Macbook Pro Early 2011

The last few years, Apple has had an impressive advance as a whole, from Computers, Laptops, Cellphones, Tablets, an even accessories. Now they show the last iteration to the "Pro" series of their laptop branch, the MacBook Pro.

This is not a brand new product, or a renovated design, it is just a hardware update to complain with the lastest Intel Processors (Sandy Bridge) where many technical advances has been implemented into those 32nm chips: Up to 3.8 GHz (software overclock), Up to 8 MB shared L3, Intel Graphics sub-system, HyperThreading, etc.

The processor in previous MacBook Pro was one of its weaknesses. Core 2 Duo is now history and has been replaced by Intel Core i7/i5 and ranging from 2.3 to 2.7 GHz, depending on the chosen model. Another important aspect is the change on graphics. The new MacBook Pro 15 "and 17" mount a combo Intel + AMD. On the other hand, 13-inch MacBook Pro will only have the Intel graphics processor.

Perhaps the big news is Thunderbolt. It has another project name: Light Peak. Thunderbolt is your business name, claimed for high-speed connection between devices. It is direct competition with USB 3.0, but includes new features to everyone more interesting. Among them, the possibility of being used as video output, integrated into other standards such as DisplayPort.

One of the main advantages over other interfaces is to be very dynamic, transfering both data and video or audio, depending on what devices are connected. This is because Intel has developed Thunderbolt under two protocols: PCI-Express and DisplayPort. Through the PCI-Express protocol data is moved, while DisplayPort will be responsible for sharing video content, all in just one cable. Intel has confirmed it is working to bring Thunderbolt to other connections, such as might be eSATA or Firewire.

Not to forget other news:

• Integrated HD Webcam: Facetime HD up to 720p of video recording.
• Unremovable battery: up to 7 hours for all models.
• Multitouch Trackpad: The same.
• All teams start with 4 GB of DDR3 RAM.
• Hard disks of 320, 500 or 750 GB depending on model.

Something that makes those new models hard of purchase (and almost every Apple product) is its price: starting at $1200 and rising up to $2500 for the 17inch model. Those quantities are in US Dollars (poor EU with the 1US = 1€). For mexican people, those computers are quite difficult to reach, mean income speaking. Nonetheless those products are really good pieces of hardware, offering cutting-hedge technologies, so I would totally suggest to be acquired for people like programmers, designers and CAD engineers. 

To take a close-up to the tech-specs, here is the link: