Macworld: The new 17-inch MacBook Pro

"The day of the swappable battery is over for at least some of our laptop models, and probably all of them, sooner or later—get over it," seemed to be the subtle message of Apple's demonstration earlier this week of the new 17-inch MacBook Pro, at which it claimed that its new model will get up to 8 hours of battery life. (Click on the image at right for a closer look.)

I particularly liked Apple's film of the new battery systems being made, with the developers explaining how it worked. Apple claims that something called "adaptive charging" reduces wear and tear and extends battery life. There's a chip in the battery that talks to individual cells, reports the state of charge, and adjusts the connection to the power line accordingly.

And of course the argument for this engineering sounded quite familiar: As the battery is expected to last 5 years, you'll probably replace the computer before you need to replace the battery. (Do I sense a variant of planned obsolescence creeping in here?) I was later told that if a battery was DOA out of the box, one could simply take or ship the computer to the nearest Apple store (including the one in Beijing, I presume), and they'll swap out the part or even the entire laptop. I found the statement particularly amusing since, during the keynote, I had to swap out the spent battery on a 2007-vintage Intel MacBook Pro, as there are always few power outlets in Moscone and those are guarded jealously. At Macworld, it has always been carry a spare or lose the ability to file content in real time.

Otherwise, the new Pro's feature set is quite robust, with two built-in video card environments, up to 8GB of RAM, and a 320GB hard drive. There is an "anti-glare" option for the screen (essentially removing the glossy-glass cover), 1920x1200 resolution, and an 700:1 contrast ratio. It comes in 2.63 and 2.93GHz Intel Core2 Duo configurations. The base model starts at $2799.

While this "battery issue" may not be a huge deal for iPod or even iPhone owners, the jury is still out on MacBook Air's battery. (When we tested the Air last spring, its battery life was in the same range as other Mac laptops, 4.5 or 5.5 hours, depending on the processor). It remains to be seen whether serious cross-media creative pros will overcome their fears and develop an interest in the 17-inch MacBook Pro.

Next up: Changes to the iTunes store.

—Thomas A. Olson