MacBooks Released
So it appears I was wrong with my original assessment that the iBooks would keep their name. But this was before I read the rumor that Apple’s intent was to consolidate the iBook and PowerBook 12″ line under the MacBook name. This makes a whole lot of sense and not only does away with two choices (12″ vs. 14″) in the iBook line, but eliminates having to choose between a 12″ iBook and a 12″ PowerBook. Which until now was really becoming difficult to differentiate between them. The new MacBooks include a 13″ glossy, widescreen display and comes in black or white.
So I’ve dug a bit deeper in the specs of the new MacBook compared to the speed bumped MacBook Pro. Some differences may be obvious at first, some may not:
The MacBook comes with a glossy screen and you can’t build to order without it. The MacBook Pros now offers this as a free customize option. I don’t know if I like the idea of a glossy screen but it doesn’t completely kill it for me.
Like its 12″ predecessors, the MacBook doesn’t offer an illuminated keyboard — still a differentiator between the lines.
The MacBook uses an integrated video card much like the new Mac minis. This sounds bad but it actually isn’t as bad as it once was with PC notebooks. Apple walls off the video card to only take 64MB of your physical RAM. So it’s a good idea to max out the RAM on these, if you want to have a good amount of physical RAM left. It’s also a pretty decent video card despite that it’s integrated.
The MacBook L2 Cache, frontside bus, and SDRAM speeds appear to be identical with the MacBook Pros.
The MacBook is a .25″ thinner (1.08″) than its 12″ predecessors and weighs .4 pounds less (5.2 lbs.) that a 15″ MacBook Pro (5.6 lbs.). So that doesn’t seem like a huge weight savings there, but I’m sure it’s still noticeable.
Unlike the iBooks, MacBooks feature desktop expansion (built-in display plus an external display up to 1920 x 1200 pixels) like the 12″ PowerBooks supported. iBooks secretly supported this but you had to apply a hack to enable it.
In terms of the color options, if you opt for a black MacBook, you’ll be paying out an additional $200 for an extra 20GB of hard drive space ($150 over the equivalent configuration in white). That’s it. Oh and the price premium for the color black. This is silly for Apple to do. They don’t charge more for their black iPods.
Apple has put together a comprehensive comparison chart for the MacBooks to help you decide between them.
There are a couple of interesting things to point out found on the Apple Store as well:
The 15″ MacBook Pros have been given a quiet speed bump but kept at the same price.
As mentioned earlier, the updated MacBook Pros offer a glossy screen build-to-order option for free.
The iBooks and the 12″ PowerBook have been removed from the Apple Store’s front page. So could be a sign that Apple considers the MacBook as a true consolidation of the iBook and the 12″ PowerBook line. Although I wouldn’t rule out an ultra-portable from Apple in the future.
Recent Comments