Steve Jobs's Smoke and Mirrors on 13" MBP's CPU

[Marcus Yam]

Steve Jobs Explains Why the 13-inch MacBook Pro doesn't have any Nehalem sweetness.

Steve Jobs's Smoke and Mirrors on 13" MBP's CPU : Read more

 

[TemjinGold]

I think what he's getting at is that, for Apple to keep it at a certain price point, the tradeoff was worth it. The 15 and 17 inch ones have higher prices and thus they can better justify using both.

I'm not defending Apple's prices in any way, just trying to put reason to why they might have done it that way (THEIR logic, not mine.)

 

[Hilarion]

Smoke, mirrors and infinite BS that's what Apple Almighty does the best.

 

[cscott_it]

Apple using smoke and mirrors?
What kind of bull is this.
The next thing you are going to be telling me is that the media industry doesn't care about the consumer at all and would file suite against a 12 year old girl!

Oh wait....

 

[godwhomismike]

And..... I will not be buying a 13" Macbook Pro. Thanks Steve, you made that decision easy for me. I will not spend $1200-$1500 for outdated technology technology.

 

[godwhomismike]

Hey Steve, I got 2007 on the phone. They said they want their Core 2 Duo processors back.

 

[N.Broekhuijsen]

somebody should take steve's money, position, and everything tying him to apple away. then, place him in the real world, so he can get some "REAL" perspective.

then he might see what we want, and not what a rich, famous person wants.

 

[siman]

Its an approch that AMD has been useing and one intel has yet come to grips. You have a cheap but adicuate CPU to feed a nice GPU in truth if you look at it you really dont need an i5 or an i7. Would you rather have a 1200 USD laptop or a 2500 USD laptop. Also the i3/i5/i7 arnt the best on power consumption or thermal output... Dont get me wrong its nice to have the firepower but its like you brought a cannon to a gun fight.

 

[Guest]

I was actually thinking of buying a new 13" but now the only way I'll do that is if I get a "killer" deal on one of the old models. If no deals are "killer" than I'll probably just stick to my well known PC. Such a bummer, I would have already ordered it regardless of the price.

 

[Guest]

Asus, Sony, Lenova, everyone is touting i-core in 13 inch models. This is just an Apple letdown, no less.

 

[ZEPd3Z]

shouldn't the i3's and i5's have less power consumption than previous cpu generation? just thinkin...

 

[micky_lund]

ahhh apple
you've done it again

 

[tinmann]

The thing is there are laptops that bring more to the table than just a Core 2 Duo these days at or below the $1200 USD price point. In the article Tom's did, "5 Laptops that Destroy the New MacBook Pros", All the Laptops previewed had Intel Core i7-720QM @ 2.8 GHz processors and the most expensive was the Alienware at $1,600 USD.

As far as bringing a canon to a gunfight. If I'm going to a gunfight I'm bring the entire 9th Armored Division with me.

 

[del35]

Smoke, mirrors and infinite BS that's what Apple Almighty does the best.

Sadly, most Americans are too dumbed-down to see con-artists like Steve Jobs for what they really are. Yesterday, I walked into a local coffee shop and was received by a bunch of technologically illiterate kiddies, some clad clothing with colors to match the color of their laptop cases, proudly flashing what has become the insignia of their enslavement to mass marketing agendas and consumer hoodwinking, a laptop flashing the Apple logo. There were only two people in the room using non Apple logoed hardware; they were also the ones who looked stereotypically smarter.

 

[Guest]

considering that culv based laptops, the only others who have battery lives on the same order of magnitude cost around 800 bucks, and are generally made of plastic,I would argue that it is not so much of a rip off.

 

[thackstonns]

[citation][nom]zhemin[/nom]THE PERSON who wrote the above article is a RETART, when JOB say the system is up to 50% faster IT DOSNT JUST MEAN graphic wise it means the whole system, including GPU AND CPU performance. + the difference between core 2 duo and i3 (since i5 make no sense in the 13incher), is 10-20% faster is more then a resonsible statement, + having 330M in 13incher is + but apple need to make a clear margin between the 13inch and 15inch.[/citation]

I think you are a "RETART" whatever that is? Steve is just lying to everyone. 10 to 20 percent faster is what he said when trying to sell a 13inch. 50 percent faster than the previous generation is what he said when trying to sell the 15 and 17inch models. A gpu isnt going to make your system 30 to 40percent faster day to day. And it definatly wont on a system like a mac that cant game.

 

[proxy711]

Seeing as a I3 cpu is 10 bucks cheaper,faster then a core 2 duo, uses less power then a core 2 duo, motherboards are priced about the same. so trying to keep prices down is just bullshit...err i mean typical apple business practices..they just want to force the power user to hit up the more expensive 15 and 17inchers. because for the price and performance the 13inch laptops aren't crazy over priced like most apple products.

However the battery life of the 13 inch is impressive(with an i3 it would be even more so).

 

[Guest]

They couldn't fit a 330M in the MBP 13?? Couldn't they hire someone from Sony?? Look at the Vaio Z with a 13.1" screen, core i5/i7 and GT 330M in a smaller form factor than the 13" MBP. Looks like Apple should try to recruit someone from Sony!

 

[babybeluga]

[citation][nom]zhemin[/nom]THE PERSON who wrote the above article is a RETART[/citation]

Absolutely astonishing that people do this. I swear, Tom's readers are the worst spellers on the internet.

Edit: I'm going to think that zhemin got banned for his horrific spelling. Keep up the good work, admin.

 

[nukemaster]

business as usual....

 

[insider3]

Can't blame Steve Jobs. He's not forcing anyone to buy his products. People are just dumb. And unfortunately there are plenty of them out there to keep his company rich. If I can sell tapped water in recycled plastic bottles and get rich, I would.

 

[Miharu]

So... Job know nothing about hardware and he's a bad liar when come to the hardware.

 

[rhino13]

Haha Apple uses an nVidia 3xx chipset!

Wait isn't that the same as a...

 

[godwhomismike]

[citation][nom]bird dog[/nom]Asus, Sony, Lenova, everyone is touting i-core in 13 inch models. This is just an Apple letdown, no less.[/citation]

Hell, Dell even has the QUAD CORE version of the Core i7 processor (Core i7 720qm) available in the 14" Studio 14 laptop. Needless to say, it is NOT going to have "10 hours of battery life," but the option is there for users who want a very powerful, small, and lightweight notebook. Plus, it costs around $1049.

 

[TEAMSWITCHER]

Stop all the bitch'n about the 13" MacBook Pro. The 13" model needs a much smaller circuit board to fit in the smaller unibody chassis. There simply is not enough room on the circuit board for the CPU, the South Bridge, and a discrete GPU. To use only the integrated Intel HD graphics would cause several benchmarks to fall off ridiculously. Yes Intel HD graphics really are that bad.

So Apple had to punt on this one, and decided that sticking with the (tried and true) Core 2 Duo wasn't all that bad of a tradeoff. Product design is never easy, and when you are dealing with 1" thick notebooks, the trade-offs can be aggravating at times.

I think that Apple made the right decision, given the circumstances.