Time Magazine on Apple’s 13-inch MacBook: ‘Dell and HP should be very worried’

“The first thing that startled me about the MacBooks were not their glossy white or matte black finishes, nor the fact that they had Intel dual-core processors rather than lower-powered single-core ones. I had expected all that. What surprised me was the price: they start at $1,099, even lower if you are a student,” Wilson Rothman writes for Time Magazine. “The MacBook has most of what its pricier sibling the MacBook Pro offers: a built-in iSight camera, the Apple Remote so that you can access music and videos from across the room, the break-away magnetic power cable, even wireless Bluetooth support for cell phones, cameras and certain types of mouse. It can even support an external monitor in addition to its own screen. It is, of course, missing some of the features of the Pro, such as the light-up keyboard, a light-sensitive display, a dedicated graphics card and an ExpressCard/34 expansion slot for cellular modems, card readers and other devices mostly not yet built.”

“The MacBook gave me an excellent opportunity to try out Boot Camp — that’s the installation of Windows XP as a second operating system, in case you hadn’t heard. On startup, I can choose the Mac OS or Windows, and everything I tried in the latter environment worked as well as it could have. I even tested out MTV’s Urge service with — Jobs forgive me — an iriver clix music player. It all worked together even more smoothly than it had done on my high-powered Dell desktop,” Rothman writes. “The MacBook is a powerful and affordable option, especially for people who are uncertain about their Windows future. The next version, Vista, might be a success, but with a MacBook you can hedge your bet. You get a computer that runs both Mac OS X and Windows XP today, and even appears to meet the minimum requirements for Vista once it gets here. Dell and HP should be very worried indeed.”

Full article here.

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47 Comments

  1. Actually, Willie G, when talking about a computer mouse, it is acceptable to write mice or mouses. The current trend is actually mice unless you are a technical pub writer and they usually use mouses or mouse devices.

  2. I think that the 15″ MacBook Pro 1.83Ghz is a better deal at $1599, at the Apple store refurbished page.

    The way the keyboard and screen adjust to ambient light is so wonderful to take for granted. The dedicated graphics card is better for your Pro apps, RAM and games (Civilization IV anyone?), the extra screen resolution is nice to have, you’ve got an expansion slot, and it only costs $100 more than the black MacBook with the same hard drive and RAM.

  3. There is one important passage in the article that was left out of MDN’s condensation that I would guess will worry lots of Time’s readers:

    “…while a lot of software now runs directly on the new chip (for instance, Logitech’s mouse and keyboard drivers), there are two major hold-outs, Adobe and Microsoft. You can use most of their programs on the new Macs, but they run only with help from Apple’s invisible Rosetta software translator. My wife, an avid user of Office apps on her new employer-issued MacBook Pro, says that when she has several Office programs running simultaneously, she notices delays in typing and other subtle sluggishness. “It’s microseconds,” she says, but admits that it can be irksome. Microsoft has pledged to make the next version of Office for Mac Intel savvy, but whether that version comes this year or next is anyone’s guess, perhaps even Microsoft’s.”

  4. Let’s not forget how many U.S. citizens are overweight and obese. Lugging those HP and Dell laptops will burn more calories than the MacBook; therefore, HP and Dell are doing the country a service whereas Apple is contributing to the health crisis. Think about it, Apple is a food, Apple laptops weigh less than the competition. Coincidence, I don’t think so.

    MDN Magic Word: case, like I’m going to each a case of butter.

  5. The tenor of the article is what I would expect from about 90% of the pc using world if they would only stop being Windows Zombies and try something else. Whether or not a person’s first Mac experience is a blinding flash, the minimum effect its almost guaranteed to have is, to cause new users to have to remind themselves why it is they “HAVE TO” use Windows.

    Oh well, this article, along with the ever increasing number similar to it in various high profile publications, demonstrates that things can change.

  6. With reviews like that doing direct comparisons between HP, Hell, etc. and Mac’s, it’s no wonder why I get more and more people coming up to me in coffee shops asking me about my Mac’s.

    I’ve been Macin’ for a long time and I can’t honestly remember a brighter day for Apple in decades.

    Rock on Steve!
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  7. I own the MacBook, and I must agree I am blown away. It makes me hate my 17″

    Sure, it mooos. It’s got heat issues. Drops wireless connection when it wakes up.

    And while the quality issues anger me to no end, I still love the MacBook.

    It is so fast it’s not even funny. And the screen. Oh, the beautiful screen.

    I WISH THIS SITE WOULD DUMP THE LINK ADS. THEY STINK SOMETHING FIERCE.

    WHAT IS THIS DELL DAILY NEWS? VERY DISGUSTING.

    Sorry for the yelling, but man, this site is going down hill.

  8. another writer who didn’t check the trackpad setup.
    “My biggest problem was an inability to “right-click” using the MacBook’s trackpad. Although there is a way to do it by pushing control-shift-F10, I found it was easier to just add an external USB mouse.”

    GRRRRRR

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