotel didn’t have wireless. It’s not a heavy item to bring along but a minor annoyance nonetheless.
Battery life is about where I expected it to be based on the tests I ran for the review. If you remember in the original review I managed 4.5 hours for light web browsing with MP3 playback, while my more intensive test drained the cells in about 2.5 hours. Writing this article on the Air left me with about a 3.5 hour battery life, largely due to my constant saving which prevents the hard drive from going to sleep. I’m also constantly typing and not giving the system much think time, which keeps the CPU from entering deeper sleep states. So the 2.5 - 4.5 hour average lifespan for the Air seems to work out in actual usage (which makes sense since the battery tests were derived from actual usage). My concern is what happens once the battery ages and no longer manages to hold a full charge. In my opinion 3.5 - 4.5 hours is reasonable although not perfect, start dropping closer to 2 - 2.5 hours and the system stops being as useful to me.
The SSD option would obviously help things, but I had to send my sample back so it’s back to the mechanical disk for me.
I’m also extremely glad Apple didn’t go with the same panel on the Air as it uses on the regular MacBook. If this thing is designed for people like me who write a lot on the go, a crappy display would just be unacceptable.
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alisonkay2008 - Friday, March 7, 2008 - link
You can get the best Macbook Pro Case at Macbook Pro Casealisonkay2008 - Friday, March 7, 2008 - link
Sorry... the link didn't work.http://www.macbook-pro-case.com">http://www.macbook-pro-case.com
JAS - Tuesday, March 4, 2008 - link
FWIW, MacWorld Labs is reporting that the new "entry level" MacBook Pro is about 10% faster than the model it replaces.http://www.macworld.com/article/132330/2008/03/mac...">http://www.macworld.com/article/132330/2008/03/mac...
On this third year anniversary of my current laptop, I'm headed over to the Apple Store to purchase the 2.4 gHz model. Thanks to Anand for providing his helpful analysis.
brunerd - Tuesday, March 4, 2008 - link
Quick note about the Exposé key and some modifier keys:If you hold down Command when pressing Exposé (F3) it shows Desktop
If you hold down Control when pressing it, it shows just the App Windows
So you don't have to resort to fn-f12 or fn-f11 to get the above behavior.
Thanks for the write up, nice to know it's running cooler.
louieking - Tuesday, March 4, 2008 - link
I was very disappointed that you did not compare the new Penryn 2.6GHz, 200GB- 7200RPM model with the 2007 Merom 2.6GHz, 200GB- 7200RPM model. I don’t think the tests were comparing apples for apples. I think most people interested in your reviews would have wanted to see the difference in overall performance (processing times, battery life) as it relates to lower voltage demands of the Penryn. This would have shown true comparison in battery performance since I suspect that the Penryn version would out-perform in all tests and still have better battery life by a few minutes. Lastly, I think many folks would have been intrigued with a test that showed Firewire 800 download speeds as it relates to battery life. This is an everyday task that would make a difference for a professional MacBook Pro user.PS. It’s not too late to WOW the world with your review since you usually beat everyone else to the punch.
Thanks for your insight.
azca - Monday, March 3, 2008 - link
Hint: you can use a tiny driver/software to control the frequency of the intel cpus to show better comparison in your charts:http://www.coolbook.se/CoolBook.html">http://www.coolbook.se/CoolBook.html
Please, if you can, use this for your next review so that you can have better apple-to-apple comparison.
You can also use the program to undervolt the cpu and hence measure the thermal output and lifespan of battery etc.
Thank you.
Pete248 - Monday, March 3, 2008 - link
While the MacBook Pro keyboard isn't bad, I'm really wandering, why Apple didn't switch to the new keyboard they now use in the MacBook, the Air and the external keyboards.Having tried both side by side, the new keyboard feels more definite than the MacPro keyboard. And its probably less susceptible to dust, crumbs and water - the later killing the MacBook Pro keyboard easily - even in traces.
With a new keyboard I would have pulled the trigger for a purchase, now I'm holding back to see what comes within the next 3 months.
Wolfpup - Monday, March 3, 2008 - link
The review says Intel's upcoming video would help the Macbook Pro with Blu Ray playback. Presumably that should have said help the Macbook, as the Pro doesn't use integrated video, and has already had a GPU that accelerates Blu Ray playback for most of a year.[quote]MelCarnahan, 2 hours ago
The author claims Apple picked the right CPU partner in Intel, yet these Intel CPUs could not come close to matching a 32nm Quad Core IBM Cell processor with 2000 MHz FSB. It is disingenuous to compare these Intel egg fryers with a single core PowerPC with a 133MHz FSB. Clearly the Cell processor is superior both in performance and battery life. Only those who wish to use their Yonahs to fry eggs prefer Intel. [/quote]
Is this some kind of joke? If so, I don't get it. There's so much wrong with this post I don't know where to start, and someone else can do a far better job explaining why, but off the top of my head:
Cell is a TERRIBLE general purpose CPU. It gets destroyed by Netburst architecture, let alone Intel's modern CPUs. It's great for specific things, but would be terrible for a computer (and is very questionable for a game system for that matter...)
As far as I know, Intel is a who process ahead of anything Cell is produced on. Geez, the PS3 version is only now hitting 65nm.
I have no idea why Cell would run COOLER. If anything I'd assume the reverse is true, and certainlly it is anyway because AFAIK there's no 45nm Cell (let alone 32nm as claimed).
[quote]The Yonah fans sound distinctly like one of those unarmored Humvees with its muffler blown off. The Merom 2.2 Macbook Pro is an improvement but still far hotter, louder and short-batteried compared to the PowerPC. [/quote]
The Macbook Pro's I've used are dead silent unless they're pushed-but that's a case design issue. I have no idea how they compare to the G4 that was used in terms of the power they use, but I don't think it was much different, and certainly Intel's CPUs would destroy those G4s in terms of power/performance.
MelCarnahan - Monday, March 3, 2008 - link
The author claims Apple picked the right CPU partner in Intel, yet these Intel CPUs could not come close to matching a 32nm Quad Core IBM Cell processor with 2000 MHz FSB. It is disingenuous to compare these Intel egg fryers with a single core PowerPC with a 133MHz FSB. Clearly the Cell processor is superior both in performance and battery life. Only those who wish to use their Yonahs to fry eggs prefer Intel.Secondly, Macbook and Macbook Pro keyboards are a disaster. Forget bells and whistles and multitouch. They don't even get the basics right. These are basically what was long derided as cheap chiclet keyboards for many years. The backlighting is frivolous when you consider that even at the dimmest setting, the screen is enough to light up a room. The screen is certainly bright enough to light up both the room and the keyboard. The first and most important requirement of any keyboard is a dedicated, full-size page up and page down key. Second, full-size arrow keys. Even the first TRS-80s got this right and Apple still can't get it right. They could create a feature where you waddle your elbows like a duck while holding up three fingers and bending your knees and then the page scrolls down a page - or they could just include a proper page-up and page-down key.
The Yonah fans sound distinctly like one of those unarmored Humvees with its muffler blown off. The Merom 2.2 Macbook Pro is an improvement but still far hotter, louder and short-batteried compared to the PowerPC.
For solutions see: http://www.terrasoftsolutions.com">http://www.terrasoftsolutions.com
hernan1304 - Monday, March 3, 2008 - link
If you want a custom case made specifically for MB Pro or Air, check out vajacases.com - I've had one of their iPod cases for almost two years and it's been great. Very very very expensive and they take a long time to make but they definitely don't look like generic laptop bags and they hold up. Not affiliated with them in any way, by the way.