MacBook Pro (Early 2011)

Sandy Bridge and Thunderbolt arrived together in February 2011, and this generation got both. The Core i5 and i7 processors were a substantial step past the Arrandale chips before them, with better integrated graphics, more performance per core and better efficiency, and reviewers called it one of the largest single-generation speed jumps the MacBook Pro had managed. Thunderbolt came across the whole range in the same cycle as the iMac, putting these among the first Macs to carry it. Almost no peripherals existed yet, which was the tax on being early. All three sizes were updated, and the 15 and 17-inch configurations paired Sandy Bridge with discrete AMD Radeon graphics for anyone doing serious creative work. There is a quieter distinction here. Apple killed the 17-inch MacBook Pro about a year later and has never made another, so this is the last full generation that included one, and video and photo people who wanted the screen area have been complaining ever since. The Retina redesign arrived in mid-2012 and changed everything, which makes this the best of the classic unibody machines and the end of them.