Thứ Bảy, 1 tháng 12, 2012

Apple MacBook Pro with Retina display Notebook Review - Part II

Macbook Pro With Retina Display Test

Another laptop could work out from this horrible day capacious battery. But the MacBook Pro with Retina display is greedy enough - obviously, the main consumer in this case is the display. Test result with minimal impact on the components of good: in this mode, the laptop is able to last a really long time.
But in a more realistic scenario - when viewing Full HD-video with a maximum brightness of the display - the result is reduced by more than half, to six and a small hours. Typically, the scenario of wireless Internet surfing gives about the same results. So Apple announced 7:00 should more or less correspond to reality, subject to the average brightness of the display and running in the background without heavy applications. In practice will probably 5.6 hours, which, in general, too bad.
Apple is the only company not switched to the matrix with a 16:9 aspect ratio - as in the classic MacBook Pro, set the display to AMBPwRd 15.4''. Similarity to the "normal" MacBook on this part. Retina display is not only better resolution - 1440x900 2880h1800 against - but also quality. This is the only laptop Apple, which used IPS-matrix. Display, as in all the MacBook Pro, covered with glass, but in this case, added a very effective anti-reflection coating significantly reduces the intensity of glare.
Anti-reflection coating MacBook Pro wRd significantly reduces the brightness of illumination. Compare this with the usual glossy display or screen -covered glass Gorilla Glass
The matrix does not put records on the part of the brightness. According to our measurements, the luminosity of the white box in the center of the display at the maximum level of illumination was a little more than 280 cd / m 2. Bright, but, they say, without fanaticism. In any case, the work in the sun will prevent Blick glass - so turn up the brightness to the skies just do not make sense.
But the luminosity of the black field in the same conditions is only 0.4 cd / m 2 . And on the bottom half of the range of variation of light luminosity is so low that our device - Datacolor Spyder4 - do not adequately measure it.
Accordingly, the contrast reaches almost 700:1, which is quite a lot even for mobile IPS-matrix, much of notebook TN - it's just an impossible height.
Some manufacturers to raise the overall brightness use a "transparent" color filters, which are "domeshivayut" in extra white color component. Because of this color range is obtained insufficient. The Apple did not use this trick, so that coverage is almost the sRGB - indeed, even in conventional MacBook Pro 15 color range is about the same.
Another thing is that through the use of IPS-matrix color subjectively perceived better than in the case of TN: excellent viewing angle IPS-display avoid color distortion due to the different angle of view on different points of the display.
Overall, the display is good in almost every way - except for the fact that he is still noticeable glare. However, with a matte finish highest resolution "retinoic" display, obviously, would not give such a sharp image, so that the model is not even available as an option.
Do not forget the developers and about the sound: in Apple at every opportunity, do not miss the opportunity to tell that in the MacBook Pro with Retina display used the best speakers you have ever put in a notebook with an apple on the cover. We have not had the opportunity to compare the head-at least to the MacBook Pro 15. But what the speakers sound really great - it's a fact.
Despite the very serious stuffing, laptop weighs quite moderate - a little more than the mass of 2 kilograms. The Classic MacBook Pro 15 is for about a pound heavier than the MacBook Pro 13 a few tens of grams.
Apple MacBook Pro with Retina display
ProcessorIntel Core i7-3610QM: 2,3 GHz (up to 3.3 GHz mode Turbo Boost) 
4x256 KB L2 
6 MB L3 
four cores
Graphics ControllerAutomatically switchable graphics: Intel HD 4000 integrated in the processor 
NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M (GK107), 1 GB GDDR5
Screen15.4 inches, 2880h1800, technology IPS 
glossy coating with anti-reflection layer, LED-backlight
Random access memory8 GB DDR3L-1600 (soldered on the motherboard, there is no expansion slots)
HDD256 GB SSD (Apple SM256E) 
Non-standard form factor
Optical DriveNone
Jack flash cardsSD (SDHC / SDXC)
Interfaces2 x USB 3.0 
2 x Thunderbolt 
1 x HDMI 
1 x headphones (mini-jack 3,5 mm)
Wi-Fi802.11a/b/g/n (Apple AirPort Extreme - Broadcom BCM4331)
Bluetooth4.0 (Broadcom BCM20702)
Network adapter10/100/1000 (Broadcom BCM57100, running through an adapter connected to the Thunderbolt)
SoundTwo speakers, two microphones
FoodPack of 6 different size flat items 92.6 Wh (8460 mAh, 10.95 V) 
power supply 85 W (20 V, 4.25 A)
OtherMetal body and cover, backlit keyboard, a light sensor, the webcam
Size in mm359x247x18
Weight, kg2.015
Operating systemMac OS X 10.7.4
Official manufacturer warranty12 months
Price range in the U.S.From $ 2199 to $ 3749
For younger configuration is only one option - increasing the memory. But you can not build up the drive - it is necessary to choose the version with a more powerful processor, which immediately is $600 more expensive.

