Unibody, 17-inch Apple MacBook Pro expected

By Steven Musil on 05 January 2009, 11:28am

Apple seems set to expand its MacBook Pro lineup.

The Mac maker plans to unveil a 17-inch MacBook Pro, possibly as early as this week at the Macworld Expo in San Francisco, according to reports on 9to5Mac.com and AppleInsider.

Like the 13- and 15-inch models, the 17-inch laptop is expected to sport a unibody construction. Unlike those smaller models, however, the new MacBook Pro will have a fixed internal battery, much like the MacBook Air's battery setup, according to the reports.

The sites also reported on an expected Mac Mini makeover that will see the device equipped with the same Nvidia chipsets that Apple introduced in October in new MacBooks, the MCP79 chipset. That chipset uses the Nvidia 9400M graphics processor, and would give the Mini a boost in graphics processing power over the Intel integrated chipsets currently used.

New Mac Minis are high on the list of systems expected to arrive at Macworld 2009. The future of the Mac Mini has been the subject of much speculation this year after it appeared the systems were headed out to pasture, but Apple seems to be sparing them the chop for now.

Another unconfirmed rumour suggests Apple will phase out the 13-inch plastic MacBook.