The latest offering from Apple Mac is impeccably timed to clash with the release of the Windows 7. Unbelievably, the Apple MacBook was launched just two days before the launch of Windows 7. We go one-on-one with the little monster and land up pretty shaken up from the ride! Read on to know more about the most awaited MacBook.

Sum and Substance:

Thumbs Up:

The MacBook looks great owing to the polycarbonate uniblock design. The large multi-touch trackpad was an absolute joy to operate. The MacBook also has an amazing battery life. MacBook offers you great graphics and Response times for a slim-and-light laptop. The new LED backlit LCD screen looks dazzling with almost no ‘blooming’.

Thumbs Down:

The new design has now concealed the battery within the uniblock and that prevents the user from taking the battery out. The new MacBook has done away with the FireWire. The SD card slot is not existent on this MacBook.

Inside The Trunk:

A quick look at the specifications reveals a Core 2 Duo processor at 2.26Ghz, 2GB DDR3 SDRAM, a 250 GB hard drive. The graphics are controlled by the well-matched NVIDIA GeForce 9400M. The 13 inch screen now will have the LED backlighting feature that reduces energy consumption levels and improves the viewing experience. The MacBook also uses the Bluetooth 2.1 technology. This thin-and-light uses the Apple Mac OS X Snow Leopard. These specifications can also be upgraded to house 4GB RAM and options of a 250GB and 500GB HDDs are also offered at a premium.

The Whiz Kid Speaks:

With the holiday season around the corner and the imminent launch of Windows 7 has driven Mac to launch the MacBook along with the recently launched 27inch iMac and the MacBook Air. The beautiful looking system comes with a configuration that is on par with the market, yet we would’ve liked to see one more gig of RAM. Apple has used a nice ploy by keeping the MacBook price same at $999 but upgrading the features and the looks. The white polycarbonate body is attractive and should be able to turn heads when you are sitting at a coffee shop. What Mac did on the downside is that it omitted the FireWire port and did not care to add the SD card port. This can be sorted out using the USB converters and card readers easily available in the market.  The Mac has always been a gadget to brag about and here is a nice little machine that gives you the chance to enter the cult. At $999; it is about $200-$300 costlier than slim-and-light competition offering similar or better specs. This is one complete package which satisfies everyone, from a social networking fanatic or a professional looking for a powerful laptop which is light, both in weight and cost.

Razzle Dazzle:

The New MacBook looks new; and not a generic rerun. Well, at a glance you’ll be able to recognize that it is a MacBook, but you’ll probably also add “looks new” as an afterthought! The new design has a sleeker, smoother profile and looks good from all angles possible. One of the best features of the new MacBook is the awesome trackpad. The multi-touch trackpad inspired by the iPhone lets you use the pinch function amongst several others. You can use your four fingers to minimize all the open windows, or use a two finger tap, which denotes a right click. As for the left key, the entire trackpad can be compressed.

Inside Dope:

The new MacBook now comes with an LED backlit screen, but sadly comes with a 1,280×800 resolution screen. This saves energy, while making the picture better. You obviously do not get the edge-to-edge glass display as in the Pro series, so you’ll have to make do with this one! We would’ve also liked to see a 16:9 screen, which is fast becoming a benchmark in the industry. The Pro series also gives you access to the SD Slot and a nice backlit keyboard.

The Nvidia GeForce 9400 graphics from the earlier MacBook has been continued in the latest MacBook. That been done, some upgrades are firstly the processor, up from 2.13 GHz to 2.26 GHz. The default hard drive now is 250 GB, upgraded over the previous 160 GB unit. For a premium, you can upgrade the RAM to 4 GB and the hard drive to either 320 GB or 500GB.

The Battery Life of this new baby is around 5 hour 35 minutes. This is almost a half-an-hour over and above what the earlier MacBook had achieved. The CULV (Ultra Low Voltage Processor) based Toshiba Satellite T135-S1310 (which we’ve tested earlier) beat the MacBook by 30 minutes, and running for a little more than 6 hours.

Mac will give you a one-year-parts-and-labor warranty, but only 90 days of telephone support. If you’d like a full three year plan with apple care, it’ll cost a further $249. Apple has a good website, from where you can download all driver and software.

Nitty Gritty:

The first thing to hit you is that the MacBook is a beautiful laptop. It is beautifully crafter and sculpted to give it the smooth curves, eliminating all the sharp edges. After you start working on it, you realize that this isn’t some powder coated hoax, but a seriously nice gadget. So if you have a $1000 budget, this is the best way to go. I would recommend the MacBook without any guilt.

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