MacBook Pro 17-inch HD starting to arrive

Lost in the excitement of the new MacBook Pro announcement on 5 June was a unique new feature never available in an Apple notebook before. No, I'm not talking about the new LED-backlit displays, I'm talking about the new 1920 x 1200 displays that are available as an option in the new Santa Rosa-based 17-inch MacBook Pros.

John Manzione just received his brand-spankin'-new MacBook Pro HD (the Configure-To-Order model with the 1920 x 1200 display) from Apple and posted 15 photos and screen shots. The new CTO MBP 17's are shipping and people are beginning to receive them.

It's worth noting that 1920 x 1200 (WUXGA) is an almost ideal resolution for viewing North American High Definition Television (HDTV) content. HDTV uses a 1920 x 1080 image at a 16:9 ratio. The MBP17HD's 16:10 aspect ratio allows viewing of 16:9 video on a computer with 120 vertical pixels left over for player controls.

Too bad the rumor that the new 17-incher was packing a Blu-Ray drive hidden in SuperDrive clothing turned out to be a bug in Roxio Toast. Either way you look at it Apple is clearly preparing to launch HD (likely Blu-Ray) optical drives in the near future.