17 inch MacBook Pro commercial and a few thoughts

Wed, 01/07/2009 - 1:16pm — Seth Weintraub

That 17-inch MacBook Pro is a thing of beauty, no doubt. But we have some reservations. First of all, the five years of battery charges couldn't have been tested (this new tech/form factor didn't exist five years ago). Lithium Polymer might age poorly or differently in real world conditions and differently than in testing. We are willing to give Apple the benefit of the doubt but know we have been dealt a bit of a wild card there. Also we know the five hour batteries typically last three hours, so should we expect these 7/8 hour batteries to last 5/6 hours?

Next, that enclosure doesn't just enclose the battery but it also encloses the hard drive (see no seams in video below). And you only have a few (Apple only) options out of the box. The biggest drive you can walk away with is a 320GB. You can easily replace an Apple drive on a 13 or 15 with one of the many 500GB 2.5 inch SATA drives out there. Hrmmmph.

Apple also offers SSD drives in 128 and 256 GB sizes for $500 and $900 respectively. We'd also like to replace the SSD if/when we choose to. In a couple of years into that five year battery life, bigger SSDs will cost much much less. It would be nice to be able to upgrade without major surgery. (more below)

RAM. We love the ability to go to 8GB of RAM but $1200 is pretty steep. Especially when RAM prices have fallen so sharply over the past few years. Even if you could easily get into the case, that type of RAM isn't cheap from 3rd parties. Oh, and since the 17 inch can go to 8GB with the exact same memory, can we now upgrade our 13 and 15s? Not yet.

We are waiting for the iFixit disassembly videos to show us the way to do the surgery.

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Comments

Has anyone looked at the

Wed, 01/07/2009 - 1:45pm — 9to5Mac Noob (not verified)

Has anyone looked at the internals of the 17" yet? perhaps it is really easy to change the battery, HD, and RAM. Apple usually designs the insides of their laptops in a very simple way. I am waiting for ifxit.com to post some disassemble pictures of it.

It's not available for sale

Thu, 01/08/2009 - 9:34am — 9to5Mac Noob (not verified)

It's not available for sale yet, therefore no, no one has seen the internals yet.

Couldn't agree more!

Wed, 01/07/2009 - 1:45pm — Eduardo Marques (not verified)

Couldn't agree more!

They don't test a cars gas

Wed, 01/07/2009 - 3:00pm — Andrew (not verified)

They don't test a cars gas mileage by driving it around for hours either, they calculate it.

Just the same, they calculate that time for the battery also based on the health trends and these fantastic things called "Chemistry" and "Physics"! But yeah, I'm guessing more like 6 hours and 3/4 years.

What they proabbly do is they

Wed, 01/07/2009 - 3:22pm — 9to5Mac Noob (not verified)

What they proabbly do is they take 3 batteries, put it in a machine that charges and discharges it 100 times (it probably takes more current and would discharge it in about 2 hours), Then they read data from the battery about wear. Then they calculate the amount of life left until it does not hold a useable charge (generally that is 70-80% original capacity).

Yes, they do

Wed, 01/07/2009 - 3:16pm — 9to5Mac Noob (not verified)

Actually they do test a cars gas mileage by driving it around for hours (well, days)

Usually on a gyro, though.

Wed, 01/07/2009 - 4:03pm — 9to5Mac Noob (not verified)

Usually on a gyro, though. Not real driving.

No, they actually do drive on

Thu, 01/08/2009 - 1:23am — 9to5Mac Noob (not verified)

No, they actually do drive on real world environment. That is a fact!

Macbook Pro 17 inch battery clarification

Wed, 01/07/2009 - 4:10pm — 9to5Mac Noob (not verified)

"The claim that the battery will last for 5 years could not have been tested as the lithium polymer technology was not there 5 years before" is wrong!

I have been working on non-volatile memories for more than 2 years now and I work particularly on their endurance and life time. So when we say a flash SSD cell can last for 10 years no one actually tests them for 10 years. But what they do is test the cell under extreme stress for a shorter time typically days or hours and then extrapolate the results without stress under normal conditions. So this claim is indeed the norm in such industries.

LiPo Battery Technology is not new

Wed, 01/07/2009 - 4:16pm — 9to5Mac Noob (not verified)

The battery technology used in the Early 2009 MacBook Pro is far from new in general; RC hobbyists use them for helis and planes since years with great successes (see for example http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lithium-ion_polymer_battery).

So overall, there's more than 10 years of experience available...

Best,
Michael

when they drive that car on

Wed, 01/07/2009 - 6:07pm — Nuco (not verified)

when they drive that car on the dyno they hook up sensors to the tail pipe. That is how they figure out the MPG. They look at the gas burned, but the amount coming out the tail pipe. It is far more acurate that way then chemistry and physics equations

I'm gonna wait for Rev B.

Wed, 01/07/2009 - 9:25pm — 9to5Mac Knob (not verified)

I'm gonna wait for Rev B. Hopefully they'll do something about the RAM and HDD. I'm really upset about that.

Major Surgery?

Wed, 01/07/2009 - 10:20pm — Vaganza (not verified)

It is 10 screws on the bottom of the case, lift the case, it is all right there. For anyone that has done a hard disk upgrade on a Clamshell iBook, or even the previous 17" MacBook Pro, this can be done in their sleep. 10 Minute job tops.

Ditto that - changing RAM & HD in the MBP 17" is child's play

Wed, 01/07/2009 - 11:10pm — Prospervic (not verified)

Take a look at this screenshot from Apple's MBP battery video. As Vaganza mentioned above, it's only ten screws. Then it looks like an easy job to change HD and RAM. Note how both the HD and the battery appear to have pull tabs! (So much for non-removable.)

why they always exaggerate

Thu, 01/08/2009 - 2:03am — ser (not verified)

why they always exaggerate the amount of hours that we get ? we will only be able to work for 8 hours on a laptop if we just turn it on and leave it without doing nothing or doing some lite stuff. when running apps and wifi and stuff it's not gonna be 8 hours. promise less or do more.

Actually there are not that

Thu, 01/08/2009 - 2:06am — Legend (not verified)

Actually there are not that many 500GB drives that fit Intel Notebooks. Last I looked, only the Samsung M6 was thin enough......

When running windows on

Thu, 01/08/2009 - 2:32pm — win win (not verified)

When running windows on MacBook Pro and it hangs, I just remove battery and it starts again. How to do with the new concept?

You press and hold the power

Thu, 01/08/2009 - 3:45pm — 9to5Mac Noob (not verified)

You press and hold the power button for 4 seconds, like everyone else.

I love the new 17" MacBook

Thu, 01/08/2009 - 4:34pm — Dave H (not verified)

I love the new 17" MacBook Pro! I especially like the decision to offer an optional matte screen. I hope that they bring that option down the line to the 15" MacBook Pro and 13" MacBook.

As far as the battery goes, who cares! It looks like it can be swapped out when it goes south. The hard drive and memory look easily upgradeable by taking the back lid off. The bottom lid looks similar in removal to the first PowerBook G4 — the Titanium PowerBook G4.