Filed under: Macbook Pro
MacBook Pro sees a price drop
The Macbook Pro, a formidably-powerful laptop, is a bit pricey for most consumers. Today saw a price drop for a top-of-the-line configuration, which makes the price almost $1000US cheaper. That's a pretty hefty savings, although $3600US is still a hefty sum for the average user. A few months back, I dropped a larger amount on a slightly less-powerful version ... I have no regrets, but who couldn't use an extra grand right now?
The specs I'm referring to are:
- 17-inch
- 3.06GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
- 8GB 1066MHz DDR3 SDRAM
- 500GB Serial ATA drive @7200 rpm (add another US to sub a 256GB solid-state)
- Antiglare display
Adapters and peripherals don't appear to have changed price much, and you'll still need to buy an Apple Remote (there's a new one!) separately (if you need one). Still, for a portable graphics/video-editing machine and all-around powerhouse, that's a great machine, at a new, significantly lower buy-in level.

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
gruvdone said 2:01PM on 10-20-2009
I think you must be smoking some good S--t. There was no price drop on the MBP... the computer as you have spec'd out has been $2700 for a very long time now. If it ever was $3600 (which I highly doubt) it was only that way for a short time.
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Woz said 6:04PM on 10-20-2009
Where are you seeing $2700 ?
If I go to the US Apple Store and spec out a maxed out 17 incher I get a price of $3499
That's for a 17" MacBook Pro
3.06GHz (adds $300 over standard 2.8GHz)
8GB Ram (adds $600 over standard 4GB)
7200 rpm 500GB drive (adds $50 over 5400 rpm drive)
Antiglare screen (adds $50 over glossy screen)
That's a total of $1000 over the stock 17" MBP price which is still showing as $2499 from where I'm sitting, so $3499 in total.
If you can see that spec for $2700 please tell me where! I ask because I ordered this spec machine just over a week ago - due for delivery on Friday!
Joshua Ochs said 2:07PM on 10-20-2009
No price drops on the base systems. However, the memory is slightly less horrifying - used to be an extra grand, and is now $600 or so (looking at a corporate page, so discounts are affecting my estimates some).
Nothing else to see here.
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pax copia said 2:12PM on 10-20-2009
hopefully it will soon get a blu-ray player so that we can backup our data at $3/25GB and watch real HD content
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Aerospeed said 3:06PM on 10-20-2009
Three words: "bag of hurt"
http://www.engadget.com/2008/10/14/steve-jobs-calls-blu-ray-a-bag-of-hurt/
Luis said 2:21PM on 10-20-2009
The MBP 13" should be cheaper now that the new MB is out. The only difference is the enclosure and the $200 more expensive price tag. Oh, also, MB boasts a larger HDD than MBP!
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Actionable Mango said 2:27PM on 10-20-2009
The GPU is a substantial difference too.
SD said 2:42PM on 10-20-2009
The 13" MBP has FW800, the new MB has no Firewire at all, just 2 USB 2.0 ports. You also get a backlit keyboard on the 13" MBP.
Tariq said 2:50PM on 10-20-2009
How much cheaper can they get? You don't think the uninody enclosure along with the glass display and the other little things is worth $200?
Luis said 2:59PM on 10-20-2009
The GPU is the same.
http://www.apple.com/mac/whichmacbook/compare.html
There you can compare. Your $200 will get you (as noted above) SD slot, FW800 and backlit keyboard, aluminum enclosure and 70GB less hard drive.
Not sure if its worth the $200. Hope they lower the price for the pro or ramp up the specs (4GB included in price w/250GB HDD)
Paul said 9:50PM on 10-20-2009
The MBP also supports 8GB of RAM instead of 4 on the MB.
chris.wanja said 3:00PM on 10-20-2009
I am not really sure how you can say that the "anti-glare" is the top of the line. Isn't that simply an opinion or are you just basing it off the fact that you have to pay for that option, thus making it "top of the line".
Post is vague.
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Tim Wilson said 4:06PM on 10-20-2009
The high end 15" got a boost to 500GB as the standard drive, I think, so that saved $100. But on the 17", the only price drop I can find is a $70 break on the 8GB RAM upgrade.
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Rob said 5:04PM on 10-20-2009
Has Apple fixed all the hard drive problems it has been having with the MBPs?
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Harry said 5:08PM on 10-20-2009
They just recently pushed a patch. It helped mine.
Livid said 6:03PM on 10-20-2009
I have a 17'' MBP with the 8GB of RAM option, it has a very big price drop. I called apple today to ask if i could get some type of credit, they told me that because they dont know about price drops the only way to get a credit is within 14 days. I spent $3,263 with a student discount (so $200 off retail price. I configured my model today and got $2,884 for a total price. My laptop is 28 days old. I feel kind of screwed over, I guess thats apple for ya.
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Jeff Byrnes said 5:33PM on 10-21-2009
@Livid - You should get in touch with the store online, see if they'll help you out. Worth a try, you never know…
Tony said 8:22PM on 10-20-2009
I just brought the 13" Macbook Pro model late last week with a student discount. I spent $2200 (a hard drive size bump) in the New Zealand Apple store and now the base price is $1700. Yeah, I got screw over.
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Maxintech said 6:06PM on 10-21-2009
I want a MBP with core-i7. Maybe in the next cycle.
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Monica said 10:53PM on 10-21-2009
I am sure the next one is going to be better. They always pull the good stuff out.
Monica S.
Los Angeles Computer Repair
http://www.sebecomputercare.com