Overall, the new entry-level 13-inch MacBook Pro, with a Speedmark 6.5 score of 141 was 35 percent faster than the 106 score by the 2.4GHz Core 2 Duo model it replaces. The new system was faster at just about everything, except for our Call of Duty tests, which was only able to display 26 frames per second versus the 33 frames displayed by the older model with Nvidia graphics. The lower game performance will probably be seen by many as a reasonable price to pay for the increased performance found in other applications. The biggest leap was in our iTunes AAC-to-MP3 encoding test, which was 57 percent faster on the new system. Our Handbrake test finished 47 percent faster on the newer system than on the one it replaces.

The 13-inch 2.7GHz Core i7 MacBook Pro’s improvement was less dramatic, scoring only a 13-percent gain over the model it replaces, a 2.66GHz Core 2 Duo system. The new system was 36 percent faster in our iTunes test and 28 percent faster in our Handbrake test. Again, Call of Duty was 26 percent (7 frames per second) faster on the older Nvidia-powered 13-inch model.

We found the entry-level 13-inch MacBook Pro to be 31 percent faster overall than the 13-inch 1.83GHz Core 2 Duo MacBook Air. The Pro was much faster in processor intensive tasks, but the MacBook Air was much faster at duplicating and unzipping files, thanks to the flash storage. The Air’s Nvidia graphics were also faster than the Intel HD Graphics 3000.

The 15-inch 2.0GHz quad core Core i7 MacBook Pro was 33 percent faster overall than the 15-inch 2.4GHz dual core Core i5 system introduced last April. The new MacBook Pro’s Handbrake time was 51 percent faster than the older system, while its iTunes encoding times were 24 percent faster. Duplicating and Unzipping files didn’t see much improvement between the systems, and Call of Duty framerate was slower than the older system.