Apple Unveils New Macbook

Several readers have written in to mention that Apple has released the new Macbook on their site. Yahoo! has details from the press release: "With prices starting at just $1,099, the MacBook lineup includes three models: a 1.83 GHz and 2.0 GHz MacBook in a newly designed, sleek white enclosure and a 2.0 GHz MacBook in a stunning new black enclosure. The new MacBook offers performance up to five times faster than the iBook and up to four times faster than the 12-inch PowerBook with a completely new system architecture including a 667 MHz front-side bus and 667 MHz DDR2 SDRAM memory expandable to 2GB."

Stunning new black enclosure?

[Whiney Mac Fanboy]

and a 2.0 GHz MacBook in a stunning new black enclosure.

What the article doesn't mention is that the new black enclosure is made from the same patented finish as the ipod nano [engadget.com] ;-)

Seriously, $1099 for the low end one is making these look pretty tempting, but I'm going to have to wait for the fourth gen (instead of usual second gen) for mactel stuff.

Specs and Prices (US and UK)

[jjeffrey]

The new system is availabe in three specs. All have:

13.3-inch widescreen display
1280 x 800 resolution
512MB memory (2 x 256MB SODIMMs)
USB, Bluetooth 2.0 and Firewire
Airport

The bottom end model has:

60GB 5400-rpm Serial ATA hard drive 2
Combo drive (DVD-ROM, CD-RW)
White

US: $1099 UK: £749 ($1423)

The mid-range model has:

60GB 5400-rpm Serial ATA hard drive 2
SuperDrive (DVD±RW, CD-RW)
White

US: $1288 UK: £899 ($1708)

The high-end model has:

80GB 5400-rpm Serial ATA hard drive 2
SuperDrive (DVD±RW, CD-RW)
Black or White

US: $1499 UK: £1028.99 ($1953)

So.. Once again Apple think that in the UK we should pay as much as 30% more for the privilege of having a machine shipped across the Atlantic and a couple of keys in a different place. Great.

Any colour you like

[digitaldc]

1.83Ghz - $1099.00
2.0 Ghz, 60GB HDD- $1299.00
2.0 Ghz, 80GB HDD, Black - $1499.00

So you will pay an extra $400 for approximately 0.17Ghz faster speed, 20GB more space and a black finish to look cool?

Why not just release it for $1500 and include a 100GB HD, 2Ghz, and the choice of any colour you like?

Not good enough.

[Shivetya]

Integrated graphics? I thought Apple was about being better equipped? This is the deal killer for me. I can't imagine using integrated graphics. If this was a HTPC then yeah its ok (see mini), but its not.

Shipping with 2xSODIMMS? (meaning your tossing out both) Essentially ripping off the customer.

Black is essentially a premium color? It cost more that the system below it with a $50 upgrade to the HDD.

The price points are good for Apple.

Re:MacBook Vs Dell

[MuckSavage]

Just built me a Dell online and matched up the specs as closely as possible. Here's what I made:


Latitude D620:
Intel® Core(TM) Duo T2400 (1.83GHz) 667Mhz Dual Core
Operating Systems:
Genuine Windows® XP Home Edition, SP2, with media
LCDs:
14.1 inch Wide Screen WXGA LCD Panel
Graphics:
Intel® Integrated Graphics Media Accelerator 950
Memory:
512MB, DDR2-533 SDRAM, 1 DIMM
Hard Drives:
60GB Hard Drive, 9.5MM, 5400RPM
Optical Drive - Modular:
24X CD-RW/DVD w/ Cyberlink PowerDVD(TM)
Wireless LAN (802.11):
Dell Wireless(TM) 1390 802.11g Mini Card
Bluetooth:
Dell Wireless® 350 Bluetooth Module

I assume that a "mini card" with regards to wireless is a plug in thing? I'm pretty sure it would say internal if it was built in, but some one who knows more about Dell can correct me.

Total Price: $1466.00 or 1216.00 after instant rebate.

