Apple sneaks out 17in notebook

Apple has released a 17in Macbook Pro notebook, the biggest and latest addition to its first generation of Intel-powered notebooks.

Slipping quietly under the radar, the 17in arrived with none of the usual Apple pomp and ceremony, boasting five times the speed of the existing 17in Powerbook G4.

The most noticeable difference is the massive 17in screen with an impressive 1,680 x 1,050 display which is capable of displaying high-definition (HD) video.

According to Apple, the display is 36 per cent brighter than previous Powerbooks. Like the 15in Apple Macbook Pro, the 17in also comes with iSight, the in-built video camera for mobile videoconferencing.

Powered by a 2.16GHz Intel Core Duo processor, the new model is 1in thick, weighs in at a ‘luggable’ 3.1kgs and has a price tag of £2,000. It boasts a massive 1GB of Ram, expandable to 2GB.

Other key features include a claimed battery life of 5.5 hours, graphics powered by the ATI Mobility Radeon X1200 with 256MB of dedicated video memory and an impressive 120GB hard disk drive.