The Steve Jobs-less Macworld 2009 has ended without much fanfare, but one of the definite highlights of the show was the unveiling of the new 17-inch Macbook Pro.

The full-featured big brother of the Macbook family has finally gotten a much deserved aluminum unibody make-over that ties it in nicely with the rest of Apple’s product line. There will only be one base model for this new 17-inch Macbook Pro which will feature an Intel Core 2 Duo 2.66GHz processor, 4GB RAM, 320GB 5400rpm SATA HDD, NVIDIA 9400M and 9600M GT graphics chips, 3 USB ports, and a 39% bigger glass trackpad as compared to the regular Macbook.

However, there are options available to upgrade to an antiglare display, 2.93GHz processor, 8GB RAM, and 320GB 7200rpm SATA HDD, 128GB or 256GB SSD for storage. It’s also interesting to note that the battery life of this new Macbook Pro is rated at 8 hours on the 9400M chip, while using the more powerful 9600M GT chip lowers it to a respectable 7 hours. That’s really impressive if it can truly lives up to its billing in real world conditions.

The 17-inch unibody Macbook Pro’s starting price is at a whopping $2799. This will hopefully hit the local market before the 1Q of 2009 comes to a close.