Apple MacBook Pro MC721LL/A

Introducing the new 15.4 inch MacBook Pro. The state of the art quad core Intel i7 processor delivers up to 2x faster performance (over the last generation of MacBook Pro). New Thunderbolt technology allows you to connect high performance peripherals and high resolution displays to a single port, and move files at lightning speeds. And with the new fitted FaceTime HD camera, you may be able to make astonishingly crisp HD video calls. The 15.4 inch unibody MacBook Pro with Thunderbolt technology (see bigger image).

54 of 58 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of five stars Quad Core Processor New Era, February 25, 2011
By Steve H “books911″ (U.S.) See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE) (TOP 500 REVIEWER) (REAL NAME) This review is from: Apple MacBook Pro MC721LL/A 15.4 Inch Laptop (Personal Computers) The update to the 15 inch MacBook Pro in February 2011 was important. Indeed, important is an understatement. Fast thanks to and Apple Stores for having these now available at launch.

The main upgrade to this revision? The processor! Intel has a brand new architecture called Sandy Bridge, and these MacBook Pros are the 1st Macs to feature this technology. Many called it many of the most important changes to Intel architecture since Pentium four was presented. These 15 inch MacBook Pros also as its big brother, the 17 inch, not only take benefit of Sandy Bridge, but the Quad Core i7 Variant. Quad Core processor in a notebook Mac! Wow.

I really chose the 13 inch model for my personal use (only Dual Core on the 13 inch), but this 15 inch is replacing an maturing iMac at the office to save space and leap over its performance. These Quad Core Chips are amazing. Early benchmarks are showing this entry level 15 inch, 50 faster than the upper end i7 15 inch MacBook pro from a year ago. A dramatic improvement. Also, if you are still on a Core two Duo machine like the iMac I’m replacing, the performance is as much as 2.5 times faster. At least by the processor. This is most useful in processor intensive applications, for buyers such applications are iMovie and Garageband. Professionals will see the new processors useful in any professional photo editing, video, or music work.

One downside is that caused by cost, the machine still comes with a spinning hard drive standard. In this case, the standard drive is a 5400 RPM 500 GB drive. That offers lots of storage, but is somewhat slower than a desktop 7200RPM drive and much slower than a new, hard state drive. You do have alternatives. You may be able to special order the machine from Apple with a 7200RPM drive, or hard State Drive. But, what I decided to do, is simply, when I am prepared, exchange out the drive myself. Other World Computing sells hard state drives matched. It may not be easy for each user, but for those with many computer experience, it’s a pretty easy exchange. Then I can install a faster hard state drive, when the more satisfactory capacity drives come down a bit in price. You may also decide to do the exchange yourself because you may be able to then put the hard drive that was first in the machine, into an external enclosure, and use it as an external drive for backup. Of course, any damage you cause to the machine could not be protected under warranty. So, if you have any concern, you may want to see if you may be able to special order from Apple online, or in many situations, you’ll find the standard hard drive to be satisfactory.

After the processor advancement, Thunderbolt is the other great new technology included in this alteration to the MacBook Pro. Thunderbolt seems the Mini Displayport that was already included on the MacBook Pros. Indeed, it’ll still function perfectly as a Mini Displayport, for connecting an external display. But, Thunderbolt is more importantly a new interface to connect external devices at some point, like, external hard drives, HD camcorders, and possibly iPads, iPods, or iPhones someday. Data could then move many times faster to and from these devices than it does now. These devices weren’t available at the time of the MacBook Pro’s launch, but we have already heard that external drives should be available afterward this year with Thunderbolt connectivity.

ISight camera was upgraded to HD resolution and Face Time pre installed on the computer. This gives you the capability to video chat, easily, with other Macs and notably, iPhone 4s and the newest iPod Touch with front facing camera.

The buyer software you expect to be included by Apple is again here. The new variant of Mac OS X Snow Leopard (operating system), iLIfe eleven as well as iPhoto, Garageband, iMovie, iDVD, and iWeb is all here. OS X generally will include Safari web browser, iTunes, and Mail applications too. The average user could be good to go out of the box. You may pick up Microsoft Office for your office document needs, or simply buy Apple’s iWork applications (Pages, Numbers, and Keynote) from new Mac App Store on your computer.

