The 15-in. model now comes in three varieties, all of them with 4GB of RAM — which you can double to 8GB for a hefty $1,000 — and hard drives with between 250GB and 500GB of space, or solid-state disk drives of 128GB or 256GB. For $300 more, the 2.8GHz model can be ordered with a 3.06GHz chip — the first time Apple has offered a processor beyond 3GHz in a laptop. It’s also an option on the 17-in. MacBook Pro.

For those who plan to take their laptop on the road, the 15-in. MacBook Pro weighs in at 5.5 pounds, one pound less than its big brother and a pound more than the newly renamed 13-in. MacBook Pro.

The most obvious change to the MacBook Pro line is the loss of the ExpressCard/34 slot. It’s been replaced by an SD card slot to make transferring pictures from digital cameras easier, according to Apple officials. (You can even install Mac OS X on an SD card and use it to boot the computer, according to an Apple Knowledge Base document explaining the SD slot’s use. Talk about an OS in your pocket!)

The only Pro model that retains the ExpressCard slot is the 17-incher, and I wouldn’t be surprised if the next generation of this model drops the slot as well. Why the change? Apple says its research shows customers are interested in more easily transferring digital pictures from their cameras. The SD slot means no fumbling for cables.

The slot works exactly as you’d expect. Just slide an SD card in — metal contacts side down — and an SD card icon pops up on your desktop. When I tested it, iPhoto promptly launched and quickly imported my photos. I then dragged the icon to the trash can to “eject” it, and pulled it out of the slot. There’s no spring mechanism; you just slide it in and pull it out. If you don’t see an icon show up on the desktop, you may have to try again. Apple recommends inserting it with a smooth sliding motion.

Another minor change — one you’d have to look for to really notice — is that the Mini DisplayPort video port is now sandwiched between a FireWire 800 port and two USB ports. All of the ports are on the left side of the case; the SuperDrive for playing and burning CDs and DVDs is on the right. Otherwise, the new MacBook Pro sports the same unibody aluminum-and-black look as before. The glass-coated one-piece trackpad/clicker button is back unchanged, and the laptop feels comfortably solid — a credit to the unibody design.

Less obvious is the non-removable lithium-polymer battery, which offers substantially more time on juice than earlier models. The 17-in. MacBook Pro, which comes with the same 2.8GHz processor as the top-end 15-in. model, was the first in the lineup to get the integrated battery back in January. Apple says it can power the 17-in. model for eight hours, and I easily got about 6.5 hours of use without trying very hard when reviewing that particular laptop earlier this year.

15" macBook pro Led-backlit Widescreen Empty Box A1286 + Os X Install Disc 10.6 US $55.00 End Date: Wednesday Jun-06-2012 5:18:52 PDT Add to watch list

Apple MacBook Pro i7 2GHz 4GB 500GB 15.4'' OSx Lion 10.7 (Aluminum) 793567*2 US $1,568.54 End Date: Tuesday May-29-2012 8:56:43 PDT Add to watch list

Second, Apple re-implemented the 13-inch’s FireWire connectivity in the form of a single backwards-compatible FireWire 800 port. Hallelujah!

And finally, the new 13-inch MacBook Pros now feature a Secure Digital (SD) memory card slot. Having an internal SD card reader is obviously handy for photographers and videographers whose cameras record to the popular SD format, but that’s not its only function—it can be used as a startup disk. After using OS X’s Disk Utility to format and create a GUID partition on a 8GB card, we installed Leopard on the card and were able to use it as a startup disk.

NEW sealed AppleCare for 13" Macbook / Pro / Air SHIPS FAST US $199.00 End Date: Thursday May-31-2012 13:42:41 PDT Add to watch list

Genuine Leather Back Pack MacBook Pro 15" compatible by JLP Melbourne US $196.15 End Date: Wednesday Jun-13-2012 6:55:02 PDT Add to watch list

13" MacBook Pro aluminum unibody Sleep light LED US $79.98 End Date: Monday Jun-04-2012 9:15:19 PDT Add to watch list

APPLE MacBook Pro 13" Aluminum unibody SLEEP LED LIGHT US $49.98 End Date: Monday Jun-11-2012 16:16:01 PDT Add to watch list