Photo: Apple displays 17-inch MacBook Pro

Apple Computer on Monday debuted a 17-inch MacBook Pro, expanding the screen size of its latest notebook line.

MacBook Pro, which was announced in January and features Intel's Duo dual-core chip, is currently available with a 15-inch screen. The new notebooks will begin shipping next week, Apple said in a statement.

The 17-inch MacBook Pro weighs 6.8 pounds and is expected to carry a retail price of $2,799 (£1,573) , according to Apple. Its features will be similar to those found in the 15-inch MacBook Pro, such as a built-in iSight video camera for mobile video conferencing and iChat AV for recording a video podcast or iMovie.

Apple notes that its 17-inch MacBook Pro will feature a 2.16- gigahertz Intel Duo processor, allowing it to run up to five times faster than its PowerBook G4. The notebook will also offer 1 gigabyte of the speedier memory, 667MHz DDR2 SDRAM, which can be expanded up to 2GB.

"The 17-inch MacBook Pro delivers the speed and screen area of a professional desktop system," Philip Schiller, Apple senior vice president of worldwide product marketing, said in a statement.