The MacBook is finally here. After months of wondering when it will come, we now have it in our hands. The iBook has been Intel-ified, and damn, it's a cracker of a laptop - but more of that later. For those that don't know, Apple's product range is all going Intel and the iBook replacement was the one people were looking forward to most, as the MacBook Pro (as superb as it is) was a bit rich for some people's blood, starting at $3199. The MacBook however, starts at $1749 and is Apple's consumer notebook. In the review, I'll be going over each of the new features in the MacBook and just giving an opinion of how I found it in general use for the day and a half I had it with me.
Computers Now in Malvern got the MacBook 1.83GHz model in for demo and that's what I have here. A fully stock config. Full specs, as usual, are on the
Apple website. There is a black MacBook available, which I'd be interested to see in the "flesh", as it's got a matte finish as opposed to the gloss on the white MacBook. You do pay a premium for the black however - the white MacBook with 2GHz CPU and 80GB HDD is $2189, the black MacBook with the exact same specs, is $2399. A $210 difference for the black paint job. Some people will just have to have it, but I think most people will have some common sense and just get the white one and invest that $210 in some extra RAM instead.
The MacBook is probably the most re-designed machine brought about by the switch to Intel. It's slightly thinner and wider than the 12" iBook, and is a little heavier (by 200grams). However, it has a nice 13" widescreen with a decent resolution (1280x800). I owned a 12" iBook for a few months and I can say this is much friendlier to use. The screen resolution alone is a fantastic upgrade. It's just as easy to carry with you as the 12" iBook was, you can't notice the extra miniscule weight. If you've held an iBook before, this is no different in terms of it's finish.
Immediatley when opening up the MacBook, you notice there's no latch. It's just a magnet that holds the lid to the base of the laptop. It's great to have the latch gone, as wonderful as it was for a latch, it still got stuck sometimes, and would often fail completley later on in the life of the machine. With no moving parts for a latch on the MacBook, it's virtually fail-proof (I say that with caution, someone will manage to mangle it somehow I bet, no matter how much foresight I think I have). There is also the MagSafe power connector we now know and love from the MacBook Pro (someone at Apple loves magnets).
The screen is a contentious issue when we all saw the MacBook specs up on the Apple page. "Glossy?!" we all cried in disdain, thinking of those super shiny Sony, Samsung and Toshiba displays that reflect like a bastard and generally didn't look that great. I can say with much pleasure, the MacBook glossy screen is fantastic. I reckon it looks better than the 17" iMac display, with more depth in the colours and just looking better in general. I took it outside during some sunny periods in the weather and it was still very useable, with no noticeable downsides. You can pretty much use it the same way you would your matte screen. The best laptop LCD I've ever looked at (and I thought the MacBook Pro screen was good). The only negative of the glossy screen are finger prints. They are much more obvious and have a habit of collecting easily.
The distinctive keyboard is another thing I was interested to see. Simply put, it's the best laptop keyboard I've ever used. I thought the keyboard on the MacBook Pro was good, this craps all over it. The keys are finally spaced properly! This prevents the key-mashing problem that I would often have with laptop keyboards. The key bounce is comfortable and the texture of the keys is nice and grained, not a polished front that can be slippery. However, if your keyboard does stuff up (e.g spilt drink on it, or lose a key), the entire top panel needs to be replaced, instead of just the keyboard. Which looks like more of a pain to get fixed by a tech and will probably increase the cost if it's user fault or out of warranty. A small price to pay for such a wonderful keyboard though. While on the topic of input, the trackpad can now be tapped twice for a double click and you can also scroll with the trackpad and right-click by tapping with two fingers. I turned all those features off, but if you're into them, they work great and they're there for you to use.
Small, but significant new features on the MacBook include the Apple Remote & Front Row. If you haven't seen it yet, it's pretty cool and needs to be seen to be explained properly. So get to an AppleCenter and ask one of the sales people there to show you Front Row. Same goes for the iSight camera built into the MacBook and which is on all the other Macs except the Mini. 640x480 resolution and it works quite well. The MacBook also has line inputs now, which is something iBook previously lacked. They are digital and analogue ports, so if you have an amp that has digital inputs for audio, the MacBook will spit out a digital signal for you, via the same port as the regular analogue signal, which I think is very cool. You can now also mirror or span your MacBook to an external DVI or VGA monitor without needing to apply the hack like previously. You do need to purchase the Mini-DVI to DVI adaptor separately however (it's $35). Same goes for putting the video of the MacBook to a TV or projector. You need to purchase the Mini-DVI to Video adaptor, which has an S-Video and Composite output port on it and is also $35. The 56k Modem has been removed, so if you need to use that antiquated piece of technology, you should pick up the Apple USB modem (which is very svelte for a modem mind you) for $79.