Re:Specs and Prices (US and UK)

[BenjyD]

Except, of course, that the UK price includes VAT, making the actual price differential 7% or so.

Re:Stunning new black enclosure?

[gEvil (beta)]

Large icons, large space between, damn irresonable spacing between controls.

That's why icon size and icon spacing are fully adjustable. Not sure what you mean by "irresonable spacing between controls" though.

Re:Once again...

[SlamMan]

Apple's pages list this a replacement for the 12" Powerbook as well as the iBook.

One thing that is definitely a welcome addition

[Clockwurk]

is the addition of screen spanning, mirroring, and lid closed operation with a external monitor. Integrated graphics are a bummer, but are expected given their appearence in the mac mini. The new screen is long overdue (a 1024x768 screen doesn't cut it in 2006). Now the only thing we still are waiting on is a replacement for the powermac, but seeing as how few of the major pro apps are universal binaries, that release may be a ways down the road.

Re:Specs and Prices (US and UK) (VAT anyone??)

[ImdatS]

The difference is partially in VAT. If you calculate the VAT out of the price, the difference between US- and UK-price is (still) US$ 150 on the black and US$ 144 on the white 2GHz.

I don't know if there is any additional tax or whatever in UK. I guess the difference is to compensate for the current exchange rate (US$ vs GBP and US$ vs EUR) as well as for administrative overhead in Europe (Apple Europe + Apple UK)

Dual Channel for the graphics adapter

[IYagami]

The use of RAM in pairs is due to the inclusion of an Intel Integrated Graphics.

If you put the RAM in pairs the amount of bandwith is double compared to the use of one single module (dual channel vs single channel)

Re:Specs and Prices (US and UK)

[flooey]

The new system is availabe in three specs.

It also looks like Apple put together a spec comparison chart [apple.com], for those who are interested.

pairing

[a_greer2005]

I beleive with certin types of DDR ram, pairing yeilds better proformance than a single bigger DIM, so I would probably match both slots with new ram anyway if I were upgrading; hell, for ~$200 from a 3rd party, why not upgrade to 2GB

It's there.

[DeRobeHer]

According to the comparison chart http://store.apple.com/Catalog/US/Images/compariso n_chart.html [apple.com] , both the MacBook and the MacBook Pro have a built in omnidirectional microphone. Why it's not listed on the technical specs, I don't know.

Re:New MacBook pretty close to the Pro in specs

[Moby Cock]

Yes, resolution. And the integrated graphics chip. The Pros have Radeon Mobility chips as opposed to the Intel graphics in the new Macbook. But, unless you do a lot of heavy graphics manipulations (or play WoW) the new Macbooks are real nice.

Re:Only 512 MB of RAM

[noewun]

We all know OS X runs like a dog on 512 MB of RAM

We do? Cause 10.4.6 runs just fine on my 6 year old, 500 MHz G3 laptop with 512 megs of RAM. Runs as fast as Ubuntu Linux, dual-booted on the same machine.

Re:No Microphone?!

[Kaelan]

A couple of observations... as mentioned in another reply, it is listed on the comparison chart, despite absent from the technical specs. Also, while not conclusive, there is a distince difference in appearance of the iSight camera on the top bezel. If you look at the picture on the iSight page for the MacBook, there is a small hole on the left side, opposite the active-led. This hole is absent on the MacBook Pros, as the microphone is built into the speaker grille. I'm betting the tech specs simply overlooked its presence, lumping it into a standard iSight feature.

Re:Glossy screen on MacBook Pro

[Anonymous Coward]

It really doesn't. I have a "glossy" hi-def screen. It actually makes things seem brighter and it is definitely much easier to see the screen compared to "regular" laptop screens.

Make a fair comparison

[GauteL]

"1 GB RAM (can't get 512)"

Then why not just upgrade the iBook to 1GB? It then costs $1,249.

Thus the price difference is $1540 - $1249 = $291.

Your price difference is wrong, and you have not included the cost of the 80GB HD upgrade.

