Apple updates MacBook Pro lineup

By Rick Marshall October 24, 2011

Apple appears to have given its lineup of MacBook Pro laptops a bit of an upgrade, and done so without the usual fanfare that surrounds any tweaks to the popular model.

Among the changes to the ultra-light laptop line are the addition of faster processors and more powerful graphics chips. Both changes were made without any adjustment to the models’ listed prices.

Specifically, the 13-inch MacBook Pro comes with either a 2.4 GHz dual-core Intel Core i5 processor or a 2.8 GHZ dual-core Intel Core i7, a step up from the prior CPU offerings for the model. The models also got an upgrade to their hard drives, with 500GB and 750GB hard drives as the stock option on each model, respectively.

Similarly, the 15-inch MacBook Pro has upgraded its basic model’s processor to a quad-core 2.2 GHz Intel Core i7, with the option of upgrading to a 2.4 GHz quad-core Intel Core i7. The basic model of the 17-inch MacBook Pro comes with the 2.4 GHz quad-core Intel Core i7 as its default processor.

In the graphics department, the basic 15-inch MacBook Pro now comes with a more powerful AMD Radeon HD 6750M discrete graphics card with 512MB of GDDR5, and the speedier 15-inch model comes with an AMD Radeon HD 6770M with 1GB of GDDR5 — the same graphics chip that now comes stock with the 17-inch model.

The price of the new MacBook Pro models range from $1,199 for the basic 13-inch model to $2,499 for the 17-inch model.

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