Apple 15″ Macbook Pro 2.66GHZ (Core i7) Review: Portable Power for Photographers

Apple 15″ Macbook Pro 2.66GHZ (Core i7) Review: Portable Power for Photographers

With a change in processing and GPU units under the hood, the new Macbook Pro provides photographers more power than ever before in a mobile platform. In use since 2006, Intel’s Core Duo processors have been dropped in favor of newer and faster Intel Core i5 and Core i7 processors. These i5 and i7 processors derive their speed from hyper-threading, running two threads on both cores, which Mac OS X looks at as 4 virtual cores. This allows the new Macbook Pro to spread more work over more cores, which equates to smoother, faster computing. In addition these new processors can “Turbo Boost” if tasked by a particularly intensive application, the 2.66 Ghz i7 processor can briefly run at up to 3.33 Ghz to handle that extra load. Graphically, new NVIDIA GeForce GT 330M processors not only boost performance, but help improve battery life substantially as well. The NVIDIA GeForce GT 330M works with an integrated Intel HD Graphics processor, with the Macbook Pro deciding by itself now which one is the appropriate choice depending on the application at hand. The ability to use a processor with less power requirements, means the Macbook Pro can sip less of your battery life, which gives the user more time between charges.

Now, these upgrades are enough to make owners of the preceding Core Duo Macbook Pro (including the 2.8 Ghz) strongly consider these new i5 and i7 equipped Macbook Pro’s, but especially if you skipped out on the predecessor, the newest Macbook Pro is the sort of sexy, powerful, and versatile little number that creative types (ahem, photographers) are bound to be lusting for. Our review unit was indeed awe-inspiring. We’re talking about a 2.66Ghz Intel Core i7 processor with 4MB shared L3 cache, 4GB 1066MHz DDR3 SDRAM, a 500GB Serial ATA Drive (ok, it’s only 5400 RPM), and a NVIDIA GeForce GT 330M video card with 512MB of GDDR3 memory on board. For most of us with computers two generations back or more, these are inspiring specifications, but let’s not forget about that exterior, a beautiful unibody construction that’s slim and sleek, sporting curves and hard edges in all the right places.

We’ve moved some of our workflow over to the new Macbook Pro over the last couple of weeks, with the rest of our work being done on an older 2.2Ghz Intel Core Duo Macbook Pro. The differences in construction are subtle but striking, the differences in performance, substantial.

Apple 15.4″ MacBook Pro 2.66Ghz Notebook Computer at B&H Photo (includes free: Parallels Desktop 5.0 Software for Mac OS X) Get the Apple 15.4″ MacBook Pro 2.66Ghz Notebook Computer and support this site at the same time, by making your purchase through the link above at B&H Photo Video.

Specifications

Computer	Apple 15" Macbook Pro 2.66Ghz
Price (est.)	$2,199
Processor	2.66GHz Intel Core i7-620M
Cache	L3: 4MB
System Bus	2.5GT/s
Memory	Slots: 2x SO-DIMM 204-Pin Type: PC3-8500 1066MHz DDR3 SDRAM Installed: 4GB (2x2GB) Capacity: 8GB
Graphics Card	nVIDIA GeForce GT 330M with 512MB GDDR3 SDRAM Dedicated
Display	15.4" Widescreen, 16:10 Aspect, LED Backlight, Glossy Finish (option for matte)
Max. Resolution	1440 x 900 at 16:10 Aspect Ratio
External Resolution	Up to 2560 x 1600
Hard Drive	500GB 5400RPM SATA
Optical Drive	8x-Speed Slot-Load SuperDrive
Input/Output	2x USB 2.0 (A) 1x FireWire-800 (9-Pin) 1x Mini DisplayPort 1x DVI via optional cable 1x VGA via optional cable 1x Dual-Link DVI via optional cable 1x HDMI via optional cable Integrated Stereo Speakers with subwoofers Integrated Omnidirectional Microphone 1x Combo Analog Headphone/Optical Digital Audio Out 1x Combo Analog Line-In/Optical Digital Audio In 1x SD
Network	10/100/1000Mbps Gigabit Ethernet (RJ-45)
Wi-Fi	802.11n Airport Extreme
Bluetooth	Bluetooth 2.1+EDR
Webcam	Yes
Operating System	Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard
Battery/Power	Built-In Lithium-Polymer Providing up to 9 Hours per Charge (77Wh), AC: 100-240VAC, 50-60Hz Consumption: 85W
Dimensions	14.35 x .95 x 9.82"/36.45 x 2.41 x 24.94cm
Weight	5.6 lbs/2.54kg

Design

On an aesthetic level, it’s hard to find fault in the latest Macbook Pro design. It is, unequivocally a beautifully designed piece of equipment. This latest generation is roughly the same in dimensions and weight, in your backpack, there’s little difference, but subtle sculpting at the edges make the new Macbook Pro feel better in the hands, in fact it feels, fits, and just looks better.

As a piece of computing equipment the new Macbook Pro has some hits and misses. As with the most recent Macbooks, gone is the clipping device to hold the LCD display down. Instead the “lid” is simply held magnetically, just close it, and it sticks more than adequately enough without being too difficult to budge back open.