I still think that is an amazing deal, even though you get a slightly smaller screen.

Re:Glossy screen on MacBook Pro

[miscz]

Except for the times you have to use a notebook in real life, outdoors or in sunlight. Glossy LCDs are worse than old CRTs when it comes to reflecting light. Their colours are great but only in good conditions, colours on the classic matte displays may be more bland but at least I can see something when I go out on a sunny day. I understand that some people use notebooks just as a stationary computers but 13" MacBook seemed to be a mainly a portable system.

Re:Not quite apples and apples

[amliebsch]

You must remember that unlike Windows, OS X isn't bloatware.

Bloat or no bloat, OSX on Core Duo seems to trail the pack in simple horsepower.

http://sekhon.berkeley.edu/macosx/intel.html [berkeley.edu]

Re:Dell vs Apple Price Comparison

[sheldon]

Dell gives you multiple options and ability to custom configure, plus there are a variety of discounts.

Dell Inspiron E1405
WXGA screen(as opposed to the WXGA+ upgrade)
Core Duo 1.83
512 Megs RAM
60 Gig HD (The MacBook comes with a 60 gig, not 80)
Intel 3945 802.11/a/b/g card
Bluetooth
1 Year Warranty
  $1037
- $300 coupon
= $737

Re:Graphic card

[miscz]

-Think about Intel GMA950 as something like GeForce 3, maybe GF4, but with worse compatibility. Some Windows Games won't run (Psychonauts come to my mind as I tried to run it on my friend's notebook with GMA900) but for example Half Life 2 runs reasonably. You can check compatibility list on Intel's site. Keep in mind that Intel integrated graphics just own everything in terms of power consumption, putting in a real mobile chipset would decrease battery life a lot, not to mention increasing the cost.

-If you're asking if GMA950 is enough to run Vista eye-candy then yes, no problems, Vista's requirements are way too overhyped as is suckiness of Intel graphics ;)

Re:MacBook Vs Dell

[biglig2]

Minicard means that the wifi is internal, but is user replaceable - it's about as hard (or easy) as replacing the RAM. The idea being that you can buy the g card and upgrade to h later, or whatever, without soldering.

The BT is replaceable too, although you have to bully Dell into selling you one of the damn things to add it later.

Re:Family complete?

[charlievarrick]

Extended desktop and video mirroring: Simultaneously supports full native resolution on the built-in display and up to 1920 x 1200 pixels on an external display, both at millions of colors... http://www.apple.com/macbook/specs.html [apple.com]

(emphasis added)

Re:Graphic card

[Anonymous Coward]

You can get the specifications for this graphic card here:
http://www.intel.com/products/chipsets/gma950/ [intel.com]

And also a nice review here:
http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1697,1821811 ,00.asp [extremetech.com]

Re:Black is the new black

[Scrameustache]

These mac intel Beige Box (tm) are going to blow the PC world's mind - you've never seen the sort of bold looks and design as the new Apple Beige Box (tm).

I know you're being comical, but the beige box was an Apple innovation way back when the Apple II (IIRC) came out. Before that it was imitation wood panels (I wonder if any early case modders had shag carpeting on their funky boxes...).

Battery Performance

[n8_f]

It looks like the battery performance [apple.com] is much closer to the iBook than I thought it would be:

Work Longer Unplugged
MacBook offers up to 6 hours of battery life. (2.5 hours of DVD playback, 3.5 hours with wireless turned on.) Here's how to squeeze out every last second of battery power when you need it.

