Danny Gorog19 March 2008, 4:06 PM
As anticipated, Apple this morning revved its range of MacBook and MacBook Pro notebooks. But there's one thing missing...
As anticipated (and remember, it's "new release day" Tuesday in the US), Apple this morning revved its range of MacBook and MacBook Pro notebooks.
All Apple laptops except the MacBook Air now ship standard with the latest Intel Penryn CPUs (offering lower power consumption), bigger hard drives, more memory and better built-to-order options.
They also feature a full range of ports, unlike the Air, including 802.11n, Bluetooth, 2x USB and 1 x Firewire 400, while the Pro has 1 x Firewire 800 and ExpressCard 34 and full-size DVI as well. Disappointingly Apple still hasn't seen fit to add ExpressCard to the basic MacBook, which means MacBook owners' only option for mobile broadband is the annoying USB soap-on-a-rope modems, or a Bluetooth connection to their mobile phone (which is a distinctly third-grade option.)
The new MacBook Pro features a multi-touch trackpadKicking off the upgrade is the MacBook which now starts at $AU1499 and features a 2.1GHz Core 2 Duo processor, Combo drive, 1GB memory and a 120GB hard drive as standard. The mid-range MacBook now come with 2.4Ghz C2D processors, Superdrive (DVDRW/CDRW) 2GB memory and 160GB drives, while the Black MacBook includes a bigger 250GB hard drive and is the most expensive in the range at $2099.
The MacBook Pro range received a slightly more substantial upgrade and all now include the same multi-touch trackpad as the MacBook Air and a LED option for the 17" screen. The 15" MacBook Pro starts at $2699 and comes with 2.4Ghz C2D, 2GB memory, 200GB hard drive and a Nvidia GeForce 8600M GT graphics card with 256MB memory. Chipping in an extra $700 ($3399) will get you a faster 2.5GHz C2D processor, a bigger 250GB hard drive and the same Nvidia graphics card but with 512MB memory on board. Upgrading from a 15" to 17" screen will cost you an extra $400 again.
Build-to-order options for the MacBook Pro range now includes faster 2.6Ghz processor across the board (a $350 upgrade from the 2.5GHz model only -- not available as an upgrade on the 2.4GHz model) and the 17" gets an LED backlit option which is available if you select the 'Hi-Resolution' choice ($150 more) and a 4200RPM 300GB hard drive ($110 more). It's a bit of a mystery why Apple is providing a 300GB 4200RPM hard drives as the top choice, when 320GB 5400RPM drives are plentifully available.
All the new machines are available from today, and according to the shipping status online will ship within 2-4 days.
While the upgrade is nice to have, and certainly brings the MacBook and MacBook Pro back in line with improved standards across the rest of the industry, it's disappointing to see that Apple still hasn't refreshed the physical design of the now aging MacBook Pro.