New MacBook Pro with i5 and i7 Intel CPU

Apple has launched today its upgraded MacBook Pro line of notebooks. One thing I noticed, besides the new i5 and i7 Intel CPU’s are the better battery performance of the new MacBook Pros (MBP). The new MBP now boasts of up to 10 hours between battery recharge for the 13-inch MacBook Pro and 8-9 hours for the 15-inch and 17-inch MBP. The previous MBP’s are rated only at 7 hours — which is already very good in my opinion. I’ve used other brands of notebooks and I can only get as much as 2 hours out of them.

For now, the 13-inch MacBook Pro still uses the old Core 2 Duo processors. But it’s worth noting that they now have a newer nVidia GeForce 320M video card. 4GB memory is now standard even on the 13-inch MBP. Plus the hard disks are now bumped up to 320GB/500GB for the two configurations available.

The 15-inch MBP line got the most upgrades. The entry level and mid-level 15-inch MacBook Pro now sports an Intel i5 CPU while the high end 15-inch MBP now has an i7 CPU as standard configuration. The 15-inch MBP notebooks also get a more powerful nVidia GeForce 330M GPU with 256-512MB dedicated memory.

The 17-inch MacBook Pro has a bit of an odd standard configuration since it has an i5 Intel CPU by default. Although you can upgrade it to an Intel i7 CPU when you order it online.

Other options available when you order online include additional memory, optional upgrade to a 512GB solid state drive. Also worth noting is the fact that the prices of the Apple Online store for the Philippines now have lower price points for the mid-level and high-end 15-inch MBP compared to the older generation MacBook Pro.