Not only was the new entry-level MacBook Pro faster than the model it replaces, but it was also faster than the previous "better" and "best" configurations in the 15-inch lineup, which used 2.66GHz and 2.8GHz Core 2 Duo processors, respectively. Comparing the new 2.4GHz Core i5 MacBook Pro with the previous top-of-the-line 2.8GHz Core 2 Duo MacBook Pro, the new entry-level 15-inch was 5 percent faster in our Speedmark 6 testing, with 7-percent faster scores in our Photoshop test, a 17-percent faster Cinebench CPU score, a 16-percent faster MathematicaMark 7 score, and a 19-percent faster Aperture score. iPhoto and Compressor scores between the new entry-level and the previous high-end 15-inch MacBook Pro were very similar. The only test that the i5 MacBook Pro didn't prevail in was our WorldBench 6's multitask test (a Windows test run in Parallels Desktop), which the 2.8GHz MacBook Pro won handily.

When comparing the i5 MacBook Pro to a , things didn't go as well for the MacBook Pro. The results underscored the iMac's advantage of having four processing cores all running faster than the MacBook Pro's i5 chip and a faster spinning 7200-rpm 1TB hard drive. (The iMac uses the desktop version of the Core i5 that has four cores but no support for Hyper-Threading. The MacBook Pros use the mobile version of the Core i5 and i7.) We found the i5 iMac to be 44 percent faster than the new 15-inch MacBook Pro, finishing the Cinebench CPU render 41 percent faster than the laptop did. Even the Call of Duty 4 frame rate tests were about 28 percent faster on the iMac.

Will the faster or 2.66GHz Core i7 MacBook Pros give the iMac a run for its money? Check back soon for more results--we now have the entire new MacBook Pro lineup in our Lab undergoing testing.

[]