The eagles have landed (and by eagles, we mean the new MacBooks)
Look what the FedEx guy dropped off...
Forty-eight hours after Steve Jobs showed off his latest MacBook collection to the public, a pair of shiny new Apple laptops have arrived in the CNET Labs.
We're currently benchmarking these new systems--one 13-inch MacBook and one 15-inch MacBook Pro, so stay tuned for full reviews. In the meantime, we snapped a few photos of the new systems to show off some of the physical changes, and to compare an older black 13-inch MacBook.
The 13-inch MacBook is the more radically redesigned of the two, with an aluminum body that closely apes the classic MacBook Pro--so much so that we've heard it referred to as the "MacBook Pro Mini." The edge-to-edge glass on the display and giant touch pad are also new.
Side by side with a previous generation MacBook, the new model is slightly thinner, and the metal body (carved from a solid block of aluminum) feels much sturdier (not that the older MacBooks felt particularly flimsy).
The giant touch pad will take some getting used to--it lacks a separate mouse button. Before opening the box, we had assumed the new touch pad was strictly tap-based, but in fact the entire pad depresses like a button. It's actually a bit hard to get used to, and feels a little clunky at first compared to a totally fixed-position touch pad. On the other hand, there are some useful new gestures: you can hide all your apps by sweeping four fingers up on the pad, and you can also designate one corner as a "right-click" zone.
Check out these unboxing and comparison pics, which will hopefully hold your interest while we test and review the new MacBook and MacBook Pro.
They call these "unboxing" shots for a reason.
The new packaging seems to use a little less cardboard.
Th 13-inch and 15-inch systems, side by side.
Another side-by-side view.
The new touch pad.
A closer view of the touch pad.
The new MacBook and the previous black model.
A closeup, showing the new system is slightly thinner.
New York native Dan Ackerman, a former radio DJ turned journalist, has written about technology and music for publications including Spin, Blender, The Hollywood Reporter, and USA Today. He hosts the weekly Digital City podcast and the New York edition of Editors' Office Hours. Dan's new album, Tales Out of Night School, is available now. E-mail Dan.
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It *is* only 'slightly' thinner because the edges are beveled. If my memory is correct, it is around .8-.12th of an inch slimmer. It is half a pound lighter. And according to CNET, feels much sturdier than the previous model.
Now I'm wondering if I should sell my blackbook right now or wait for Gen 2 of the new Macs. Decisions, decisions...
It's not that Mac users haven't been able to "tap" the touch pad to click, that functionality has been there for years on our side, also. The difference with the new Macbooks is that the touch pad is actually a Physical button; so instead of simply 'tap'ping the button you can also press it for a physical Click just as you would a button on a mouse. That's what all the hubub is about, because - to my knowledge - this is the first laptop to ever have such a 'feature'.
1) Mac AND PC users have been able to tap the touch pad to click for a long time. It's not the same thing. The touch pad actually depresses like a button when you push on it. You don't need to lift your finger from it to tap like you do on the previous touch pads or the PC ones.
2) Find me a gamer that plays games on a laptop without an external mouse. Most of the time it's impossible to play games on a touchpad anyway. I know that I can't play WoW (at least now well) or any other games without my external mouse. If someone is a serious gamer, they won't be playing with the touchpad, button or not.
Sorry Steve ...that is a HUGE mistake!
I once saved my Macbook, which wouldn't start up because of a corrupted disk, by using the target disk mode with an older iBook, via Firewire. My girlfriend was amazed and I was thinking that this is such a great feature. So, I'll be waiting until Firewire comes back somehow before I buy into this. People have spoken of an ethernet adapter which would make sense. Oh, and a mini-displayport to HDMI adapter that carries sound- one of the attractions of the new windows machines is just this.
I am saddened by the loss of the matte screen, one of the reasons I bought my G4 iBook years ago. Glossy screens are awful. They have no use, anywhere, at any time, for any person, for any reason. They should not exist. They have no advantages other than looking prettier when the screen is off. I wish they could simply be eliminated from the face of the earth. And not just on laptops. Monitors, TVs, and so on. When's the last time you went to a theater with a glossy projection screen? There's a reason your answer will be universally "never."
So now instead of seeing OS10 I guess I just have to watch people walking around behind me and so on.
I don't like the black keys or the black bezel either. That said, I love the keyboard from the old Macbook and Air which is now on all Macbooks. I'm an incredibly fast typist, averaging about 120WPM, but laptop keyboards just don't have the tactile feedback to let me do that accurately. I believe with these keyboards I can be fairly competitive with my nicer desktop keyboards.
I have mixed feelings about the trackpad, so we'll just see how that performs on my new one when it arrives.
Not commenting on the hardware until I see some benchmarks.
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by Tarsip
October 17, 2008 4:30 PM PDT
- The glossy screen is the vista of mac...
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