We'll admit to being extremely wary whenever Apple makes changes to the 15-inch MacBook Pro. 15-inch MBPs running all manner of operating systems are pervasive in the Engadget ranks, and when we hit the road at events like CES and E3 we tend to standardize on them so we can do things like... share batteries. So it's fair to say we went into testing somewhat skeptical, and after a week with the midrange $1,999 configuration we're only slightly less ambivalent about Apple's latest revision of its most popular pro machine.

Apple did two things simultaneously that are usually contradictory; they lowered the price of their entire MacBook Pro line while at the same time bumping up the specs. The 15-inch version now starts at $1699 and caps out at $2299, down from $1999 and $2499. What's even nicer is that the 13-inch MacBook—which previously didn't have a Firewire slot or a "nicer" screen—got absorbed into the MacBook Pro family and is now virtually indistinguishable from the rest of the Pro line.

Maybe it's because I've been staring at 13-in. screens for the better part of a year now -- starting with a MacBook Air and moving on to a late-model MacBook. For whatever reason, the 15-in. MacBook Pro seems larger than it is. This is a good thing. (More than one person asked me whether this was the new 17-in. model when first seeing it.)

The 15-inch MacBook Pro has historically been the most popular model in Apple’s pro notebook lineup. It’s certainly easier to tote around than its more powerful and hefty 17-inch big brother, though its feature-to-price ratio compared favorably. Now, with Apple’s debut of a 13-inch MacBook Pro, the standard-bearer is now relegated to the middle ground. While this update to the 15-inch category delivers better value and even more specification options, the upgrades to this newly appointed mid-2009 model are more nuanced than flashy.

The good: Price cut from previous version; new SD card slot; keeps the same solid unibody construction and oversize trackpad. The bad: Loses the ExpressCard slot; switching GPUs not as seamless as it should be. The bottom line: Apple's 15-inch MacBook Pro makes only minor tweaks to the previous version, but cutting prices and swapping the ExpressCard slot for an SD card slot are enough to make it a solid improvement over its predecessor.