Today Apple announced what they claim to be the world’s thinnest and lightest 17-inch notebook computer.

This computer uses the same unibody aluminum enclosure that Apple touted with their new MacBooks and MacBook Pros last autumn. The key differences with this one are, of course, the massive 17″ 1920 by 1200 screen and a non-user-serviceable battery. That’s right, you can’t remove this battery but as a result Apple took advantage of their reduced design constraints to deliver up to 8 hours of battery life on a charge.

Other differences over the existing 15″ MacBook Pro are the extra USB 2.0 port included on the new 17″ notebook, availability of a 256GB solid-state drive, a 2.66 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor standard (2.93 Ghz optional), and an optional anti-glare display for an extra $50.