Original Link: https://www.anandtech.com/show/3244
Some of the rumors came true and I'm not sure how impressed I am with them, at least on paper.
The MacBook Pro uses Intel's Core Duo processor clocked at either 1.66GHz or 1.83GHz, in model number terms that would be the T2300 or the T2400. Apple (thankfully) doesn't use Intel's model numbers and just sticks with the raw clock speeds, but since they don't use the model numbers I can't tell whether or not the 1.66GHz part is an Low Voltage version of the chip or not. I would guess not, but anything is possible.
I am surprised that Apple didn't opt to use any of the higher clocked versions, either the 2.0GHz or 2.16GHz offerings; it may just be that these were fast enough for Apple's needs as they are claiming that the new notebooks are 4x faster than the old PowerBook G4. Next quarter Intel will introduce the 2.33GHz Core Duo which should give Apple even more options. I'm guessing that the 17" version will bring the 2.0GHz+ offerings, while the replacement to the 12" PowerBook will feature the low voltage chips.
I am not surprised that they aren't shipping today, simply because Intel has clearly not been able to deliver enough chips for all of the PC makers either. Dell, Lenovo, Gateway, etc... all are talking about first shipments of their Core Duo notebooks occurring in February, so Apple's timing makes sense as well.
The notebook has PCI Express and features an ATI Mobility X1600 GPU, both of which should be nice in Tiger.
The new iMacs are also interesting, this time using the 1.83GHz and 2.0GHz Core Duo processors. I am surprised that they are shipping immediately, which leads me to believe that the shortage with notebook components may be a chipset rather than a processor thing.
Apple has refrained from calling anything a Centrino or Centrino Duo, which makes sense since arguably the Apple brand has a bit stronger name recognition than the Centrino brand (it has at least been around longer). The other obvious reason behind the lack of Centrino branding is to distance Apple's MacBook Pro line from every other Core Duo based notebook that's already been announced. Apple has lost one element that made them different by moving to Intel, which isn't necessarily a bad thing, it just means that they will have to rely on their styling even more than before.
I am extremely curious to see how every day tasks feel with a Core Duo running OS X 10.4.4, based on some of Apple's overwhelmingly vague benchmarks you can expect some pretty decent speedups in normal application usage. It would be nice to have some scripted application test suites under OS X to actually compare things between the G4/G5 and Core Duo platforms, but it's more likely that I'll have to dust off the old stopwatch for this one.
I will post impressions as soon as I can get my hands on one or both of the new products.