13-inch and 15-inch MacBook Pros plus iMac emerge – with Ivy Bridge, USB 3.0, and Retina Display

0

MacBook Pro Retina Display
Ivy Bridge iMacs and MacBooks have long been hinted with most rumors pointing to a summer 2012 announcement of both lines. One of each strayed online and gave away their model names and some specifications. iMac 13,2 is thought to be a 27-inch iMac whereas MacBookPro9,1 is an upcoming model for the MacBook Pro lineup. It appears they’re powered by different versions of the quad-core Ivy Bridge CPUs. The two models appeared at Geekbench with their corresponding benchmarks.

The upcoming iMac 13,2 is powered by a 3.4GHz Intel Core i7-3770. It has 4GB 1600MHz DDR3 for memory and Mac OS X 10.8 as its operating system. It garnered a total score of 12,183 – roughly a thousand points higher than the current line of high-end iMacs. This only means that iMac 13,2 is going to be in the same high-end league, only faster. Rumors speculate this is the 27-inch iMac everyone’s been talking about. MacBookPro9,1 is supposedly a 13-inch MacBook Pro. The laptop is powered by a 2.7GHz Intel Core i7-3820QM, has 8GB worth of 1600MHz DDR3 RAM, and runs Mac OS X 10.8. According to Intel, the integrated graphics of 3820QM is 50 percent better than the Sandy Bridge processors used in the current line of MacBook Pros. It scored higher on Geekbench at 12,252 because it has a larger RAM.

The quad-core CPU of MacBookPro9,1 is in question though. It seems more fitting to include a dual-core Ivy Bridge on a 13-inch laptop. In retrospect, Apple has a history of differentiating 13- inch MacBook Pros by limiting them to dual-core. Quad-core processors were instead included in 15-inch and 17-inch models. If they push through with quad-core Ivy Bridge processors for MacBookPro9,1, that leaves MacBook Air on dual-core variants.

So which one is getting Retina Display? Apparently, neither of them are. A recent rumor suggests the 15-inch MacBook Pro is getting it, not the 13” model or iMac. In addition to Retina Display, the new 15” MacBook Pro is losing the optical drive for a slimmer design. It will adopt the keyboard of its younger brother, MacBook Air, and moving up to USB 3.0 from 2.0.

Share.

About Author

Editor in Chief with passion for gadgets and web technology. He is writing gadget news, covering mobile gear, apps and concept devices.

Leave A Reply