Apple quietly updates MacBook Pro laptop line

Apple today quietly refreshed its workhorse MacBook Pro line of laptops, boosting the speed of the machines' processors and in some cases the size of their hard disk drives.

Prices for the various models -- Apple sells 13-inch, 15-inch, and 17-inch notebooks -- have not changed.

The refresh is the first since February, when Apple first turned to Intel's Sandy Bridge chip architecture.

The low-end 13-inch MacBook Pro now sports 2.4GHz and 2.7GHz Intel Core i5 and i7 processors, up from 2.3GHz and 2.7GHz, respectively. Storage space has increased from 320GB to 500GB for the $1,119 model and from 500GB to 750GB for the $1,499 configuration.

The middle-of-the-price-pack 15-inch MacBook Pro received slightly faster processors -- 2.2GHz and 2.4GHz Intel Core i7 CPUs -- and a newer AMD Radeon graphics processor with more video memory on the least expensive $1,799 model. Hard drive sizes did not change.

Apple sells the most expensive 15-inch MacBook Pro for $2,199.

The top-end $2,499 17-inch notebook now boasts a 2.4GHz Intel Core i7 processor and the same graphics processor that equips the highest-priced 15-inch laptop.

:story: Full story: InfoWorld