MacBook Pro 17in review

The 17in MacBook Pro is the third Apple portable to be fitted with an Intel chip following the release of two 15.4in MacBook Pros in January.

The processor in this case is a 2.16GHz Core Duo, the fastest Intel chip yet fitted in a Mac. The rest of the 17in MacBook Pro's specification are equally impressive: 1GB RAM, a 17in display with a resolution of 1680 x 1050 pixels and brightness of 300cd/m2, a 120GB 5400rpm Sata hard drive and a PCI Express-based ATI mobility Radeon X1600 graphics card with 256MB GDDR3 memory.

There's also an 8x SuperDrive with support for burning dual-layer discs, compared with the 4x SuperDrive with no dual-layer support in the 15.4in MacBook Pro. Other features mirror the 15.4in model, including an iSight camera, DVI output with support for driving a 30in Apple Cinema Display, Gigabit Ethernet, an ExpressCard/34 expansion slot, audio line-in and line-out with support for both digital and analogue audio, and built-in AirPort Extreme and Bluetooth 2.0+EDR.

There are two key differences in the connectivity ports: the inclusion of a FireWire 800 port alongside the FireWire 400 socket, and three USB 2 slots. This will come as a pleasant surprise to those who thought its omission from the 15.4in MacBook Pro meant Apple had dropped FireWire 800. It also suggests that the professional desktop Intel Macs will retain FireWire 800 ports when they eventually appear, although this does make us wonder why it was dropped from the smaller laptops.

The motherboard contains a couple of notable improvements over the 17in PowerBook G4 that will help boost its performance. The front-side bus speed has increased from 166MHz to 667MHz. Apple claims this represents a four-fold speed increase, which is true in theory at least. Whether this increase is as big in practice will depend on whether there are bottlenecks elsewhere. The other key improvement is in the RAM speed, which has doubled from 333MHz to 667MHz. Review units weren't available for testing as we went to press, although from past experience we're inclined to greet Apple's claims of a five-fold speed increase over the 17in PowerBook G4 with a large dose of Saxo's best.

Real-world speed improvements will depend on the applications you run. For example, tasks that include video encoding will see a large improvement (based on the evidence of comparisons between the Core Duo Mac mini, iMac and MacBook Pro 15.4in and their G4 and G5 predecessors), but non-native applications will see few benefits. So don't expect to be wowed if you spend most of your working life in Photoshop, InDesign or Dreamweaver. Final Cut Pro, however, should scream.

Build-to-order options are a 100GB 7200rpm hard drive in place of the 120GB 5400rpm drive for the same price, an extra 1GB of RAM for £210 or, interestingly, the option to swap the included 1GB Dimm for two 512MB Dimms with a saving of £70.

Like its predecessor, the 17in MacBook Pro isn't going to appeal if you want a laptop that's truly portable. Even though it's only 1in thick, it's still too big and heavy to be carted around on a daily basis. However, it excels as a machine that can be used anywhere at home or in the office and be easily transported on an occasional basis.

We'll have to reserve judgement on its performance until we test it, but we're confident that it will represent a significant step up from its predecessor for most tasks.

In terms of value for money, we're impressed. A faster processor, a bigger screen, FireWire 800 and a better SuperDrive will only set you back an additional £220 when compared with the faster of the two smaller MacBook Pros.