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17-inch MacBook Pro/2.33GHz

Like its 15-inch counterparts, the 17-inch MacBook Pro gets a processor bump (up to 2.33GHz from 2.16GHz) as well as a new processor entirely. The Intel Core Duo makes way for the Intel Core 2 Duo, a next-generation chip promising better performance with the same battery life. The amount of shared L2 cache has doubled, as has the installed memory -- the 17-inch MacBook Pro ships with 2GB of RAM. (You can install up to 3GB.) Hard drive capacity has increased to 160GB from 120GB.

 Reviewed Full Review

If you can afford the price and don't mind the size and weight inevitably associated with such a large display, you won't be disappointed with the 17-inch MacBook Pro Core 2 Duo -- a marvelous machine. It's worth noting that a performance glitch with ColorSync profiles affects the speed of some tasks, though, in general, this laptop is plenty speedy.

Pros: Fast performance; classic design; lovely screen; ample RAM and hard drive capacity.

Cons: Performance glitch slows some tasks; no internal modem option; no PC Card slot; few cards available for ExpressCard/34 slot; no eSATA port.

Basics

Reviewed Price: $2,799

Processor: 2.33GHz Intel Core 2 Duo

Information about this system on Apple's website

Price Comparison

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PCTechSystems, Inc. $1249.00
Tech for Less Store $1360.00
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Lab Tests

Speedmark 4.5 Score211
Cinema 4D XL 9.5.210:57
iMovie 6.0.20:50
iTunes 6.0.40:58
Photoshop CS21:12
Compressor2:02
Unreal Tournament 200472.6fps
Tested ConfigurationMac OS X 10.4.8, with 2GB of RAM