Review: MacBook updates offer more for the money

Posted by Dennis Sellers May 25, 2007 at 6:24am

Apple updated its MacBook line on May 15. The update makes a solid product an even better buy, but doesn’t offer any whiz-bang new features—and the MacBook still sports the accused integrated graphics chip.

I won’t reiterate my likes of the MagSafe adapter, built-in iSight camera, Front Row software and the accompanying remote control. See my long-ago review of the 17-inch MacBook Pro for my thoughts on these features. As before, every new MacBook also includes built-in 10/100/1000 BASE-T Gigabit Ethernet for high-speed networking, combination analog and optical digital audio input and output ports, and a mini-DVI video output to connect up to a 23-inch Apple Cinema HD Display. Naturally, they all come with iLife ‘06 and the latest version of Mac OS X 10.4 (“Tiger”).

With prices starting at US$1,099, the MacBook lineup includes three models: a 2.0GHz and 2.16GHz MacBook in a white enclosure and a 2.16GHz MacBook in a black enclosure. The portables have a system architecture including 11GB of 667 MHz DDR2 SDRAM, expandable to 2GB. The main difference (besides color) between the 2.16GHz white and black MacBooks is the hard drive. The former sports a 120GB hard drive size and the latter an 160GB hard drive. Yet the price difference is $200, which seems a bit steep. On the other hand, the hard drive sizes have doubled from the original incarnation of the consumer laptops, which is pretty cool.

For the most part, the MacBooks chug along at a nice speed, and feel slightly more spry than their predecessors. The benchmarks range from a 5 percent increase over the former high end for a GarageBand export all the way up to an 18 percent increase over the former low end using Photoshop CS2, thanks mainly to the increased L2 cache from 2MB to 4MB, according to MacLife.

However, the bottleneck is the graphics chip. The MacBook’s Intel graphics processor sports 64MB of DDR2 SDRAM that’s shared with the main memory. If you want to play video games or do more than entry level video work, this is where the MacBook falls short. The consumer laptops performs poorly with advanced 2D/3D OpenGL applications and basically ALL games.”

The MacBook still sports a 13.3-inch widescreen display, which is probably the perfect compromise between screen real estate and portability. The laptop is glossy on the outside, matte on the inside and has a glossy screen. Overall, I like the glossy screen. it’s bright and crisp, and images and text look great. However, from the side, the brightness level drops off noticeably, and the glossy screen reflects glare from ambient light sources more than the “normal” laptop screen, so using it outdoors is tricky.

The MacBook has a firm feel—firmer, IMHO, than those on the MB Pro. The keys have a flat top surface and are more rounded and less jammed together than the MacBook Pros, iBooks and PowerBooks. The MacBook’s speakers are perched along the back edge underneath the screen hinge (when the lid is open). They deliver decent sound, nothing more.

The battery life is a bit better than the MB pro line, but not substantially. Starting with the MacBook fully charged, I wrote articles while listening to some iTunes for just over three hours before the juice was exhausted. After recharging I watched DVDs for about 155 minutes before I had to plug the laptop in. As for heat, the MacBook gets hot, but not as hot as the pro line (which still have, in my opinion, acceptable levels).

Unfortunately, Apple’s dropped the ball in the way it fills the RAM slots. The MacBook comes with both RAM slots filled. Lots of folks will want to add more memory and so half the existing RAM ends up wasted.

Despite some got-cha’s, for most folks (even some pro users) the MacBook is plenty powerful. If you’re not a hard core gamer or run lots of non-Universal Binary software, you’ll find the newest Apple laptop muscular yet lean.

Macsimum rating: 8.5 out of 10.

The new MacBook is available immediately through the Apple Store, Apple’s retail stores and Apple Authorized Resellers.

The 2.0 GHz, 13-inch white MacBook, for a suggested retail price of US$1,099, includes:

° 13.3-inch glossy widescreen 1280×800 display;

° 2.0 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor;

° 667 MHz front-side bus;

° 1GB of 667 MHz DDR2 SDRAM, expandable to 2GB;

° 80GB Serial ATA hard drive running at 5400 rpm, with Sudden Motion Sensor;

° A slot-load Combo (DVD-ROM/CD-RW) optical drive;

° Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 950;

° Mini-DVI out (adapters for DVI, VGA and Composite/S-Video sold separately);

° Built-in iSight video camera;

° Gigabit Ethernet port;

° Built-in AirPort Extreme 802.11n wireless networking and Bluetooth 2.0+EDR;

° Two USB 2.0 ports and one FireWire 400 port;

° One audio line in and one audio line out port, each supporting both optical digital and analog;

° Scrolling TrackPad;

° The infrared Apple Remote; and

° 60 Watt MagSafe Power Adapter.

The 2.16 GHz, 13-inch white MacBook, for a suggested retail price of $1,299, includes:

° 13.3-inch glossy widescreen 1280×800 display;

° 2.16 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor;

° 667 MHz front-side bus;

° 1GB of 667 MHz DDR2 SDRAM, expandable to 2GB;

° 120GB Serial ATA hard drive running at 5400 rpm, with Sudden Motion Sensor;

° a slot-load 8x SuperDrive with double-layer support (DVD+R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW) optical drive;

° Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 950;

° Mini-DVI out (adapters for DVI, VGA and Composite/S-Video sold separately);

° Built-in iSight video camera;

° Gigabit Ethernet port;

° Built-in AirPort Extreme 802.11n wireless networking and Bluetooth 2.0+EDR;

° Two USB 2.0 ports and one FireWire 400 port;

° One audio line in and one audio line out port, each supporting both optical digital and analog;

° Scrolling TrackPad;

° The infrared Apple Remote; and

° 60 Watt MagSafe Power Adapter.

The 2.16 GHz, 13-inch black MacBook, for a suggested retail price of $1,499, includes:

° 13.3-inch glossy widescreen 1280×800 display;

° 2.16 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor;

° 667 MHz front-side bus;

° 1GB of 667 MHz DDR2 SDRAM, expandable to 2GB;

° 160GB Serial ATA hard drive running at 5400 rpm, with Sudden Motion Sensor;

° A slot-load 8x SuperDrive with double-layer support (DVD+R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW) optical drive;

° Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 950;

° Mini-DVI out (adapters for DVI, VGA and Composite/S-Video sold separately);

° Built-in iSight video camera;

° Gigabit Ethernet port;

° Built-in AirPort Extreme wireless networking and Bluetooth 2.0+EDR;

° Two USB 2.0 ports and one FireWire 400 port;

° One audio line in and one audio line out port, each supporting both optical digital and analog;

° Scrolling TrackPad;

° The infrared Apple Remote; and

° 60 Watt MagSafe Power Adapter.

Additional build-to-order options for the MacBook include the ability to upgrade to 120GB or 160GB (5400 rpm) or a 200GB (4200 rpm) hard drive, up to 2GB DDR2 SDRAM, Apple USB Modem, Apple Mini-DVI to DVI adapter, Apple Mini-DVI to VGA adapter, Apple MagSafe Airline Adapter and the AppleCare Protection Plan. Additional build-to-order options also include pre-installed copies of iWork ‘06, Logic Express 7, Final Cut Express HD 3.5 and Aperture 1.5.

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