MacBook Pro Pics Leaked

s, Rumors

This 11th hour "leak" is supposedly a fully assembled new MacBook Pro, expected to be announced today by Steve Jobs at the Apple event in Cupertino, California.

It tallies pretty much completely with the previous shots we've seen of the upper case, with the recessed, chiclet keyboard, magnetic latch and in/out ports arrayed along the left side (see picture below for the side view). In the picture we see a 15" MacBook Pro, and there will be a 13" MacBook, also in aluminum.

Apple's one button mouse obsession? Over. Look at the trackpad and you'll see no buttons at all. The pad is apparently made from glass, just like the screen of the iPhone, and can be pressed to get a physical click, similar to that of the new Blackberry Storm. The pad doesn't look like glass in the picture, but hey, John Gruber over at Daring Fireball, who reports on the trackpad, has seen the picture too -- and and he's not usually given to discussing rumors without clearly stating so.

The other internal oddity is that Apple is putting not one, but two NVIDIA graphics chips inside, both of which will be real, full on GPUs, with their own discrete RAM. These wil be the 9400M and the 9600M GT. If GPUs are the new MHz, this makes a lot of sense, although it is certainly a rather new way of shoehorning extra power into a computer.

Further: The 17" MacBook Pro may be on its way out. It'll get a speed and storage bump today, but when they're gone, they're gone. It might be a discontinuation of the line, or maybe Apple is just concentrating on making enough of the 15" model for now.

The speculation over an $800 MacBook is also, apparently, crap, although the Boy Genius says it has confirmed a $900 item in the lineup. Gruber thinks that the regular, low-end white MacBook, will remain on sale, dropped from its current $1100 to $1000. The new metal MacBook will also reportedly gain a proper GPU and lose its FireWire port.

The prices, cribbed from Daring Fireball:

MacBook Pro

$1099: 2.1 GHz, white, 1 GB memory, 120 GB disk

$1299: 2.4 GHz, white, 2 GB memory, 160 GB disk

$1499: 2.4 GHz, black, 2 GB memory, 250 GB disk

MacBook

$1299: 2.0 GHz, 2 GB memory, 160 GB disk

$1499: 2.4 GHz, 2 GB memory, 250 GB disk

The real test of these pictures, though, is whether or not they make the current models look immediately dated. The answer is a big "yes". Jesus Diaz over at Gizmodo has mocked up a picture based on these new shots and it is gorgeous. That black (still too-big) bezel, the squared-off (and rather brick-like) base and the optically thin curved lid all make me want one. Anybody want to buy a slightly used, 2.4GHz MacBook Pro?

Contains Spoilers [★]

Mr. Blurrycam reveals the updated MacBook Pro [Engadget]