The optical drive occupies the right-hand side of the Macbook Pro, with a Kensington security slot for locking the whole thing down right next to it. This leaves the front of the Macbook Pro devoid of any inputs, there’s only an infrared receiver and sleep indicator light to be found. This leaves all the remaining inputs/outputs on the left hand side of the Macbook Pro. These include:

• MagSafe power port
• Gigabit Ethernet port
• FireWire 800 port
• Mini DisplayPort (now supports multi-channel audio)
• Two USB 2.0 ports
• Audio in
• Audio out
• SD Card slot

Now, one might be able to pick up on a couple of problems here. First, there’s no FireWire 400, so yes you’ll have to upgrade those devices, then there’s Apple’s new-ish Mini DisplayPort, a port that’s intended to directly connect to Apple’s newer LED Cinema Displays. Connecting to other devices requires an adaptor, not a huge deal, but one to consider at purchase time if you connect your Macbook Pro to an external display device. One other issue may arise with the ports proximity to each other, specifically there’s a small chance that certain USB cables may have housings too wide to fit next to each other, which could leave you with one USB port. It’s unlikely, but we were able to scrounge up two devices that wouldn’t fit next to each other. Still for the most part, this is sort of nit-picking, and on the plus side you get a handy SD Card slot, which certainly comes in handy for photographers, and there’s a useful battery indicator as well, implemented by pressing a small button next to it. If you ever wanted to check your battery life without opening the display, now you can.

Keyboard/Trackpad

We’re still not exactly sure if the black keyboard is the right choice aesthetically, but we can say that in its spacing and overall layout, it’s a nice improvement, typing is more accurate, and feels more comfortable. Interestingly it remains backlit, though the black keys might have you thinking it isn’t. It does look pretty cool in the dark, but we’re not all that sure of how useful it actually is.

Now to the trackpad, it is after all, one of the more interesting “improvements” to the latest Macbooks, offering more real estate and supporting a whole host of swiping gestures (ala the iPhone, iPad). Gone is the large button of yesteryear, instead this trackpad IS a button, one trackpad-sized button. The thing is though, most of us have trackpad mechanics burned into our muscle memories, and it does take some time to get used to the new trackpad. We can say that it is worth looking at the forest through the trees, the swiping gestures – once adapted to – can speed up your workflow, and in general make some of your computing just a bit easier. There are two-finger swipes for zooming and rotating, three finger swipes for “scrolling” through images, and even four finger swipes for pulling up Expose and changing applications. These gestures work inside of applications like Photoshop, and this Macbook Pro has the horsepower to make them work smoothly even on rather large files. Yes, rotating a big Canon EOS 5D Mark II file inside of Photoshop with two fingers to help make the right masking selection can be very useful, and very cool.

LCD

Our review unit was supplied with a 15.4 inch, 1,440-by-900-pixel display in a glossy finish. We’re quick to realize the glossy display is a justified point of contention with many photographers and imaging professionals. There’s the perfectly valid issue of color accuracy or lack of it possibly with the glossy display, not to mention a definitive problem with glare, depending on your working environment. Our opinion is that the glossy display is worth the potential problems, if you don’t have issues with glare where you’re working. Images look amazing on the display, it provides more depth and more dynamic range than a matte display, and in general just makes your photographs POP with dimension and vibrancy. If however the gloss display doesn’t work for you, you can order the Macbook Pro with a 1680-by-1050 antiglare display for another $150.

Performance

The Macbook Pro 2.66Ghz is a noticeable improvement over its immediate Core Duo predecessors before it, roughly 10-15% faster depending on your benchmark, so it goes without saying that it offers a substantial improvement over Macbook Pro’s just a couple of generations behind. In day to day computing, the Macbook Pro 2.66 Ghz is almost overkill, the processing speed and memory on-board (4GB, but upgradeable to 8GB) easily handle web and office type work. When it comes to more intensive work like image editing, the Macbook Pro’s potentials are better realized. With 4 GB of RAM, it was no problem to run Lightroom 3 Beta 2 and Photoshop CS5 concurrently, and trips back and forth were as painless as I’ve experienced. Aperture 3 was just as enjoyable to use, sliders were responsive, and loupe usage was as smooth as can be. We’re not exactly video experts, but we’re still quite confident that filmmakers looking for a mobile platform are going to like their results from the Macbook Pro 2.66Ghz, render times were substantially faster than our older 2.2Ghz Core Duo Macbook Pro (laughably so), and of course playback up to and including 1080p was just effortless.

