The New 17inch MacBook Pro to Be Launched in June

According to the Register, the new 2.16GHz 17inch MacBook Pro from Apple will be launched in June - exactly one year after the company had announced the switch to Intel processors. However, there's still no sign regarding the creation of a MacBook Pro version of the 12inch PowerBook G4.

AppleInsider sources claim that the 17inch notebook's project and development work matched that of the Intel's iBook line-up, but while the laptops are expected to be launched in April, the availability of 8x DVD�RW slimline drives for the 17inch model could be delaying the product's introduction.

The 17inch MacBook Pro is supposed to be as thick as the 15inch one and that is 2.5cm. While the 15inch Intel model is 3mm thinner than the 15inch PowerBook G4 ( the older one is 2.8cm), the new 17inch notebook is 2.5cm thick and incorporates an 8x SuperDrive.

Also, the cooling requirements of the 2.16GHz Core Duo processor need a different internal layout compared to the one needed by the 1.67MHz G4, so we can't say at this point that the model based on Intel technology is able to use the same drive as the PowerPC. The 15inch MacBook Pro uses a slower SuperDrive, the 4x one, maybe because it's slimmer, but we can't also exclude the cost factors or the fact that past 8x drives have been claimed not to operate consistently at 8x , all these as the reason for including a 4x unit.