“The MacBook 13-inch (Aluminum) couldn’t come at a more crucial time for Apple. It uses a completely new manufacturing technique that begins with a thick slab of aluminum and ends with a lusciously thin and gorgeous product. Design alone could undoubtedly attract Mac fanatics and would-be Windows converts. However, features are still a little weak and the price, well, it’s not the $800 MacBook that we were all hoping for,” Cisco Cheng writes for PC Magazine.
MacDailyNews Take: So, somebody makes up a rumor and when it naturally doesn’t pan out, Apple gets demerits. That’s simply Illogical garbage from PC Magazine; we’ve seen it from them before). But, what do you expect from a magazine that mainly devoted to covering products saddled with the illogical Windows OS? They’ve been staring at upside-down and backwards UI’s for so long that logic simply escapes them.
Cheng continues, “It’s undeniably thinner and more attractive than the previous MacBook 13-inch (Penryn). The aluminum enclosure, which is a huge departure from the long-standing tradition of white polished laptops dating back to the iBook G4, is a testament to brilliant design engineering. The white MacBooks aren’t off the grid yet; there is a lone configuration that is now available for $999, although the book is pretty much closed on white design.”
“It starts with an aluminum slab as a thick as two Apple MacBook Pros put together. From that, a 1.5-pound enclosure is carved out to form the aluminum MacBook. Let’s put it this way: Aside from rugged laptops, my hands haven’t touched anything this sturdy in a very long time. It was virtually impossible to flex the screen; there was no evidence of hollowness from tapping on the palm rests; and there’s something about the heft that makes it feel as nice as holding an authentic Rolex watch,” Cheng reports. “The screen is bright and the colors are sensational, although those who work under a fluorescent light will come across some glare, and a matted option isn’t available.”
MacDailyNews Take: Now that’s a valid criticism.
Cheng continues, “In a move only Apple can pull off, the touchpad is now one with the mouse button. In other words, any form of clicking, scrolling or navigating is done though the touchpad. At first, it seemed a little awkward, but I grew comfortable with it right away. The touchpad is 39 percent larger to accommodate the mouse click functionality. And you can’t tell by looking at it, but from an engineering standpoint, the touchpad slopes downwards, so you can click at the bottom, left and right hand sides of it, but not at the top.”
Cheng whines, “Once again, Apple fails to put in a media card reader even though every one is carrying around a digital camera these days.”
MacDailyNews Note: PC Mag and their ilk love card readers more than they loved floppy drives, if that’s even possible. An over 2 year old Nikon CoolPix P1 (that we sometimes use when we need a flash) transfers via Wi-Fi (we use iPhone’s camera much more often nowadays – it’s just too convenient). Welcome to the future, Cisco, 2005 style! It does also come with a USB cable if you prefer old-fashioned methods. We haven’t touched an SD card (or a card reader) since we dropped a 1GB’er into the Nikon over two years ago. We expect better from someone named after a router.
Cheng continues, “3D benchmarks topped the competition because Apple has moved away from Intel’s integrated graphics. Apple and nVidia is claiming up to five times the improvement over the previous integrated set. It’s more like 3 to 4 times improvement, depending on the resolution used in these games… The Macbook basically won in every gaming category.”
Cheng reports, “The Apple MacBook 13-inch (Aluminum) couldn’t be more glamorous, glorious and magnificent—from a design standpoint. Shaping aluminum metals into gorgeous designs is the company’s creed, and its skills easily surpass those of its Windows counterparts. Performance, meanwhile, gets a necessary lift from the Intel Centrino 2 platform and nVidia graphics. However, this is not the $800, or even the sub-$1,000 laptop, that we were all expecting.”
Full review, which unfortunately offers the good stuff sandwiched between slabs of stupidity, here.