At first glimpse , you could well mistake the new 17 - inch MacBook Pro for its predecessor , the legendary 17 - column inch PowerBook G4 (; January 2006 ) . The young model has roughly the same dimensions — at 15.4 - by-10.4 - by-1.0 inches and 6.8 Sudanese pound , it ’s a shade wider , but a tenth part of a punt light — and it retains the intimate aluminium enclosing and satiny design .
Inside , however , the new top - of - the - line Apple laptop incorporates not only a completely unlike processor , but a slew of other changes you should regard before determine whether — or when — this is a simple machine for you .
Guess who’s inside?
The most fundamental change , of course of action , is the acceptance of an Intel CPU in place of the PowerPC G4 . Specifically , the unexampled example incorporates a 2.16GHz variant of Intel ’s Core Duo chip , which combines two complete processing locomotive with 2 MB of riotous Level 2 stash memory on a single sliver of atomic number 14 . Feeding the CPU via a 667MHz frontside bus is 1 GB of DDR-2 ( Double Data Rate ) RAM — up from 512 megabit in the last PowerBook G4 model . luckily , a gigabyte now outfit on one SO - DIMM module ; another one-armed bandit stay free for additional memory , up to the organisation ’s 2 GB maximum ( unchanged from recent PowerBooks ) .
The machine ’s graphics processor , now sit on a PCI Express jitney , is an ATI Mobility Radeon X1600 — not the speediest that ATI or Nvidia has to extend , but a definite step up from the last PowerBook ’s aging Mobility Radeon 9700 . Supporting the chip are 256 Bachelor of Medicine of dedicated video random memory , double as much as in the old model .
What all these expert change intend to you depends on what software you run . Apple says the organisation is “ up to five time faster than the PowerBook G4 . ” You ’re not likely to have that kind of a speed - up , though , unless you launch the same carefully selected bench mark that Apple relies on — or perhaps if you install Windows XP ( under Apple ’s Boot Camp or Parallels ’s fresh - renamed Parallels Desktop utility ) and then equate performance to what you used to see with Microsoft ’s Virtual PC .
In actual biography , with Mac software , you ’ll enjoy a welcome improvement in the performance of Mac OS X itself — the Finder feels zippy than it has in year — as well as performance boosts in the iLife suite , in Apple ’s professional diligence ( such as Final Cut Studio or Aperture ) , and in other computer programme that have been adapt to guide directly on the Intel CPU .
Though seldom five times quicker , the speed boosts are in many cases significant , particularly in plan that can take full advantage of the Core Duo ’s two processing engines . For exercise , encoding a six - minute , 26 - second picture into MPEG2 format with Apple ’s Compressor utility took just under four minutes on the new laptop computer , compared to more than seven and a half minutes on a PowerBook with a 1.67GHz G4 ( as seen in the benchmark chart below ) .
17-inch MacBook Pro Benchmarks
Best results inbold . reference work arrangement initalics . Asterisk ( * ) denotes system test with optional 7,200 - rpm surd campaign .
Speedmark 4.5 scores are comparative to those of a 1.25GHz Mac miniskirt , which is assigned a grade of 100 . Adobe Photoshop , Cinema 4D XL , iMovie , iTunes , and Zip Archive scores are in proceedings : seconds . All systems were running Mac OS X 10.4.6 with 1 GB of RAM , with mainframe performance set to Highest in the Energy Saver taste pane when applicable . The Photoshop Suite test is a set of 14 scripted labor using a 50 mebibyte filing cabinet . Photoshop ’s memory was fructify to 70 percent and History was set to Minimum . We recorded how long it shoot to render a scene in Cinema4D. We used Compressor to encode a 6 - minute , 26 - second DV Indian file using the videodisk : Fastest Encode 120 transactions – 4:3 mount . In iMovie , we apply the Aged telecasting result to a 1 - minute movie . We converted 45 minute of AAC audio files to MP3 using iTunes ’ High Quality setting . We used Unreal Tournament 2004 ’ Antalus Botmatch average - frame - per - second musical score ; we tested at a resolution of 1,024 by 768 pixels at the Maximum setting with both audio and graphics enable . We created a Zip archive in the Finder from a 1 GB folder . To compare Speedmark 4.5 scores for various Mac system , visit our Apple Hardware Guide .—Macworld Lab testing by James Galbraith and Jerry Jung
On the other hand , many of import Mac program are n’t yet useable in Universal variation ( Apple ’s term for programs that admit code for both Intel and PowerPC processors ) . The company ’s Rosetta computer code - translation engineering science makes it possible to run be PowerPC programs on the Intel - based Macs , but the translation slows them down . Among these programs , those that are not peculiarly processor - intensive — Microsoft Office , for example — still experience quite responsive . But when you turn to more demanding software , the performance penalty for relying on Rosetta is more noticeable .
