Apple updates the notebook lineup
by Volker Weber
A lot of people have been waiting for this update, and it isn't even complete. Starting today Apple has five very different notebook designs. The three above, all sporting an AL body with a black keyboard. Plus the old white Macbook as an entry level machine, and the old 17", which now seriously looks outdated. That design has not changed in more than five years.
What are the new ones? A refresh for the 13" MacBook Air, a new 13" MacBook, and a new 15" MacBook Pro. Don't let Apple make you believe they invented this "carving out a solid block of metal" engineering. How do you think your cylinder head is made? And that has some serious moving parts. :-)
I like the new design a lot. You have to wonder how Apple is able to continuously improve their product design. The new trackpad is going to really shine, and I would love to have LED backlight on my display. But my Blackbook already has 2 gigs of RAM and a 160 gig hard drive. A few more cycles on the CPU won't make a difference for me, and I don't need any faster graphics.
When the time has come to replace my MacBook the new lineup will not easily make me buy the larger Pro. Large is not good when travelling. And an even faster graphics chip does not make a difference here. Since they both share the same body, I would take the 13" model any day. And the smaller one to boot. Slightly larger hard disk and a few more cycles will not make me buy the more expensive setup.
So for me it would be the 13" AL body MacBook. And I am going to recommend the white machine as an entry level hardware. As I did until now. But it will be harder to "sell" now that you get a good PC notebook for 40% less. Has Apple missed the boat to the low end market? Or is it good that it keeps out of this cutthroat business?
Comments
Hi Vowe, long time no see.
That was not really the big shot from Apple. I was really hoping Apple started a netbook since I travel every day and I have STILL never played with an apple and would like to do it.
Now I'm thinking about enlarging the RAM of my good old Panasonic Toughbook with Ubuntu 7.04 by256 MB... ;)
Christian
I totally agree with you, Volker. My MacBook (white, of course) with 2.2GHz and 2GB will be sufficient for the next year at least.
I didn't reall expect Apple to go for the Netbook/low-end market though, because it is traditionally not their space. Instead I would have expected an updated Mac mini. Maybe the Mac mini will die soon as all of the people go for notebooks these days even if they don't really need one.
While watching the broadcasting, I was a little disappointed, the big innovation was missing. You could say for a large part the Macbook air was that innovation; not much addional to that. Except for one more thing: the new display looks nice, affordable and could even be something like a docking station?
Well, I think it's not bad for Apple to stay off of really low end market. On the other hand, if e.g. the graphics in the MacBook is not enough, you have a lot more attractive offers in the Windows market. Also, personally I have the additional problem that in my country the Apple HW is so much more expensive than a comparable Windows machine that it is, at least for me, out of question to buy an Apple, I am not so unhappy with Windows.
Actually I thought it was time to replace my 2yrs old macbook.
After this event though, I think I´ll keep it longer. The upgraded Macbook Air would be a nice machine, but seriously lacks a Gbit Network Port and FW. The new gen. Macbook misses Firewire, so there will be no more Target Disk Mode, and no possibility to connect my Videocamera to. The 15" Macbook Pro will be a fine machine, but still be to huge to carry around every day.
I was disappointed with the new MacBooks. No netbook (something with a 10" screen would have been perfect), those horrid keys from the Air to spread to the other models. And all the screens are now glossy. Ugh.
I'm very happy with my 4 month old MBP and an Asus eee 1000h for commuting.
Am I really the only one who sees the new MacBook as the return of the 12" Powerbook? I see the new MacBook not as a MacBook, but as a small MacBook Pro. The difference is just too small to really make two product lines out of this. There is way more difference between the new 15" and the 17" MacBook Pro than there is between the new MacBook and the new 15" MacBook Pro.
The biggest let-down however is one which I have not yet seen reported: When Steve said that they could still use all the same displays with the new DisplayPort he wasn't exactly telling the truth. There is no Mini DisplayPort -> S-Video-Adapter in the Apple Store as of now. In other words: Unless your TV has a VGA or DVI input you can't connect the new laptops to your TV. This, for me, is a deal-breaker when thinking about replacing my current MacBook Pro. I don't own a DVD-Player and I also often watch downloaded shows on my TV. I can't do that with a new Apple laptop.
I am still using my 12" Powerbook for mobile computing and don't see any need to replace that. However, I am thinking about getting a new MacBook Air for my wife for Christmas.
You know how to keep her happy, eh? ;-)
I have to buy a new MBP, and am disappointed by the lack of matte screen. For most people who use the MBP all day the matte makes a huge difference, we don't really need the pictures or video to 'pop' but have something to look at for 8 hrs. Also the lack of FW400 ports, having both would be better, though I could live and buy a 800 to 400 cable and still use my old devices (with exception of that old ipod with firewire connector). I hope that apple fixed their USB drivers because throughput on it was about 30% less then it should be. Lastly I hate how Apple cheaps out and makes you buy the video dongle, they should provide one free, the G4's use to have video out and svideo (or was it RCA) and give you connectors. the price is still the same yet we seem to get less and less things from apple. This has been seen down the ipod line.
Anyways.. I'll probably get one in the next few weeks.
@vowe, Time for you to visit us! As soon as the new ones are on stock!
I am going to me less than 10 mls from the mothership this Sunday. Plenty of opportunity to play. :-)
I like that they have added extra graphics oomph to their macbook pros. However, I wonder if in Bootcamp windows XP or Vista you can use those new-fangled video cards (to play Windows Games, ofcourse) ?
