Apple MacBook Pro fanatics know the drill. Every six months or so, their eyes gleam in anticipation of earth-shattering upgrades. With Intel's launch of its Santa Rosa platform, the foregone conclusion was that the MacBook Pros would get the added speed from a component transplant. But what about other desired features? Would the MacBook Pro have built-in Wireless WAN? A Blu-ray drive? An LED display? Well, one out of three isn't bad. The Apple MacBook Pro 15-inch (LED) embeds a new display technology called LED backlighting, not to mention an array of processing parts that range from a new Intel Core 2 Duo processor to a new graphics core from nVidia. You won't notice much of a visual difference with the LED screen, but the performance enhancements may be enough to make MacBook Pro owners out of some who had been undecided. Upgrading from a current MacBook Pro is probably not worth the expense, but Apple put enough into the MacBook Pro 15-inch (LED) for the line to retain the Editors' Choice for mainstream laptops.

When the Apple MacBook 13-inch (Core 2 Duo T7200) launched without the Santa Rosa components, my initial reaction was, "Boy, the MacBook Pros had better get Santa Rosa, or this will be a serious blow to Apple." But creating more separation between the MacBooks and MacBook Pros makes a lot of sense—and sure enough, Apple gave the MacBook Pros the Santa Rosa advantage. The overall look and dimensions of the 15-inch model remain unchanged. The MacBook Pro 15-inch (LED), like its predecessors, puts an aluminum alloy over the frame. The weight has been reduced by a tenth of a pound, to 5.3 pounds. Although this weight reduction is barely noticeable, the system itself is a treat for commuters looking for a 15.4-inch screen. It's the lightest 15-inch laptop on the market. Only Sony comes within striking distance, with its VAIO FZ Series, but even that weighs around 5.8 pounds.

Laptops such as the ASUS U1F, the Dell XPS M1330, and the Sony VAIO TZ Series have all benefited from the use of LED technology; what strikes you most about these three ultraportables is the paper-thinness of their screens. In the MacBook Pro 15-inch, the use of LED backlighting doesn't change the screen's thickness. In fact, the dimensions remain untouched since the previous model. Don't get me wrong: Apple is still the only vendor to have reduces a 15-inch laptop to a thickness of 1 inch—a feat that's regarded as one of the biggest design achievements since the dawn of the PowerBook G4—but it would have spoken volumes if this version had been even thinner.

As far as visual enhancements go, well, there aren't many. I took a previous lamp-lit MacBook Pro 15-inch and put it next to the new model. The lamp-lit screen actually had better contrast when displaying an assortment of photos; the same photos on the LED screen looked a little washed out. Text quality is about the same on both. It's safe to say that without comparing the two side by side few people will be able tell the difference. In all fairness, Apple has stated that the new LED screens would not improve picture quality by all that much. I did notice that the blacks are blacker and the whites are a little whiter when high-definition movie trailers were played, but that's about it. The benefits (if any) will come via battery life. I'll get to that later.

Apple didn't touch the keyboard and mouse buttons. Both work well together, but I had to calibrate the touchpad to make it respond faster. I will say that heat management has gotten a lot better on the MacBook Pro 15-inch (LED)—under the Mac operating system, that is. Temperatures, measured with a Fluke IR thermometer, hovered around 92° to 96° F, a comfortable level considering that the faster components produce more heat. The temperature reading was taken from the hottest part of the laptop—toward the hinge, on the base. Areas such as the palm rests and battery section fell below 90° F. By contrast, the previous model, the MacBook Pro 15-inch (Core 2 Duo), broke the 100° F barrier. Again, the laptop was using the Mac OS, which has more sophisticated power management than Windows XP Pro. If you're running Windows XP Pro under Boot Camp on the MacBook Pro 15-inch (LED), temperatures can rise as high as 106° F.

When I experimented with installing Windows XP Pro using Boot Camp the install process was effortless; but driver support has not yet caught up with the new Intel components. Although most of the performance drivers were updated, I couldn't get the iSight Camera (the MacBook Pro's webcam) and the FireWire port to work correctly under Windows XP Pro. My USB mouse would lose connectivity overnight, and disabling Wi-Fi crashed Windows. These are minor issues that Apple will undoubtedly fix in upcoming versions of Boot Camp. In the meantime, I wholeheartedly recommend the use of Parallels for Desktops if you want to dual-boot Windows. Parallels software is a virtualization client that lets you dual-boot without rebooting your system. You should use Boot Camp only when you're playing the latest 3D games or running applications that are heavy in 3D graphics.

