My New MacBook!

On October 14, 2008, the new line of MacBooks were released. With new manufacturing methods, upgraded components (check the specs at the bottom of this article), and the slimmest frame yet, the new MacBooks are true beauty (except they don't have FireWire ports).

It has a beautiful glossy 13.3 inch LCD widescreen display. With support for millions of colors, a LCD back-light (uses 30% less power than the old back-light), and a native resolution of 1280 by 800 pixels make for a stunning display. The black glass around the screen also adds great contrast and beauty (I may over-use that word, after all, it is beautiful, isn't it?).

Enough about that screen. Look at that case!!! Carved out of a single block of aluminum using lasers. Not a single crack or seam to be seen. Actually, there is one - on the bottom hatch that you can slide off to access the hard drive, batteries, and another components. All this is opened up with one simple tab on the bottom.

Here's some pics and a quick description of the features of each one:

Here's a view from an angle to show off the glossy display and thinness of the casing.

Here's a picture of the top portion of the MacBook. In the center you can see the built-in iSight camera and the indicator light to the immediate right of it. The microphone is hidden near the upper left corner above the keyboard.

Apple advertises up to "5 hours wireless productivity". This means, once you fully charge the batteries, you should be able to unplug the laptop and use it nonstop for up to 5 hours. I've tested this out and it seems to be fairly accurate.

The new MacBooks come with the Intel Core 2 Duo processor. My MacBook came with a 2.0 Ghz version of one of these puppies.

Yay! It comes with Blue-tooth! And look, I honestly don't care! I'm never gonna use it. At least it will hep drain my batteries - more money for the electric company when I recharge! I'll just turn it off so it won't be draining my batteries.

Side view of the MacBook showing off the SuperDrive. The drive creates a bit of noise when in use, but that is the nature of a spinning drive. Otherwise, the MacBook is rediculously quiet. In order to hear the fan you have to place your ears right against the keyboard. Sometimes if overheating starts to occur the fans will go full blast for a few seconds or so to clear out the overheated air within the laptop. The hard drive occasionally makes sounds, like when the laptop is opened it makes a small sound for a second or two, but during normal use I rarely ever hear anything from it. This is truly a quiet laptop.

Here's the dimensions of the new MacBook. In the middle is the spot where you open the magnetic latch. To the right is the infrared receiver for the Apple remote (optional, I didn't bother to purchase it). To the left of the notch is small hidden light that can only be seen when the computer goes into sleep mode - the light slowly brightens and dims, as if the laptop is breathing slowly during a good nap.


With the new NVidia GeForce 9400M integrated graphics processors, the new MacBooks achieve up to 6.2 times faster graphics performance (when tested with Call of Duty 4) compared with the Intel processors that were in the old MacBooks.


A quick side view of the ports. There is the MagSafe power port for recharging the MacBook, a Gigabit Ethernet port for wired high-speed internet, two USB 2.0 ports, a Mini DisplayPort for connecting to an external display, a audio-in port (for microphones), an audio-out port (for external speakers or headphones), and a Kensington lock port for connecting to a Kensington lock to secure your laptop to something to prevent it from being stolen. To the right of all these ports is the battering indicator lights. Press the button and the lights will light up indicating how much battery charge is left for use.

The new trackpad is larger than in the old MacBook. This was achieved by building the button into the trackpad. Multi-Touch has been introduced into this trackpad for a greatly enhanced user experience. Scroll through pages by placing to fingers on the trackpad and moving them up and down, resize images by "pinching" with two fingers on the trackpad, use three finger swipes to slide to the next photo in an album (or to flip through items in coverflow), and even more. Definitely one of my favorite features on the new MacBooks.

Finally, the built in Wi-Fi allows me to work anywheres within my house or anywheres outside, as long as I'm fairly close to the wireless router.

Here's the specs of my new MacBook:

WebID:	10111215
Mfr. Part Number:	MB466LL/A
Processor Type	Intel Core 2 Duo
Screen Size	13.3"
RAM (Preloaded / Maximum)	2GB DDR3
Hard Drive	160GB (5400RPM)
Optical Drives	8X SuperDrive (DVD±R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW)
Graphics	NVIDIA GeForce 9400M
Average Battery Life	5 Hours
Product Weight	2.04 kg
Audio Type	Stereo
Battery Type	Lithium-Ion
Cache	3MB On-Chip Shared L2
Fax/Modem	No
I/O Ports	USB 2.0, VGA Output, Composite Output
Included In Box	AC Adapter, Manual
Network Card	Built-In 10/100/1000BASE-T Gigabit
Other Software	iLife '08, QuickTime, Time Machine
PC Card Slots	No
Pointing Device	Solid-State scrolling Trackpad
Preloaded Operating System	Mac OS X v10.5 Leopard
Processor Speed	2.0GHz
Product Dimensions	32.5(W) x 2.41(H) x 22.7(D) cm
Removable Storage	No
Screen Type	Widescreen LCD
Speakers	Yes
System Bus	1066MHz
Warranty	1 Year Limited Parts & Labour

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