Notebook Critic

Testers have Apple Mac OS X 10.6.2 in their hands right now, and a few have probed the depths of the configuration scripts looking for hints of new hardware. This time they struck gold by finding references to a MacBook Pro 6,1 and 6,3. What could these entail?

• The new iMac is a good indicator of the components, as Apple usually keeps the components in their mobile and consumer desktop platforms similar. iMac now uses AMD’s RADEON dedicated GPU rather than the Nvidia G92 based 130 GT.
• Core i5 and i7 makes their first appearance.  These are Desktop variants, not the recently announced mobile i7 as I expected.
• iMac uses a 16:9 aspect ratio. I could see this extending to the whole lineup eventually – is too 1080p too fine a dot pitch for a 15″ screen? Thanks to Quartz Mac OS can scale very nicely on high dot pitch screens and still be legible.

So wild guesses:

New 15″ and 17″ MacBook Pros in January with the following:

• Intel Core i5 Dual Cores with HT on an Intel chipset. Maybe some unannounced LV Quad core with HT in the 17″. I just can’t see Apple going backwards in terms of battery life or form factor. I think a MBP using the current mobile i7 would require a thicker body to accommodate sufficient cooling and room for a big enough battery. The HP Envy 15 illustrates these compromises very well (particularly its bolt-on extended battery pack).
• 16:9 screen powered by RADEON Mobility 4650/70 with 512 or 1024 memory. Maybe RADEON Mobility 5650 parts will be ready for launch, but it is not looking good. I just can’t see Apple sticking with Nvidia unless their 3x0m parts are something revolutionary. More G92 derivatives are something no one is asking for.
• 320 GB to 1 TB HDD options and some SSD options for the wealthy. There might be room in the 17″ for a dual drive config that enables the notebook to boot off SSD super fast.
• Blu Ray. By January it will be a BTO option in iMacs and notebooks. I just can’t see how Apple can continue to ignore this format any longer regardless of their plans for HD content in iTMS. I’d expect combo/superdrive versions with some HD moniker.

Safe predictions IMO, but when it comes to Apple I am usually wrong.