MacBook Pro owners have told me that the feature set is more than sufficient for the majority of their tasks. Most of them probably wouldn't dream of criticizing Apple. I, on the other hand, would like to see more, because I'm a reviewer and this is what I do. Two USB ports, as I've said time and time again, are too few for a 15-inch laptop. And anyone who suggests a USB hub is in serious denial. A slot-loading DVD burner is expensive to replace when something goes wrong—then again, anything Apple is expensive to replace. MacBook Pro owners are inevitably going to want to integrate a Blu-ray drive; to accommodate this need, I would like to see an HDMI port. I'm a little surprised that Apple has been reluctant to integrate cellular modems like the EV-DO solutions offered by Sprint and Verizon. Mainstream Windows systems such as the Dell Inspiron 1420 and the Lenovo ThinkPad T61 are offering WWAN on their laptops. Sure, data plans are insanely expensive, but anyone who buys into a MacBook Pro probably has the money to splurge on WWAN connectivity. Unlike the Apple MacBook 13-inch (Core 2 Duo T7200), at least the MacBook Pros have an ExpressCard 34 slot for EV-DO cards. While I'm on the subject of card slots, a multimedia card slot for digital cameras is also on my list of most-wanted features. Of course, there are also things that Windows laptops don't have or don't do well. The iSight camera is arguably the best webcam integrated on a laptop. Its resolution and picture quality, compared with those of its Windows PC counterparts, are phenomenal. You also have the FrontRow interface and a little remote for a truly awesome 10-foot (and farther) experience.

The most compelling upgrades to the MacBook Pro 15-inch (LED) are within. It took Apple over a month after everyone else to announce its own Santa Rosa offerings, but after all, this is Apple—it does things on its own terms. I received the base model ($1,999), which comes with a 2.2-GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T7500 processor, with support for the 800-MHz front-side bus. You can opt for the 2.4-GHz Core 2 Duo T7600 CPU with the midrange model ($2,499), but the performance gains are probably not worth the extra $500. I won't be able to compare benchmark test numbers against those of the previous MacBook Pro 15-inch (Core 2 Duo), since I'm using completely new benchmark tests. But now that Apple has opted not to go with Santa Rosa components for its MacBook 13-inch (Core 2 Duo T7200), I can say that the performance gap between the MacBook and MacBook Pro has widened.

According to the SYSmark 2007 Preview Overall scores, the MacBook Pro is 21 percent faster than the latest MacBook 13-inch. Keep in mind that I'm comparing the base models for the two. Breaking SYSmark 2007 Preview down further, the gap was more evident in the E-Learning suite (Adobe Products), with the MacBook Pro winning by 35 percent. MS Office tasks and 3D scores were 14 percent and 30 percent faster, respectively, on the MacBook Pro (LED). The Lenovo ThinkPad T61 Widescreen garnered slightly better (9 percent faster) SYSmark Overall scores, thanks to a faster processor. With the new nVidia GeForce 8600M GT graphics chipset, the MacBook Pro should also be recognized for its gaming prowess. Its scores on 3DMark06, Prey, and Company of Heroes were nearly twice those of the ThinkPad T61. Best of all, the new graphics chipset has support for DirectX 10 and HDCP, so you're future-proofed for upcoming gaming titles such as Crysis. It's a little harder to compare the new model with its predecessors for battery life, because the benchmark test I have been using, MobileMark 2005, is currently outdated, and MobileMark 2007 is not ready for use yet. The previous MacBook Pro scored 2 hours 45 minutes running MobileMark 2005, and the MacBook Pro 15-inch (LED) scored 2:44 running down a DVD—a process that's typically much more aggressive than a synthetic benchmark test. I estimate that the new model can get you into the 3-to-4-hour battery-life range running day-to-day tasks. I'll know better once MobileMark 2007 ships, but I am confident enough to say that in my view an LED display, combined with better power-management features, does improve battery life.

The Apple MacBook Pro 15-inch (LED) is an impressive machine. With the new components you get a little more performance, and with the LED screen you get better battery life. This model deserves an Editors' Choice, though I will say that the MacBook Pro's next upgrade should be around its second birthday, in January, and it's due for a design change. Not that the current design won't appeal to Mac converts, but in order for Apple to get existing MacBook Pro owners to upgrade, the company will need to do much more than just bump up the processor speed.

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