Apple klaxon! iWooga! Apple's new MacBook Pro range shows off a brand-new, super-speedy method of connecting your laptop to other devices: Thunderbolt.
Thunderbolt is a new type of slot on the side of each MacBook Pro, alongside the USB, Ethernet and FireWire sockets, for connecting your laptop to displays and devices. It was developed by Intel with the code name Light Peak.
Thunderbolt from the blue
Thunderbolt offers two bi-directional channels that transfer data at a whopping 10Gb per second. That means that high-performance peripherals such as RAID arrays will talk to your MacBook Pro at super-fast speeds. It delivers a respectable 10W of power, and can daisy-chain up to six peripherals.
Infuriatingly, Apple still hasn't delivered an HDMI connection to wire your laptop directly to your high-definition television. But monitors and TVs can be connected to the Thunderbolt port as it's the same shape as DisplayPort, and will work with DisplayPort adaptors for HDMI, DVI and VGA displays. New adaptors are required to connect Ethernet, FireWire and USB devices via Thunderbolt.
The line-up
Pay attention: here come the numbers. The new models start at £999 for a 13-inch MacBook Pro, boasting an Intel Core i5 processor clocked at 2.7GHz with a 320GB hard drive. The next option is a 2.7GHz i5 and 500GB hard drive for £1,299.
The new 15-inch and 17-inch MacBook Pro models pack quad-core Core i7 processors up to 2.3 GHz, with AMD Radeon HD graphics processors and up to 1GB of video memory. The 15-inch costs £1,549 for a 2.0GHz quad-core Intel Core i7 chip, AMD Radeon HD 6490M graphics and 500GB hard drive. A 2.2GHz Core i7 processor, AMD Radeon HD 6750M graphics chip and 750GB hard drive costs £1,849.
The 17-inch MacBook Pro boasts a 2.2GHz Core i7 chip, AMD Radeon HD 6750M graphics and a 750GB hard drive for £2,099.
As before, the new models are housed in an aluminium unibody casing, with a glass multitouch trackpad and LED-backlit screen. The 13- and 15-inch models have two USB ports, and the 17-inch has three. It's only USB 2.0, which is disappointing, as USB 3.0 is fast becoming commonplace.
FaceTime to charge
The new models run on the familiar Mac OS X Snow Leopard operating system, with the included iLife package consisting of iPhoto, iMovie and GarageBand.
On the subject of apps, Apple is now charging for FaceTime. The video-calling app is built into new MacBook Pro models, but if you download it to another Mac you'll need to fork over £0.59 in the Mac App Store.
The built-in webcam has increased in resolution so you can now video-call family and friends in eye-watering high definition -- as long as they also have a new MacBook Pro. You can make standard-resolution calls to other Macs, the iPhone 4 and the latest iPod touch.
The new MacBook pro range is on sale now direct from Apple. Are you a pro in need of a Pro? Would you benefit from the sort of speeds Thunderbolt offers? Or is yet another kind of port the last thing you need? Tell us your thoughts in the comments.
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Comments 11
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anonymous 24 February, 2011 17:12
finally appear to be getting value for money from a apple product
Anonymous 24 February, 2011 17:17
this is an outrage
anonymous 24 February, 2011 19:32
Tempting to make the jump to an apple laptop as i no longer would need it for anything other than photoshop, but can't justify forking out that much cash when I'd still use my desktop for my main photography workflow - maybe later on in life, I prefer windows anyway, at least for now
Anonymous 24 February, 2011 19:44
I bought my pre-2011 Macbook at the start of the year, and am I little annoyed I didn't wait. However, apart from the processor and increased graphics capabilities, there is nothing really new in these Macbooks. Apple is notorious for touting new types of faster ports when in fact connecting them to the standard ports of the present (using expensive adaptors!) cancels out any potential speed gains. Sticking a 7-core processor into a 1-inch thin body, has me worried about heat, with my 2.4ghz Core i5 already reaching temperatures of 40-50 degrees with normal use.
I am impressed with the fact the pricing has remained the same, and that Lion is included on these machines. Despite my grumps, I still wished I was buying the new MacBooks!!
Anonymous 24 February, 2011 21:10
Lion is not included, still Snow Leopard.
Will be ordering mine soon.
Andyt95 24 February, 2011 23:11
Apple: cleverly marketed BS that nobody will ever need.
This thunderbolt thing is like having 1 mile of motorway where the speed limit is 120, but have 20 mph zones at each end. The cable might be fast, but your discs and internals aren't.
And what sets this aside from any other RAID setup?
Say you have 4 discs in your RAID, and you want to connect them to your PC
you put the discs in your PC box and configure your RAID:
DISCS > SATA CABLE > COMPUTER
Apple's way of doing this is first off, making a computer too small to cope with expansion of any sort, and then selling you (what is bound to be) a completely overpriced box in which to put your discs
DISCS > SATA CABLE > BOX > 'THUNDERBOLT CABLE' > COMPUTER
no doubt these needless components, the BOX and THUNDERBOLT CABLE will set you aside a hefty amount of cash, and what difference do they make to the computer? they will not increase data transfer speed, as the data might go through the cable fast, but in the first setup, there is no thunderbolt cable, so you can class the transfer as being 'instantaneous'.
Now Apple will go on for years about the innovation they have made with a 10GB/s transfer speed but if anything, there method just slows it down, as 10GB/s is slower than instantaneous isn't it?
Am I the only one who sees through Apple's marketing and finds a bunch of dumb ass developers finding new ways to make you give them money?
bk93 25 February, 2011 02:10
40-50 degrees is normal for the temperature to rise, however anything above 80 you should be concerned about. INTEL chipboards produce a lot of heat, especially dual-core i7's running on 2gHz processor.
Naryan 25 February, 2011 17:16
What? Appear to be getting value? Um, where exactly? I don't see any value.
bk93 26 February, 2011 14:22
This is ridiculous, if you appear to have a mid-2010 pro you are stupid to buy the new pro's. Pretty much everything's the same aesthetically and most of the hardware is almost equivalent. The screen resolutions hasnt improved and the only good thing about them is face time HD, which the opposite person needs to have the new pro as well in order to work in HD (waste of money) and thunderbolt. The graphics have been updated, but nevertheless the only reason I would buy it would be the quad-core i7's packed inside the 13" model. Move along, move along.
Anonymous 26 February, 2011 20:16
RADIATOR PRO with intel core i7 in aluminium body.
Anonymous 8 March, 2011 10:55
Intel's sandy bridge is very powerful integrated graphics processing chip and changes the game, all seem to agree. Then do Apple currently ship the separate graphics card because their Operating System (OS) cannot make used of the Intel technology? I have read Apple are due to release a new OS which will use QuickSync in its laptops. The hardware video transcoding engine is a key part of Sandy Bridge, however it looks like OS X support for the technology may not be ready quite yet. So buyers should wait for a release that works, then the need for a separate card is avoided and so is the cost.
Very few users will need the power of a separate card and the cost of these Mac products is getting very high.