The new MacBooK Pros, thanks to Sandy Bridge technology are fast. They’ll save you time, when using processor intensive applications. Time in business, saves people money and frustration. The average buyer may see less gains with this update as physically the MacBook Pro retained it same look, size, and weight. Still, under the unibody, enhancements have surely occurred which result in a much faster notebook. The fact that these 15 inch and 17 inch models now include Quad Core Processors standard is really surprising. This is putting recent top of the line desktop performance, into a sleek and nice Mac Notebook. A breakthrough. Suggested Product!

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23 of 24 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of five stars great machine, March 2, 2011
By Paul Corlatan “Paul Corlatan” (Santa Barbara, CA USA) See all my reviews
(REAL NAME) () This review is from: Apple MacBook Pro MC721LL/A 15.4 Inch Laptop (Personal Computers) I discovered the new line of MacBook Pros the day after they became available for sale and now decided I was prepared to upgrade. I have had a 13″ 2.26GHz Core2 Duo mid 2009 MacBook Pro for some months and since it was my major computer I decided a bigger screen was needed, and the CPU upgrade could be awesome. I ordered through Prime and paid the extra $4 for overnight shipping and it arrived yesterday. I considered purchasing through Apple but the $150 tax savings with Prime is a no brainer. I could loved if had the anti glare screen choice if it was a bit more costly but I will live. I had a great cheap anti glare (matte coating) screen protector from eBay on my 13″ and just ordered one for my new 15″.

The packaging was great. The major white MBP box was filled inside two layers of plain brown cardboard boxes, so it was protected. For cheaper, less fragile things I do not generally understand why sometimes uses bigger boxes, but for something this fragile and costly I welcome that. Once I opened the major white box I saw the common stuff: the power cable, the manuals and discs, and of course the MBP. The MBP has been enclosed in a plastic sheet which comes off easily.

Once I booted the MBP I has been surprised at how quickly it arrived at the desktop, given that the hard drive is a plain old 5400 RPM. I assume the CPU accounts for that extra speed. It was nice and snappy, but I knew I would not be using an HDD, rather an SSD. I also had an 8gb kit of RAM I could replace the 4gb with.

I sold my ‘old’ MacBook Pro with it is original hard drive and kept the 60gb hard state drive I had been using for some months. I had earlier upgraded from a 2008 unibody MacBook with the same SSD and it worked no problem in the 13″ MBP, but that wasn’t the case with this new early 2011 MBP. The machine starts good with the 500gb HDD that it came with, which is to be projected, but it will not boot from the SSD. It freezes at the Apple logo with no spinning display. I assume it is due to important change in hardware. I tried booting from my old Snow Leopard DVD and repairing permissions but no luck. I had a second 60gb SSD with Windows seven installed (via boot camp) which started good but at least ten drivers required to be installed. I used the Boot Camp installer on the Snow Leopard DVD and all installed well in Win7. Luckily I don’t have to use Vista or XP on this machine since Apple has declared that only Win7 is supported for these early 2011 MBPs.

After I finished to get Windows seven back running properly I wiped the OSX SSD (I have backups on a network drive) and re installed Snow Leopard. I didn’t monitor the installation but it certainly installed quickly. Of course the SSD and new RAM accounts for many of that speed, but the CPU certainly is quicker than the Core2 Duo I have been used to.

Once I was up and running in Snow Leopard I was happy with the smoothness of the machine. Time will tell if there are any issues and I will make sure to update with any new results or problems. I’ll say that if you may be able to find good prices on an SSD (even a 60gb is enough for many) and an 8gb RAM upgrade it’ll certainly make the MacBook Pro experience more enjoyable.

