The New Mac Book: AS Shiny as it Get's

The shinier the gadget, the higher the chances of it flying off the shelves. The Samsung Metal Series phones have been a killer, people love the metal look on the Apple iPhone, and now Apple has launched the MacBook in aluminium.

I have used an Intel MacBook white for about a year—and it has a serious shortcoming. The plastic quality. Within a year, my MacBook looked like something I was born with.

The new MacBook’s aluminium body is light and suave, manufactured from a single, solid piece of aluminium. This MacBook still has a non-backlit keyboard (oh why!) but the track pad is now bigger and the button has gone. It is integrated into the multi-touch track pad, which allows you to do all those tricks that you do on an iPhone.

The screen is much brighter and shiny, it uses OLED for display. Though colour fidelity is a bit awkward, there is high contrast and sharp reflection. The speakers on this model are much better and a bit louder.

The new design with the black screen border and the aluminium finish now unifies the MacBook, the MacBook Pro, the iMac, and the iPhone designs.

There are some things I don’t appreciate though. The Mini DVI port on the old MacBook has been replaced with a mini display port on the new one, so if you have a DVI to VGA converter, well you will just have to buy another one. The Firewire port is gone, I wonder why, because most external drive manufacturers now offer both Firewire and USB models. The display port is understandable as Apple has chosen to replace the DVI with an advanced bus for high definition video, audio and data streams, but right now displays that will connect are limited.

The Intel graphics card is gone and a brand new Nvidia 9400 M card has been added to the new MacBook, which not only means that you will be able to attach a 30” display to the Book, but also that graphic speeds will be much higher. Though the graphics card takes away 256+ MB, Apple should seriously consider separate RAM for it.

A brilliant change is that the hard drive is available for upgrade through the bottom cover. No screws to be removed. The MacBook is also green—it uses a highly recyclable aluminium and glass enclosure. Apple guarantees it had used a mercury-free LED backlit display, arsenic-free glass, and PVC-free internal cables.

What make an Apple MacBook stand out are the little details—the magnetic latch on the power adapter, the pull-out tabs and the sheer brilliance of design. If you have the money, and want a brilliant machine, buy yourself the aluminium version. If you don’t have the money and still want to own a Mac, buy yourself the older Mac—nothing wrong with it except the plastic body. The new aluminium MacBook is priced upward of Rs 72,910.

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The above review appeared in the Indian Express, on Sunday 18th January 2009