Younger configurationOlder configurationOptions
ProcessorCore i7-3610QMCore i7-3720QMCore i7-3820QM (+ $ 250)
Memory8 GB8 GB16 GB (+ $ 200)
SSD256 GB512 GB768 GB (+ $ 500)
Price$1199$1879$2149

In the U.S. the price traditionally do not include taxes, which vary from state to state. In Euro, by the time when the notebook will appear in the domestic market, prices should be roughly in line with European - the same numbers, but in euros instead of dollars. But while there is no official supply, the price can be almost anyone. 

Conclusion
Excellent display, great sound, serious performance, good battery life, comfortable keyboard with backlight, communication connectors to suit every taste - all in a fairly compact and lightweight metal body. Apple has got to make the perfect laptop for every day.
The only sadness for those who are not willing to pay about $2 000-$3000 for flagship Apple laptop, for quite some time will have to be content with the "usual» MacBook Pro, which in the past year, we have looked archaic, but in the era of ultrabook and does steel whisk to some endangered species such as horse-drawn carts or cards Memory Stick.
As for alternatives, there are only two - and both have significant drawbacks. Say, a 15-inch Samsung 900X4C compact and weighs considerably less, but its performance is lower and the quality of the image display leaves a lot, lot better. In the Sony VAIO SE establish serious processors and graphics cards, as well as IPS-panel displays, albeit not "retinoic." But this laptop loses visual appeal and battery life.In fact, even if we forget about the resolution 2880x1800, direct competitors MacBook Pro with Retina display is simply not.

Thứ Tư, 28 tháng 11, 2012

Apple MacBook Pro with Retina display Notebook Review - Part I





Rumors about the imminent appearance of MacBook Air with screen sizes 15 inches have been around for a long time. As befits a rumor, they were greatly exaggerated: instead of "nedonoutbuka" with a large display, Apple introduced a complete new generation of MacBook Pro, a thin and light, but not weak - and even with a smart IPS-display, the highest resolution. The brand-new MacBook Pro is made in the normal range for the Apple design. The essential difference, in fact, only one - the thickness of the case. If only the figures, it is not decreased so dramatically, only a quarter from 24 to 18 millimeters.

But do not forget that the body shape clever hiding the extra millimeters. In assessing the thickness of the eye focuses on the vertical side walls of the body - and that's just this part is really decreased significantly, by more than half. Therefore, the new MacBook Pro looks much slimmer than the old one.