For some real world results, we took 3 full size 5D Mark II files (.TIF) and brought them into Adobe Photoshop CS5. Then we timed the results to convert them into an HDR image, a process that involves Photoshop first arranging and lining up the photos to actually enter HDR Pro, then the process of applying the settings the photographer sets while in HDR Pro. Again we’re comparing the Macbook Pro 2.66 Ghz to and older Macbook Pro 2.2 Ghz Core Duo:

Computer	Macbook Pro 2.66 Ghz, 4GB RAM	Macbook Pro 2.2 Ghz Core Duo, 2GB RAM
Time to enter HDR Pro	22.6 seconds	60.2 seconds
Time to process results	42.6 seconds	80.6 seconds
Total time	65.2 seconds	140.8 seconds

As you can see, the Macbook Pro 2.66 Ghz is more than twice as fast, and we found these type of results in nearly all of our various test. That’s potentially a lot of time save for photographers and imaging professionals, and it also helps facilitate a willingness to experiment a bit more, when time wasted becomes less of a factor.

Using Xbench, a free benchmarking application (download it here, and compare your Mac to the numbers below) only confirmed our preliminary findings:

Computer	Macbook Pro 2.66 Ghz, 4GB RAM	Macbook Pro 2.2 Ghz Core Duo, 2 GB Ram
Total Xbench Score	174.51	97.85
CPU Test	222.7	115.81
Thread Test	547.87	201.78
Memory Test	333.35	152.19
Quartz Graphics Test	222.12	170.71
OpenGL Graphics Test	228.62	132.95
User Interface Test	346.37	219.46
Disk Test	52.54	29.9

Without a doubt the Macbook Pro 2.66 Ghz is simply much faster, but one can see some weakness in the disk speeds, where the 5400 RPM drive handicaps things a bit (upgrades to 7200 RPM drives, and solid state drives are available and recommended for top performance).

Battery Life

Thanks to the aforementioned NVIDIA GeForce GT 330M and integrated Intel HD video processors, the new Macbook Pro 2.66 Ghz provides a nice bump in battery life. Now,  Apple claims 8-9 hours of use on a single charge, which in general use, may be roughly true. This is because for many applications the Intel HD processor easily suffices, and at its factory settings the Macbook Pro quickly dims when not being used for even just a moment. But in the old standby test, DVD playback, the new Macbook Pro is good for about 4 and half hours of continuous play, that’s not 8 hours, but it’s better than the 4 hour times of the predecessors, which were themselves much better than my generation’s 2 and half hours.

Verdict

To say the new Macbook Pro 2.66 Ghz impresses is an understatement. Super attractive, and loads of processing power equate to a very desirable piece of portable computing equipment. Before offering our conclusion, let’s look at the positives and negatives.

Positives

• Fast, fast, performance.
• Excellent battery life.
• Gloss display makes photos look great.
• Excellent form factor and build characteristics.
• Easy to change memory/drive/etc (8 screws give access to everything).
• Included SD Card Slot.
• Gestural trackpad works great in applications, including Photoshop.
• Admirable “Green” qualities (recycled aluminum and glass, energy savings, elimination of harmful toxins, reduced packaging).

Negatives

• At $2000, quite expensive relative to non-mobile equivalents.
• Glossy display could be a negative for imaging professionals (optional non-glare display adds $$$).
• No express card slot.
• Touchpad can be slow to adjust to (but worth it).
• USB ports may be to closely located to each other.

Conclusion

Thanks to the new Core i7 processor and the smart dual graphic setup, the Macbook Pro 2.66 Ghz is a bona fide blazing performer, while providing the user with a nice bump in battery life as well. They are indeed expensive, but we think photographers, filmmakers, graphic designers, and other creative types will be more than satisfied with the deal that the new Macbook Pro provides. Great performance in a beautiful package that’s able to go mobile, and be used as an actual workstation will make the financial sacrifice a bit easier, and there’s the solace that boost in speed and functionality may help you earn some of that hard earned money back. The Macbook Pro 2.66 Ghz (and other i5 and i7 equipped models depending on your budget and size needs) easily comes “Highly Recommended”.

Buy It Now

In addition to selling photographic and video equipment, B&H Photo Video sells everything photographers need to do their work, including computers. B&H Photo carries the entire Apple line, typically offering free shipping and lower prices than the Apple Store. Note that in addition to being cheaper, and shipping for free, the Macbook Pro 2.66 Ghz i7 also comes with Parallels Desktop 5.0 Software. Check the link below for details. Purchases made at B&H Photo Video do help to support this site.

Apple 15.4″ MacBook Pro 2.66Ghz Notebook Computer at B&H Photo (includes free: Parallels Desktop 5.0 Software for Mac OS X): Free Shipping Get the Apple 15.4″ MacBook Pro 2.66Ghz Notebook Computer and support this site at the same time, by making your purchase through the link above at B&H Photo Video.

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1. 

   Fils-de-Daguerre says:

   May 17, 2010 at 5:08 pm

   Neat.

   I kinda like the 17″ better, except for that i5…

   reply
   • 

     Patrick says:

     May 24, 2010 at 2:48 pm

     The 17 is nice, but best if you don’t lug it around all the time, like I’m doing with the 15″

     reply
     • 

       Fils-de-Daguerre says:

       July 27, 2010 at 8:08 pm

       I suppose you’re right.

       I think I really like the Lenovo ThinkPad W701ds, though that is sure a behemoth!

       P.S. I bookmarked this review.

       reply