The new 17-inch Apple MacBook Pro introduces some unique features to the Macbook Pro family, separating this beast from the recently updated 15-inch MacBook Pro. Foremost, the new 17-incher gets the best battery life of the family, with up to 8 hours of performance if you dial down some of the more resource intensive tasks and use the lower-powered graphics option.
To fit bigger cells into the body, which Apple claims is the thinnest 17-inch laptop around, Apple decided to use a "built-in" battery, which means you can't remove it or carry around a spare. There will be a replacement program, but this is sure to irk some Apple watchers.
In addition to the extended battery life, the MacBook Pro 17-inch also pulls away from the MacBook pack with improved specs all around. The processor maxes out at 2.93 GHz, faster than its smaller brothers. For memory, the 17-inch Macbook Pro can handle up to 8GB of RAM. In addition to the standard 320GB hard disk drive, Apple offers a 256GB SSD option at a $900 premium (or save $400 and get the 128GB SSD).
As a remedy for a common complaint about the 15-inch model, Apple now offers an antiglare widescreen display. This display, which Apple says is their best ever on a laptop, can drive up to 1920 by 1200 pixels, and uses LED backlighting. For graphics, the 17-inch model uses the same setup as the 15-inch MacBook Pro. An Nvidia GeForce 9400M card is integrated with the motherboard for low-power performance, while a GeForce 9600M GT with 512MB of memory provides, and draws, more power.
While these are some impressive specs, and the thin and light body makes this a truly compelling laptop, there are still a few features we wish Apple would stop ignoring. First of all, while DisplayPort is certainly a recognized standard, it's by no means popular, and until it's more widely adopted we wish Apple would retain the DVI port or at least bundle an adapter, as these are strangely expensive. Second, as long as Apple has their eggs in the GSM basket with AT&T, why not add a 3G modem to the mix? We've been hoping for iPhone tethering to finally make an appearance, but built-in 3G would be interesting as well.
The new MacBook Pro 17-inch will be available towards the end of this month, but you can already pre-order and configure one on Apple's online store.
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