Let’s face it: most folks live in an environment where the PC is favored over the Mac. The cliquey few who do prefer Macs over PCs have been adamant followers. Mac loyalty is so extreme that outsiders regard users of this platform as member supported “apple cult”.

Apple has already provided excellent incentive for senior Mac users to remain faithful to the cause.

The freshly released MacBook Pro Laptops have been their most enterprising contraption thus far. The MacBook Pro is the successor to the 15″ and 17″ models of the Powerbook G4 series, and is the first official Macintosh laptop to be powered by the Intel Core Duo processor. This type of processor has two mobile-optimized execution cores with CPU resources. For non-techies, this simply indicates a significant improvement in the MacBook Pro ‘s preformance when utilizing demanding applications simultaneously.

The MacBook Pro is available in Three configurations: a 15.4-inch model at 2.0 GHz and 2.16 GHz, and a 17″ model at 2.15 GHz. All three configurations feature an 80 GB, 100 GB (5400 or 7200 rpm), or 120 GB hard drive (5400 rpm) respectively; an ATI Mobility Radeon X1600 graphics card (128 or 256 MB GDDR3); a choice of a glossy or matte widescreen LCD display (16:10 aspect ratio); up to 2 GB of RAM; and a built-in iSight Camera. The Macbook Pro comes standard with USB ports, A FireWire 400 port, a ExpressCard/34 expansion slot, DVI and VGA connectivity (VGA via included adaptor), optical S-P/DIF and analog sound output and inputs, gagabit ethernet plus Airport Extreme Wi-Fi 802.11b/g and Bluetooth 2.0 wireless capabilities as well.

The built in iSight camera is an extremely convenient feature, especially for traveling individuals. Furthermore, users are sure to be endlessly amused by the Mac program photo Booth, which uses humorous effects to change your look in pictures taken by the iSight camera.

Users of this laptop will also enjoy it’s functional back lit keyboard, first introduced in he Aluminum PowerBook G4 models, and is present in all current models of the MacBook Pro . There are sensors that detect the level of ambient light in the room and adjust the keyboard light accordingly.

Another inventive addition to the MacBook Pro is MagSafe, Apple’s new power connector that attaches the power cord to the laptop. MagSafe uses magnet instead of the usual circular plugs found in most laptops to utilize the power adoptor as the power source.

Finally, perhaps the most exciting feature of the MacBook Pro is it’s ability to run on both Windows and Macintosh computer platforms. Apple has made a program called Boot Camp available only online. The program assists users in istalling Windows XP with service Pack 2 on all Intel-based Macinstosh computers, though apple has stated that they do not officially support Boot Camp or Windows, nor does the company sell copies of the Windows XP at it’s stores.

Additional Info:

• Intel Core 2 Duo 2.4GHz, 15″ TFT, 2GB DDR2,
  
• 200GB SATA,
  
• Nvidia GeForce 8600 256MB,
  
• 8X SuperDrive,
  
• Built-in 10/100/1000BASE-T,
  
• Airport Extreme,
  
• Bluetooth 2.0+EDR & iSight,
  
• OS X 10.5 Leopard Latest Intel mobile architecture Powered by the most advanced mobile processors from Intel,
  
• the Core 2 Duo-based MacBook Pro is up to 74% faster than the original Core Duo-based MacBook Pro and supports up to 4GB of RAM.2
• The genius of Multi-Touch The MacBook Pro trackpad adopts many of the innovative Multi-Touch gestures from the Apple iPhone, so you can pinch, swipe, or rotate by simply moving your fingers.
  
• LED backlit displays Both 15-inch MacBook Pro models feature power-saving, LED backlit widescreen displays. And now you can even configure the 17-inch model with the ultimate creative canvas — 1920 by 1200 pixels with LED backlighting.
  
• Leading-edge graphics Now featuring up to 512MB of dedicated video memory, the NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT in every MacBook Pro offers exceptional graphics processing power for creative and scientific applications.
  
• Designed for life on the road Innovations such as the MagSafe power connection and an illuminated keyboard with ambient light sensor put the MacBook Pro in a class by itself.

15.4 MacBook Pro – Intel Core 2 Duo 2.4GHz 2GB, 200GB, SuperDrive (Open Box Product, Limited Availability, No Back Orders)
Price at $1,669.99 USD