MacBook Pro - one step forward, two steps back?

Since the death of my latest PC notebook, I have been looking for "the perfect laptop", not the a-typical Best Buy type specials. From experience and personal needs, I do know what I want;

NEEDS
Duo Core (multitasking- large apps)
Outdoor/sun-resistant, low-res 14/(15" best)standard size screen 4:3
Decent speaker sound
Ultra mobile connectivity (wifi, EVDO, modem)
Long battery life

WANTS
Flat, large keys
Lighter color keyboard (for working in non-perfect lighting)
Lightweight
Durable
Media friendly

Well, you get the idea: I'll be using this baby very remotely for sizable chunks of time!

Having saif that, it's been harder than you would think to find and/or configure this laptop.

I found a hidden Apple store today with an informative, reserved and experienced salesman (thank you!). I learned a great deal in 2 hours trying out the Macs and watching the aplications being booted up and utilized; I needed more time!

I instantly fell for the Apple MacBook Pro, even with the widescreen: the slightly matte screen is bold and beautiful: must be truly outstanding even in broad daylight! And, as if that's not enough, the keyboard automatically lights up when it detects darkness!

A large issue is also resolved with BootCamp, because I will run Windows in the future. Just having the option is a step up from PCs.

Missing some serious stuff though: no PC card slot(up-to-date connectivity EVDO or ?, modem), standard size screen for long document work, only 2 USB slots (at home I have 4 and use 4!)and hmmm, short battery life?Is it true about the battery life? Anyone using Macbook Pro have actual times regarding the standard battery life, and/or can a longer lasting battery be obtained for this series? Very Important!

Otherwise: "them Apples are starting to look better and better..."

If I could get the battery life issue and the "revision D" (known overheat/"whining" issue on series numbers W8611/12) resolved: it just might be "the perfect laptop", for me.

Is anyone confused as to why the posted DVD burning speed for the MacBook Pro is only 4x when the old PowerBook G4's are 8x? Is this a misprint on Apple's site?

Your comments: 37. If the PCMCIA Slot was 54 mm wide yea theoretically it could but it's 2.125 inches/54mm wide for each PCMCIA card, and the new express card slot is 34 mm wide. You would need an adaptor to use it and then the card would stick out the whole laptop. Also 41, the article is slightly wrong, a PCMCIA card won't work in a Expresscard 54 slot, since the 54 is just how wide it is OUTSIDE the slot. From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Expresscard#ExpressCard_.28Newcard.29 ......

"ExpressCard supports two form factors, ExpressCard/34 (34 mm wide) and ExpressCard/54 (54 mm wide, in an L-shape) the connector is the same width (34 mm) on both. Standard cards are 75 mm long (10.6 mm shorter than CardBus) and 5 mm thick, but may be thicker on sections that extend outside the standard form factor for antennas, sockets, etc."

37. The ExpressCard slot or whatever it's called does support PCMCIA cards. I called Apple Sales line and verified this.

According to this review, it doesn'at:
http://www.computerworld.com/hardwaretopics/hardware/story/0,10801,107632,00.html

um, one biggie, lower pixel resolution than the current powerbooks. That's a real bummer.

Am I the only one thats missing the 17"? This 15.4 is the same price as the older 17's.. so that smells like a price hike coming.

Also this could be a trick and this model is really the new ibook? With the really, really, fast books coming soon.

Say a MacBook ADVANCED? LOL.. this could explain the loss of such critical features we all love and use.

But seriously, if a 17" would have been released. I would have ordered.

I also would like clarification on the CS2 issue. If MacBooks can't run CS2 then there's no way I would buy one.

Lack of FireWire 800 completely eliminates video and film production users as a market.

Lack of an internal modem partly eliminates, and completely annoys, world travelers as a market.

If you travel only within the U.S. or major European cities and avoid bed & breakfasts, country villas & motels, then you have no idea what I'm talking about. I travel to rural Asia frequently, and in the U.S. I like the bed & breakfasts. I've also been known to stop at a motel here and there. If I owned a MacBook I would NEED to carry an external modem, no question.

On the same subject, if the diminutive AirPort Express could just bridge modem-to-bluetooth (Steve? Anyone?), or modem-to-WiFi the way the AirPort Extreme does, that would really take the sting out of having no built-in modem port.

The ExpressCard slot or whatever it's called does support PCMCIA cards. I called Apple Sales line and verified this.

First up - this should be the machine that finally lets me switch from my PC back to Mac. We write software of all sorts but I have to demo enough Windows software that it was never an option tohave a PowerBook before. Now I am assuming that I will be able to either dual boot Windows, or worst case run a fast VirtualPC session on an Intel Mac. Has anyone had this confirmed yet?

Secondly I live in Jakarta, Indonesia and would like to remind those who claimed that WiFi and broadband is everywhere that there is a big wide world outside USA and we definately need modems in many situations. Going back to an external modem really sucks...

Still getting the first one I see though (might be a longer wait than the rest of you!)