Apple's elves gave me more details about the Santa Rosa Macbook Pro. Here's some stuff you don't know about the revision.
How much battery life does the LED Backlighting save?
30 minutes to an hour vs. the older models. (Including savings from Santa Rosa, so there's no way to distinguish the improvements individually.)
Is there a full brightness warmup?
No, its...
instantly at full brightness, unlike traditional LCDs.
What is the comparison in brightness, color range?
Identical to the previous generation.
Why no 17-inch with LEDs?
The 15-inch is the first one [in the industry]. All screens will transition when it's technically and economically feasible.
Glossy and Matte finish in all screen sizes and variants?
Yes.
Does the 1920 by 1200 resolution mean Blu-ray is coming?
No comment.
Resolution has always been great at 115 pixels per inch, until Tiger Leopard's UI scaling comes out, will the fonts be too small?
The DPI number has gone up a bit, but the Custom to Order option for the higher-res screen is geared toward the pro users who need it in the field. (Like those who do full 1080p HD editing in the field).
Hard drive configs: Which are perpendicular and what are the max sizes?
TK on the perpendicular configs. 200GB at 4200 RPM for the 15-inch, and 250GB at 4200RPM at the 17-inch [I'd rather have the faster drives that are slightly smaller, regardless of impact on battery and storage]
Any other improvements?
Speakers on the 17-inch have been improved low frequency response.