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MacBook Pro (17-inch, Unibody, 2009)
Laptop · 2009

MacBook Pro (17-inch, Unibody, 2009)

A unibody 17-inch with a sealed battery that lasts up to eight hours.

Vintage Intel Core 2 Duo, 2.66 GHz 17" Released Jan 27, 2009
Launch price from $2,799
Aluminum

Overview

Announced at Macworld in January 2009, the 17-inch MacBook Pro brought the unibody construction to the largest laptop Apple sold. The big innovation was a non-removable lithium-polymer battery rated for up to eight hours and a thousand charge cycles, a significant improvement over earlier large laptops.

It carried a 2.66 GHz Core 2 Duo processor, an NVIDIA GeForce 9400M and 9600M GT graphics pair with 512 MB of video memory, and a 17-inch display at 1920 by 1200 pixels. It kept FireWire 800 and an ExpressCard slot and gained three USB ports.

The 17-inch model was updated through 2011 with Core i5 and i7 chips and was discontinued when the Retina MacBook Pro line took over.

Why it mattered

Brought the sealed long-life battery and unibody build to the largest MacBook Pro.

At a glance

Announced
January 6, 2009
Released
January 27, 2009
Discontinued
June 11, 2012
Launch price
$2,799
Chip / processor
Intel Core 2 Duo, 2.66 GHz
Display
17"
Storage
320 GB
Status
Vintage

Highlights

  • 17-inch 1920 x 1200 display
  • Built-in battery up to 8 hours
  • Dual NVIDIA graphics
  • ExpressCard/34 slot
  • Unibody aluminum case

Tech specs

Specifications as published at launch. Some values (like battery life) are manufacturer estimates.

Display

Size
17-inch
Type
LED-backlit widescreen
Resolution
1920 x 1200

Chip

Chip
Intel Core 2 Duo, 2.66 GHz

Memory

RAM
4 GB DDR3, expandable to 8 GB
Storage options
320 GB hard drive

Battery

Battery life
Up to 8 hours

Ports

Ports
3 USB 2.0, FireWire 800, Mini DisplayPort, ExpressCard/34, Gigabit Ethernet

Connectivity

Wi-Fi
802.11n

Design

Weight
3.0 kg (6.6 lb)

Software

Launch OS
Mac OS X 10.5.6

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