Apple Updates MacBook Pro Today

So for a while now we’ve been expecting some updates to Apple’s laptops, since his Steveness announced that Apple would be using LED Backlit displays in the coming future. Well, today seems to be that day. While LED backlights will only be gracing the 15-inch model (for now at least) there’s a whole bunch of updated stuff thrown into these silver puppies.

For starters an extra $100 in the 17-inch model gets you the NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT graphics card which will provide up to 1920 x 1200 resolution (yes that’s full HD if you’re interested) Unfortunately there’s still no support for Blu-Ray, but all the DRM that would need to added in kind of holds that back. Perhaps with the release of Leopard this fall we’ll see some HD goodness coming our way.

Even better yet, the MacBook Pros now feature Intel’s latest Centrino platform ‘Santa Rosa’ if you’re interested, which you probably aren’t you can get all the technical details on that on the Wikipedia page. This also means that 802.11n wireless comes pre-enabled, which was an issue recently.

The biggest addition is really the LED backlit screens, but there’s not much that consumers are going to notice because of this. The most important factor in this change is the environmental benefit. Previously the LCD screens used a technology called CCFL (cold cathode fluorescent), which Green Peace gave Apple a lot of grief about. Apple said that LED backlighting could possibly provide somewhere between 30 minutes and 1 hour more battery life, but it depends on use. Other than this possibility, users won’t be noticing any increases in brightness.

The pricepoint for the MacBook Pro still comes in at $1,999, which is still pretty steep, but all the new additions definitely increase the value. Plus, Apple’s free Nano student discount is in effect again. So, if you’re laptop shopping for the coming school year, it might be time to make the switch because your Education discount can knock a few hundred off the price of the laptop and score you a free iPod.

[Via Engadget]