Laptop Club

The Apple MacBook Pro 17-inch has been revered over the years by a nation of professional photographers and film editors, not to mention average media folks who can't get enough of this thin-bodied cinematic wonder. When the Apple MacBook Pro 15-inch (Dual Graphics) and the MacBook 13-inch (Aluminum) launched with their "unibody" enclosures—in each case, a heavily promoted slab of aluminum that rids the frame of all detachable parts—a "uni-seventeen-incher" was clearly on the way. The Apple MacBook Pro 17-inch (Unibody) ($2,799 direct) is still the lightest and the prettiest media center laptop to house a maximum-resolution screen, and the changes are significant.

• Price as Tested: $2,799.00 Direct
• Type: Gaming, Media
• Operating System: Mac OS X 10.5
• Processor Name: Intel Core 2 Duo T9550
• Processor Speed: 2.66 GHz
• RAM: 4 GB
• Weight: 6.6 lb
• Screen Size: 17 inches
• Screen Size Type: widescreen
• Graphics Card: nVidia GeForce 9600M GT, nVidia GeForce 9400M GT
• Storage Capacity: 320 GB
• Networking Options: 802.11n
• Primary Optical Drive: DVD+/-RW (Plus Minus)