New Apple MacBooks: Now with added Penryn

Apple has just unveiled what we've all been expecting for months: new MacBooks and MacBook Pros that sport new Intel 'Penryn' Core 2 Duo CPUs. The Pros will also benefit from multi-touch mouse trackpads -- just like the MacBook Air and iPod touch.

What is Penryn? Simply put, it's Intel's first 45 nanometer microprocessor. It's an improvement on the previous Core microarchitecture introduced in 2007, and promises to deliver more performance at the same clock speeds.

The 15-inch MacBook Pro now ships with either a 2.4GHz T8300 or 2.5GHz T9300 Penryn CPU. The 17-inch models will use either 2.5GHz T9300 or 2.6GHz T9500 Penryns, up to 4GB of RAM, and have up to 300GB of disk space. Like the 15-inch models, the 17-inch MacBook Pro now has an optional LED backlit display. The 15-incher gets an optional 512MB of graphics memory, as do all the 17-inch models, which should keep Mac gamers happy. Yes, both of them.

The standard MacBook gets new CPUs, too: 2.1GHz T8100 and 2.4GHz T8300 CPUs. You also get a range of hard drives from 120GB up to 250GB, but not the multi-touch-enabled trackpads. Apart from that, it's pretty much the same as before.

Okay, it's not the major MacBook overhaul some of us had hoped for, but we thought we'd fill you in anyway. MacBook prices start from £699, while MacBook Pros go for £1,299 and above, direct from Apple. -Rory Reid

Update: Read our full Apple MacBook Pro (2008 Edition, 15-in, 2.5GHz) review.