Apple today unveiled an all new MacBook family that redefines notebook design, and at the same time dramatically lowers the entry price for advanced notebook features including all-metal enclosures and pro-performance notebook graphics by $700 to make them far more affordable. The new MacBook and 15-inch MacBook Pro both have a precision unibody enclosure crafted from a single block of aluminum, resulting in thinner, more durable and incredibly beautiful designs. In addition, every member of the new MacBook family includes state of the art NVIDIA graphics, brilliant instant-on LED-backlit displays and new large glass Multi-Touch™ trackpads that offer almost 40 percent more tracking area and support more Multi-Touch gestures. The entire new MacBook family meets stringent Energy Star 4.0, EPEAT Gold and RoHS environmental standards, and leads the industry in the elimination of toxic chemicals by containing no brominated flame retardants, using only PVC-free internal cables and components, and using energy efficient LED-backlit displays that are mercury-free and made with arsenic-free glass.
“Apple has invented a whole new way of building notebooks from a single block of aluminum. And, just as important, they are the industry’s greenest notebooks,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO, in the press release. “The new MacBooks offer incredible features our users will love —like their stunning all-metal design, great 3D graphics and LED backlit displays—at prices up to $700 less than before.”
“Traditionally notebooks are made from multiple parts. With the new MacBook, we’ve replaced all of those parts with just one part—the unibody,” said Jonathan Ive, Apple’s senior vice president of Industrial Design, in the press release. “The MacBook’s unibody enclosure is made from a single block of aluminum, making the new MacBook fundamentally thinner, stronger and more robust with a fit and finish that we’ve never even dreamed of before.”
The new MacBook line features the powerful new NVIDIA GeForce 9400M, a revolutionary new 3D integrated graphics processor that features 16 parallel processing cores and delivers up to five times the 3D graphics performance as previous MacBook and MacBook Air designs. Apple has worked together with NVIDIA on this groundbreaking graphics processor and is the first to bring it to market in the new MacBook family.
The new smooth glass Multi-Touch trackpad on the MacBook and 15-inch MacBook Pro gives users almost 40 percent more tracking area than before, making it even easier to use Multi-Touch gestures like pinch, rotate and swipe. New gestures allow users to activate Exposé® or switch between applications at the touch of a fingertip. The entire trackpad surface is also a button, allowing users to both track and click virtually anywhere on the trackpad. Users can easily enable multiple virtual buttons in software, such as right-clicking.
Every member of the new MacBook family features an LED-backlit display for brilliant instant-on performance that uses up to 30 percent less energy than its predecessor and eliminates the mercury found in industry standard fluorescent tube backlights. The ultra-thin displays provide crisp images and vivid colors which are ideal for viewing photos and movies, and the edge-to-edge cover glass creates a smooth, seamless surface. Every display in the new MacBook line uses completely arsenic-free glass.
The new MacBook delivers the top three features that MacBook customers have told Apple they want in a new MacBook—an all metal enclosure, high performance 3D graphics and LED-backlit displays—at an entry price that is $700 less than the $1,999 price of the MacBook Pro. At only 0.95-inches thin and weighing just 4.5 pounds, the new 13-inch full featured aluminum MacBook is an incredibly compact and durable notebook starting at just $1,299. Featuring the new NVIDIA GeForce 9400M graphics processor, MacBook delivers outstanding 3D game play on a consumer notebook, with up to five times faster graphics performance than the previous generation. The new MacBook is available in two models: the 2.0 GHz MacBook with a 160GB 5400 rpm hard drive, and the 2.4 GHz MacBook with a 250GB 5400 rpm hard drive and a backlit keyboard.
