For some time now, the Macbook Pro 17″ has been on my wish list to be my next computer. However, the non-removable battery, the awful chiclet* keyboard, and (still!) no numeric keypad – despite plenty of space – are all definite minuses.

In spite of the necessity that the battery must be replaced by Apple at a cost of $179, the fact that it provides up to eight hours of run time, especially with such a large screen, is very impressive.

*Apple’s chiclet keyboards join such luminaries as the Tandy CoCo, TI-99/4, IBM PCjr and more recent inductees ASUS and Sony.