What's a good 15-inch MacBook Pro?

The 15-inch MacBook Pro with integrated SD card slot is one of the three models recently demonstrated by Apple at WWDC 2009. The highlight of this line of devices is that the battery life is significantly improved compared to previous versions. while the price is moderate .

The 15-inch MacBook Pro is light and delicate

The 15-inch MacBook Pro costs about VND 30.2 million (USD 1,699). With 'apple' features equipped for the 15-inch MacBook Pro, new customers who first experience with Apple products will feel relatively satisfied. However, those who own a MacBook may be disappointed a bit when the device no longer integrates the ExpressCard slot. Pcmag gives a score of 4/5.

Strengths :

Prices start cheap. Excellent design. The battery is bigger and the usage time is over 5 hours. Green Approved Green Technology Standard. Bright keyboard. Flexible touchpad.

Weaknesses :

Remove the ExpressCard slot. Configure the platform using only the integrated graphical interface.

Detailed specifications

Price: VND 30.2 million (1,699.00)
Device type: Towards multimedia entertainment
Operating system: Mac OS X 10.5
Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo P8700
Processor speed: 2.53 GHz
RAM: 4 GB
Weight: 2.4 kg (5.3 lb)
Screen size: 15.4 inches
Screen Type: Wide Mirror
Graphics card: nVidia GeForce 9400M
Storage capacity: 250 GB
Network: 802.11n
Optical drive: DVD + R DL

Most Apple devices are equipped with non-removable batteries, especially when the 17-inch MacBook Pro (Unibody) - the largest laptop designed in this direction. Not surprisingly, those who own an Apple MacBook Pro 15-inch (SD Slot) can gloat with the mobility and battery life of the device.

However, the addition of an SD card slot has forced the company to 'death' the ExpressCard card slot, which, according to Apple, has not been of much interest. However, the battery is significantly improved compared to the previous version, while the lower price will be two attractive criteria for new customers. Meanwhile, those who own an old MacBook can still be satisfied with what they have and wait for the next upgrade version.

There are not many changes in design and interface when the MacBook Pro 15 inch (SD Slot) is decorated in the gorgeous style of 'Unibody'. Surrounded by an outstandingly expensive aluminum coating. For example, compared to the Dell Studio XPS 16, it is not difficult to recognize outside of the leather case and metallic finish, the basic material of this device is still plastic. Similarly, HP HDX16t also uses plastic to decorate to lower the price of finished products.

This 15-inch version is not only sleek, the rigid frame of the device makes it hard for Apple's product prices to be lower. In addition, despite using a larger battery, the MacBook Pro 15 still weighs only 2.4 kg (5.3 pounds), the lightest in this group with the Lenovo IdeaPad Y650 (5.5 pounds) ranked second. edge.

Overall improvement of the screen's 60% color display on the 15-inch MacBook Pro is the only visible difference compared to its predecessor models. The screen size is similar but the colors are richer and more vivid. The wide-screen mirror has an accurate 15.4-inch aspect ratio of 16:10, slightly different from its competitors for multimedia entertainment such as Dell 16, Lenovo Y650, and HP HDX16t when this group chooses Screen ratio solution is 16: 9 to 'sacrifice' the height to display wider width.

The aspect ratio on the 15-inch MacBook Pro does not make the screen bigger but will be very suitable for home entertainment, HDTV. Unlike Pro's 1,440 x 900 resolution, Dell 16, HP HDX16t chose the 1,920 x 1,080 solution. The higher resolution will be more attractive to digital video and photo editors as well as film followers.

Not much change when experienced with the MacBook Pro's input tool. The square slice format has been imitated by many laptop models since its first appearance on the 13-inch Apple MacBook. In addition, the standard size keyboard and good tactile sensor. However, in addition to the overall design is no difference, the private keys are smaller than the traditional design on Dell 16 and HDX16t. Large touchpad. Apple's announcement also confirms that the device is ready to support Chinese characters in Snow Leopard. Apple also integrates a single mouse button and supports a variety of multi-touch tasks, which can combine 2, 3 or 4 fingers.