Despite the use of the display with the same diagonal - 15.4 inches - considerably changed and horizontal dimensions, "retinoic» MacBook Pro half a centimeter shorter than normal and two millimeters already (against 359h247 364h249 mm).
Housing, as in the other MacBook is made of anodized aluminum. As part of the stiffness to it have no complaints - the main part is very solid, except that you can bend the hammer. The only exception - the bottom. Detail is too thin and under strong pressure a little flex. However, no real problems, this fact does not promise. Internally, there are several dampers that prevent the panel to bend so that was a risk of damaging the electronics.
The Apple in the past, to put it mildly, do not overdo it with the number of markers, logotip, labels, stickers and the like marketing garbage on the notebook. But in the bottom of the display frame remaining MacBook write the model name. The "retina" is not even this line.
Keyboard in Apple laptops completely uniform across virtually the entire model range: the MacBook Air 13 to be removed from production giant model MacBook Pro 17. Since the cards "retinoic" Macbook came to our country unofficially, it was used by the U.S. keyboard layout.Discuss it does not make sense - the official supply AMBPwRd be a very different version, the British, with the added Cyrillic markings.
Button long-stroke, as in all the other MacBook. This compares favorably with thin notebooks with an apple on the cover of many ultrabooks.
Of course, there is a backlit keyboard. Now it only works in the dark - if around a light, light sensor, mounted in the top of the display frame, next to the camera prevents wasting energy.
Touchpad makbukah have long perfected, so to change anything in it would be pointless. Designers and did not - the touchpad is the same as the MacBook Pro 15 in the last generation. Even the dimensions have not changed - the same 104 by 76 millimeters.

Modern "vindobuki" MacBook approached the size touch panels. But for convenience touchpad Apple is still leading with a very large margin
As usual in makbukah, front and rear side spared the communication connectors.
The front part of the body is fully occupied battery, located on the rear edge of vent holes.
Accordingly, all the connectors are located on the sides of the housing. Due to the fact that the optical drive in AMBPwRd not, the designers managed to breed a lot of ports. Set of communications suit any user: there are both innovative and yet exotic Thunderbolt in the amount of two pieces, and the more usual HDMI and USB 3.0.
Compared with last year's MacBook Pro 15 there are two significant changes, in addition to the already mentioned thickness of the body.First, the missing light battery. Second, a new generation of MacBook (not only in Retina, the other models is also applicable) used a new power connector - it is more in width, but less in height. Pins are still five, but they are somewhat different.
Therefore, despite the fact that the power supplies themselves have not changed - the same shape, the same output parameters of the same size and weight - for a new MacBook old adapter will not work.
The good news: Apple got rid of the format of the connector where the wire starts along the hull. The bad news: the new connector does not allow to use the old charge
The battery is integrated into the housing. And not just built, but "very integrated": if you had applied for fastening screws Apple, now the battery is glued to the body. Used six different size batteries, giving a total capacity of more than 90 W * h
At this time we do not have to disassemble the laptop, but the monsters art dismantling of iFixit have already done so - be sure to check with their report

Thứ Năm, 4 tháng 10, 2012

Apple MacBook Pro 15" Retina Review



This is a review for Apple MacBook Pro 15" (2012 model) with a Retina screen (2880x1800). This laptop is for professional programmers.  Why is  it so complicated? The answer is in this review.




Content

  • Characteristics
  • And photo
  • Screen
  • Performance


Key Features:
Processor: Intel Core i7-3615QM, 4 cores / 8 threads, the frequency of 2.3 GHz, 6 MB cache in the third level.  
Based architecture: Ivy Bridge Based, made ​​on the 22-nm process technology and includes new graphics core HD Graphics 4000. Maximum clock speed when downloading a single core - 3.3 GHz. Max TDP 45 W.  
In simple terms, a regular user will not see the difference in speed of the CPU compared to the previous generation.


Intel ® Core ™ i7-3615QM Processor (6M Cache, up to 3.30 GHz)



Integrated Graphics Processor Intel HD Graphics 4000 with 512 MB. On average, equal to 20-30% of the performance of Intel HD Graphics 3000.



Frequency of the GPU





As for the discrete graphics NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M, it proved better than Radeon HD 6750M, even faster in some tests by 5-10%.



In the game Portal 2 (resolution 1680x1050) MacBook Pro 15 Retina showed 54.8 fps, and MacBook Pro 15 (2011) - 45.2 fps.




256Gb SSD drive that supports TRIM. Test results showed significantly greater speed reading and writing of data than the MacBook Air SSD 2011.  