Turn off AirPort and Bluetooth if you're not using them
Disconnect peripherals not in use
Quit applications not in use
Eject CDs and DVDs not in use
Choose Energy Saver in System Preferences, click the Show Details button, and:
Select "Better Battery Life"
Set MacBook to sleep after five minutes (or less) of inactivity
Put the display to sleep after five minutes (or less) of inactivity
Check the box next to "Put the hard disk to sleep when possible"

It will be tempting to switch from my MBP just for the battery life. Although the weight is now only 6.4 ounces less. Still, if work didn't pay for my laptop, there is no question which one I'd buy. I already have an external DVD burner (and dual-layer to boot), so I'd get the cheapest and spend the extra $200 on maxing out the RAM. The only thing that would give me pause is the integrated graphics. I don't care about games, but I do use Aperture and some other pro apps and I'd like to know what difference this will make. Apple is going to be supply constrained for quite a while.

Re:Stunning new black enclosure?

[Golias]

Shrinking the icon and font size doesn't help in Finder because the auto-arrange takes up far too much space so windows have to be large to see everything.

Auto-arrange? You poor, ignorant fool.

The "icon view" is only there to keep old-school MacOS bigots from weeping openly in the streets. The first thing I do with every Mac I buy is go into the Finder prefs and set it to always use the hierarchical folder menus. While I'm at it, I remove all desktop icons for mounted disks. Having them in my finder window is more than enough.

The desktop enviornment was king back in the System 7 days, but these days I use my desktop as a temporary downloads folder, but otherwise leave it empty. It's a redundant part of OS X which Apple would have purged long ago, if not for the outcry of older Mac-heads who don't want to let go of it.

Re:Not quite apples and apples

[chowhound]

The parent stated that Windows would be "a hell of a lot faster" on the same hardware. The Berkeley article you reference states only that for statistical computing XP runs 10% faster. So opening Safari takes 1.8 seconds instead of 2.0? I think Grandma can live with that.

(On a side note, they didn't mention what version of Tiger they were using... the difference in speed between 10.4.5 and 10.4.6 was remarkable with my MBP.)

Re:Desktop Rumors?

[morrisonsean]

Rumor is that they are waiting for the Intel Core 2 Duo chips.

from Ars [arstechnica.com]:

Less than a year after announcing the transition to an all-Intel architecture, Apple is almost there. The only PowerPC machines left are the Power Mac G5 and the Xserve, both of which await the arrival of the Intel Core 2 Duo (aka, Conroe and Merom), presumably this summer. At that point, Apple's 12-year dalliance with the PowerPC CPU will have come to an end. The king is dead. Long live the king!

Re:Glossy Display...Details?

[rnelsonee]

It's probably the same tech as Dell's "TrueLife" displays. I just got one Dell's laptops with that feature, and everything is glossy (which means background lights show up more clearly), but this is offset by the fact the colors are bright and vibrant. It's it's the same tech, it means they put a coating that is smooth, and keeps the light coming from behind the LCD from becoming diffused, while at the same time has an index of refraction that is in between air and the LCD screen, which means that most of the light bouncing off the screen doesn't get reflected right back at you.

Wonderful diagrams, and a better explanation are here:

http://www.screentekinc.com/pixelbright-lcds.shtml [screentekinc.com]

Re:Stunning new black enclosure?

[Goth Biker Babe]

I specced my office Dell which has very similar specs (Core Duo bla bla bla). The price was comparable. And wtf does everyone complain about the screen size. My Dell is terribly inconvenient. I have to carry it around in it's bloody laptop case. My iBook is small enough to go in a pouch in my back pack. And if you've ever had to commue the thousands of miles from Yorkshire to LA you'll find that even just hiking through Philly airport another bag just for your laptop is a pain in the arse. I like the small screen on my iBook. The 13" widescreen on the new MacBooks looks equally useful.

Re:Stunning new black enclosure?

[PseudononymousCoward]

http://desktopmanager.berlios.de/ [berlios.de]

You can send me the mod points later. :-)

Comment removed

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

WWDC

[Ohreally_factor]

WWDC 2006 takes place August 7 - August 11, 2006. [apple.com]

This is the likeliest date for an announcement/unveiling.

I like glossy.

