Why doesn't Apple build a 13" MBP without the optical drive?

[IgnatiusTheKing]

What has you burning CD/DVD every day?

I work at a professional live theatre production company, so I burn DVDs of TV commercials and video elements for shows, archives of artwork, music score CDs for cast members and many other things.

The needs of a desktop are different than that of a notebook. Many people prefer to carry around a lighter notebook but they still want battery life and a reasonable amount of connectivity.

For some the needs are different, but for professionals who need the power and portability of something like a MacBook Pro, they may often find themselves in need of an optical drive.

 

[Mactagonist]

I replaced the Superdrive in my MBP with an additional hard drive and it is great. Once there is a similar solution available for the 13" MBP perhaps I will make the move!

 

[nuckinfutz]

Yup

I figured you'd be doing some sort of production where you're sending drafts or dailys to people.

It's not as simple as saying "hey let me email you this 600GB file" lol.

The Cloud is gonna have to get a whole lot bigger.

 

[RedTomato]

I almost never use my optical in my white MB. I've contemplated removing it to save weight, but couldn't be bothered.

I last used it this morning to burn a CD of Windows XP Home to reinstall a work computer (yes, spare me the comments). That was the first time I've used it in months, and to be honest, there were 30 other Windows machines around me that I could have used - I just like using my Macbook to fix Windows problems

I'd love to have a removable drive bay. IBM's ThinkPads had this years ago (I had one of them)

With a flexible bay, you could choose if you wanted optical, extra HD, SSD, ExpressCard, 8-in-one card reader, extra battery, extra Firewire, eSATA, extra monitor port, links to external engineering sensors etc in your laptop.

Clearly not suitable for the Macbooks, but this would be a true pro feature for the MBPs.

There's one company that sells drop in second HD drives for MB and MBP, I can't find them, but they offer up to 1TB in your macbook. Quite expensive though.

I can't see Apple doing this though, as it weakens the unibody. I think IBM had problems with the optional bay parts being expensive and not selling very well.

 

[andiwm2003]

1. Will they also attach an USB card reader for MBA and 17" MBP? Optical drives are popular enough for the lack of one to be circumvented by remote install, but it isn't really the case for SD readers.

2. What happened with Nehalem licensing battle (nVidia can't make chipsets for Core i7 yet, or did I miss something)?

3. I don't see 4G coming so soon. There's still no 3G in MacBooks.

1.)there will be sd cards and dvd's in parallel for a while of course

2.)that's a good one. i hope they resolve that soon otherwise we are stuck with the 9400 for a long time. remember how long the intel integrated gma950 was around.

3.)i don't really believe in 4g in mbp's anytime soon. maybe if 4g is covering all of US and Asia and EU. so in 10 years. seriously this will be a USB thing for the forseeable future.

 

[Scottsdale]

. i hope they resolve that soon otherwise we are stuck with the 9400 for a long time. remember how long the intel integrated gma950 was around.

There will be NO 9400m working with an Intel Nehalem CPU! Nvidia's license doesn't permit it according to Intel. Intel isn't stupid, and it's not going to let Nvidia steal its business. It definitely learned from this loophole!

When Apple switches to Nehalem in the Mac notebooks, we will see an Intel integrated graphics solution, OR Apple will completely have to remove the integrated graphics and just use a dedicated card. The problem with the newest Intel integrated graphics for Nehalem is they operate at around 55 to 60% of the power of the Nvidia 9400m!

So, the problem is all of these MBPs now with ONLY a 9400m. MBP users are not going to be keen on losing 40% of their graphics capabilities! So, Apple will have to put a dedicated card in there???

My hope is that somehow Nvidia will pay Intel to make them happy. Or, that some moderator will show that it's good for competition to make Intel compete with the GPU!

But in all truth, the next Mac notebooks will probably NOT have an Nvidia GPU... so we should all pray that something changes. The Nvidia GPU has been absolutely amazing for Macs! Not just the MB/MBA now... The Mac mini. The 13" and low end 15" MBPs. The iMacs have it! And with mini Display Port, they all have become capable of driving up to a 30" ACD!