Details below is in the performance section. Increase size SSD drive with 256Gb to 512Gb or 768Gb possible by replacing this down:


 

SSD produced by Samsung (830 series)
  
C replacement 8Gb memory it is worse, most of all, it can not be replaced without replacing the motherboard because the memory soldered into it. 



Hynix H5TC2G83CFR DDR3L SDRAM

Bluetooth 4.0 applied low power consumption by using a special algorithm. The transmitter is activated only while sending data, which allows operation on a single battery type CR2032 for several years. Standard provides a data rate of 1 Mbit / s data packet size 8-27 bytes. The new version of two Bluetooth-enabled devices can connect in less than 5 milliseconds, and keep it at a distance of 100 m is used for this advanced error correction, and the required level of security provides 128-bit AES-encryption.


Assembly is standard for laptops Apple - this is the power cord and adapter to an electrical outlet, printed documentation, MagSafe power adapter 2, the laptop and all. There is no proprietary USB-stick, instead, there is a separate section Recovery HD to restore the system and install Lion. It should be noted that the owners of MacBook Pro and Air 2012 will be free upgrade to OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion.





Power supply: MagSafe 2 up to 85W with a modified connector. Its magnetic part has become thinner and wider, so the old power supply new laptops are not compatible, but it can be fixed by purchasing an adapter with MagSafe at MagSafe 2 for $10.






Full-sized touchpad. Backlit keyboard. 
All done on 5 +





New MagSafe power connector 2, two ports Thunderbolt (data transfer rate up to 10Gbps), two ports USB 3.0 (one on each side), headphone jack, full-size HDMI port and a slot for SD, available for USB 3.0.



Unfortunately, MacBook Pro (Retina) lost RJ-45 connectors. If you want it, then you will need to separately purchase an adapter.

(Adapter Apple Thunderbolt Gigabit Ethernet ) comparison with the size of iPad 2






Fans dig deeper in the guts of the laptop will need to 
buy a special screwdriver




The back cover is modified. First, there is an inscription in both MacBook Pro and in the iPad.



Second, there are the ventilation holes on the sides for cool air intake and better cooling. As for the heat and noise, while browsing the site, work with office documents and watching videos, the laptop is behaving totally silent. 


Fans spinning at 2 thousand revs. Case becomes warm in the top of the keyboard, next to the touchpad, where the palm touch. By the way, the fan blades are different lengths and thus the noise from them is more pleasant to the ear, though in volume when the CPU utilization is at 100% laptop noise as well as the previous model MacBook Pro.
During video encoding in synthetic benchmarks and in games laptop noticeably warm, but not burn). 





Is the MacBook Pro Retina really thin? 

Differences compared with conventional Proshka noticeable immediately, because the laptop is not small in size (length, width), the effect of such a small thickness (1.8 cm) more apparent.

Reduced weight to 2.2 kg (for MacBook Pro 15 "2011 - 2.56 kg), also fell for him. Notebook easier to carry, but easily MacBook Air did not compare ...





Briefly about Baubles. Power button is now located in a block of function keys, as the MacBook Air.







This laptop is present just two microphones, one of which suppresses background noise. The recording quality can be evaluated in the survey Mountain Lion (see video at the end of the review).


During the presentation, the Apple MacBook Pro 15"(Retina) was to focus on improving the quality of the sound. To my mind, or rather hearing, speakers sound grew louder, with no creaking at maximum volume is not, and that's all the bass is also not enough.

FaceTime camera can now shoot video in 720p.


Retina Display 

Glossy widescreen display with a diagonal of 15 "inch LED backlit with a huge resolution of 2880x1800 (density of 220 ppi).


The display has a very good IPS-matrix with excellent viewing angles and excellent color reproduction. Pixels on a screen is not visible, this is equivalent to a change from iPad 2 in the iPad 3, and we get a huge 15" Retina display.



If you have a good vision, you can configure the image that all items on the screen and the text will be large and blurred. Medium size is recommended, which corresponds to the scaled resolution of 1440x900 on a standard MacBook Pro 15".