[guidryp]

I was looking at various LCD's in store and the Sony Glossy screen models looked really nice. The non glossy next to it looks like someone took steel wool to the surface. Hey that might be a solution to glossy woes. :-)

I wouldn't mind matte either but the current screens are kind blah. I would prefer something more like the screen on a real glass monitor like my trinitron. Which manages to be perfectly but manages glare quite well.

I think the matte laptop screen are too matte.

Just picked up the black model.

[jon.wolf]

It's heavy (heavier than my Superdrive Powerbook and S-Series VAIO), the finish is matte (reminds me of a black RAZR) but should be durable, and fast. Photos are here: http://beta.zooomr.com/photos/jwolf [zooomr.com] More to come...

The dealbreaker for me... (No DVD-DL burning)

[bobdotorg]

I currently have a 1.5GHz 12" PB. I was all ready to buy a white 2.0 GHz for the academic price of $1,199.

DIY 2GB ram would add $200 or so, and when 160GB SATA drives came down in price, that would be the next DIY upgrade. I figured I could suffer through the nasty keyboard and lack of aluminum enclosure.

But the lack of dual layer DVD burning killed it for me.

Now I wait.

Re:Maximum operating altitude?

[kabz]

I think it's due to the aerodynamics of the hard drive heads ... which fly above the platter [wikipedia.org].

From the link ... "The system relies on air pressure inside the drive to support the heads at their proper flying height while the disk is in motion. A hard disk drive requires a certain range of air pressures in order to operate properly. The connection to the external environment and pressure occur through a small orifice in the enclosure, usually featuring also a carbon filter on the inside (the breather filter, see below). If the air pressure is too low, there will not be enough lift for the flying head, the head will not be at the proper height, and there is a risk of head crashes and data loss. Specially manufactured sealed and pressurized drives are needed for reliable high-altitude operation, above about 10,000 feet. This does not apply to pressurized enclosures, like an airplane pressurized cabin. Modern drives include temperature sensors and adjust their operation to the operating environment."

12-Hour impressions: $1099 MacBook Airport Range

[flamingwookie]

I am a professional programmer by day, and I've had a G4 TiBook for 5 years now and have been waiting for the MacBook to upgrade to a MacTel. I picked it up last night from my local Apple store and have spent a few hours with it:

* One of my first tests was the Airport range: the range on the MacBook surpasses other laptops I've seen. The TiBook has notoriously poor WiFi range, and my wife has a 12" AlBook which has better, but not great range. I have an Apple Airport base station in the basement, and my bedroom is 1 level above. I always got dodgy reception with the AlBook, and virtually no reception with the TiBook . . . the MB gives a rock-solid signal from the bedroom, and all throughout the rest of the main level of the house. Fantastic.

* The "glossy" display looks like the displays I've seen on Sony and Toshiba laptops at Best Buy. The screen is nice and sharp and, IMHO, quite bright (esp. compared to my old TiBook). Looks great reading text, web pages, etc.

* This was my first experience with Apple's system migration tool. I booted the TiBook in firewire mode (reboot and hold 'T') and connected it to the MB . . . * Keyboard: I never really liked the TiBook keyboard, and I never liked the feel of my wife's AlBook keyboard either. The MB keyboard seems a little on the flimsy side, but it is certainly usable. I like it better than the iBook keyboard which I though to be really flimsy. I haven't noticed any problems with keys in weird positions or things like that. I saw an earlier post griping about the lack of PageUp/PageDown keys, but I've always found that the Fn key (at the bottom-left of Apple keyboards) coupled with the inverse-T keys in the bottom-right give me great cursor control.

* Speed: This thing is fast compared to the G4.

* iSight: The camera works great, although it's not going to take any studio quality portraits.

* Front Row: I don't really care about the remote much, but it is nifty, and works as advertised.

* MagSafe: I was going to get a G4 PowerBook, but the Intel compatibility and MagSafe were enough for me to wait for the MB. MagSafe needs to be seen to be believed.

Verdict: For me, the price was right, the CPU performance matches the 1st MacBook Pro (and blows away G4s), and the Airport range is great. I'm glad I waited.