Laptop makers not using Intel’s I5 are in the slow lane
As performance laptops powered by the Intel i5 family of processors begin to appear in stores in quantity, it is clear that laptop makers not using them, including Apple, are behind the performance curve.
More and more laptop manufacturers are releasing models powered by Intel’s mobile i5 chipset, which by far outperforms the now lower-end Core i3 model processors. To get an idea of the performance improvements, one just need look at the reviews of the newer chips. AnandTech says that the i5 chips represent “the single largest performance improvement we’ve seen from a new mobile processor in years.” Tom’s Hardware said that the i5 “boasts the best balance between desktop-class speed and true mobile usability we’ve ever seen.” Other reviews of the new Intel chip are equally glowing.
The new Intel Core i5 is built using on Intel’s cutting-edge 32-nanometer manufacturing process. It is positioned between the Core 3 line, which it outperforms significantly, and the Intel i7 family of processors, Intel’s highest performance chipsets, along with their Xeon processors. The i5 processors were released in January 2010 and laptops using the chipsets began to appear shortly after, according to a CNET story. Manufacturers that have released notebooks based on the i5 include Dell, Hewlett-Packard, Sony, and Toshiba, among others.
One manufacturer noticeably missing from that list is Apple computer, usually at the forefront of the performance wars with its MacBook Pro line of computers. Savvy laptop shoppers know that the i5-powered portables are quite a lot faster than the previous-generation i3s and those looking for performance (who isn’t?) and those willing to pay for it (most of those who want it) have been waiting for the new Windows machines to come out. No doubt Apple MacBook users are also biding their time, which could hurt Mac notebook sales until they update the MacBook pro lineup. That being the case, it is fairly easy to predict that we will see a series of Macbook Pro upgrades coming from Apple sooner rather than later.
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February 13th, 2010
Apple releases and updates their lines on their own timeline, not immediately with their manufacturing partners’ timeline. Apple may request a custom chip and get exclusivity for a brief period. But Apple updates their lines when they are ready.
February 13th, 2010
Apple seems to release new hardware a few weeks to a month after its January earnings report. I would guess no portables by the end of February.
February 14th, 2010
Big Whoop.
“The single largest performance improvement … in years” is an approximately 11% boost over the Core 2 Duo for most common laptop uses. That’s like going from a 2 GHz chip to a 2.2 GHz chip.
A bit more than rounding error.
Apps that are tuned for multi-threading, especially graphics, get a 30%+ boost: equivalent of going from 2 GHz to maybe 2.6. If I did video conversion and editing on the road, and if my software were able to use multi-tasking efficiently, I’d be chomping at the bit. Of course, if I were doing much of that, my analyst might wonder why I’d chosen a laptop where you want a 4-, 6- or 8-core desktop for the job.
As any Apple user can tell you, a great laptop is not just about any single feature, it’s about the whole package. We can guess — Blorge doesn’t deign to consider how much tuning of firmware, OS and software matters, nor state how well the bleeding edge guys have done on that — that when Apple has tweaked its power management; apps; parallel processing and graphics libraries; and OS to fully exploit the new functionality, they’ll have something for sale a bit more functional than Blorge’s [1] crude engineering (simply stuffing in “features”).
[1] Isn’t this almost a word-for-word rewrite of a CNet article? Are the two sites affiliated?
February 15th, 2010
i am thinking of making my first switch from a pc to a mac but i don’t see the new intel i5 and i7 options with apple. they should update their processors if they want to compete
February 16th, 2010
I’m also looking to making my first switch from PC –> Apple and ready to buy a MAcBook Pro for my daughter but holding off until the update…hopefully sooner than later!!!!
April 11th, 2010
hi there you are right i am a hard core gamer i will be getting the 13.3″ macbook pro with the intel i7 cpu 8 gb of ram and a 256 gb ssd