How are applications that are not optimized for the Retina? I detailed in the video review later, and then just want to note that when viewing site in Safari, fonts are clear, but the graphics have a markedly inferior resolution (This was particularly noticeable on OS X 10.7 Lion). 

After installing the OS X Mountain Lion GM, I enable anti-aliasing and all the graphics on sites with low resolution bit lost in the definition, but it disappeared ladder. The pictures are difficult to show, as in the screenshots, but I think you can evaluate that applications are not optimized for retinitis we blur (pixel) text and graphics. 



Performance

Almost immediately I put the OS X Mountain Lion GM and it had a positive impact on the overall animation interface. Browsing, animation system interface, everything is now working much better, but you need to disable the integrated graphics (Intel HD 4000) and use NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M, otherwise settling fps in animation interface will be visible to the eye.
 
By the way, to upgrade from Lion Mountain Lion on MacBook Pro 15 (Retina) 2.3GHz took only 14 minutes. During the upgrade, I absolutely did not hear any noise from the laptop, just peace and quiet.

 
I was very pleased with performance in games, clearly this can be seen in a video review on the example of Dirt 2 (see video at the end of the review). I note only that if the laptop is running on battery power, not the network, the game performance drops significantly. now turn to the synthetic tests, and before that give measurements in time on and off the laptop.

 Start and stop times
(Three measurements carried out, the results below)
Inclusion 15.15, 16.04, 15.46 seconds.
Shutdown 2.20, 2.0, 2.10 sec



Xbench tests 


Unfortunately, OS X Mountain Lion is not working Test Thread Test, so the total score is not worth watching, but on certain other tests, including test drive SSD, it is already possible to see and appreciate. To compare the test results led MacBook Air 13 "Core i7 1.8 GHz (2011), MacBook Air 6.11 "previous generation (Intel Core 2 Duo 01.04 GHz ) and MacBook Pro 15 ", Core i5 2.4GHz (MC371). As stated, the figures speak for themselves.

CPU Test 

  • MacBook Pro 15 "Retina, Core i7 2.3 GHz (2012) - 264.00
  • MacBook Air 13 ", Core i7 1.8 GHz (2011) - 216.44
  • MacBook Pro 15 ", Core i5 2.4GHz (2010) - 191.96
  • MacBook Air 11.6 ", Core 2 Duo 1.4 GHz (2010) - 98.36

Memory Test

  • MacBook Pro 15 "Retina, Core i7 2.3 GHz (2012) - 662.15
  • MacBook Air 13 ", Core i7 1.8 GHz (2011) - 553.35
  • MacBook Pro 15 ", Core i5 2.4GHz (2010) - 303.72
  • MacBook Air 11.6 ", Core 2 Duo 1.4 GHz (2010) - 137.45

Disk Test 

  • MacBook Pro 15 "Retina, Core i7 2.3 GHz (2012) SSD - 485.53 (speed record over 400Mb/sec!)
  • MacBook Air 13 ", Core i7 1.8 GHz (2011) SSD - 362.39
  • MacBook Pro 15 ", Core i5 2.4GHz (2010) HDD - 51.14
  • Apple MacBook Air 11.6 ", Core 2 Duo (2010) SSD - 248,536



Separate SSD drive tests GeekBench and CINEBENCH 11.529


  • MacBook Pro 15 "Retina, Core i7 2.3 GHz (2012) - 11,867
  • MacBook Air 13 ", Core i7 1.8 GHz (2011) -  6318
  • MacBook Pro 15 ", Core i5 2.4GHz (MC371LL / A) - 5617
What do you thinkabout the results? Almost twice the result MacBook Air 13 "Core i7 1.8 GHz (2011).



Test results MacBook Air 13 ", Core i7 1.8 GHz (2011).

