Macworld Coverage: 17” MacBook Pro

Apple used Macworld to announce the arrival of the 17” MacBook Pro, although the product itself isn’t a surprise. Sporting the same unibody construction as the 15” MacBook Pro, the new 17” model weighs in at 6.6 pounds and is, as Apple points out, currently the thinnest 17” notebook available.

Courtesy of Apple

The 17” MacBook Pro incorporates a new battery technology that allowed Apple to custom design a lithium-polymer battery that lasts up to eight hours on a single charge, and can be recharged more than 1,000 times. The downside is that the battery is built into the MacBook Pro, so it’s not a user-replaceable part. If Apple’s 1000-charge lifetime specification is accurate, the average user should enjoy nearly five years of battery life before it will need to be replaced.

To be perfectly frank, I’m somewhat skeptical about the battery technology currently used in notebooks, and would have preferred a user-replaceable battery. I hope that Apple realizes how controversial a non-user-replaceable battery is, and made provisions within the warranty for extended coverage of the battery. At the time of this writing, Apple had not yet released warranty information on the new 17” MacBook Pro.

17” MacBook Pro specifications:

• 2.66 GHz or 2.93 GHz Intel Core Duo
• 4 GB or 8 GB of RAM
• 320 GB Drive, either 5400 RPM or 7200 RPM; user’s choice, same cost for either option
• Optional 128 GB or 256 GB Solid State Drive
• 17” (1920x1200) display, available in glossy or matte finish ($50 extra for matte)
• NVIDIA GeForce 9400M + 9600M GT graphics
• Gigabit Ethernet
• 802.11n Wireless
• FireWire 800
• 3 USB 2.0 ports
• Mini DisplayPort
• Audio in/out
• ExpressCard/34
• Base price: $2,799.00