“The MacBook 13-inch (Aluminum) couldn’t come at a more crucial time for Apple. It uses a completely new manufacturing technique that begins with a thick slab of aluminum and ends with a lusciously thin and gorgeous product. Design alone could undoubtedly attract Mac fanatics and would-be Windows converts. However, features are still a little weak and the price, well, it’s not the $800 MacBook that we were all hoping for,” Cisco Cheng writes for PC Magazine.
MacDailyNews Take: So, somebody makes up a rumor and when it naturally doesn’t pan out, Apple gets demerits. That’s simply Illogical garbage from PC Magazine; we’ve seen it from them before). But, what do you expect from a magazine that mainly devoted to covering products saddled with the illogical Windows OS? They’ve been staring at upside-down and backwards UI’s for so long that logic simply escapes them.
Cheng continues, “It’s undeniably thinner and more attractive than the previous MacBook 13-inch (Penryn). The aluminum enclosure, which is a huge departure from the long-standing tradition of white polished laptops dating back to the iBook G4, is a testament to brilliant design engineering. The white MacBooks aren’t off the grid yet; there is a lone configuration that is now available for $999, although the book is pretty much closed on white design.”
“It starts with an aluminum slab as a thick as two Apple MacBook Pros put together. From that, a 1.5-pound enclosure is carved out to form the aluminum MacBook. Let’s put it this way: Aside from rugged laptops, my hands haven’t touched anything this sturdy in a very long time. It was virtually impossible to flex the screen; there was no evidence of hollowness from tapping on the palm rests; and there’s something about the heft that makes it feel as nice as holding an authentic Rolex watch,” Cheng reports. “The screen is bright and the colors are sensational, although those who work under a fluorescent light will come across some glare, and a matted option isn’t available.”
MacDailyNews Take: Now that’s a valid criticism.
Cheng continues, “In a move only Apple can pull off, the touchpad is now one with the mouse button. In other words, any form of clicking, scrolling or navigating is done though the touchpad. At first, it seemed a little awkward, but I grew comfortable with it right away. The touchpad is 39 percent larger to accommodate the mouse click functionality. And you can’t tell by looking at it, but from an engineering standpoint, the touchpad slopes downwards, so you can click at the bottom, left and right hand sides of it, but not at the top.”
Cheng whines, “Once again, Apple fails to put in a media card reader even though every one is carrying around a digital camera these days.”
MacDailyNews Note: PC Mag and their ilk love card readers more than they loved floppy drives, if that’s even possible. An over 2 year old Nikon CoolPix P1 (that we sometimes use when we need a flash) transfers via Wi-Fi (we use iPhone’s camera much more often nowadays – it’s just too convenient). Welcome to the future, Cisco, 2005 style! It does also come with a USB cable if you prefer old-fashioned methods. We haven’t touched an SD card (or a card reader) since we dropped a 1GB’er into the Nikon over two years ago. We expect better from someone named after a router.
Cheng continues, “3D benchmarks topped the competition because Apple has moved away from Intel’s integrated graphics. Apple and nVidia is claiming up to five times the improvement over the previous integrated set. It’s more like 3 to 4 times improvement, depending on the resolution used in these games… The Macbook basically won in every gaming category.”
Cheng reports, “The Apple MacBook 13-inch (Aluminum) couldn’t be more glamorous, glorious and magnificent—from a design standpoint. Shaping aluminum metals into gorgeous designs is the company’s creed, and its skills easily surpass those of its Windows counterparts. Performance, meanwhile, gets a necessary lift from the Intel Centrino 2 platform and nVidia graphics. However, this is not the $800, or even the sub-$1,000 laptop, that we were all expecting.”
Full review, which unfortunately offers the good stuff sandwiched between slabs of stupidity, here.
…and no firewire.
Glorious, indeed.
MDN: “We expect better from someone named after a router.”
ROTFLMAO!
“Once again, Apple fails to put in a media card reader even though every one is carrying around a digital camera these days.”
Gee, ever heard of a USB cable?
Does anybody know whether the updated Macbook Air has the new ‘glass’ touchpad and if not – why not ?
Umm, the white plastic has been around since the iBook G3… they switched from the colored iBooks to the white in May 2001. The iBook G3 500mhz was my first mac. The iBook/macbook has come a long way since then. Won’t get started on that whole topic but the keyboards are so much better.. can’t tell you how many keyboards I ruined just trying to add more RAM to the thing. (FYI.. the RAM was under the keyboards at that point and if you didn’t do it right you were sure to break off a key or two in the process.)
