Apple MacBook Pro supersizes to 17-inches, fries not included

Well, it won't compete with ultra-portables, but as expected, Apple announced the 17-inch MacBook Pro today, with shipments expected to start next week. Weighing in near 7 pounds, the 2.16 GHz Intel Core Duo powerhouse will set you back $2,799 from the online Apple store. Included in the configuration is 1 GB of 667 MHz RAM, 120 GB of storage from a 5200 RPM drive, an 8x dual-layer Super Drive and an ATI Radeon X1600 with 256 MB of graphics memory. No word from Apple on the speed of the ATI card, but you may want to review this post regarding alleged underclocking of the graphics by Apple.

The crowning jewel of the notebook is clearly the 17-inch widescreen display capable of 1680 x 1050 res. The slightly faster CPU over the 15-inch models doesn't hurt, but at almost $3,000 this is hard sell for me. I'd gladly take a much smaller Apple notebook with a digitizer or touchscreen if they could include Tablet functionality, but that's just me. And yes, I'm now ducking from all of the rotten apples that the Jobs-groupies are flinging. Hey, I never said it was a bad product! ;)