MacBook Pro 13″ Ivy Bridge 2.9GHz i7 (Mid 2012) – A Real World Review

Somewhat overshadowed by the Retina MacBook Pro, the refreshed, original case-design Ivy Bridge range of Apple laptops, released simultaneously with the Retina MBP at June’s WWDC Keynote, doesn’t seem to have received a great deal of attention in the media. So, having had to make the difficult decision this month to put my ailing, late-2007 Santa Rosa MacBook out to pasture for one of the new models, I thought I’d share the experience. Of the reviews that do exist, most will undoubtedly have focused on how the new hardware compares to the version that came directly before it. Yet who in the real world buys a new computer to replace the one that came out merely months before? Surely more people are going to be interested in how much of an improvement the new machines are over a four or five year old MacBook that’s nearing the twilight portion of its operating window and thus needs to be replaced.

First impressions
After much soul-searching, I’d chosen to replace my late-2007, 13″ white MacBook 2.1GHz Core 2 Duo with the new 13″ Ivy Bridge MacBook Pro, with the snappy 2.9GHz i7 processor, 8GB of RAM and 750GB hard drive. The first thing I noticed on removing the MBP’s box from its cardboard Continue reading

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WWDC 2012 Highlights – New MacBooks, Mountain Lion, iOS 6 – UK Prices

Unlike last year, where I missed almost the entire thing due to deadline pressures, this time around I was fully poised with live weblogs engaged as the 6.00pm keynote hour for Apple’s Worldwide Developer Conference approached. Here’s a rundown of what was announced at the Moscone Centre in San Francisco earlier this evening.

Updated MacBook Pro and MacBook Air

The MacBook Air gets the new Intel Ivy Bridge processor, up to 2GHz dual-core i7, with up to 8GHz of 1600MHz RAM and 60% faster graphics. 512GB of flash storage, USB 3, and a 720p FaceTime camera. Display wise, the 11″ model sports a 1366 x 768 display, with a 1440 x 900 resolution on the 13″ . The 2012 MacBook Air ships today, with prices ranging from £849 – £1249.

The MacBook Pro also gets Ivy Bridge processors, up to 2.9GHz quad-core i7, (turbo boostable to 3.6GHz), 8GB of 1600MHz RAM and 60% faster graphics. The 13″ model gets the same integrated graphics chip as the new MacBook Air, while the 15″ gets the Kepler GeForce GT 650M graphics card with up to 1GB of video RAM. Both models get USB 3 ports. The 13″ version starts at £999 for the 2.5GHz variant, rising to £1249 for the 2.9GHz i7. The 15″ model starts at £1499 for the 2.3GHz, going up to Continue reading