Cupertino (CA) - Apple has upgraded its premium notebooks with Intel's latest dual-core processors. The company promises that the new CPUs will speed up the Macbook Pro by up to 39%.

As in previous system versions, Apple limits processor choices and in the most recent case, to Intel's fastest chips. The Macbook Pro now comes standard with a T7400, 2.13 GHz CPU, which integrates 4 MB of L2 cache. The 2 MB T5600 (1.83 GHz) and T5400 (1.66 GHz) as well as the T7200 (2.0 GHz, 4 MB) are not offered for the Macbook Pro.

Apple's value proposition for the new notebooks is more performance, but also an enhanced feature set, which includes twice the system memory (1 GB and 2 GB standard) as well as a Firewire 800 port. The company claims that the updated computers are up to 39% faster than previous 2.16 GHz Core Duo versions and up to seven times faster than a 1.67 GHz PowerBook G4.

Pricing for the 2.16 GHz (T7400), 15" Macbook Pro starts at $2000 and includes a 120 GB hard drive, 1 GB memory, a DVD burner, as well as an ATI X1600 (128 MB) graphics chip. The top end is represented by a T7600 (2.33 GHz) version with a 17" screen, a 160 GB drive, 2 GB of memory, as well as a 256 MB X1600 graphics chip for $2800. Hardware options include up to 3 GB of memory and a 200 GB hard drive which increase the price to about $3500.

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