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Tuesday, January 6 2009 @ 11:45 AM ET | Article Link
17-inch Unibody MacBook Pro With Fixed Battery To Debut At Macworld?

Only a couple of hours to wait now for the macworld keynote, but
Appleinsider's Kasper Jade reports that Apple could as early as today introduce a new unibody 17-inch MacBook Pro with a fixed internal battery, saying that sources familiar with the matter say both products are due to begin shipping this month but not necessarily in time for a Macworld introduction.

That there will be a unibody 17-inch MacBook Pro this year is a given, and it's probably not far off, but the most intriguing element of this rumor is the part about the new big notebook's battery being be fixed in place and not conveniently removable by users, similar to the MacBook Air's. Seems an odd move, especially after the MacBook Air's non-removable battery has been one of its most universally disparaged features.

However, 9To5Mac's Seth Weintraub thinks a possible answer to that puzzle might be that Apple will be pioneering Silver-Zinc battery usage with the new king-of-the-hill MacBook Pro, observing that "They may have new technology that can take more charges, or they may offer a service replacement similar to the replacement of a motherboard or hard drive. Maybe swapping out the battery will be as easy as swapping out RAM."

ITWire's Stephen Withers comments that a fixed battery would save weight and allow a thinner chassis, and the weight saving could be applied to fitting a higher capacity battery (perhaps using a technology other than lithium ion).

Seth Weintraub also wonders if Apple will go with glossy-only displays on the new 17-incher, which has been highly controversial on the 15" model, and suggests that the holdover 13-inch Plastic MacBook is likely to be discontinued with a corresponding price cut for the base unibody MacBook. That latter would certainly get my attention.