MacBook Pro 17 inch announced with up to 8GB of RAM memory, anti-glare display & longer battery life.

MacBook Pro with 17 inch display, Apple claims longer battery life

The 17" Mac Book Pro has long had fans in the graphic design and photography industry. Its large screen and comparative lightness being important factors.

After releasing various smaller notebook Mac models in October, Apple have now released the latest version of its top end portable computer.

Key features of interest to graphics professionals, designers and photographers include a base install of 4GB of RAM (with an upper limit of 8GB).

The default processor is a 2.66GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, but this can be upgraded to 2.93GHz. The basic hard disk is a 320GB Serial ATA drive running at 5400 rpm, upgradable to 7200 rpm. Two solid state drive (SSD) options are also offered.

One option, currently unique to the 17inch MacBook model, is the option to specify an anti-glare screen. The smaller display MacBook models are, as we write, currently only available in the default glossy version.

A key feature is Apple's claim that the new MacBook Pro 17" battery will have a longer charge life than previous Mac notebook batteries. Although, like iPods and the iPhone, the battery is fixed in the case. In addition, Apple claim that a technology called Adaptive Charging allows the battery to be recharged up to 1000 times.

Computer graphics capabilities are always important to design professionals and the Mac Book Pro comes with an integrated NVIDIA GeForce 9400M processor as well as a discrete NVIDIA GeForce 9600M GT processor, which can be selected for more high-end graphics requirements.

7 January 2009

Apple's MacBook Pro.