The new macbook pro 17" (2009)

[frank]

Although I told myself to skip this generation because my 15" MBP was doing just fine I could not resist the 17" MBP with it's 1920x1200 resolution and claimed 8 hours battery life.

So as you are accustomed of this blog here is a small review of my PERSONAL opinions on this notebook.
For the raw technical date see the apple website.

Looks
Let me start by saying that I've always liked the way Apple products look, and I absolutly loved the 15" MBP.
The new 17" is even more attractive with it's very nice curved form and for a 17" very thin body.
However I don't know which designer opted for the black keyboard, I strongly believe that with the metal look of the previous generation the MBP could look even better.
But than again it's only a keyboard of course, it all boils down how the machine works......

speed
In case people don't know it yet but the new 17" MBP uses two videocards, one card that's dedicated and fast and one onboard card that's slower.
Because a lot of programms we use on a daily basis as photographers and videographers are using the GPU now it makes alot of sense to have two videocards.
Using the fast videocard will cost you some battery life but when you're on the powergrid be sure to use the faster card.
Switching is relativly easy by using the powersaving settings.
I would have liked to see some sort of switch instead of the fast log out/log in procedure but I can live with that.
However better would be to have a fixed setting, for example when on the battery use the slower card, when on the grid use the faster card, that will make sure that you don't forget which card is used.

The 17"MBP is deliverd with 4GB of RAM which for the time being will be enough for what I do with the laptop, when prices come down an upgrade to 8GB is easy and fast.

The old 15" MBP was already fast, and the 17" will be faster but I think the most speed gain is in the GPU use but time will tell when I start using the MBP in real life.

the screen
When I heard the new MBP's were only to be delivered with a glossy screen I was a bit afraid I would not like that. I love to use the notebook on location and using a glossy screen is to say the least not my preference. However Apple probarbly got to their senses and with the 17"MBP you can now choose for a matte screen, however it will cost you app 50.00 euros more.
To be honest on such an expensive piece of kit it should be free. Same goes for the miniport adaptor, I've no problem with buying one connector but in my case I needed two, I think as long as the miniport is no standard at least one adaptor should be delivered free of charge. But than again when you spend the ammount of cash on a laptop like this 100 euros more for the screen and two adaptors seems not a lot of money..... but still.....

At first glance the screen is gorgous but not very coloraccurate. The lightoutput however is frightening and blinding that will be fun on location.
After calibration the screen is absolutly gorgous and the colors are deep and accurate enough for onlocation editing.
The grayscale tracking is not 100% correct especially in the higher IRE's the blues and reds drift, to the left of the curve.
This is actually less worse than green being that side of the curve which you see on some notebooks.

Ofcourse I would have prefered a 100% flat grayscale but to be honest I still have to find a notebook with a 100% accurate screen, and it sure isn't an apple.

Tomorrow I will do a colortracking for the primaries and secondaries of the screen, the problem I however have with this is that the software I use for my ISF calibrations is running windows only (on the same laptop) so I will have to do the measurement under windows, on the other hand this will probarbly not be a problem because the same videocard is used.

One of the other reasons I wanted to make the switch was the screen resolution, although 1440x900 is a wonderful resolution for a notebook the 17" with it's 1920x1200 resolution is absolutly breathtaking, just start up final cut pro or Aperture and you will see what I mean, that's the room/workspace I'm used to on my desktop.

Connections
A lot of talk has been about the left out Firewire 400 ports, and to be honest that also bugged me.
I'm still using the Leaf Aptus 22 and that runs from a firewire 400 port, however there are cables from firewire 400 to 800 so I never saw this as a real problem, the addition of an extra USB port however was something I was more than happy with. When I'm doing the calibrations I'm using one USB port for my dongle and one for the analyzer meaning if the customer wants his readouts on an usbstick I must reboot my software because I have to disconnect one port. With the new macbook pro I can continue to work.

size matters
Recently a student of mine brought his PC laptop with him during a workshop, it was a 17" notebook but the thing looked huge and weighted a ton.
I would not want to drag that with me arround on a plane or on a location shoot.
Not to say that all PC 17" notebooks are huge but just to point out there is a difference. (My wife owns a PC store so I see alot of notebooks ).
For me the new MBP 17" has the perfect dimensions, not too thick, not too heavy and not to wide or deep. In other words it fits in my 15" backpack from lowepro and in my case I use on location which has a build in sunhood I have space left on the sides to place the connectors.

Also a word on that.....
Apple did a VERY good thing by moving the connectors to one side of the notebook.
This way you can place the notebook in a case and slide it to the right and place the connectors and start using it.
In the old layout it was a bit of a problem because the firewire ports were on the other side than the power connector meaning using both was a bit of problem in a case.

