Apple MacBook Pro unibody 15-inch (Late 2011) Pro Reviews

While I had a hard time recommending the base 15-inch MacBook Pro to users earlier this year, with the GPU upgrade I'm pretty happy with the $1799 configuration. It is pricey for sure, but if you can only have one Mac in your life and you like performance, it is probably the one to get. The MacBook Air is nice but for demanding workloads it's not enough. The iMac is fast, but I'm not a fan of lugging around a 27-inch display with me wherever I go. The 15-inch MacBook Pro is honestly the best of both worlds. Obviously there are cheaper PC alternatives if you just need affordable compute, I'm speaking only to those users who have their sights set on something running OS X. The only changes I'd make to the system are an upgrade in display resolution and the addition of an SSD. Both are options that Apple offers, and with the latter you can always handle that upgrade on your own.

The MacBook Pro refresh brings a better performance for the same price. However an upgrade hardly pays off for owners of a model from early 2011 as the differences are too small. To summarize, the 15 inch MacBook Pro is still an excellent laptop, which features high performance in a slim case. The unibody aluminium casing and the input continue to be a good reason to buy. Availability of accessories for the Thunderbolt interface is starting to pick up as well. The biggest disadvantage is the steep price which Apple charges for only one year warranty. Especially the high surcharge of 400 Euro for the reviewed 2.4 GHz model will only pay off for few users, as the base model with as the 2.2 GHz quad core and Radeon HD 6750M is not considerably slower.

So, with a refresh of the MacBook Pro coming so soon after the last update, is this model worth a trade-in? If you're rocking an early-2011 15-inch MacBook Pro, probably not. Sure, it's a slight bump in processor power, and a bigger jump in graphics, but mostly, it's just a better deal. If you needed the kind of power that is now packed into this entry-level model, you could have gotten it earlier this year with the more souped-up, higher-end 15-inch model. That said, now that this $1,799 MacBook Pro packs in most of the powerful components that before were reserved for the $2,199 model, this model is now a relative bargain—a term we don't often use with Apple. For those of you who were waiting for a price drop on this size of MacBook Pro before dropping your cash, pat yourself on the back: You just saved yourself $400.

The new MacBook Pro lineup won’t cause any buyer’s remorse for those who purchased a member of the early 2011 family, or perhaps even for buyers of a 2010 MacBook Pro. If you have a laptop that's older, however, the late 2011 MacBook Pros feature faster processors, larger capacity hard drives in the 13-inch models, and improved graphics in the 15- and 17-inch models that combine to make already attractive systems an even greater value.

The Apple MacBook Pro 15-inch gets new hardware and software, including a quad-core Intel Core i7 processor, AMD Radeon GPU, and OS X Lion, while keeping everything that works well, like the thin and stylish unibody design.

A MacBook Pro is a significant investment, especially when adding in optional upgrades. Cost aside, there's not a better choice (there are, however, some close ties) for an all-around powerhouse that will work in the home, office, and in between.