New 17” Macbook Pro Breaks the bank at A$4,499 – 8,769!!

Posted Wednesday, January 7, 2009 at 12:55 pm by Jason Cartwright |

 
Also announced at Macworld today, was the new 17” Macbook Pro. Featuring the same unibody design found in the 13 and 15” models, a non-removable but (they say) 8 hours battery life and the new integrated and discreet Nvidia graphics. Also available for an additional A$90, is a non-glossy screen.

Apple are making some pretty out there claims for this. They claim the new battery can be recharged up to 1000 times, apparently this equals a 5 year life. Well if your someone who uses their laptop everyday, then you’ll recharge one, maybe twice a day. Not that many people actually own hardware for 5 years, but I’d be expecting the life is more realistically 2-3 years.

As for the 8 hours of battery life, well we know manufacturer are notorious for inflating figure on this. Also 8 hours most likely comes with a disclaimer to say you’ll only get that if u basically shut everything off. If your running in full power mode with the discreet graphics, then expect closer to 4 or 5 hours.

Of course we’ll only find out for sure once these land in the hands of consumers.

Overall the new 17” Macbook Pro costs an astonishing A$4,499. But why stop there, why not throw in a few ridiculously priced upgrades..

- Upgrade from 2.66Ghz to 2.93Ghz processor + A$530
- Upgrade from 4GB to 8GB RAM + A$2100
- Upgrade from 320GB HDD to 256GB SSD +A$1,550

So we arrive at A$8,769 for a full tricked out 17” Macbook Pro. That is of course before you add in AppleCare.

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