Steve Jobs says Apple prioritized graphics and battery over performance in the new 13 ″ MBPs

Of the two, one: either Steve Jobs has a lot of free time, or is loving this approach with consumers. Today, just hours after the launch of the new MacBooks Pro, Apple's CEO responded to two very similar consumer emails, as released by 9 to 5 Mac and at MacRumors.

In both cases, users questioned Jobs about why Apple chose to keep Core 2 Duo chips in the new 13-inch MBPs, while 15 ″ and 17 ″ won the latest Intel Core i5 and i7 processors .

Jobs explained to consumers that Apple's priorities were two for the 13 ″ MBP. The first was more advanced graphics: the laptops got a new NVIDIA GeForce 320M chipset, built exclusively and especially for Ma.

Graphics on the new MacBooks Pro

The second was battery life: as we announced earlier, the machines are now promised to run for up to 10 hours on a single charge.

13-inch MacBook Pro battery

For Jobs, these two aspects are more valuable than a 10-20% gain in performance. Even so, as shown in the graph below, the new 13 ″ MBPs can be 30% to 80% faster than their predecessors.

13-inch MacBook Pro performance

And you, what do you think of Apple's decision?