MacBook Pros Get More Professional

Apple has quietly (by Apple standards--ie, no Jobs unveiling) introduced revised versions of its MacBook Pro notebooks that certainly sounds like they deserve the "Pro" in their names. These new versions have the speedy Intel Core 2 Duo CPUs that everyone's been expecting to show up in MacBook Pros, larger hard drives, twice the standard RAM, and a fast FireWire 800 port, for the same prices (starting at $1999 for the basic 15-inch model) as the old versions.

With these upgrades, top-of-the-line Mac portables once again are on a par with high-end Windows laptops, CPU-wise. And there's also a more obvious technological difference between the MacBook Pros and their cheaper MacBook siblings. (Except for truly potent graphics and big screens, MacBooks have offered much of the power of MacBook Pros, and some nice design features that Pros don't have, for a lot less money.)

Wonder if Apple will put Core 2 Duos into plain old MacBooks soon, or whether it'll keep them based on Core Duos so that there's a clearer distinction between its low-cost consumer notebooks and its pricier, professional ones?

Even if MacBooks don't get Core 2 Duo, they remain nice machines and good values, at least if all of the new ones coming off the assembly line have eliminated the flaw known as Random Shutdown Syndrome. (In retrospect, quality issues with both MacBooks and MacBook Pros seem to have been the rockiest aspect of Apple's transition to Intel CPUs so far--here's scads of useful, sometimes alarming information on MacBook Pro issues and MacBook ones at AppleDefects.com.