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MacBook Pro Family Gets A New Member
4:16 PM EDT Mon. Jun. 08, 2009
Apple revealed at its World Wide Developers Conference that it would be adding to its MacBook Pro family with a 13-inch notebook offering available at two different price points. While the 13-inch MacBook Pro joins the Pro family, Apple isn't entirely abandoning the white polycarbonate MacBook. Instead, the company is rebranding the notebook as a more of a premium offering. For the time being, the white MacBook will still be offered by the company, starting at $999.
But the new 13-inch MacBook Pro is designed to give customers the look and power of a MacBook at a lower price point.
Speaking at the World Wide Developer's conference today, Philip Schiller, senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing for Apple, said simply: "At what point isn't this a MacBook Pro?"
The unibody notebook will start at $1,199 and feature a non-removable battery that the company says will deliver up to 7 hours of life.
The base model 13-inch MacBook Pro is powered by a 2.26 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor. The notebook comes with 2 GB of DDR 3 memory and a 1066 front-side bus. But in order to make the new offering more like the rest of the MacBook Pro line, memory can be expanded from 2 GB of DDR3 to 8 GB of DDR3. Graphics are handled by an integrated NVIDIA GeForce 9400M. For the base model, 160 GB of storage.
The backlit LED display features 1280 x 800 resolution. Firewire also makes a return to the MacBook Pro, with one FireWire 800 port. Two USB 2.0 ports and an SD slot are built in. Wireless connectivity is handheld by a built-in AirPort Extreme 802.11n wireless card and Bluetooth 2.1 +EDR.
Customers also have a choice of a second preconfiguration of the 13-inch MacBook Pro. For an extra few hundred dollars, customers can choose to up some of the specifications in the notebooks.
Starting at $1,499, potential 13-inch MacBook Pro customers can choose to up some of the basics. For example, the more expensive version of the notebook comes with a 2.53 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor. Memory on the machine starts at 4 GB " as opposed to 2 GB " and can be upped to 8GB DDR3. The storage also is a bit more expansive on the pricier version, with space for 250 GB HDD.
Customers who want to customize the13-inch MacBook Pro further can choose options that kick up storage space from 120 GB or 250 GB to a 250, 320, or 500 GB HDD hard drives. Solid state options are also available for customers in two sizes, 128 GB or 256 GB.
Both versions of the 13-inch MacBook Pro are currently available to be ordered.