The powerful new 15-inch MacBook Pro at only 0.95-inches thin and weighing just 5.5 pounds offers ultimate performance and extensive expansion features in a remarkably portable design. Starting at $1,999, the MacBook Pro uses the latest Intel Core 2 Duo processors available, running up to 2.8 GHz, and a new graphics architecture that allows users to switch between the NVIDIA GeForce 9400M integrated graphics processor for better battery life and the powerful NVIDIA GeForce 9600M GT discrete graphics processor for higher performance. The new MacBook Pro is available in two models: a 2.4 GHz model with a 250GB 5400 rpm hard drive and a 2.53 GHz model with a 320GB 5400 rpm hard drive.
Today Apple also updated MacBook Air and the 17-inch MacBook Pro. MacBook Air, measuring only 0.16-inches at its thinnest point, 0.76-inches at its maximum height and weighing just three pounds, now includes new NVIDIA GeForce 9400M integrated graphics and a faster architecture to provide robust support for 3D games and enhanced performance. Starting at $1,799, MacBook Air is available with a 120GB 4200 rpm hard drive, a 50 percent increase from the previous generation, or a new 128GB solid state drive. The updated 17-inch MacBook Pro keeps its original aluminum design, and now comes standard with a high resolution 1920 x 1200 LED-backlit display and a larger 320GB hard drive or an optional 128GB solid state drive.
Setting a new standard for environmentally friendly notebooks, every model of the new MacBook family achieves EPEAT Gold status.* Each MacBook unibody enclosure is made of highly recyclable aluminum and comes standard with energy efficient LED-backlit displays that are mercury-free and made with arsenic-free glass. The new MacBook family meets stringent Energy Star 4.0 requirements, contains no brominated flame retardants and uses internal cables and components that are PVC-free.
The new MacBook, 15-inch MacBook Pro and MacBook Air include a next generation, industry-standard Mini DisplayPort to connect with the new Apple LED Cinema Display featuring a 24-inch LED-backlit widescreen display with a built-in iSight® video camera, mic and speakers in an elegant, thin aluminum and glass enclosure. Part of the next-generation DisplayPort industry standard, the new Mini DisplayPort delivers a pure digital signal that can drive up to a 30-inch widescreen display. The Mini DisplayPort is ultra-compact at just 10 percent the size of a full DVI connector, perfect for the sleek design of the new MacBook family. Adapters are available for using the MacBook’s Mini DisplayPort with older generation VGA, DVI/HDMI and Dual-Link DVI displays.
Every Mac in the Apple lineup comes with iLife ‘08, Apple’s award-winning suite of digital lifestyle applications, featuring iPhoto, the easiest, fastest way to organize and share digital photos, and a completely reinvented iMovie, both seamlessly integrated with the MobileMe Gallery for online photo and video sharing. Every Mac also includes Leopard, the world’s most advanced operating system which features Time Machine, an effortless way to automatically back up everything on a Mac; a redesigned Finder that lets users quickly browse and share files between multiple Macs; Quick Look, the best way to instantly see files without opening an application; Spaces, an intuitive feature used to create groups of applications and instantly switch between them; and major enhancements to Mail and iChat.
The new MacBook, 15-inch MacBook Pro and 17-inch MacBook Pro are now shipping and the new MacBook Air will be available in early November through the Apple Store, Apple’s retail stores and Apple Authorized Resellers. An updated 13-inch white MacBook featuring 2.1 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processors, a 120GB 5400 rpm hard drive and a slot-load 8X SuperDrive is now available for US$999.
The 2.0 GHz, 13-inch aluminum MacBook, for a suggested retail price of $1,299, includes:
• 13.3-inch widescreen LED-backlit 1280 x 800 glossy display;
• 2.0 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo with 3MB shared L2 cache;
• 1066 MHz front-side bus;
• 2GB 1066 MHz DDR3 SDRAM, expandable to 4GB;
• NVIDIA GeForce 9400M integrated graphics;
• 160GB serial ATA hard drive running at 5400 rpm, with Sudden Motion Sensor;
• a slot-load 8X SuperDrive with double-layer support (DVD±R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW) optical drive;
• Mini DisplayPort for video output (adapters sold separately);
• built-in AirPort Extreme® 802.11n wireless networking and Bluetooth 2.1+EDR;
• Gigabit Ethernet port;
• built-in iSight video camera;
• two USB 2.0 ports;
• one audio line in and one audio line out port, each supporting both optical digital and analog;
• glass Multi-Touch trackpad; and
• 60 Watt MagSafe Power Adapter.
