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New MacBook Gives You More For Your Money

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By WALTER S. MOSSBERG

The Tampa Tribune

Published: October 27, 2008

Apple's MacBook laptop, the company's low-end portable computer aimed at average consumers, isn't just any old product. It's the best-selling Macintosh in history, at a time when Mac sales are growing much faster than sales of PCs in the United States overall. And, according to the sales-research organization NPD Group, the midrange model of the MacBook has been the single best-selling laptop of any brand in U.S. retail stores for the past five months.

So, when Apple completely revamped the design of the MacBook recently, it was a big deal.

I've tested the base model of the new MacBook for five days, and I like it a lot, despite a few downsides. I found this new MacBook to be speedy, solid, innovative, and comfortable to use, with very good battery life.

The new model sports a sturdy aluminum case, instead of the old plastic one, and looks gorgeous. And it even seemed to run cooler than earlier Apple aluminum laptops. It's 10 percent lighter, at 4.5 pounds, and 12 percent thinner, at 0.95 inch, than its predecessor, and continues to include a built-in DVD drive. Its processor is slower, yet it has good performance because of much faster graphics, and it also offers a far brighter screen in the same 13.3-inch size. But it still gets strong battery life - slightly better in fact than the older model, in my tests.

Taking Radical Steps
Plus, the new MacBook includes a huge, innovative glass track pad that functions as a combination of a traditional track pad and the multitouch screen of an iPhone.

In another radical step, Apple eliminated the button below the track pad. When you want to perform a mouse click, you just depress the entire track pad. The whole thing is a big button, which can act as either the left or right button on a traditional mouse.

Like all current Macs, the new MacBooks come with Apple's Leopard operating system, which I consider superior to Windows. But the new MacBooks can run Windows as well. In my tests, the new model ran Windows XP beautifully. I was able to run such Windows-only programs as Microsoft's Internet Explorer and Outlook right along with my Mac software, at snappy speeds. It can also run Windows Vista.

The cheaper of the two new versions comes with an adequate 160-gigabyte hard disk, though larger disks are available, and two gigabytes of memory, which is plenty for a consumer Mac.

On my battery test, where I turn off power-saving features and play an endless loop of music, the new MacBook lasted three hours and 53 minutes - six minutes longer than the old one. That suggests that, in normal use, with power-saving on, you could achieve Apple's claim of five hours of battery life, or come close.

Price May Scare Consumers Away

There are some drawbacks, of course. The cheapest of the new models costs $1,299. Though that's the same price as the most popular of the older models, and you get more for your money, the swooning economy may make that price tag tougher to swallow.

Another downside to the new MacBook is that the radical new glass track pad will take some time to get used to.

In addition, the model's bright LED screen comes in only a glossy finish, which some folks hate because it displays more glare and fingerprints than the old matte screens.

All in all, though, Apple's new MacBook is a terrific choice for consumers and students, if you can handle the $1,299 price.

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