Conclusion
Well conclusion, after one day..... more will follow.
But my first conclusion is VERY positive, I absolutly love the new MBP17" and think it's highly recommended for us photographers and videographers.

One added note.
In the studio I allready did not use a desktop computer anymore because I love the fact that when I go on location I'm working with the same software as in the studio and the same settings/software.
My photoshop work and videoediting are done on a Macpro 8 core but I think for photographers doing mild photoshop work and some video editing the new notebook generation is of a quality that would make it possible to take out the desktop computer and hook the notebook to a good monitor for work in the studio and unhook it when going on location.

[frank]

As promised some more.
I did the measurements a few moments ago and although the gretag software claims to have a big drift in blue and red there is a perfectly acceptable grayscale tracking when I measure it with the professional software I use for the ISF calibrations and to be honest that software I trust.

Gamma is a nice 2.2 and grayscale tracking is most of the time below dE5 which is acceptable especially for a notbook screen.
See the enclosed images.

Apple claims a 60% larger colorspace and although I never measured the old MBP I can confirm that the colorspace is large.
It's in the greens and reds larger than the HDTV colorspace which is used for alot of video editing guys.
On most TV sets this space is also larger so it will fit very nicely, as a display I always want the triangle to be perfect (the black triangle in the image is were it should measure for HDTV.
However for a PC/MAC I want the widest colorspace possible.
I don't have the coordinates for sRGB and ARGB handy but here are the coordinates for the Macbookpro 17" 2009 edition AFTER calibration:


0.645591914653778, 0.340436309576035,   255 ,          Red
0.308482587337493, 0.652352273464203,   65280,       Green
0.144604802131653, 0.0856717526912687, 16711680, Blue
0.213253304362297, 0.323723614215851,   16776960, Cyan
0.446468114852904, 0.526674926280976,   65535,       Yellow
0.307799696922302, 0.167958304286003,   16711935, Magenta

Conclusion 2
although over saturated for pure video the grayscale tracking is very good, and the gamma is also very good.
Almost all PC/MAC monitors don't have a colorspace fitting HDTV or NTSC so don't judge on that alone.
I've tested some videofiles I edited on a LACIE 24" aRGB monitor and know very well from my projector (which has a CMS system that after calibration is very accurate along the HDTV space) and the videofiles look very natural and almost identical as on the Lacie, but slighty oversaturated to the right side of the triangle (remember the same thing happens on my lacie monitor)
So I think that the MPB17" with the mat screen is very nice workhorse also for video/photo editing.
But never expect it to be as good as a dedicated monitor ofcourse.

The images:
First one is the grayscale tracking + colortemp
Second one is the gamma + red,green,blue grayscale tracking

Third one is the colorspace from the MBP17" compared to NTSC
Fourth one is the colorspace from the MPB17" compared to HDTV

If there are any questions feel free to ask.

[frank]

As promised the update with the Lacie 324 measurements.

0.657196521759033,   0.330192804336548,    255,                Red
0.232593804597854,   0.709726512432099,    65280,            Green
0.143615603446961,   0.127133592963219,    16711680,      Blue
0.173294395208359,   0.323352992534638,    16776960,      Cyan
0.466606497764586,   0.501167118549348,    65535,            Yellow
0.349075704813003,   0.208442807197571,    16711935,      Magenta

And the measured triangle.
As you can see the MBP is no aRGB monitor.
I don't have a sRGB monitor handy to measure that one, but will try in the next week.

[frank]

Today I tested the time I can shoot with the Leaf Aptus22 connected to the MBP on battery power alone.
One hour was without a problem, after app 70 minutes sometimes a corrupted image came in, after app 80 minutes it was three good one corrupted, three good, one corrupted etc.

So at this moment the real shooting time is app 70 minutes on battery power with the Leaf Aptus 22.

Not so bad but not good, especially because my battery still was for 55% full, would love to be able to shoot till it's really empty, possibly the power on the firewire connector drops after that time.

Best solution for location work without power would be to shoot on the card and empty the card in between sessions.
With a firewire 800 card reader that is a relative quick process to I think for most people it's a good option (or shoot with a Canon tethered with it's own power).

After the workshops in Hertfordshire I hope to bring the Applejuisz with me that claims to run the laptop 5-6 hours before it goes over to it's own accu pack.
That would mean that I can shoot 6 hours in a worst case scenario which sounds very tempting.

Will update the review and make a new review when I bring the applejuicz with me.