I don't understand why everyone is upset by the 13" Macbook Pro specs? Did everyone really think it was going to come with SSD drives in a $1100 laptop? 240 GB SSD drives start out around $460 on Newegg, which would be almost half of the cost of the laptop.
It could have been a lot worse, Apple could have used a Core i3 processor and dropped the Firewire. I actually thought before these pics that the early 2011 13" MBP would be a Core i3, 4GB ram, the intergrated Intel HD graphics, a possibly dropped Firewire replaced by the Intel Thunderbolt port.
I'd say jumping from a 2.4 GHz Core 2 Duo to a 2.3 GHz Core i5 processor is a nice increase in technology. I'd say buy base model, jump over to newegg, and upgrade it with 8GB of ram, and a 240GB SSD. That alone would make it a 13" performance monster. The graphics solution could have been better, but Apple has rarely offered anything decent in the 13" MBP.