Apple has announced an upgrade to its high-end MacBook Pro line of notebook computers. The unique thing about this model is that it uses a custom-made (read:expensive) non-removable 95WHr battery to achieve an estimated 8 hours between charges in a small package.
Other specs:
- 17-inch widescreen LED-backlit 1920 x 1200, glossy display, 140 degrees (H)/120 degrees (V) viewing angle, 700:1 contrast ratio, 60% greater color gamut
- Matte display option ($50 extra)
- 2.66 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo with 6MB shared L2 cache
- 1066 MHz front-side bus
- 4GB 1066 MHz DDR3 SDRAM (up to 8GB supported)
- NVIDIA GeForce 9400M integrated graphics
- NVIDIA GeForce 9600M GT discrete graphics with 512MB GDDR3 video memory
- 320GB Serial ATA hard drive running at 5400 rpm, with Sudden Motion Sensor
- a slot-load 8X SuperDrive with double-layer support (DVD±R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW) optical drive
- Mini DisplayPort for video output (adapters sold separately)
- built-in AirPort Extreme® 802.11n wireless networking and Bluetooth 2.1+EDR
- Gigabit Ethernet port
- built-in iSight video camera
- three USB 2.0 ports
- one FireWire® 800 port (FireWire 400 compatible)
- ExpressCard/34 expansion card slot
- one audio line in and one audio line out port, each supporting both optical digital and analog
- glass Multi-Touch trackpad and illuminated keyboard
- built-in, 95WHr lithium polymer battery
- 85 Watt MagSafe® Power Adapter
- iLife ‘09 software (iWork ‘09 is $50 extra)
- Depleted batteries replaced for $179 (includes installation and disposal)
Price/availability: $2799 available at the end of January.
This machine will run Mac OSX, Windows, and Linux, so if price is no object it would be a good choice for developers, especially with the addition of virtualization software. However you may want to put in a faster disk drive (7200 RPM) and more memory than the standard model. A 256GB solid state disk drive is an option too.