  

A little more synthetic. Test results CINEBENCH:



Duration of the Apple MacBook Pro 15"(Retina)


Built-in high-capacity removable battery ( up to 7 hours and 30 days standby time ). The battery has a capacity of 8344 mAh.
  • MacBook Pro 15 Retina - 8344 mAh (95 Wh)
  • Apple iPad 3 - 11560 mAh (42.5 Wh)

Explanation: they have different voltage, so different values ​​in watt-hours, and in capacity mAh really have iPad 3 is higher.

So, as I tested it. The test was entirely similar to that which I spent in the review of Apple MacBook Pro 15" Core i5 2.4GHz, MacBook Air 13" Core i7 1.8 GHz (2011) and MacBook Air 11.6" (2010) . before the test MacBook Pro (Retina) was fully charged. Backlit display unscrewed to the maximum, the keyboard backlight is off. Enabled Wi-Fi. During the test, a movie trailer played out "The Legend" (FullHD 1080p) on your player VLC.









So obviously, the MacBook Pro Retina proved itself better than less productive, but long-running MacBook Air 13"(2011), we can safely say that for 6-7 hours of office work MBP Retina enough screen brightness 50-60%.  If talk about the temperature of the CPU and the fan noise, the time to play Full HD video, the temperature of the nuclei not exceed 60 degrees. Fans spun for 2 thousand revolutions in which they absolutely can not hear!







Fans start to grow, only at the processor's temperature over 90 degrees and reach speeds of 4,600 rpm. That's when the noise is very noticeable, but to get to those values, you have to run a synthetic test, which will be a long time to load all CPU cores at 100%.
                    Web browsing synthetic test (100% CPU usage)


  

In other cases (for Web browsing, video, etc.) CPU temperature exceeds 60 degrees, cooler spin at 2000 rpm.






 

Pros and cons of Apple MacBook Pro 15 "(Retina) (2012)

Pro: Classy screen as view angles and details of fonts (not visible pixels)  
Very good endurance for such a powerful stuffing (6-7 hours of continuous charge will)  
Excellent build (solid body), great design, compact size and weight for a 15"laptop.
It is absolutely noiseless when using the Internet, watching video or working with documents (for fan speed does not exceed 2,000 thousand), in this mode, the bottom part of the case, where are the palm stays cool, very good gaming performance; USB 3.0, and a full-size HDMI port.
Cons: Animation interface while facilitating integrated graphics (Intel HD 4000) noticeably limping, to face 18-22fps and visible mikroryvki;   When masshtibirovannom resolution is not clear how it will look at the final result in the monitor with an ordinary resolution.  
A simple example, for instance, you need to make a banner width 520px, if you specify the width of this image on the MacBook Pro Retina, you will get a very small picture and edit it difficult, so the MBP Retina, paradoxically sounds - this laptop is not for the designer, and programmer or a person who is consumed content,    very few applications optimized for Retina resolution and they look, to say the bad;   you need to buy a separate adapter for FireWire and RJ-45.




Conclusions.  

This laptop is ambiguous. It's definitely much like the way dimensions and screen, add here the excellent performance. True, Integrated Graphics Intel HD 4000 for such a huge resolution is weak, so I recommend you to switch to the discrete and enjoy life, apparently, so the Mountain Lion laptop increasingly defaults to the GT 650M graphics card.    

The Apple Macbook Pro 15" With Retina Screen is the laptop of the future. I met only one site, the schedule on which the resolution is optimized for Retina and it is the official website of Apple, also have big problems with applications that look great on the screen, a chic really bad ... 

I am glad that it is dealing with time fix . Currently no Adobe CS6, or Office are not compatible with the retina and in such applications you will receive on-screen pixel font, graphics, and at best, smooth images, but blurred. 

The Apple Macbook Pro 15" With Retina Screen is the perfect laptop for programmers and writers, because on a screen of any text looks clear, and something to code on it a pleasure for the eyes and say thank you. If you are the most time consuming content on a laptop (Web browsing, video, games), this laptop as you will like. Designers, I would not recommend this laptop as a scaled resolution to play with you a malicious joke.

 

Review Apple MacBook Pro 15" Retina Video