My own MacBook Pro

Santa Rosa chip set

Santa Rosa comes to the Mac: a review of the new MacBook Pro: Page 1: "Since it uses the new Centrino Duo platform, both the 15' and 17' models come with an 800MHz front-side bus. 802.11n support is there from the get-go (instead of being available as a $1.99 update). The GPU has been changed from the ATI Mobility Radeon X1600 to an NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT—which offers DirectX 10 support for the Boot Camp- and Vista-inclined. There's also HDCP support built in, which means that lack of an HD DVD and Blu-ray drive aside, the MacBook Pro should be capable of outputting HD video over the requisite protected path. The maximum memory available has been upped from 3GB to 4GB as well."

he big news, however, is the new LED backlight. The 15" MacBook Pro has become the first Apple portable or display to get LED backlighting. LED backlights have the advantage of having lower power consumption than the usual cold cathode fluorescent lamp (CCFL) backlights; unlike CCFLs, LED backlights can reach their optimal color temperature and full brightness instantly instead of needing time to warm up. Apple also claims that the 15" LED-backlit displays can grow much dimmer before going black than their CCFL counterparts, which we were able to verify.

For owners of the 15" MacBook Pros, the biggest benefit will arguably be the additional 30 to 60 minutes of battery life that Apple says users will get. Battery life in the previous version of the 15" MacBook Pro was rated at 5 hours by Apple. Apple rates the new laptops at 6 hours."

posted by Hugh W @ 10:03 am