2011 MacBook Pro Refresh Thead - Calgarypuck Forums - The Unofficial Calgary Flames Fan Community

MickMcGeough · 02-11-2011, 02:54 PM

Of course it's all rumors and speculation at this point but the info/leaks/guesses are coming faster lately.

It's all but a given that the new MBPs will be built on Sandy Bridge chipsets and leave C2D in the past, finally. Current gen MBPs are in short supply so the refresh will likely be happening within the next couple of months or so. But - how much will the SATA problems on the first round of Sandy Bridge chips delay things?

Everything else is guesswork. USB 3.0? Light Peak? MacBook Air style solid state storage only? Higher res 13" monitors? Will the 13" use only integrated graphics, and will we see a switch to AMD graphics for the 15"/17"?

MickMcGeough · 02-15-2011, 09:51 PM

AppleInsider "reporting" an early March release:

http://www.macrumors.com/c.php?u=htt...l&t=1297831501

MickMcGeough · 02-18-2011, 06:11 PM

Macrumors says this coming Thursday
http://www.macrumors.com/2011/02/18/...h-on-thursday/

FanIn80 · 02-18-2011, 07:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MickMcGeough

Macrumors says this coming Thursday
http://www.macrumors.com/2011/02/18/...h-on-thursday/

Nice, I was just about to post that here. Should be interesting to see what they do.

MickMcGeough · 02-18-2011, 07:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by FanIn80

Nice, I was just about to post that here. Should be interesting to see what they do.

Only thing that will give me pause is if there is no 2.5" bay (or optical drive that I can make into a 2.5" bay), which is quite possible.

FanIn80 · 02-19-2011, 07:31 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MickMcGeough

Only thing that will give me pause is if there is no 2.5" bay (or optical drive that I can make into a 2.5" bay), which is quite possible.

Yeah, I'm not on board with them dropping the drive bays, that's for sure. Well... on board SSD with a second drive bay is fine, but down with dropping both.

Oh, and Light Peak seems to be on the way!

http://www.macrumors.com/2011/02/19/...chnology-soon/

MickMcGeough · 02-19-2011, 07:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by FanIn80

Yeah, I'm not on board with them dropping the drive bays, that's for sure. Well... on board SSD with a second drive bay is fine, but down with dropping both.

Oh, and Light Peak seems to be on the way!

http://www.macrumors.com/2011/02/19/...chnology-soon/

Ah nice! I actually don't mind losing a drive bay as much if there's a very high-speed connection for external drives. Still, holding out hope that we can add our own SSDs; really want one of the upcoming Sandforce 2500s.

Captain_Obvious · 02-20-2011, 12:39 AM

A little off topic but since I was looking to make a new thread and saw a macbook one near the top I thought I'd ask here as I know there are some knowledgeable mac owners around here...

The minidisplay port on the side of my 2010 macbook pro is damaged. I think my brother tried to plug a cord that didn't fit in... and now I can't get an image when I try to use a TV or external monitor.

Anyone know how easy or difficult of a fix that is?

I am looking to take it in to an Apple store but I don't have apple care and it's just out of warranty. Wondering if its going to be a costly fix?

Any advice would be appreciated.

Jordan! · 02-20-2011, 12:45 AM

Looks like my Macbook Pro is about to find it's way "accidentally" into the pool... Good ole bestbuy warranty

MickMcGeough · 02-20-2011, 10:40 AM

Price points found in Best Buy's laptop discovery tool.

$1199
$1499
$1799
$2199
$2499

Basically the same as it is now. If they really do switch to all-SSD, it marks a nice drop in cost/spec (at least for Apple). But the more I think about it the less I'm convinced this refresh is going to be a big shift from the current MBPs.

ETA: It's believed these are probably just placeholder prices and not the actual cost of the upcoming MBPs.

silentsim · 02-20-2011, 11:15 AM

I personally think it'll be a minor refresh. if it was a major overhaul I would think they would bring it to a keynote.

sclitheroe · 02-20-2011, 02:01 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by silentsim

I personally think it'll be a minor refresh. if it was a major overhaul I would think they would bring it to a keynote.

The unibody MBP's were a relatively low key affair - Steve Jobs was passing around parts of the case at the presentation.

MickMcGeough · 02-21-2011, 04:41 PM

BGR reporting larger trackpads and 8GB/16GB SSD drives on all MBPs for OSX, as well as as a mechanical drive for storage.

http://www.macrumors.com/2011/02/21/...-for-mac-os-x/

I'm expecting an incremental refresh so this wouldn't surprise me.

MickMcGeough · 02-22-2011, 05:40 PM

More spec rumors

http://www.macrumors.com/2011/02/22/...ew-technology/

- no more white MacBook (Apple goes back to two lines of 13" inchers)
- 16 GB SSD mSATA drives on all models to store the system
- Core i3 and third USB port on the 13" model
- Matte screen option on the higher-end 13"
- Option to replace the SuperDrive with a SSD on the 15 and 17" models
- HD screens on all models : 1440x900 on the 13", 1680x1050 on the 15"
- 200 to 300 grams lighter : 1.8 kg for the 13", 2.3 kg for the 15", 2.65 kg for the 17"
- Better battery life : 12 hours on the 13", 10 hours on the 15"
- 8 GB of RAM on the 17"

MacRumors still expecting Light Peak to be released, but I'm not sold. Especially if there are 3 USB ports on the 13"s.

Liking all the changes though.

MickMcGeough · 02-22-2011, 05:46 PM

Ah I didn't see this:

http://www.macrumors.com/2011/02/22/...peak-thursday/

Apparently, Intel is having a press release to announce the release of Light Peak on the same day...

FanIn80 · 02-22-2011, 07:27 PM

I can see the inclusion of Light Peak, even with the three USB ports. USB is for connectivity, while Light Peak is for data transfer.

The real question will be what will become of FireWire...

MickMcGeough · 02-23-2011, 07:19 AM

More spec leaks (with photos):
http://www.macrumors.com/2011/02/23/...s-thunderbolt/

Screen grab of (translated) specs on low-end 13".

Light Peak known as Thunderbolt?

i5s standard on 13"?

It looks like the thunderbolt port is minidisplay port compatible? I'm assuming that means I can't use an external thunderbolt drive and an external monitor simultaneously.

I'm a bit surprised that they didn't at least go to the MacBook Air 1440x900 13" display, if these images are legit. That doesn't make sense to me.

FanIn80 · 02-23-2011, 10:41 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MickMcGeough

I'm a bit surprised that they didn't at least go to the MacBook Air 1440x900 13" display, if these images are legit. That doesn't make sense to me.

Since these are the base, entry-level MBP specs... I wonder if the higher res is on the upgraded version(s).

MickMcGeough · 02-23-2011, 10:52 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by FanIn80

Since these are the base, entry-level MBP specs... I wonder if the higher res is on the upgraded version(s).

I was wondering that too. Apparently the plain MacBook is being phased out so maybe this is the new $999 MacBook?

FanIn80 · 02-23-2011, 11:01 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MickMcGeough

I was wondering that too. Apparently the plain MacBook is being phased out so maybe this is the new $999 MacBook?

Yeah, I read they were dropping the WhiteBook too... if this new MBP becomes the new $999 base model, there's going to be a lot more Macs out there.