In the beginning of 2006 Apple supplanted the Powerbook G4 with the MacBook Pro. Created for professionals on the go, Apple continued to refine their family of high-performance laptops every year. The latest release, known as the Apple MacBook Pro Winter 2011, represents a substantial improvement in many important characteristics.
What's Good About Them
The Apple MacBook Pro Winter 2011 notebook computer joins the Sandy Bridge bandwagon as each one of its designs include Intel second generation Core i5 and Core i7 processors. The 13-inch model received a significant processor upgrade going from the old Core 2 Duo processor to a very quick Intel Core i5 2620M. 15-inch and 17-inch models will have quad-core power which is needed for running high-end software programs like Final Cut Pro and Adobe Photoshop efficiently. The memory will remain the same at 4 GB although that can now expand to 16 GB of RAM. Enhancements were made in the graphics end as well with the two larger styles sporting a fast AMD Radeon HD 6490M for good gaming. If that is still not really quick enough, you may also update to the Radeon HD 6750M. With the Intel HD Graphics 3000 your battery will still supply long life between charges. By upgrading the brand new models The Apple company is once again leading the laptop industry in all the performance benchmarks worth measuring.
An additional new technology has been introduced in the completely new large monitor hook-up or Display Port. The newest MacBook Pros are employing Intel's new Thunderbolt interface to further enhance performance and flexibility. With speeds up to 12 times faster as opposed to the old FireWare 800 interface, high capacity hard drives will finally receive the performance boosts that they need for professionals to transfer large amounts of data. Thunderbolt provides the further benefit of supporting multiple devices in a daisy chain while maintaining optimal performance.
The brand new MacBook Pros also come with an all new model of built in webcam, the FaceTime HD camera. This enables video calls to be sent with those supported products in decent 720p quality.
Disadvantages
One major component that has not been replaced however, is the battery, which means it will now last less time between charges. However, with up to 7 hours of power while the wireless is running, it really is hard for competing multimedia laptop computers to have that battery life. The MacBook Pro 13-inch in addition will get a slight downgrade as it uses the Intel integrated graphics without an AMD or NVIDIA counterpart. However, the Intel graphics is way better compared to previous versions, with only avid gamers likely to see the minimal decrease in speed.
The Verdict
Apple has again taken a commanding lead within the coveted professional laptop category along with their newest line of MacBook Pros, the Winter 2011 edition. You can be certain that your new model will have everything it needs to run next generation programs with no strain.
Should You Make the Switch To The iPad 2?, Kafka's Adventures in Time Travel
