PC World's latest review of laptops has discovered the fastest laptop to run Microsoft's latest incarnation of Windows - Vista. The ironic antithesis of it all, the laptop happens to be a 17" 2.4 GHz Core 2 Duo MacBook Pro.

The fastest Windows Vista notebook we've tested this year is a Mac. Try that again: The fastest Windows Vista notebook we've tested this year--or for that matter, ever--is a Mac. Not a Dell, not a Toshiba, not even an Alienware. The $2419 (plus the price of a copy of Windows Vista, of course) MacBook Pro's PC WorldBench 6 Beta 2 score of 88 beats Gateway's E-265M by a single point, but the MacBook's score is far more impressive simply because Apple couldn't care less whether you run Windows.

Unfortunately, the flip side of this article is not quite as glowing. Reporter Carla Thornton promotes several false observations:
-No memory card slots - There are two and they are filled when purchased. As with all Core 2 Duos, the memory must be installed in pairs since there are only two slots, a memory upgrade consists of removing (trading) the original DIMMS and replacing with the larger 2GB version (4GB max on 17" MBP).
UPDATE: Thanks to a astute reader and my not apparently knowing the notebook community.

The Macbook/Macbook Pro doesn't have any memory card slots, actually. It has two RAM slots, but she's talking about memory CARDS ? SD, CF, xD, etc.

-Only three USB ports - It's a 1" notebook meant to be portable, why do you need more USB ports? Carla back-burners the fact that there are also two Firewire ports, something really necessary for a high-end professional computer.

-2.75 hour battery life: Yes, that is a confirmed number by MacWorld magazine in its June 2007 review that says with the Airport running streaming audio and doing regular Microsoft Word processing, they were able to eke out 2.5 Hours. But they were able to obtain three hours of DVD playback. As with the iPhone, if you turn off the radios (Airport and Bluetooth) and perform standard office type tasks, you will see the 5.75 hours projected by Apple. Once LED backlighting (no Mercury) is included in the 17" MBP, a significant increase in battery life could be realized. Then she goes on to claim that although the MBP has built in Bluetooth and 802.11n wireless, it has NO built-in cellular wireless. Flashback, iPhone not 3G response at the UK iPhone event by Steve Jobs "3G chips are battery hogs, it would cut the talk time on the iPhone down by two or three hours", from the eight hours advertised.

The author totally misses the fact that the 17" display can be purchased with HD resolution of 1,920 by 1,200 pixels (WUXGA - 16:10), instead of the standard 1,680 by 1,050 pixels (WSXGA+). What that means, for the first time you are able to work with 1080p video content at full native pixel resolution.

In conclusion, if you want the best all around portable computer no matter in which camp you prefer to work, then the MBP 17" is the machine of choice.

Let us know what you think over in the comments and forums.