MacBook Pros Make It Into the 4-Core Club

Apple has pushed out its long-awaited update to its MacBook Pro line. Some of the new laptops get around to incorporating Intel's latest Core i5 and i7 chips. The new models also pump up graphical capabilities and battery life. However, the 13-inch model, the smallest MacBook Pro of the bunch, will go without a jump to Core-line chips.

New MacBook Pro Features

The MacBook Pro line comes in three sizes, with 13-, 15- and 17-inch screens. Their internal architecture has been reengineered, and they have new logic boards, chipsets and graphics architectures.

The new models in all three sizes start with 4 GB of RAM. The 13-inch MacBook Pros have 250 GB or 350 GB hard drives, depending on their configuration; the 15-inchers have 320 GB or 500 GB hard drives; and the 17-inchers come only with a 500 GB hard drive.

The 13-inch MacBook Pros have 2.4 GHz or 2.66 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processors with 3MB of level 2 (L2) cache. The 15-inchers have 2.4 GHz or 2.53 GHz Intel Core i5 processors with 3MB of L3 cache or a 2.66 GHz Intel Core i7 processor with 4MB of L3 cache.

A 2.66 GHz Intel Core i5 processor with 3MB of L3 cache powers the new 17-inch MacBook Pro.

It's All About the Graphics

Graphics have always been a key feature in Macs, and the MacBook Pro updates focus strongly on movies. They have a Mini DisplayPort that gives users plug-and-play performance with the Apple LED Cinema Display.

The Mini DisplayPort supports VGA and DVI. It also supports the latest multimedia standards such as HDMI 6.

For processing graphics, the new 13-inch MacBook Pro has a custom-made Nvidia GeForce 320M discrete graphics processor with 256MB of DDR3 SDRAM that's shared with its main memory.

"The GeForce 320M is our latest GPU with integrated core logic," Nvidia spokesperson Brian Burke told MacNewsWorld. "It's unique to Apple and is the follow-on to the GeForce 9400M."

The GeForce 320M has 48 processing cores and is reportedly 80 percent faster than the 9400 M. However, that doesn't quite make it a real screamer.

"The GeForce 320M is not a performance part per se," Carl Howe, director of anywhere research at the Yankee group, told MacNewsWorld. "It's a low-power part, and my guess is it was designed to fit on the 13-inch MacBook Pro's motherboard."

The 15- and 17-inch models have both Intel HD Graphics processors and Nvidia GeForce GT 330M graphics processors. They switch between the processors as needed.

"You can't do much graphics with the Intel HD," Howe remarked. "If you really want to do graphics you have to go to the Nvidia processor."

So why did Apple incorporate the Intel processor into the MacBook Pros? Probably because that was the only way it could get good pricing for the i5 and i7 processors, Howe speculated.

"My belief is Apple had to get the Intel HD graphics processor to get access to the i5s and i7s in the quantities they wanted," Howe explained. "Intel likes to sell bundles of chips -- processors and WiFi chips and graphics processors -- so you take the bundle if you want the best pricing."

Other MacBook Pro Features

The MacBook Pros have 8x SuperDrives that let users burn DVDs. It writes to double-layer discs, which are DVDs with nearly 9 GB of capacity.

All three have built-in batteries with what Apple claims is nearly three times the normal lifespan -- they will handle up to 1,000 full charge and discharge cycles before their capacity is diminished to 80 percent of its original level.

The batteries also hold their charges longer than normal. The 13-inch MacBook Pro's battery lasts up to 10 hours on a single charge, while the batteries of the other models last eight to nine hours on a charge.

The MacBook Pro batteries include chips that monitor their condition and share this information with the computer, which uses an algorithm to adjust the current accordingly. This "Adaptive Charging" feature reduces wear and tear on the battery, Apple claims. Charging the battery at a constant rate, like most notebooks do, wears it out more quickly, Apple said.

Of Delays and Marketing Strategies

The MacBook Pro update was long overdue -- Apple last updated the line in June of 2009.

That delay may have been due to Apple's success . "Apple put quite a strain on Intel," the Yankee Group's Howe explained. "If you're ordering only a few hundred thousand i5 and i7 processors, Intel has no problem filling your order, but Apple sells millions of PCs each quarter." In this quarter, Howe estimates Apple has sold 2 to 3 million PCs, of which 2 million are laptops.

Will the new MacBook Pro line and the iPad impact each others' sales as their launches are so close together?

"They're targeted at different users," Howe pointed out. "Some people might buy both. For example, people might buy the 17-inch high-end MacBook Pro for use in the office but carry the iPad when traveling."