New SD card slot

Integrated SD card slot is a shocking decision for users when this is the first time, just like on the 13inch model, Apple has integrated memory card reader on your device. Tested with some SD and SDHC cards like 8GB SanDisk Extreme III (SDHC), 2GB Lexar Eye-Fi (SD), and 1GB FujiFilm (SD) card showed good results, working smoothly on Vista Home Premium environment (via BootCamp) and Mac OS X.

The card slot of the device

Additional SD card slots on the Apple MacBook Pro 13-inch are less attractive when the device lacks an expansion card slot. However, with the 15-inch MacBook Pro, the lack of a flexible card slot like ExpressCard can cause a lot of user frustration and frustration. Why doesn't Apple integrate the SD card and ExpressCard slot? There are many reasons. For example, Steve Jobs's long style is still optimized for size. There are both card slots (if you include an optical drive, it will be three), like a Windows logo on a 15-inch MacBook Pro. One more important reason is that Apple is ready for those who want to buy devices with ExpressCard slot 17-inch version, which does not have SD slot.

One secret that Apple wants to "hide" is for those who are excited about ExpressCard 3G card to buy an iPhone, because Apple is ready to support broadband connection on the iPhone, turning this super product into a network modem. However, for most users, changing the ExpressCard slot with SD is not an important issue. Interestingly, all features of the 15-inch version are the same as on the 13-inch Pro version, with two USB ports, FireWire 800, Ethernet and a DisplayPort port, but it is attractive enough to raise the price of a large-screen version. more than nearly 9 million dong (500 USD).

Better handling, battery life and greening device standards

Processing capability is the difference between the 15inch version and the 13-inch MacBook Pro. The processor of the widescreen model is Intel Core 2 Duo P8700 2.53 GHz, while the friendly price of the 13-inch version only has an Intel Core 2 Duo P7550 CPU 2.26GHz. In theory, the P8700 is faster than the Dell 16 and Lenovo Y650 processors, although in fact the number is not.

The video encoding test score is lower than the Lenovo Y650, Dell 16, and HP HDX16t, although using a few seconds is not so important. Cinebench R10 score (5,167) is also at the bottom of this group. 4GB RAM of the Dell 16 and Lenovo Y650 for testing some complex Photoshop CS4 tasks about 32 seconds. With only 2GB RAM, the 13inch MacBook is incomparable. Note that these tests are performed on Windows Vista Home Premium (via Boot Camp) which can be significantly faster when optimized on Apple's original operating system.

Unlike the 13-inch MacBook Pro, the 15-inch (SD Slot) model has more options to accelerate, with faster processor and hard drive speeds reaching 7,200rpm, though, the price is two. This is much more expensive. With such a hardware platform, this time, Apple's 15-inch (SD Slot) model doesn't have the ability to handle graphics more than its predecessors. The 15-inch MacBook Pro uses the nVidia GeForce 9400M chipset, similar to the 13-inch version, so the same test scores do not differ much.

The 15-inch version has a better 3D graphics accelerator on the Y650, which uses Intel's integrated chipset. But compared to the Dell 16 and HP HDX 16t with a more powerful processor, 3D processing capabilities on Apple products are not worrisome! However, for most Mac users, an integrated chipset is sufficient for 3D tasks.

Small square slice keyboard, good tactile sensor

According to Apple, the new battery will charge 1,000 times of charge and five years of life. The new battery has 73 Wh compared to the previous 60 Wh version, and is capable of using up to 5.30 minutes on the MobileMark 2007 battery test compared to only 2 hours of predecessors, while HP HDX16t and Gateway MC7803u not yet reached 3 hours. Dell 16 for 4g20 minutes.

This new version of Apple is also very friendly to the environment when it does not have its own graphics card, uses non-removable batteries, meets Energy Star 5.0, EPEAT Gold, RoHS and GreenTech Award of PCMag, which is inherently MacBook families all have it.

The last point worth noting is that Apple has reduced the price of 15-inch MacBook Pro (SD slot) to USD 1,699 (VND 30.2 million), lower than VND 5.4 million (USD 300) compared to the previous generation, in When the battery life is longer, the processing capacity is superior. The addition of SD slot has "eliminated" the ExpressCard slot. The excellent design style of Apple can be found on this device, but overall this refurbishment is not very attractive to entice users to upgrade to a MacBook Pro. Meanwhile, for those who are intending to switch to apple devices, it is impossible to miss the opportunity to experience great products with reasonable prices.