17-inch MacBook Pro review: Speedy, spacious and indestructible

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To me, the 17-inch MacBook Pro makes the 15-inch model feel like a practice run. The 17-inch MacBook Pro is everything that Apple's previous world-beater, the last 17-inch PowerBook G4, was, but with a vastly superior (compared to the 32-bit PowerPC) dual-core CPU, dramatic improvements in memory and bus speed, a more powerful graphics processing unit, a first-rate display, a dual-layer DVD burner and--be still my heart--a configure-to-order option for a 100 GB, 7,200 RPM hard drive. These don't add up to incremental improvements over the 17-inch PowerBook G4. The 17-inch MacBook Pro is a quantum leap.

Way ahead of the 15-inch MacBook Pro

The 15-inch MacBook Pro (InfoWorld review) is the foundation for the 17-inch MacBook Pro's design, but the 17-inch model is no mere copycat with a bigger screen. The surface advantages that the 17-inch model enjoys over its lesser alternative include three USB 2.0 ports, two FireWire ports (one 400 and one 800 Mbps), an astonishingly rich speaker system, a dual-layer SuperDrive, and, yes, the super bright 17-inch diagonal LCD panel showing 1680 x 1050 pixels.

This notebook is comparable in heft to a desktop replacement-grade PC notebook with a 15-inch display. The thin case makes the MacBook Pro far less awkward to carry and use than machines in its weight class. In addition to the larger display, and the 17-inch MacBook Pro is decked out with standard peripherals that PC notebooks lack. For example, the MacBook Pros' dual scan DVI output with a full-size jack is mighty rare, and the 17-inch model's dual FireWire ports are full sized and supply power to external peripherals.

The new machine banishes the late model PowerBooks' cheap keyboard, twitchy trackpad, stagnant processor performance and sub-state-of-the-art graphics processing units. The 17-inch MacBook Pro's improved cooling, longer battery life, added I/O ports, larger display, higher durability and stronger, richer speakers create an unexpectedly wide gap between the 17 and the 15-inch MacBook Pros. This doesn't make the 15-inch model a bad machine. It just makes the 17-inch MacBook Pro a great one.

Performance

The 17-inch MacBook Pro is a 2.16 GHz, dual core, 32-bit x86 notebook. If you have the latest, fastest PowerBook G4, the 17-inch MacBook Pro will singe your eyebrows. You just need to sit tight until commercial Mac software gets rebuilt as Universal (native to both PowerPC and x86) Binaries. All will be set right in August, but this is a rush you'll want to beat.