The introduction of the miniDisplayPort connector in the new laptops and the 24″ Cinema Display by Apple made many people frown, due to the impossibility (or in some cases, the need for an extra adaptor) to connect different devices. The true problem, especially in some situations, is represented by the incredible variety of connections that are present in the many devices in the market: VGA, DVI, HDMI, miniDVI, ComponentVideo and recently, miniDisplayPort.

It’s an array of choices that is too large not to be confusing, and there’s the risk of having peripherals that can’t communicate with each other. According to Apple, however, the future is represented by the DisplayPort technology, or better yet, by its small version, the miniDisplayPort. The idea from the company is to make the miniDisplayPort a standard by all means: in order to reach this goal, a new free licensing program has been launched for all the OEMs that want to integrate this type of connection with their products.

In this way, the miniDisplayPort should be available for everyone, and at the same time, remanining in Apple’s possession, which would increase its diffusion. Whether the move will be successful, it remains to be seen.

BATTERY DURATION

According to Apple, the battery should last up to 5 hours. During the first test, it was possible to navigate in Internet with the WLAN connection for 4 hours without having to recharge the battery.

Good results, the only downside is that Apple doesn’t allow the user to replace the battery for one with more capacity.

CONCLUSIONS

The new MacBook is clearly a great product. The new aluminium cover is made of high-quality materials and its design and hardness are impressive. The new trackpad is also a wonderful feature. The performances are great, and users should keep in mind that the 9400M chip is the fastest on the market so far.

On a negative side: the number of interfaces. We think Apple reduced the number of interfaces on the MacBook 13.3″ in order not to allow any competition between it and the MacBook Pro.

It would have been good to have the possibility of choosing an opaque screen as well. It would always depend on the usage of the laptop, but for some situations, the opaque screen would have been more useful.

In a nutshell, the MacBook 13.3″ is a great alternative to the MacBook Pro.

TEMPERATURES

Our testing model has been left on for more than one day without long interruptions. The results coming from the temperature tests were rather good. The maximum temperature was of 35.4°C, which cannot be considered high at all.

NOISE

Taking into consideration a rather noisy ennvironment, even after hours of testing, the fan could barely be heard. That fits perfectly the standard Apple product’s characteristics, that are known for being usually rather silent.

SPEAKERS

Differently from the MacBook Pro, the sound is sent through the fan opening that is positioned in the front part, hence the sound seems slightly inferior in quality.

PERFORMANCE

Another big change is that this laptop uses an nVidia GeForce 9400M video card. It’s a shared-memory video card that uses 256MB of the DDR3 RAM when used with the Mac OS X. According to Apple, this new component increases the performances when compared to the old GMA X3100. In the Cinebench Open GL benchmark test, the new MacBook has been 2.3 times faster than the old model. In many games, the improvement is indeed five times more than the previous MacBook. The performances can be compared to a entry-level video card with dedicated memory (For example, the GeForce 9300 GS).

The processor hasn’t really been updated. The Intel Core 2 Duo P8600 has the same clock as the T8300 currently present on the previous MacBook model. They both work at a 2.4GHz speed. The only true change is on the frontside bus clock, that went from 800Mhz to 1066 Mhz. In a nutshell, the CPU is only slightly faster, but being produced with the 45nm technology, it requires less energy.

DISPLAY

During the process of redesigning the MacBook, Apple has also decided to feature, on the smaller model, an illuminated LED display. The advantages of this type of display is that it becomes illuminated immediately after turning on the computer. Moreover, the maximum luminosity is definitely enhanced when compared to the previous MacBook model. It goes from a 178 cd/m2 to a 300 cd/m2.

Like the oldest brother and the iMac, the MacBook also has a glass protection cover on the display. It is rather shiny, so the reflexes can be annoying. However, the luminosity is enough to allow the user to work with no issues in normally illuminated environments.

The contrast and color strength on this MacBook version is slightly lower than the MacBook Pro, although the colors are actually still rather good. The visual angles are also a little worse than in the MacBook Pro, but they are not a big issue to the user.

The OS installed is the Mac OS 10.5 Leopard and the iLife 2008 suite. Apple extends the warranty for up to 12 months, which can be upgraded to 36 months for the additional price of €349, which includes support. The price is €90 cheaper than the previous model.

