This unibody chassis has the benefit of being thin (for a 15-inch laptop), but strong and flex-free at the same time. The basic building block remains the same: a solid chunk of aluminum, which is carved down into a shell with support struts. Even more recent designs, such as the second-generation MacBook Air, are variations on it. Note that this time around we tested the new $1,799 15-inch MacBook Pro, whereas our previous 15-inch MacBook Pro review sample was the $2,199 version, so we're effectively looking at the same CPU in both cases.īy now, the shape and size of the MacBook Pro should be very familiar. Default storage remains the same for the 15-inch models, but the 13- and 17-inch MacBook Pros have their own set of CPU, GPU, and HDD updates, the details of which are here. The GPU options are now a 512MB AMD Radeon HD 6750M in the lower-priced version and a 1GB AMD Radeon HD 6770M in the more expensive one. The biggest change is that the $1,799 model now has that 2.2GHz quad-core i7, and the $2,199 model moves up to an even faster 2.4GHz CPU. That $2,199 unit had a 2.2GHz quad-core i7, whereas the $1,799 model had a 2.0GHz CPU.

In the 15-inch MacBook Pro, we previously reviewed the more high-end of two starting configurations. Rather than a generational jump as we saw in February 2011 (when the Pro moved from Intel's original Core i-series CPUs to the latest second-generation chips, formerly code-named Sandy Bridge), this is perhaps better described as minor housekeeping.

The latest round of updates to Apple's popular MacBook Pro line were modest enough that they simply appeared on the Apple Web site with little fanfare beyond a basic press release.

Apple macbook pro 2011 review