The 2.4 GHz aluminum MacBook, for a suggested retail price of $1,599 (US), includes:
• 13.3-inch widescreen LED-backlit 1280 x 800 glossy display;
• 2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo with 3MB shared L2 cache;
• 1066 MHz front-side bus;
• 2GB 1066 MHz DDR3 SDRAM, expandable to 4GB;
• NVIDIA GeForce 9400M integrated graphics;
• 250GB serial ATA hard drive running at 5400 rpm, with Sudden Motion Sensor;
• a slot-load 8X SuperDrive with double-layer support (DVD±R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW) optical drive;
• Mini DisplayPort for video output (adapters sold separately);
• built-in AirPort Extreme 802.11n wireless networking and Bluetooth 2.1+EDR;
• Gigabit Ethernet port;
• built-in iSight video camera;
• two USB 2.0 ports;
• one audio line in and one audio line out port, each supporting both optical digital and analog;
• glass Multi-Touch trackpad and illuminated keyboard; and
• 60 Watt MagSafe Power Adapter.
Build-to-order options for the MacBook include the ability to upgrade to 4GB 1066 MHz DDR3 SDRAM, a 250GB 5400 rpm, 320GB 5400 rpm hard drive, a 128GB solid state drive, Mini DisplayPort to DVI Adapter, Mini DisplayPort to Dual-Link DVI Adapter (for 30-inch DVI display), Mini DisplayPort to VGA Adapter, Apple USB Modem, Apple Remote, Apple MagSafe Airline Adapter and the AppleCare Protection Plan.
The 2.4 GHz, 15-inch aluminum MacBook Pro, for a suggested retail price of $1,999 (US), includes:
• 15.4-inch widescreen LED-backlit 1440 x 900 glossy display;
• 2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo with 3MB shared L2 cache;
• 1066 MHz front-side bus;
• 2GB 1066 MHz DDR3 SDRAM, expandable to 4GB;
• NVIDIA GeForce 9400M integrated graphics;
• NVIDIA GeForce 9600M GT discrete graphics with 256MB GDDR3 video memory;
• 250GB serial ATA hard drive running at 5400 rpm, with Sudden Motion Sensor;
• a slot-load 8X SuperDrive with double-layer support (DVD±R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW) optical drive;
• Mini DisplayPort for video output (adapters sold separately);
• built-in AirPort Extreme 802.11n wireless networking and Bluetooth 2.1+EDR;
• Gigabit Ethernet port;
• built-in iSight video camera;
• two USB 2.0 ports;
• one FireWire 800 port;
• ExpressCard/34 expansion card slot;
• one audio line in and one audio line out port, each supporting both optical digital and analog;
• glass Multi-Touch trackpad and illuminated keyboard; and
• 85 Watt MagSafe Power Adapter.
The 2.53 GHz aluminum MacBook Pro, for a suggested retail price of $2,499 (US), includes:
• 15.4-inch widescreen LED-backlit 1440 x 900 glossy display;
• 2.53 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo with 6MB shared L2 cache;
• 1066 MHz front-side bus;
• 4GB 1066 MHz DDR3 SDRAM;
• NVIDIA GeForce 9400M integrated graphics;
• NVIDIA GeForce 9600M GT discrete graphics with 512MB GDDR3 video memory;
• 320GB serial ATA hard drive running at 5400 rpm, with Sudden Motion Sensor;
• a slot-load 8X SuperDrive with double-layer support (DVD±R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW) optical drive;
• Mini DisplayPort for video output (adapters sold separately);
• built-in AirPort Extreme 802.11n wireless networking and Bluetooth 2.1+EDR;
• Gigabit Ethernet port;
• built-in iSight video camera;
• two USB 2.0 ports;
• one FireWire 800 port;
• ExpressCard/34 expansion card slot;
• one audio line in and one audio line out port, each supporting both optical digital and analog;
• glass Multi-Touch trackpad and illuminated keyboard; and
• 85 Watt MagSafe Power Adapter.
