And Then There Was: “The MacBook”

Yes, today is the day! Apple announced the MacBook! And like we expected, it released the MacBook in black and white. Now that we know the available colors, we want to know the specs and pricing of these machines! So here we go!

The 1.83GHz, 13-inch white MacBook costs $1099. Its features include:

• 13.3-inch glossy widescreen 1280 x 800 display with 250 cd/m2 brightness

• 667MHz front-side bus
• 512MB of 667 MHz DDR2 SDRAM, expandable to 2GB
• 60GB Serial ATA hard drive running at 5,400 rpm, with Sudden Motion Sensor
• A slot-load Combo (DVD-ROM/CD-RW) optical drive
• Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 950
• One audio line-in and one audio line-out port, each supporting both optical digital and analogue

The 2.0GHz, 13-inch white MacBook, for a suggested retail price of $1299, includes:

• 13.3-inch glossy widescreen 1280 x 800 display with 250 cd/m2 brightness

• 667MHz front-side bus
• 512MB of 667 MHz DDR2 SDRAM, expandable to 2GB
• 60GB Serial ATA hard drive running at 5,400 rpm, with Sudden Motion Sensor
• A slot-load SuperDrive (DVD±RW/CD-RW) optical drive
• Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 950
• One audio line-in and one audio line-out port, each supporting both optical digital and analogue.

The 2.0GHz, 13-inch black MacBook costs $1499. It includes:

• 13.3-inch glossy widescreen 1280 x 800 display with 250 cd/m2 brightness

• 667MHz front-side bus
• 512MB of 667 MHz DDR2 SDRAM, expandable to 2GB
• 80GB Serial ATA hard drive running at 5,400 rpm, with Sudden Motion Sensor
• A slot-load SuperDrive (DVD±RW/CD-RW) optical drive
• Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 950
• One audio line-in and one audio line-out port, each supporting both optical digital and analogue.

Apple says that these machines are up to five times faster than the current iBooks. There’s a Web page which should confirm these claims: MacBook speed test.

Also the screen has some improvements. “Unlike previous-generation iBooks, the new MacBooks simultaneously support full native resolution on the built-in display and up to 1,920 x 1,200 pixels on an external display. iBooks couldn’t do this.”

This is very good news for a lot of people. One reason why I stayed with my powerbook was the resolution and the external display.

The size is something Apple also worked on. “The machines are 20 percent thinner than the previous iBooks. They weigh 5.2 pounds, which is ’slightly more’ than 12-inch PowerBooks, but you get a 13-inch screen.”

The pricing is pretty much the same, although the entry MacBook is slightly more expensive than the current iBook, where the top-of-the-range model (the black one) costs a little less.

As far as I can tell for now, these are great looking machines which, I think, will cause a lot of people to get out the ol’ credit card!

[tags]macbook,apple,laptop,powerbook,ibook[/tags]