The attention to detail is no surprise on Apple gear, but the way they've handled the feet on the MacBook made me grin. I know of a few people who have damaged or lost the little feet on the base of their iBook and as a consequence, have a wobbly iBook when on a flat surface. Well, Apple has made the feet in a way where they can't be knocked off, but integrating them within the plastic moulding of the case. It will make more sense when you look at the pictures below, I promise. A big, but not a physical feature of the MacBook is battery life. After a few hours of use, I noticed that the battery isn't dead yet. To my surprise, Apple managed to wrangle 6 hours of battery life out the MacBook. A great improvement over the iBook. Another feature of the MacBook that Apple hasn't included latley is a user-accessible hard-disk. I didn't have time to try this out myself, but out on the net there are instructions to do this. Basically, you can remove the hard disk yourself, but taking the battery out, removing a metal plate and pulling the tab attached the hard-disk. This is great for people who may want a 120GB disk, but aren't prepared to pay $395 Apple wants for it. (A SATA 120GB 2.5" drive can be had for $270 pretty easily around the PC stores). And, the last little feature I noticed over the iBook is Gigabit ethernet. It's also worth noting, that the SuperDrive model MacBook isn't a dual layer SuperDrive.
The performance of this machine is pretty much on par for it's specs. It will handle all the iLife stuff with aplomb and with enough RAM, is a very speedy machine. The Intel CPU really kicks things along compared to the ancient G4 CPU. Obviously, the lack of a discrete graphics chip-set (the MacBook uses the Intel Integrated GMA 950 graphics integrated into the Intel chip-set) will hamper things dependent on 3D GPU grunt (Aperture, Motion, Shake, games). So if you were hoping the MacBook would be a little Windows gaming machine with Boot Camp installed, you're out of luck, as the GMA 950 video chip-set isn't playing any modern games at a decent frame-rate any time soon. So unless you have a specific desire for 3D grunt, the integrated video of the MacBook shouldn't be of any concern really.
It played back 1080p Quicktime files from the Apple website perfectly fine with no issues during playback. It used about 130% of CPU time, for you people keeping score at home. Encoding a DVD with Handbrake, to XviD, yielded me approximately 35fps. And whilst doing that, I took notice of the heat, which many people seem to be concerned (un-necessarily in my opinion) about. It cranked away for over an hour encoding some DVDs for me and of course, the case got warm, but nothing shocking, especially compared to the MacBook Pro, which got far too warm to touch. But this is basically because the MacBook has a plastic case and the MacBook Pro, a metal one, which conducts heat, making it hot to touch. But what I'm really trying to say here, is that heat isn't an issue with the MacBook. It was on my lap most of the time and it was a nice cosy warm, and it also kept my fingers warm whilst typing this.
So to bring this review home, the MacBook is a perfect sibling to the MacBook Pro. It's a perfectly capable notebook at the right price. The keyboard is my stand out feature of the MacBook. I used it to type up this review and it's been a pleasure to use. Normally I struggle with notebook keyboards, but this was a smooth typing session indeed. The glossy screen surprised me also, being of high quality and lower glare than I expected. It's also great to have that increased resolution to bring us into the 21st century (1024x768 is so 1999). The The MagSafe connector, iSight and remote aren't new to me, but it's great to see them included on Apple's consumer notebook. It's also no slouch when it comes to performance. For any task that's not 3D dependent, the MacBook flies with it's Core Duo 1.83 & 2.0GHz CPU. Oh, and it's nice and thin too. I guess the only thing to think about now, is if you want it in black or white?
Thanks again to
Computers Now Malvern for letting me borrow their MacBook (after only having it one day) over the weekend to do this review on. If you're interested in picking up a MacBook, come see me (
Anthony) or any of the sales crew at
Computers Now in Malvern to have a chat about it.
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