Good day guys, Steven here with MacTechDish, bringing you all the news and reviews on tech and gadgets out there. So as you may all know, the new line of Macbook pros was just released 2 months ago and I’am here to give you a review of each model for you to compare in case you guys are still looking around the market for one at the moment. And if you are looking to buy one I’ve provided a link to our Amazon store in the description. Use that if you want to save money on sales tax.
General:
All models has been fitted with the new and latest Intel Sandy bridge processor, so you will notice a massive improvement in overall CPU performance compared to the previous 2010 models.
All MacBook pros also now come with an HD Facetime camera, which replaces the iSight camera, so you’re capable of capturing videos at 720p resolution get basically get a higher resolution.
And lastly apple has introduced the new ThunderBolt port into all its pro models, which can serve as either a display port or a high speed In/Out PCI port which can transfer files at 10 GB/sec, that’s twice as fast as USB3.0 and 20 times faster than Usb 2.0.
Other than that, there has been no major change to the exterior design compared to the 2010 models. So, looking at the:
All MacBook pros also now come with an HD Facetime camera, which replaces the iSight camera, so you’re capable of capturing videos at 720p resolution get basically get a higher resolution.
And lastly apple has introduced the new ThunderBolt port into all its pro models, which can serve as either a display port or a high speed In/Out PCI port which can transfer files at 10 GB/sec, that’s twice as fast as USB3.0 and 20 times faster than Usb 2.0.
Other than that, there has been no major change to the exterior design compared to the 2010 models. So, looking at the:
Two 13 inch models:
For the Baseline model at $1199 you get a 2.3 Ghz Intel dual core i5 processor with 4 GB RAM, 320 GB hard-drive space running at 5400 rpm. And an integrated Intel HD 3000 graphics card. Two USB ports, one optical superdrive, one SD card slot, ethernet port, firewire 800 port, audio in, audio out. And 7 hours of battery life.
For $300 more, at $1499, you get bumped up to the higher end model which features a dual core i7 processor at 2.7 GHz. Also you get more hard drive space at 500 GB which runs at the same speed at 5400 rpm. Other than that it features basically the same graphics card, amount of memory, and battery life.
Also worth mentioning is that both models come with a 1280 x 800 LED backlit glossy widescreen display which is the same as the 2010 model. So no improvements in screen resolution there.
Moving up to the other two 15 inch models:
The baseline 15 inch, at $1799, gives you a 2.0 Ghz QUAD core Intel core i7 processor. The first time that apple has introduced quad cores in its portable computers. Same with the 13 inch, you get 4 GB memory, 500 GB at 5400 rpm hard-drive, 7 hour battery life, and an Intel HD 3000 graphics card.
However, with in the 15 inch models, apple has added an additional AMD radeon HD discrete graphics card which, for the baseline model, gives you 256 MB of GDDR5 memory.
So depending on the workload that you put your machine through it can automatically switch between the less demanding Intel graphics and the more demanding AMD graphics card.
Apple MacBook Pro MC721LL/A 15.4-Inch Laptop
So depending on the workload that you put your machine through it can automatically switch between the less demanding Intel graphics and the more demanding AMD graphics card.
Apple MacBook Pro MC721LL/A 15.4-Inch LaptopFor $400 more, at $2199, you get the higher end 15 inch model, which comes with a 2.2 Ghz QUAD core Intel core i7. It comes with 750 GB at 5400 rpm hard drive as a standard but for this you have got the option to change it to a 500 GB at 7200 rpm hard drive, free of charge. So a bit less disk space for a slight increase in disk speed there.
Now with this model you get a whooping 1 GB of AMD radeon GDDR5 memory which can really be useful if you’re doing a lot of graphics rendering, motion editing, and gaming.
Both the 15 inch models come with a 1440 x 900 LED backlit glossy widescreen display. And you do get the option to go for the higher resolution 1680 x 1050 glossy or anti-glare display, which will cost you $100 or $150 respectively.