I think MDN is too hard on these guys, it’s a rather glowing review.
This bit:
“Shaping aluminum metals …” is hilarious though.
What the heck are “aluminum metals”?
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The last I heard, aluminium was simply “a metal” or even “an element.” (not to mention the way they spell the word itself)
I was hoping for a cheaper price point too. I guess that makes me stupid, illogical, and a syphilis-addled user of split infinitives.
WTF!!! no floppy drive???? no 5 1/4 Drive?
HAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAAA !!!!!
Daily award for Hilarious Biting Sarcasm to Randiandian.
Funny.
Good thing that there is no “matted” option. Some would prefer a “matte” display option, however.
@peevish
Then get a MBP and get 800 and 400 FW. If you can’t afford it, then go buy a POS DELL and enjoy your six button, plastic trackpad and slapped, glued together DELL.
Wait…
“…Intel Centrino 2 platform…”? I thought MacBooks used Core 2 Duos. I need a drink. I’m so confoosed.
I reckon that a lot of these analysts think Apple actually have an $800 laptop but they just decided not to bother with it at the last moment.
I have a firewire camera that I bought yesterday.
Let’s hear from the chumps as to why I should spend over SEVEN HUNDRED dollars more to get a MB with firewire and STILL have to buy an adapter.
And I want to hear how FW400 is redundant and slow and legacy.
I read through Mr. Cheng’s article. Bearing in mind he’s a PC head I thought the article was fair. No ‘slabs of stupidity’ as MDN claims. He gives credit where it’s due and asks questions like a regular normal person, the type of questions I get from PC users when they want to know about Macs. He also compares the MB to other laptops in that class and draws reasonable comparisons.
For example, every PC laptop has a built-in card reader, from the cheapo models to the high-end machines, so why would you think it stupid that a PC owner would ask why Macs do not?
Some things are best left out of the computer, and a card reader is one of them. It adds to the cost and complexity, many people never use them, and no one uses them over a long period of time, like a keyboard or an external drive. It’s better for it to be an plug-on USB or Firewire device.
Harvey,
Thanks for such a reasonable response.
What do you make of Apple’s firewire decision?
Still needs FireWire though.
The most reliable way to get FireWire back into the lower end MacBooks? Don’t buy ’em! It’s just that simple.
Go into your nearest Apple retail outlet, fawn all over one right in front of a sales rep . . . and then walk out muttering about the lack of FireWire. If a million people do that every week worldwide, FireWire WILL return. Without question. The same goes for the matte screen option.
Vote with your feet, folks. But bitching and griping on sites like these does very little good at all. Give ’em some DIRECT, FACE-TO-FACE feedback!
If you believe MacBook need FireWire please sign the petition
http://www.PetitionOnline.com/macbook8/petition.html
The macbook has firewire-the $900 white plastic one.
Quit bitchin’ and buy one if it’s what you need.
@Jeremy,
According to the dictionary in OS X, “aluminum” and “aluminium” are both acceptable spellings. “aluminium” is the British spelling.
@ chuy
Actually, if you want to let Apple know that the MacBook needs Firewire added, you should let them know at the <a >Apple Feedback site</a>.
Interesting. It removed the href link from my code
http://www.apple.com/feedback/macbook.html
Why was he expecting an $800 notebook ? Did Apple hint at that ? No ! This new MacBook is a beautiful product, comes with 2 GB RAM, LED display, innovative new touchpad, advanced graphics for a notebook. Isn’t that enough ? Perhaps he would have been happier if Apple introduced a piece-of-shit product as long as it hit the $800 price target. ….. moron
Millions upon millions of digital DV video camera owners will not be purchasing a MacBook because their brand new cameras use FireWire to transfer the footage to the computer for editing.
Apple in it’s wisdom decided that they wanted to exclude those people from owning a MacBook so they did not equip their new laptops with Firewire.
I guess Apple should take down the Canon DV cameras from their online store because what was their most popular computer line cannot edit this video any longer.
Notice I said “what was their most popular computer line” because sales of the new MacBook cannot possibly grow anywhere near what they would have with a Firewire capability.
I can hardly wait for the first class action suit when Apple doesn’t notify people that their computer does not work with 99% of the installed video camera base.
Think about it… all their marketing stresses iMovie and make your own movies, burn your own DVDs etc.. Tons of people are going to take that computer home and get a nasty surprise when they try to hook their brand new video camera up to it… even one they purchased from Apple!