Build-to-order options for the MacBook Pro include a 2.8 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor, the ability to upgrade to 4GB 1066 MHz DDR3 SDRAM, 250GB 7200 rpm, 320GB 5400 rpm or a 320GB 7200 rpm hard drive, a 128GB solid state drive, Mini DisplayPort to DVI Adapter, Mini DisplayPort to Dual-Link DVI Adapter (for 30-inch DVI display), Mini DisplayPort to VGA Adapter, Apple USB Modem, Apple Remote, Apple MagSafe Airline Adapter and the AppleCare Protection Plan.
The 1.6 GHz MacBook Air, for a suggested retail price of $1,799 (US), includes:
• 13.3-inch widescreen LED-backlit high resolution 1280 x 800 glossy display;
• 1.6GHz Intel Core 2 Duo with 6MB shared L2 cache;
• 1066 MHz front-side bus;
• 2GB 1066 MHz DDR3 SDRAM;
• NVIDIA GeForce 9400M integrated graphics;
• 120GB serial ATA hard drive running at 4200 rpm, with Sudden Motion Sensor;
• Mini DisplayPort for video output (adapters sold separately);
• built-in AirPort Extreme 802.11n wireless networking and Bluetooth 2.1+EDR;
• built-in iSight video camera;
• one USB 2.0 port;
• one headphone port;
• Multi-Touch trackpad and illuminated keyboard; and
• 45 Watt MagSafe Power Adapter.
The 1.86 GHz MacBook Air, for a suggested retail price of $2,499 (US), includes:
• 13.3-inch widescreen LED-backlit 1280 x 800 glossy display;
• 1.86 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo with 6MB shared L2 cache;
• 1066 MHz front-side bus;
• 2GB 1066MHz DDR3 SDRAM;
• NVIDIA GeForce 9400M integrated graphics;
• 128GB solid state drive;
• Mini DisplayPort for video output (adapters sold separately);
• built-in AirPort Extreme 802.11n wireless networking and Bluetooth 2.1+EDR;
• built-in iSight video camera;
• one USB 2.0 port;
• one headphone port;
• Multi-Touch trackpad and illuminated keyboard; and
• 45 Watt MagSafe Power Adapter.
Build-to-order options and accessories for the MacBook Air include the MacBook Air SuperDrive, Apple USB Ethernet Adapter, Mini DisplayPort to DVI Adapter, Mini DisplayPort to Dual-Link DVI Adapter (for 30-inch DVI display), Mini DisplayPort to VGA Adapter, Apple USB Modem, Apple MagSafe Airline Adapter, Apple Remote and the AppleCare Protection Plan.
The 2.5GHz 17-inch MacBook Pro, for a suggested retail price of $2,799 (US), includes:
• 17-inch widescreen LED-backlit 1920 x 1200 glossy display;
• 2.5 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo with 6MB shared L2 cache;
• 800 MHz front-side bus;
• 4GB 667MHz DDR2 SDRAM;
• NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT graphics with 512MB with GDDR3 video memory;
• 320GB Serial ATA hard drive running at 5400 rpm, with Sudden Motion Sensor;
• a slot-load 8X SuperDrive with double-layer support (DVD±R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW) optical drive;
• DVI output port for video output (VGA adapter included);
• built-in AirPort Extreme 802.11n wireless networking and Bluetooth 2.1+EDR;
• Gigabit Ethernet port;
• built-in iSight video camera;
• three USB 2.0 ports;
• one FireWire 800 port and one FireWire 400 port;
• ExpressCard/34 expansion card slot;
• one audio line in and one audio line out port, each supporting both optical digital and analog;
• Multi-Touch trackpad and illuminated keyboard; and
• 85 Watt MagSafe Power Adapter.
