The 15” Apple MacBook Pro has been totally reengineered. Apple’s “unibody architecture” builds it out of a single piece of aluminium, which, says Apple, reduces construction failures. The design is easier to service, too.

We looked at a 2.53GHz Core 2 Duo model with 4GB of DDR3 RAM and a 5400rpm, 320GB hard drive. The ports, including gigabit Ethernet, FireWire 800, two USB, audio-in and out, and an ExpressCard/34 slot are on the left. The slot-loading SuperDrive and a Kensington lock slot sit on the right. At a minimum weight of 5.5 pounds, it’s about 1 ounce heavier than the older model.

The 15.3”, 1400×900 pixel wide-screen monitor is a joy to behold. Inside is nVidia’s Hybrid SLI pairing of two GPUs (one on the motherboard, the other discrete. You can toggle between the two for better video performance or longer battery life.

It got a respectable 231 in out Speedmark 5 tests due largely to the nVidia GeForce 9600GT M GPU riding shotgun. Battery life is also acceptable. At high power, though, it lasted for 1 hour, 54 minutes.

The entire 4.13×3” track pad acts as a button. It’s so big; you might end up using the extensive array of supported hand gestures instead. As for the keyboard, the generous, flat-topped keys have just enough travel, and register a solid press.

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