MacBook Pro 15 inch

The 15-inch MacBook Pro sports the same carved-from-a-single-chunk-of-metal unibody design as its brethren, with a sturdy aluminum chassis and rounded edges. The overall look is classy and modern, though it makes upgrading individual components (like the RAM and hard drive) more difficult, as the entire bottom must be unscrewed.

The MacBook Pro has the same dimensions as before (14.4 x 9.8 x 1 inches), but it weighs a slightly heavier 5.6 pounds. While we definitely felt the extra heft while carrying the machine home, it did fit in our messenger bag, which is more than we can say about most 15-inch notebooks. The only system that comes close is the HP Envy 15, which has an equally slim and stylish profile (15.0 x 9.6 x 1 inches) and weighs a lighter 5.2 pounds. Regardless, this notebook will take up your entire tray table if you take it on a flight.

Specifications

Size and weight

Height: 0.95 inch (2.41 cm)

Width: 14.35 inches (36.4 cm)

Depth: 9.82 inches (24.9 cm)

Weight: 5.6 pounds (2.54 kg)1

Audio

 Stereo speakers with subwoofers

 Omnidirectional microphone (located under left speaker grille)

 Audio line in minijack (digital/analog)

Display

 15.4-inch (diagonal) LED-backlit glossy widescreen display with support for millions of colors

Graphics and video support

 NVIDIA GeForce GT 330M graphics processor with 256MB of GDDR3 memory on 2.4GHz and 2.53GHz configurations; or 512MB of GDDR3 memory on 2.66GHz configuration

 Intel HD Graphics with 256MB of DDR3 SDRAM shared with main memory5

Processor and memory

 2.4GHz or 2.53GHz Intel Core i5 processor with 3MB shared L3 cache; or 2.66GHz Intel Core i7 processor with 4MB shared L3 cache

 4GB (two 2GB SO-DIMMs) of 1066MHz DDR3 memory; two SO-DIMM slots support up to 8GB

Storage

 320GB or 500GB 5400-rpm Serial ATA hard drive; optional 500GB 7200-rpm hard drive, or 128GB, 256GB, or 512GB solid-state drive6

 8x slot-loading SuperDrive (DVD±R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW)

 Maximum write: 8x DVD-R, DVD+R; 4x DVD-R DL (double layer), DVD+R DL (double layer), DVD-RW, DVD+RW; 24x CD-R; 10x CD-RW

Battery and power7

 Built-in 77.5-watt-hour lithium-polymer battery

 85W MagSafe Power Adapter with cable management system

 MagSafe power port

Software

 Mac OS X v10.6 Snow Leopard (includes iTunes, Time Machine, Quick Look, Spaces, Spotlight, Dashboard, Mail, iChat, Safari, Address Book, QuickTime, iCal, DVD Player, Photo Booth, Front Row, Xcode Developer Tools)

 iLife (includes iPhoto, iMovie, iDVD, iWeb, GarageBand)