Build-to-order options for the 17-inch MacBook Pro include a 2.6 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor, a 320GB 7200 rpm hard drive, a 128GB solid state drive, anti-glare display, Apple USB Modem, Apple Remote, Apple MagSafe Airline Adapter and the AppleCare Protection Plan.
More info about Apple’s new MacBook family here.
Aack! Where’s the Firewire on the MacBook?!? Is Apple offering a Firewire over Ethernet option?
No cool updated 17 inch.
$100 less in us £20 more in uk come on apple are you serious
excellent product…..question mark over the price. I am going to wait a couple of months to purchase as I believe that Apple have got the pricing wrong (as they did on the launch of the iphone) and will have to reduce to maintain there growth within the notebook sector.
No FireWire?! On a $1,600 MacBook?? Even on the low-end MacBook? Apple, are you FU**ING KIDDING US?
WE NEED TARGET FIREWIRE MODE for migration & for troubleshooting purposes!
And what about the people who need to plug in a videocamera into their MacBooks?!
Apple, WTF are you THINKING?!!?
This is stupidly inefficient. Why do they keep the white MacBooks? Surely they should’ve sold those, because the won’t go now with the gorgeous black glass ones. Oh dear, and no-one will buy those, because of the price. Bad move, good products (as usual). Why keep old models? Why not sell new ones only? And who wants FireWire? Normal people use nothing but USB. Chances are, if you use FireWire, your technology is highly expensive and you can afford the adaptor anyway.
I love the design though. I am very jealous.
No FireWire at all on the MacBook (but 800 Mbit FireWire on the MacBook Pro)! What to do with all the FireWire external disks acumulated over the years and with the scanner? USB 2.0 to FireWire adapter anyone?
Dropping SCSI for FireWire was, at least, an improvement, but dropping FireWire in favor of USB 2.0 is definitely a downgrade.
All my external hard drives are Firewire! No MacBook for me… it’s a shame that Apple can’t support their own technology. I would buy some kind of Firewire-USB adapter if they exist. How about Firewire Target Disk Mode, I use it to troubleshot a lot of macs. Can we use Target disk mode only with USB???
They probably have some old-designed MacBooks that they want to get rid of. I suspect that relatively soon, like MacWorld at latest, they will abandon the old white MacBooks and lower the other MacBook prices all around. But I’ve been wrong before.
@MacBill
Buy a USB-to-FireWire adapter. Really not a big deal.
There’s fw on the white one, but I agree. This is a step backwards. I’m not buying yesterdays tech (white mb), and without fw, I won’t be buying any mbs for my school.
Personally, I don’t care for either the black keyboard or the black border around the screen. It looks as though I’ll be holding on to my MBP a tad bit longer than expected.
They look like cheap HP notebooks from Walmart.
iMovie is a bit redundant now.
What is the thinking behind leaving out Firewire?
couldn’t have said it better myself….
No FireWire?! On a $1,600 MacBook?? Even on the low-end MacBook? Apple, are you FU**ING KIDDING US?
WE NEED TARGET FIREWIRE MODE for migration & for troubleshooting purposes!
And what about the people who need to plug in a videocamera into their MacBooks?!
Apple, WTF are you THINKING?!!?
Was going to get my kid one in Nov., but now must study the FW situation… weird!
Say it ain’t so!
You guys sound like one of those cheap ass net books is more your speed.
Damn, the lack of FireWIre has REALLY put me off these new MacBooks… I have about 10 drives that are FW, all Daisy-Chained… what about my Canon DV Camcorder with DV input?
I think this is a BAD move by Apple, I’d love a new MacBook, but without FireWire, I’m going to have to pass.
