The Ars ladies and gents are zero fluff geeks. Which is why I’m recommending you take a look at Eric Bangeman’s review of the new 1920 x 1200 17-inch Macbook Pro.
Mainly, they say the battery life is a little better, but the performance is definitely better. And they wish it had an LED backlight. But you’ll want to be privy to the extra detail in the full review if you’re thinking of buying.
Pros
* Significantly faster than its predecessor
* Build quality and design
* Built-in 802.11n support
* Surprisingly svelte for a 17″ laptop
* High-quality 1920×1200 display great for those who need the resolution
* Faster boot times
* Very beefy default configuration: 2GB of RAM, 160GB hard drive
* Modestly better battery life
Cons
* No LED backlighting
* Both SO-DIMM slots occupied in default configuration
* Relatively poor OpenGL performance versus its predecessor
* Meager software bundle
* Laptop uncomfortably hot to the touch at times
Santa Rosa comes to the Mac: a review of the new MacBook Pro [Ars]