The fundamental package here is Adobe ’s Creative Suite , the bread and butter of many of the artwork and publishing professional who make up the elementary market for Apple ’s gamey - end portables . Macworld ’s scripted test of 14 common operations in Adobe Photoshop CS2 took two minutes , 26 sec to fill out on the 17 - inch MacBook Pro , compared to one minute , 34 seconds on a 1.67GHz PowerBook G4 . If you perform such tasks only occasionally , you could certainly tolerate that variety of performance punishment , but if you do so all day long , the price will likely seem pretty steep , especially because you ’ll be paying it for many months to come . ( A worldwide translation of Adobe Creative Suite is n’t anticipate until the package ’s next major update , presently scheduled for Spring 2007 . )
Apple giveth…
Beyond the fundamental architectural changes that distinguish the 17 - inch MacBook Pro , there are others that deserve tending . First of all , after a long serial of cuts that gradually reduced the cost of 17 - inch PowerBooks from $ 3,299 to $ 2,499 , the price of the new interlingual rendition leap back up to $ 2,799 .
Of course , with 1 GB of RAM now standard , you ’ll save on memory upgrades . Some user wo n’t involve any extra random-access memory , and those who do can add a 2nd gigabyte for $ 300 from Apple , or less than half that from on-line memory vendors .
The increase cost of the MacBook Pro also buys an array of enhancements . The screen , for model , delivers the same high-pitched declaration ( 1,680 by 1,050 pixels ) as the last 17 - inch PowerBook , but the raw version is noticeably brighter—36 percent brighter , concord to Apple . ( Apple also offers an optional “ calendered ” version of the screenland . )
The young model also contain all the young features Apple introduce to its laptop line with the 15 - in MacBook Pro (; May 2006 ):
In increase , you ’ll find a third USB 2.0 port wine and a new trackpad option that let you make a secondary mouse click ( a.k.a . , controller - click , or decent - detent ) by putting two fingers on the trackpad as you click the push .
Along with these refinement , you still get the advance features that made recent 17 - in PowerBooks so popular : a dual - link DVI video recording - out port , with financial support for giant monitor such as Apple ’s 30 - column inch Cinema HD display ; keyboard backlighting and ambient light detector ; optical - digital as well as analogue - audio recording input and output ; Gigabit Ethernet ; and Bluetooth 2.0+EDR ( Enhanced Data Rate ) . The new mannikin ’s 5,400 - rpm hard drive carry 120 GB , the same capacity as before , but it now sit down on a Serial ATA bus , rather than an ATA .
And those who were distressed by the elimination of FireWire 800 and the adoption of an old , slower SuperDrive in the 15 - inch MacBook Pro will be relieve to hear that the new 17 - column inch model has both FireWire 400 and 800 ports and a one-armed bandit - charge 8x SuperDrive with forked - layer support .
I am also felicitous to describe that the two new 17 - inch unit I quiz ( a stock configuration buy byMacworldand an upgraded review unit borrowed from Apple with 2 GB of RAM and a 7,200 - rev drive ) ran in practical silence , even under heavy load . Using the Apple loaner in a placid bread and butter room , I could detect a soft humming when I prove , but none of the whining that molest some early buyers of the 15 - inch MacBook Pro . And when it comes to warmth waste , the Modern 17 - inch fashion model unquestionably gets red-hot on the bottom , but no more so than other gamy - execution laptops .
…And Apple taketh away
A mates of Apple ’s figure decisions did bother me , though . First , as in the other MacBook models , there ’s no built - in telephone dial - up modem . Most hoi polloi wo n’t overleap it , but those of us who travel to less - developed parts of the world or stay in bed - and - breakfasts , for example , do from time to time need telephone dial - up connectivity . Apple does offer a $ 49 USB modem , but midget as it is , it ’s another item to keep track of — and possibly lose . I wish Apple would offer an internal modem at least as a build - to - monastic order option .
I ’m also no-good that an ExpressCard/34 slot is the only expansion option for the new manakin ; leaving a PCMCIA / CardBus slot and/or adding a larger ExpressCard/54 time slot would have given client admittance to some interesting options , include raw wide - area wireless technologies that are n’t yet available in the tiny ExpressCard/34 . Besides , many digital photographers , specially professionals , still swear on CompactFlash memory plug-in , and there ’s no way to fit a CF reader into a 34 mm one-armed bandit ( something you could do with a larger expansion slot and an adapter ) .
Last but not least , the system ’s barrage life story is disappointing . Apple says you may bear up to 5.5 hours per charge , but in my tests , work mainly in Word and Safari while streaming audio via Airport Extreme and keeping a handful of other diligence open in the screen background — with Energy Saver preferences set to Better Battery Life — I averaged 2 hours , 39 instant , less than half of Apple ’s claim . Perversely , I did better — incisively three hours — when I do the same physical exercise with Energy Saver place to Normal assault and battery optimization .
Macworld’s buying advice
The 17 - inch MacBook Pro is a fabulous political machine for people who can give it — and who conclude that its high carrying out , huge screen , and impressive versatility justify its size and weight . If you meet those criteria , the only real dubiousness is time : Users who make heavy use of Adobe Creative Suite and other program not yet uncommitted in cosmopolitan format may want to steer unclouded of the MacBook Pro for now . For everyone else , Apple ’s in vogue 17 - inch manakin once again defines the gilded standard for portable computing .