And now onto the final 17 inch model:
For $2499, you basically get the same specs as the higher end 15 inch model with the only difference being that you’ll get three USB 2.0 ports (as oppose to two for the rest of the models), with an Express Card 34 slot replacing the SD card slot. So things you might be able to use it for include connect cards , firewire 800 , usb 3.0, 1 gb/sec Ethernet, serial ATA external stick drives, solid-state drives and much more. And lastly, the 17 inch models comes standard with a 1920 x 1200 glossy widescreen display, with the option of changing that to anti-glare for $50.
So looking back at the 13 inch models, they can both hold their own in terms of CPU processing power as the Intel Turbo boost technology allows the 2.3 and 2.7 Ghz processors to clock up to 3.4 and 3.8 Ghz respectively which really comes in handy once you start doing CPU intensive task. Also, intel’s native Hyper-threading technology allows the machine to be utilise as four cores, eventhough there is only two physical cores, which dramatically improves performance speed.
Now if you’re looking at portability and high performance, then the higher end 13 inch model might be for you as you will not only get a machine with better performance but also faster processing power as the extra 1 MB L3 cache special memory does help increase processing speed. However, I would personally go for the lower end 13 inch model because you won’t notice any huge difference in graphics performance as they basically sport the same one. I would use the extra cash towards extra RAM and/or SSD, which significantly increases performance in terms of boot-up time, running applications, processing and multi-tasking.
On to the 15 inch models. The four physical cores on the machine and the intel i7 processors means that they can handle basically anything you throw at them. The extra $400 towards the higher end 15 inch, 2.2 Ghz model, for me personally, is very appealing because you get the option for a faster hard-drive, at 7200 rpm, which although not as fast SSD, it more than holds its own against any other machine. So until SSD starts becoming native, you’re sure to have a machine that is as fast if not faster than any other portable machine out there for many years to come. Plus, the 2.2 Ghz enables you to turbo-boost up to 3.3 Ghz while the lower end 2.0 Ghz will only clock up to about 2.9 Ghz.
And secondly, the huge bump up from 256 MB to 1 GB GDDR5 graphics memory is a great surplus to have if you’re doing a lot of video editing and graphics rendering, or basically any graphics-intensive applications. The extra graphics will also dramatically improve game-play performance, delivering you a much more enjoyable experience.
Other additions I would add to this are the upgrade to the Hi-res display because the 36% increase in pixels is really worth the extra $$$. As to whether to go for glossy or anti-glare, it really depends on the usage. Personally I would go for the glossy as the colours are more vibrant and glare for me is not so much of an issue. Plus, the black glossy bezel around the screen looks a lot sexier than the silver anti-glare bezel. Secondly, if you can, I would bring the RAM up to 8 GB as it can really take advantage of the quad-core CPUs, and the extra smooth transitions when it comes to running applications and multi-tasking is a big plus. However, if you don’t want to get it from apple then you can always install it yourself using third-party memories (OWC, Crucial, Intel etc) which is a lot cheaper.
The 17 inch model is good if you’re looking to have it replace your standard desktop computer as the extra screen real estate and resolution is sure to give you a blast. However, since the specs are virtually identical with the higher end 15 inch model, I would personally buy the 15 inch and hook it up to a 27 or 30 inch Samsung or LG monitor, who sells them at a relatively cheaper price. That being said, if it’s just screen real estate that you after, and not too much of performance, then go for either of the 13 inch models as you can easily hook up them to the monitor as well. That way, you also get the flexibility of having the machines’ portability should you ever need.
In Summary, for the 13 inch model I would go for the lower end 2.3 Ghz i5. For the 15 inch model I would go for the higher end 2.2 Ghz i7. As for the 17 inch model, if you are intending to use it as your main computer then by all means go for it, but I would personally get the higher end 15 inch and hook it up to an external monitor.
So, if you’re in the market now and looking for a new 2011 MacBook pro, let me know which ones you’re going for and why. If you’re considering to purchase one I’ve put down a link to the MacTechDish Amazon store below where you can save money, between 5-10% in sales tax, depending on which country you’re from:
If you already ordered or got one, then it would be great if you could share your thoughts and opinions on the new 2011 macbook pro models. Hope you guys found this review helpful. If you are new to my channel then make sure you subscribe so you can get posted on when our next tech review video is uploaded. Thank you for watching, please feel free to rate, comment and subscribe and I will see you guys next time.
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