Apple family welcomes 17 inch MacBook Pro

The full fledged Apple family is all gearing up to welcome the 17-inch version of its Intel-powered MacBook Pro. The infant weighing 6.8 pounds stands one inch tall with the closed screen. MacBook Pro is claimed to be up to five times as fast as its PowerBook G4 predecessor nurturing on its RAM version that's twice as fast as the PowerBook G4.

As said by Philip Schiller, Apple's senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing, "The 17-inch MacBook Pro delivers the speed and screen area of a professional desktop system in the world's best notebook design. With Intel's state of the art dual-core processor, the new 17-inch MacBook Pro delivers unrivaled performance in an innovative, sleek, one-inch thin design."

The model features a 2.16GHz Intel Duo processor and a 120GB hard drive with a 667 MHz front-side bus that is four times as fast as the old Powerbook and 667 MHz DDR2 SDRAM memory expandable to 2GB. The star feature is its 8x dual-layer DVD "SuperDrive" and the Sudden Motion Sensor technology which stops the drive to protect data if it sensors that the laptop has been dropped. Its MagSafe Power Adapter will safely disconnect from the notebook when the power cord is strained, preventing the notebook from falling off its work surface.

The 17-inch MacBook Pro treats its users with a Scrolling Trackpad, FireWire 800 and FireWire 400 ports, three USB 2.0 ports, optical and digital audio input and output, Gigabit Ethernet, ExpressCard/34 expansion slot, dual-link Digital Visual Interface (DVI) for connecting an external monitor (including Apple's 30-inch Cinema HD Display), built-in Bluetooth 2.0+EDR (Enhanced Data Rate) and integrated AirPort Extreme 54 Mbps wireless networking.

The laptop also has an iSight video camera for video conferencing and the Front Row media player software, which is controlled through the bundled remote control. Nonetheless the 17-inch infant coming in at US $ 2,799 compared to the 15-inch, dual-core 2GHz price of US $ 2,249 can boast of its native resolution of 1680x1050 and exceptional keyboard quality, a vast improvement over the latest PowerBooks. The model provides a 36 per cent brighter display and an ATI Mobility Radeon X1600 PCI Express graphics with 256MB of dedicated GDDR3 graphics memory.

As with Apple's other computers, this model too ships with the latest version of Mac OS X v10.4.6, as well as iLife '06, the suite that runs natively on Intel CPUs and consists of iPhoto, iMovie HD, iDVD, GarageBand and a new app - iWeb - claimed to make it super-easy to create web sites featuring photos, blogs and Podcasts - for publishing to .Mac "with just a single click".

Build-to-order options include a 7200 RPM 100 GB hard drive and up to 2 GB of RAM. Apple expects to begin shipping the one inch thin laptop model within the next week. Designed for business and creative professionals the model for sure is a delight for Apple's clientele.