Comments on: Hands on: Apple MacBook (13-inch, white)

Apple's "last" MacBook is the same from the outside, but the insides are nearly as good as a MacBook Pro. Can you live without a longer battery and an SD card slot for $200 less?

[tipoo_]

Pretty...But once again the GPU in the 13 inch is holding me back. As a comparison Sony just released a 13" SR with an ATI 4570, which almost equals a 9600 GT.

So much for 9 months of evolution. And with OpenCL supported in Snow Leopard, the "macs arent for gaming" thing doeskin make a difference. OpenCL is an open standard which AMD supports strongly, so thats no excuse either.

[cyclonica1980]

I feel sorry for the folks who back in the day forked out like 2000.00 for the Macbook Pros. Those same models are about 20% cheaper now, 30% if your a college student. Most people forget though, the Geforce 9400 isn't the best of cards. I remember back in the day I had an ibook with a decent ATI graphics card in it. I still think its actually better than IGA's. The new prices also totally kill Microsoft's PC's are cheaper campaign. I use both a Mac and PC and I must say Apple surprised me with this move. The last thing I expected them to do was drop the prices of the high end Macbook Pros.

Now that the things are reasonably priced, perhaps down the road I will invest in one.

[only_truth]

No user-replaceable battery!!! I hope the EU actually goes through with the banning of all electronics without user-replaceable batteries, crippling Apple. The whole "by taking out the mechanism we've added more battery" nonsense is pathetic. When my laptop is plugged in and fully charged, I pop the battery out and let it sit on the desk. I still get over 5 hours on my battery even though it's 3 years old.

[Brian]

Yes, the Apple mindset is to force their users to purchase PURCHASE purchase !!

Come along and sing the song...

purchase PURCHASE purchase PURCHASE purchase PURCHASE
PURCHASE purchase PURCHASE purchase PURCHASE purchase
purchase PURCHASE purchase PURCHASE purchase PURCHASE

[cyclonica1980]

@only_truth

Its partially a marketing thing as well. They claim it lasts 5 years, well by that point your gonna want the Macbook Pro X5000, and even if you don't your computers battery is dead, do you have a choice?

[Brian]

The problem is in 4 years (up to 5 years does not count), you won't be able to sell your good old Macbook on ebay because the battery is finished.

So much for INVESTMENT.

Whenever Apple does a stunt like this, the presenter (used to be S. Jobs, now is P. Schiller) has dollar signs in their eyes.

Remember Steve's closing line? One more thing...

Usually ends up with something like this:
...online store (a store where you can purchase PURCHASE purchase more MORE more).

Apple wants your money.

[NYTechie]

@Brian

Apple is a BUSINESS, not a human rights advocate--you write like they owe you a computer or something because that would be the right thing to do. Of course they want our money--everyone wants something, that's the point of consumerism. Besides, cyclonica is right--I loved my 2003 Powerbook G4, and it still works just fine, but I wanted something new and quicker so I bought a Macbook, battery life be damned!

[molotov]

13 inches? I would have to be seriously brain dead to spend over a $1,000.00 on a 13 inch laptop - metal, single block 'carving' notwithstanding. Good job Apple - your prices are finally becoming logical - this $999 laptop is a first step towards becoming an accepted form of mobile computing. A very important hurdle for a company that specializes in computers.

[deniceels]

Come on, give me more usb ports at least. 2 is not enough for 1Touch, 2 flash drives, 1 external harddisk, 1 mobilebroadband. 160GB where other models are putting in at least 320GB? A little stingy I guess. Battery life of 1000 charge cycles? 3 times day shutting off-on everyday is not going to even make it to 4th year or worst, 3 years, unless you make it easier to remove it.

Looks like I gotta stick with my 3yo macbook and HP for a little while longer which still runs on perfectly fine removable battery.

[bart6426]

Uh Apple and affordable in the same sentance? A Dell XPS Studio 16, with 2.93 GHz cpu, 6 gig of 1066 ddr3, 256 sdd, blu ray, full hd led backlit (huge gamut) 16 inch display, latest ati 512 Mb video card costs 2953 usd (go check it on their site). A MBP 15 inch with the same config, less the blu ray and the great display costi 4000 usd (also check it on apple web site). Nuff said ok. And I have leopard osx86 installed on my dell xps m1530, working just as it would on a mac (less the sound card which is not working). I wanted to save a text file on the desktop, but not with the .rtf extension. Had to open a console and do that, since i couldn't do it from the guy. Yeah, that's an OS worth buying a 4000 usd laptop for.

[mavfan2]

?Brian said "The problem is in 4 years (up to 5 years does not count), you won't be able to sell your good old Macbook on ebay because the battery is finished.

So much for INVESTMENT."

The non user replacable batteries are replacable at an Apple store. I think it's $129 and they'll do it for you in the store. Also, the case can be opened (for memory/HDD upgrades by the user) and the battery is right there and can be removed if you have a special screwdriver. There will be aftermarket companies that make user replacable batteries that will come with that screwdriver, and they'll be cheaper than Apple, you can bet on that happening

[abundantsnotbob]

Don't forget the backlit keyboard, and if you use the college student discount it is only $150 more.