The people who are talking about simply getting a USB-to-FireWire adapter are missing the point. There is NO TARGET FIREWIRE MODE on the new MacBooks, so we can start up the laptops in target firewire mode. That is what the issue is here.
ummm no firewire 400 on the macbook pro . . . I’m officially worried
” width=”19″ height=”19″ alt=”raspberry” style=”border:0;” />. I’m thankfully not too heavy invested in firewire . Kinda happy I got mine before the switch .
Disappointing No. 1: No firewire!!!!!
Disappointing No. 2: MB Pro no matt screen option
We all know that Apple has done that before: Give up an old connection port to introduce a new one. – But hey, where’s the new one? They should have put in a FW on the MB like in the Pro. The MB Pro ist to big for my purposes. I still have a DV-cam and need the Firewire port.
Result: I will not buy a new MB. But I’m sure there will still be a lot of buyers out there.
What’s good: The old MacBook with FW is still available at a reduced price.
Again, control freak Steve says: “You can have it with any kind of screen you want, as long as you want glossy.”
Fer christ’s sake, what the hell is wrong with a little choice!
Worst. Update. Ever.
Seriously, this had me swearing at Apple throughout the presentation. Everything they released, with the possible exception of the display and macbook air, was horribly flawed.
This is a WEAKER lineup than their old one. Compare the specs of old and new MacBooks, with the exception of the integrated graphics (and really, anyone buying a laptop with integrated graphics must not care much about graphics), and you will find that you are paying more for less.
$999 is still WAY TOO EXPENSIVE for what the white MacBook is. 1GB of RAM? Combo drive? UNACCEPTABLE. NO PC laptop still ships with 1GB of RAM or a combo drive, even those 50% of the price!
I cannot stress enough that this will be an extremely hard product to sell. Regular consumers don’t give a whit about how environmentally friendly it is or how it was engineered, they care about the specs/features and the price (and possibly the OS), and on this metric these new MacBooks fail to a high degree.
They may look nice on the outside, but the inside is hardly even an improvement, but considerably more expensive. Compare the current middle model MacBook to the old one.
For paying $100 more, you get a slower processor (2.0 vs 2.1), the same amount of RAM, same sized hard drive, better (but still integrated, so still sucky and unsupported by many games), and you lose Firewire. OK, so you get an LED backlight screen, a new and probably confusing-to-learn trackpad that PC users will learn to hate based on trying it for 30 seconds, faster RAM, etc… where’s the 4GB of RAM standard?
A $1699 laptop with 2GB of RAM and 250GB? UNACCEPTABLE. The processor isn’t even good enough to compensate for that.
There are PC laptops for $700 less which have 4GB of RAM and a 320GB hard drive standard. And of course, Apple overcharges you massively for these upgrades if you want it BTO.
Hell, there’s PC laptops that have been out 2 or 3 months that beat the crap out of this $1700 MacBook.
All in all, this is a highly disappointing update that clearly favours style over substance, and form over content. As much as I love macs and Mac OS, this will be a very tough sell to anyone comparing it to PC hardware. I honestly don’t know what I will say now to people claiming that Apple overprices their hardware. I’ll probably just have to agree.
very disappointing day from Apple… oh well… I will never get the lack of Firewire in the MacBooks. Strange.
Apple needed to be brave and go for lower prices. They didnt.
Firewire is/was essential for migration – how does it work now?
(probably over WiFi)
The look doesnt thrill me – I dont like the black border thing at all, so to see the ugly iMac black border on the Macbook Pro is not good.
And the black keyboard is a bit ugly.
No matte screens – glossy has its problems.
No black MacBook – surely that was a highly desirable product?
I am sure the manufacturing process is great and all, but who really cares?
Its features and lower price that drive sales, not some guff about solid chunks of aluminum blah blah blah.
“Hey, can we link with FireWire?” ” No, but I have this new metal casing….”
Now the only MacBook that looks cool is the Air.
Oh, that doesnt have FW either……
Take away FireWire, matte screens, cool look and keep prices the same.
I am confused – how is this a good thing?