It will be a sad sad day for Mac customers when Nvidia loses this battle. It's heating up and Arrandale is just around the corner. No Nvidia with Clarksfield or Arrandale for sure (unless something happens)! It will not be fun going back to Intel integrated graphics!

 

[theBB]

At work I use the DVD drive a few times a year to access an archive of papers on DVD. Otherwise, it never gets used. At home I use my iMac to rip CDs and I occasionally burn a DVD for my parents, but I would not mind an external burner for those situations. We also watch DVDs while traveling or at home when we feel too tired to be watching them in the living room. Still, these are very rare instances, so I could give up on an integrated DVD player easily in return for other advantages or features.

 

[stevenlangley1]

here's one option I found real quick...might look into it.

http://tinyurl.com/ncw6xp

http://tinyurl.com/y6hbev

 

[rotorblade69]

I've said it before and I'll say it again only this time using a cuter slogan. Some people I know friends and professional types wanted the MBP 17" to be "Airish".
If they can't have a BluRay Drive then ditch the optical drive all together. They don't care about the non-user replaceable battery some seemed to like it in their 17" Pro.
One guy bought his wife an Air and likes the way it is angled up in the rear, says its easier to type on and wishes his pro 17" and sons 15" was like that. YEAH wife has air, son has 15 Pro, and he has 17 Pro. Dude do you want to adopt a 33 year old perverted gun slinger.
Think about how much more stuff could be put into it. OR how would a 17" look with a little "Airish" form factor thrown in. Could get to about 5 pounds. Yeah maybe loose a usb port or some ports would have to be moved to the right hand side. Heck I would buy 2 right now. First rule of spending on macs "Why buy one when you can have two at twice the price." Wife has to have one so she will leave mine alone. BUT really how cool would that be. Now think about this What about a second drive bay and it will be a 256GB SSD too. Can you say totally cool cool like Albert Einstein just came over along with Teller and we will debate the question that has haunted man for decades.
















Ginger or Mary Ann.

 

[macbook123]

I replaced the Superdrive in my MBP with an additional hard drive and it is great. Once there is a similar solution available for the 13" MBP perhaps I will make the move!

Wow, can you give details? How hard was that?

 

[dukebound85]

its the air

 

[darngooddesign]

Wow, can you give details? How hard was that?

Google Optibay.

 

[bloodycape]

The answer is simple, but not legal a hackintoshed Levnvo X300 with an HD or SSD where the DVD would sit, the same with the Sony Vaio Z.

I doubt will see the death of the optical drive any time any time soon since, CD drives are still a big feature in cars, millions of dvd are watched everyday, and believe it or not but some people still use cd/dvd based receivers to play all their music.

 

[qubex]

Nobody's denying optical disks are still used.

What isn't necessary is dragging around the necessary devices all the time whether you need it or not.

If I'm certain I won't be needing to read/write a CD/DVD disk, I shouldn't be forced to drag the drive around and endure the weight.

 

[Santabean2000]

I use a Mac Pro in my professional life and burn CDs/DVDs every day. The world is not ready for an optical drive-free pro machine yet, whether its a desktop or a notebook.

Right, because the MP has a lot to do with the price of fish in China...

Apples and oranges my friend.

Your world might not be ready, but the 'Brave New World' is. A 13" MBP with discrete graphics and/or twin HDs would sell like the proverbial hot cakes.

EDIT: The Air is way too limited at present, (2GB RAM..?!, 4200RPM, no Firewire etc etc)

 

[nuckinfutz]

Right, because the MP has a lot to do with the price of fish in China...

Apples and oranges my friend.

Your world might not be ready, but the 'Brave New World' is. A 13" MBP with discrete graphics and/or twin HDs would sell like the proverbial hot cakes.

Shazaaam

I'd toss in a 32GB Intel SLC SSD for my boot. Mate it up with a 500GB Seagate Momentus 7200.4 and 8GB of RAM. Smokin.