This has to be the stupidest move I’ve ever seen by Steve Jobs.
A media card reader is like putting a spare tire on the side of the car, what is this? the Great Gatsby?
i would guess with the new graphics from invidia performance is very good, design and manufacturing excellent (even better than before), some innovations (glass track pad) good, peripherals (no firwire) weak, features (ram, hd, screen resolution) also a little weak. you have to decide what is more important to you: the latest and greatest hardware features for a smaller price (than you have to go windows) or the overall mac-package (ease of use, quality, design, convenience). i am in the second group though i have to admit that apple goes a little bit cheap here on features/peripherals.
but what all these reviews are missing is to have a bigger emphasis on the two main features of a notebook: weight and battery-life. these are much more important than processor speed or features imo.
“However, this is not the $800, or even the sub-$1,000 laptop, that we were all expecting.”
Ha!
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When I go on a date, I expect some putang for my $50 bucks,
unfortunately, it doesn’t always pan out like that.
but sometimes it does
@ Old guy…… no beard, just old.
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“This has to be the stupidest move I’ve ever seen by Steve Jobs”
Right up there with the USB port, dropping the floppy drive, OSX, etc, etc, etc.
Hey. let things play out….. or just stop trolling and go home.
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PS, I kibitz all the time, I have no problem with others doing it, but many either are MS trolls or come across like one. And if you sound like one,…… well sorry for you. 🙁 Maybe its a birth defect. LOL
I am concerned about the lack of firewire. I have found it constantly faster and smoother than USB2. Much faster, even for Firewire 400. I cannot imagine Firewire 800. But who knows, maybe USB3 is due out shortly that will surpass Firewire 400?????
Just a thought.
en
I’ve been reading MDN for a very long time… never posted until today… why?
” Intel Centrino 2 ” That’s why!
This is so factually incorrect it makes me wonder how it ever got published and passed their editors.
My MB definitely is running a Core 2 Duo, my mom’s a Core 2 …
What a stir-fry as usual from CC. Why bother to write an article that heaps praise on Apple’s groundbreaking achievements (once again) and then squeal pathetically about the lack of an unprofitable $800 Mac that could not sustain such unmatched quality? Fool of a fool. Now go collect you 30 pieces from MSFT et al.
The omission of FireWire is terrible! FireWire is one of the things that sets macs apart from generic PCs. Sure, some have FireWire, but usually 4-pin ports instead of 6-pin ports which provide power for external devices.
External Hard Drives! USB? No WAY! Time Machine on USB? I can’t imagine the PAIN! What a joke!
FireWire Target Disk Mode!
Video Transfers!
Even Mac OS X’s Migration Assistant uses FireWire! How do they rig this with USB? Bubble gum and coat hangers?
WTF was Apple thinking?
These ARE Rev.A machines.
Remember the first MacBook Pro omitted FireWire 800. There was a huge stink and it reappeared in Rev.B.
If we all raise HELL, maybe Apple will listen, smarten up and put back FireWire! Bitch LOUDLY people!
http://www.apple.com/feedback/macbook.html
I’ll be honest – there are times when a media card reader would be nice. When on the road with my laptop and digital camera, I always throw in the USB cable, but I usually the other people I’m with don’t have theirs. We end up wanting to share pictures or download from a full camera to make room for some more, and inevitably we end up playing mix and match with micro-USB connectors and finding that we don’t have a cable with the right kind. (BTW – why couldn’t the industry standardize on ONE type of micro-USB connector?!?)
Apple is definitely good at taking the long view of things. I am sure that in the future all cameras will download photos wirelessly (even MS sees this in their designs for Surface). But sometimes I wonder if they aren’t a bit *too* far ahead of reality.
I’ve ordered a new 13″ macbook w/ 4GB RAM, and I’ll be changing the 160GB hard drive to a 500GB SATA from Seagate when it arrives. I currently own a Power Mac dual 2.0Ghz with 1.5GB RAM which should sell within the next couple days.
The interesting thing is that my new Macbook 13″ will have more horse-power than my 4 year old Power Mac. That’s very impressive for a laptop. I actually plan to buy my first video game for this laptop. (I own a PS3 too)
The only attachments I use are:
*USB 2.0 microsoft mouse
*USB 2.0 1TB external drive
*USB 2.0 iPhone connector
*USB 2.0 SD/miniSD connector for my camera
*USB 2.0 for my HD video camera
*USB 2.0 D-Link hub for all these devices