UPDATE 3 15 2011:
I’ve now had this laptop for a couple of weeks and I have to say it is exceeded my expectations. I ordered an anti glare screen protector and painstakingly applied it so now I dont have problems with glare. I also ordered a new stand so now it sits at an angle which lets for better airflow out the back vent. I installed SmcFanControl to be able to monitor the interior temperatures and can change the fan speed in case it runs a little hot. I have installed Windows seven in a virtual machine and not intend on using boot camp as I do not like having to shut all my Mac apps and things to reboot into Windows, so I just run it in a VM and all runs well.

One thing I have noticed though is that Google Chrome takes up many of CPU resources and increases the temp by 15 to 20 degrees and I can not figure out why. It is a new install with no extensions so I guess I will not be using Chrome unless they resolve that. It is not an issue with the laptop but I figured those Chrome fans out there could like to know that I have had an unfortunate experience with it on this MBP.

Finally, it runs pretty cool on average but when I run a VM or some things now it does tend to heat up and I end up turning up the fan speed with SmcFanControl. There are only minor quirks, otherwise it is great! Once I have many more free time I will attempt many games, like a port of GTA San Andreas, and update with how they run and what happens to the MBP.

UPDATE two on 4 11 2011:
I decided that I could sell my month old MBP on eBay and splurge on the high resolution anti glare variant directly from Apple. I received a $100 student discount and ended up paying $150 tax since I ordered directly from the Apple web store. My new MBP has been shipped from China over the weekend. I have to say that it’s amazing. The high resolution is nearly too high and the small text can hurt your eyes if you have comparatively good eyesight like me (I’m 22 so no reading glasses anytime soon hopefully). But being able to see more on the screen may be a blessing, as it decreases the need for scrolling on web pages and papers.

As for the anti glare part of the screen, it seems great and I am able to use it outside with not many issues. The anti glare protector I had on the last MBP was good but there is nothing like an real anti glare screen. Plus I’m happier with the silver bezel than I firstly projected. I ended up paying just over $2000 which is a crazy investment for a college student but I know that its resale value will stay high and it’ll last me much longer than my last HP and Dell notebooks. In general I dont have regrets and praise these new MacBook Pros greatly.

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14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of five stars nice upgrade, March 3, 2011
By G. Ware (Colorado USA) See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE) (REAL NAME) () This review is from: Apple MacBook Pro MC721LL/A 15.4 Inch Laptop (Personal Computers) This is my fourth MacBook 15 inch with my 1st one bought in 2001 that came with the PowerPC processor. My last MacBook Pro was the late 2008 with the Core two Duo and it was a great laptop. My Core two MBP was still running great and I did not have any big reason to upgrade but wanted to take benefit of the quad core that comes with the 2011 model. No doubt MacBooks are pricey in comparison to Windows laptops but I believe they’re well worth it. Not only are they great laptops that do not show their age like Windows laptops but they also hold their value well. I usually hold onto my MBPs for 2 3 years and I have steadily sold them for good money with my Core two Duo selling for $850 on ebay. That higher resale value makes any upgrade less painful considering the higher prices on the MBP.

The laptop itself is great and feels hard. The frame is no different then my Core two duo model but many other things are a nice upgrade. My favorites are:

1. Intel i7 quad core can not say enough about having a quad core on a laptop. Now I can assign more cores to virtual machines I run on my MBP and when I rip dvd’s to Apple TV format the conversion completes in 1/2 the time that my core two could do the work in.

2. AMD graphic chip the thing I love about the new model in comparison to my old is how it can automatically switch between the fitted Intel graphic to the AMD graphic chip. Older variant of MBP forced you to manually make the change and logoff in order for the change to take effect. Now I can take benefit of the higher capacity AMD chip without having to remember to switch and logoff/on to get the extra performance.

3. Screen the screen on this variant looks much nicer then my Core two model. Do not think the specifications are different but the quality of the image is much better.

4. Thunderbolt nice addition but will wait on judgement till I have a device that can take benefit of it. When that comes it’ll be nice to move files to attached storage at the thunderbolt speed in comparison to usb/firewire which will seem slow in comparison.

I nearly did not purchase this model to attempt and wait another year to see if Apple does a big overhaul of the MBP frame next year but with the new features of this model the upgrade looks much worth it if you need the extra speed and do not want to wait for any lasting over hauls of the MBP line.

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