 

[Santabean2000]

Shazaaam

I'd toss in a 32GB Intel SLC SSD for my boot. Mate it up with a 500GB Seagate Momentus 7200.4 and 8GB of RAM. Smokin.

Listen up Mr Jobs!!

 

[federikk]

reading this post takes me to remember the unforgotted X40.
that was the best, the x300 is not on pair, even of mba.
really sorry of have it switched for air.

cheers

 

[IgnatiusTheKing]

Right, because the MP has a lot to do with the price of fish in China...

Apples and oranges my friend.

Negative. A lot of professionals use the 17" MacBook Pro in the same way they would use a MP, only they can use it portably (on a movie set, for instance).

Bottom line: if there was no demand for an optical drive in pro machines, they wouldn't be there.

 

[macbook123]

I'm concluding from the answers in this thread that Apple needs some staff changes in who gets to make product design decisions. The Air is a great idea, in itself the beginning of a new era, but the execution is terrible.

Just to mention a few more (since the low RAM, SSD sizes were already brought up): missing SD slot, wide bezel, low resolution screen like all the Macbook/Pro's except for the 17" one (with poor quality i.e. horizontal lines in many cases of the MBA).

I just bought the latest MBA, the screen lines were clearly visible, the overall image quality was poor as well. I'm sending it back. I decided to buy a Dell Mini 10 for a while (10 inch screen with higher resolution than the Air!). Not OS X, but Linux. $500, so not much to loose.

 

[zsnow]

i might need use the dvd drive often. as i just got a ssd drive. which i think will release a firmware every month. have to boot from dvd and flash it

 

[RedTomato]

wide bezel,

OT, but I went from a Powerbook which had one of the thinnnest bezels I've ever seen, to a MB with a pretty wide bezel.

At first I hesitated to get the MB, thinking the wide bezel would put me off, but now I actually love it.

The wide bezel on the MB forms a useful breathing space between the clutter and distraction of whatever is behind my MB (the wall, other people, cars in the street), and helps me to focus on the MB screen.

Consider yourself told.

 

[thejadedmonkey]

There will be NO 9400m working with an Intel Nehalem CPU! Nvidia's license doesn't permit it according to Intel. Intel isn't stupid, and it's not going to let Nvidia steal its business. It definitely learned from this loophole!

When Apple switches to Nehalem in the Mac notebooks, we will see an Intel integrated graphics solution, OR Apple will completely have to remove the integrated graphics and just use a dedicated card. The problem with the newest Intel integrated graphics for Nehalem is they operate at around 55 to 60% of the power of the Nvidia 9400m!

So, the problem is all of these MBPs now with ONLY a 9400m. MBP users are not going to be keen on losing 40% of their graphics capabilities! So, Apple will have to put a dedicated card in there???

My hope is that somehow Nvidia will pay Intel to make them happy. Or, that some moderator will show that it's good for competition to make Intel compete with the GPU!

But in all truth, the next Mac notebooks will probably NOT have an Nvidia GPU... so we should all pray that something changes. The Nvidia GPU has been absolutely amazing for Macs! Not just the MB/MBA now... The Mac mini. The 13" and low end 15" MBPs. The iMacs have it! And with mini Display Port, they all have become capable of driving up to a 30" ACD!

It will be a sad sad day for Mac customers when Nvidia loses this battle. It's heating up and Arrandale is just around the corner. No Nvidia with Clarksfield or Arrandale for sure (unless something happens)! It will not be fun going back to Intel integrated graphics!

Or maybe all of the macbook pro's will get a descrete graphics card, and Apple saw it comming, which is why they renamed them

 

[Scott6666]

So does the external optical drive for the Air work with the other mac laptops so if you take yours out you can quickly use that when you need to?

 

[RedTomato]

So does the external optical drive for the Air work with the other mac laptops so if you take yours out you can quickly use that when you need to?

Nope. Works with nothing else. Apple playing shenigans with the USB standard on the MBA.

Shame as it's one of the nicest external opticals on the market. Apple would really be onto something if they made it work with all USB standard laptops.