Apple delays 17in MacBook Pro

Anyone looking to pick-up the new 17in "unibody" MacBook Pro will have to wait a little longer than expected. Apple has delayed the laptop’s launch. New_MacBook_pro_17in Apple's new 17in MacBook Pro: will now arrive in mid-February The firm admitted that “wrapping up” the updated machine – which features an Intel 2.66Hz …

[Norfolk Enchants Paris]

Nice but

Expensive. So Expensive.

[Nick Palmer]

This is not a title. Move along, please.

"Prices start at £1949" - YOU EFFING WHAT??? I'd call it robbery, but most muggers are less greedy than that...

Evil Steveil for obvious reasons...

[Anonymous Coward]

Heat

I wonder if they've tested this one for heat dissipation issues properly.

[Anonymous Coward]

@ Norfolk Enchants Paris

Yeah, it's pretty expensive but it's a very well specced machine with a very well built case and innovative features.

An equivalent 17" Dell (XPS M1730) lists at £2049 (though a current sale has it down at £1799, and it's not as good, both in terms of specification and build quality/features.

[Mark W]

@Norfolk Enchants Paris

Expensive, but;

Dell Precision M6400 Covet 17"

Core2Duo 2.4Ghz

2Gb RAM

120Gb SATA

Windows Vista Business

£2752 ex VAT.

So that's a lower spec Dell laptop at least £800 more expensive than a higher spec Mac?

If you look around at similar spec and build quality Wintel laptops they're all about the same cost, so in actual fact they're not too badly priced.

Agreed, the basic Macbook is probably £300 more expensive than it needs to be, and I wouldn't buy one because they've dropped Firewire and for me that is an essential evil. My replacement for my black macbook may actually end up being an iMac.

[amanfromMars]

Meanwhile, in the Virtual Halls of Residence/Presidence

With Feisty Drivers One Need Only Imagine and IT's True...... with a ReLoded and Loaded Apple Cart.

[Anonymous Coward]

misleading specs

It heats up too much and doesn't show nearly as many colours as Apple claims it shows.

[Mark]

Ouch

Given that a 17" MacBook could hardly be construed as portable I think I'd spend the dough on an 8-core Mac Pro and get some real decent performance with a touch of upgradability.

[David Gosnell]

optional anti-glare coating

So I take it they'll charge even more if you want to see the screen content rather than a reflection of your face? Though given Apple's track record with laptop screen fidelity, it may not be worth it.

[Anonymous Coward]

No Surprise to Me

When I put in my order a few weeks ago, the ship date was said to be end of Feb.

[Colin MacLean]

credit rocks

Computer mortgages are the future.

[Anonymous Coward]

wonga

Simply too expensive. Thought this was a recession, and price were meant to go down, not up?

[Anonymous Coward]

Screen size

Hey Ma, look at the tiny pixels! My 24" monitor has the same resolution...

The irrational consumer in me wants it.

[Anonymous Coward]

Time to re-mortgage the house...

On the mac website, doubling the ram to 8gb and going for the better processor (think it was 2.9Ghz) brings it upto £3k...

That's half as much as my Ford Fiesta!

We've had a 'spate' of people converting to the mac at my place, and the only thing which stopped it spreading further was the price. It turns out that people would rather brave Vista (knowing how crap it is) than try to justify spending that amount of money to their line managers...

[Chris iverson]

Why is HP cheaper

Im on HP's site and I configured up a HDX18t as close to the specs as the Macbook and it looks like I could save myself $1000 roughly. On top of that if I fought with MS I could get my money back for Fista and dual boot the damn thing with XP and my favorite distro of the month.

1799 for the 18 inch HP with the same parts as the mac.

[Bob Holtzmann]

Shipping Date

My Apple account lists the shipping date for my order at the 19th of February - two weeks back from the 6th of February previous shipping date. My MBP order has the faster hard drive, nothing else custom.

There was a delay in the 17" unibody before. This has the new built-in battery with the 8 hour use span (it's probably more like 6 hours). I can only speculate that the delay is in the innovative feature of this model, namely the battery. Maybe it's so that no one can start a class action lawsuit over the battery life spanning 6 hours instead of 8.

[Mad Hacker]

Good Price on a powerful machine

This is just what I need and the price is better then we get on a similar equipped Dell (and we get a "corporate" discount.)

I've never understood netbooks, give me a powerful laptop with a large screen, that's what I need.

Also regarding screen size, I believe it has 133 dpi dot pitch. My 24" monitor with the same resolution has a pathetic dot pitch (I can see each pixel). Personally I'd prefer something more like a 160 dpi dot pitch.

Anyway once I can see in the store the difference between the glossy vs anti-glare screens, I'll be placing my order.

[E Haines]

Macbook + Firewire

@Mark W

"Agreed, the basic Macbook is probably £300 more expensive than it needs to be, and I wouldn't buy one because they've dropped Firewire and for me that is an essential evil."

The basic, $999 Macbook is the only model that HAS Firewire. Which seems backwards to me, but there you go.

[Mark W]

@E Haines

I was more referring to the new Aluminium Macbook. I do think it was strange that they canned the White macbook only to re-release it as it's obviously still got a market.

Agreed the White basic basic basic macbook does still have a Firewire400 port, but the new-style recently launched macbook *doesn't* have a firewire port at all. You have to upgrade to the Macbook Pro to get a Firewire800 port which is a little bit short sighted.