As expected Apple's marketing executive Philip Schiller took the stage today in San Francisco to introduce, among other things, a revamped 17-inch MacBook Pro sporting the new unibody structure and aesthetic that the 15-inch MacBook Pro and 13-inch MacBook gained a few months ago. It also received a slightly faster Core 2 Duo processor running at 2.66GHz and dual Nvidia GPUs.
The biggest change is the battery, which Apples says will run up to 7 hours while using discrete graphics and a whopping 8 hours while using integrated graphics. On the downside, though, to fit the larger battery in the system Apple has made it non-removable. This may turn off some potential buyers who would need to send their laptop back to Apple for a $179 replacement - although Apple estimates the battery will last five years under normal use.
The new 17-inch MacBook Pro will continue to sell starting at $2,799 and should begin shipping by the end of this month.