14 DAY TRIAL // Apple took its online store down earlier today only to bring it back online hours later, featuring upgraded hardware. Rumors had it that it was planning to equip its entire line of notebooks with Core i5 and Core i7 CPUs from Intel. The rumors were proven partially true, as Apple has updated its 15-inch and 17-inch MacBook Pro computers with the long-anticipated Arrandale processors, while the 13-inch MacBook Pro retains the Core 2 Duo configuration, with minor speed increases.
In usual manner, the company also issued a press release formally announcing that it had updated the MacBook Pro line. In the report, the Mac maker reveals that it hasn’t just enhanced processing speed, but also graphics, memory and even battery life.
“The new MacBook Pro is as advanced on the inside as it is stunning on the outside,” Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing, said. “With faster processors, amazing graphics and up to three more hours of battery life, the new MacBook Pro delivers both performance and efficiency.”
13-inch MacBook Pro models now include faster Intel Core 2 Duo processors, 4GB of RAM, a ten-hour built-in battery and the new NVIDIA GeForce 320M graphics processor, according to Apple’s announcement. The system starts at 1,199 for the basic 2.4 GHz configuration. The real beasts, however, are the new 15-inch and 17-inch MacBook Pro models. Faster by 50 percent compared with the previous systems, the new Pros now employ Intel’s 32 nanometer Core i5 and i7 processors.
Apple also mentions Hyper-Threading, the technology that improves data throughput by creating virtual processing cores, as well as Turbo Boost, a feature common to the latest Mac Pros, which optimizes performance between two processor cores. Moreover, 15-inch and 17-inch MacBook Pros include two graphics processors. For peak performance, the computers use the new NVIDIA GeForce GT 330M. They switch over to HD Graphics for energy-efficient operations.
Finally, Apple has also announced that the glass trackpad found on all of its MacBook Pros now supports inertial scrolling, which the Mac maker describes as “an intuitive way to scroll through large photo libraries, lengthy documents and long web sites.” The 13-inch MacBook Pro retains the entry-level price point - $1,199, while its 15-inch and 17-inch siblings start at a pocked-burning $1,799 and $2,299, respectively. Visit Apple here to have a closer look at the updated systems.