Input Devices

Keyboard

The new keyboard on the MacBook is based on the researches made for the MacBook Air. The round keys were designed exactly to adapt themselves to the fingertips, which results in a very pleasant typing experience. When in darker environments such as planes or conference rooms, the illuminated keyboard allows users to always see what they’re typing. Compared to the MacBook Air, the keys seem even softer. The keyboard layout seems adapted to the Mac OSx. As for the MacBook Pro, the downside on this keyboard is the fact that the cursor keys are rather small, which can be a problem for gamers.

The new glass touchpad

As we have reviewed on the MacBook Pro, one of the main innovations on this new line is the glass touchpad with no buttons. All the touchepad is a button, and users can click wherever they want. We’ve reviewed the possibilities of a buttonless touchpad in our previous MacBook Pro review here. For this model, it’s exactly the same process, which can be a rather good feature, after all.

The unibody aluminium case is very pleasant to the touch and it’s made of high wuality materials. Compared to the previous models, it is also thinner and relatively lighter. The case has a new magnetic closure system that works well, not posing many problems.

In a nutshell, the MacBook seems to have been improved in all aspects. The only thing about this particular model is the lack of the FireWire port, which it’s hard to understand why Apple has decided against featuring it in the first place.

Interfaces

In this model, Apple has reduced the number of interfaces. As we mentioned before, there’s no FireWire port, and when compared to the MacBook Pro, there’s no ExpressCard slot either. The new mini DisplayPort replaces the mini DVI port that are found on previous models. The new resolution is now of a maximum 2560×1600. In order to connect an external model, users need a special adapter (VGA, Video or DVI).

As in the MacBook Pro, there’s a lack of a dockingstation port as well.

Apple has introduced its 13.3″ MacBook with aluminium case. Compared to its “bigger brother”, it doesn’t have a dedicated graphic card, Firewire port or ExpressCard slot. We’ll see, in more detail, the main features on this model during this review.

Case

This notebook seems to aim at taking the place of the Powerbook 12″. The design is the same as the MacBook Pro, in fact, this notebook is a 13.3″ MacBook Pro, after all. Some features, however, remind us much of the MacBook Air, that set up a new standard for Apple’s notebooks in terms of style and quality.

Particularly, the round screen reminds us much of that of the MacBook Air. Also the power button and the keyboard are the same. The aluminium case contrasts pleasantly with the monitor’s black frame and the plastic protection cover (chosen in order to guarantee the WLAN and BlueTooth signals).

The new MacBook line continues to show an unusual issue: the system is slower when the battery isn’t connected. Some tests performed by Gearlog confirm it.

Even though there was an official announcement from the technical support, back in August, that predicted an update on the new notebook line, the new unibody systems seem to noticeably lower the processor performance when only the electric supply is available. The company sustains that “If the battery is removed from a MacBook or MacBook Pro, the computer will automatically reduce the processor speed. This prevents the computer from shutting down if it demands more power than the A/C adaptor alone can provide”. Which seems a rather inconsistant explanation.

During the test made, the performance reduction is considerable: using the CINEBENCH R10 test on a MacBook Pro 2.53GHz, the performance points go from 5549 to 3504. The difference is so noticeable that the system only uses 63% of its true capacity when connected to the electricity.

This problem is unusual to many PC manufacturers, that often work on the contrary, limiting the processor’s performance in case the system is only connected to the battery, in order to extend the battery’s duration.

From Apple’s point of view, the MacBook Air is a product aimed to those “always in movement”, hence the need to sacrifice some very useful components in order to minimize the space. The RAM and processor performances are discreet and sufficiently good for the basic applications and office programs. The PATA disk capacity however, isn’t enough. Although, at least for the version with Solid State Disks, the results are good only due to the noticeable advantages on energy consumption and performance.

The only USB port is definitely not enough, since all the expansion optionals have to be connected to it. The lack of an Ethernet port is also a problem, since the wi-fi connections aren’t available everywhere. Due to its very thin size, it’s understandable why it was needed to avoid the optical unit; however, the Remote Disk configuration would have been better if it could have been more simple. There’s always the alternative of an external USB optical device, of course.

The MacBook Air is a laptop indicated to those who need a second computer to use together with their main one, and those who want discreetly good performances within a rather small solution. The problems with the model remain, and so do their competitors, and the price could also be somewhat of an issuem, especially with cheaper models being available on the market, but the design and the Apple quality are undeniable and make the MacBook Air an interesting notebook.