Apple intros hotly-awaited small-screen Intel-powered Mac laptops

[Bob Crabtree]

Here's an extract from today's official Apple press release.

You can read the full release over in this HEXUS.headline, where our news story will be appearing shortly, too.


Bob

Pricing & Availability
The new MacBook is available immediately through the Apple Store (www.apple.com/ukstore), Apple’s retail stores and Apple Authorised Resellers. Apple today also increased processor speeds on both models of the 15-inch MacBook Pro, delivering even greater performance at no additional cost. The £1,699 (inc. VAT) model now includes a 2.16 GHz Intel Core Duo processor, up from 2.0 GHz, and the £1,399 (inc. VAT) model now includes a 2.0 GHz Intel Core Duo processor, up from 1.83 GHz. Beginning today, the MacBook Pro also offers the new glossy widescreen display as a CTO option on both the 15-and 17-inch models at no additional cost.

The 1.83 GHz, 13-inch white MacBook, for a suggested retail price of £749 (inc. VAT), includes:
• 13.3-inch glossy widescreen 1280 x 800 display with 250 cd/m2 brightness;
• 1.83 GHz Intel Core Duo processor;
• 667 MHz front-side bus;
• 512MB of 667 MHz DDR2 SDRAM, expandable to 2GB;
• 60GB Serial ATA hard drive running at 5400 rpm, with Sudden Motion Sensor;
• a slot-load Combo (DVD-ROM/CD-RW) optical drive;
• Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 950;
• Mini-DVI out (adapters for DVI, VGA and Composite/S-Video sold separately);
• built-in iSight video camera;
• Gigabit Ethernet port;
• built-in AirPort Extreme wireless networking and Bluetooth 2.0+EDR;
• two USB 2.0 ports and one FireWire 400 port;
• one audio line in and one audio line out port, each supporting both optical digital and analogue;
• Scrolling TrackPad;
• the infrared Apple Remote; and
• 60 Watt MagSafe Power Adapter.

The 2.0 GHz, 13-inch white MacBook, for a suggested retail price of £899 (inc. VAT), includes:
• 13.3-inch glossy widescreen 1280 x 800 display with 250 cd/m2 brightness;
• 2.0 GHz Intel Core Duo processor;
• 667 MHz front-side bus;
• 512MB of 667 MHz DDR2 SDRAM, expandable to 2GB;
• 60GB Serial ATA hard drive running at 5400 rpm, with Sudden Motion Sensor;
• a slot-load SuperDrive (DVD±RW/CD-RW) optical drive;
• Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 950;
• Mini-DVI out (adapters for DVI, VGA and Composite/S-Video sold separately);
• built-in iSight video camera;
• Gigabit Ethernet port;
• built-in AirPort Extreme wireless networking and Bluetooth 2.0+EDR;
• two USB 2.0 ports and one FireWire 400 port;
• one audio line in and one audio line out port, each supporting both optical digital and analogue;
• Scrolling TrackPad;
• the infrared Apple Remote; and
• 60 Watt MagSafe Power Adapter.

The 2.0 GHz, 13-inch black MacBook, for a suggested retail price of £1,029 (inc. VAT), includes:
• 13.3-inch glossy widescreen 1280 x 800 display with 250 cd/m2 brightness;
• 2.0GHz Intel Core Duo processor;
• 667 MHz front-side bus;
• 512MB of 667 MHz DDR2 SDRAM, expandable to 2GB;
• 80GB Serial ATA hard drive running at 5400 rpm, with Sudden Motion Sensor;
• a slot-load SuperDrive (DVD±RW/CD-RW) optical drive;
• Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 950;
• Mini-DVI out (adapters for DVI, VGA and Composite/S-Video sold separately);
• built-in iSight video camera;
• Gigabit Ethernet port;
• built-in AirPort Extreme wireless networking and Bluetooth 2.0+EDR;
• two USB 2.0 ports and one FireWire 400 port;
• one audio line in and one audio line out port, each supporting both optical digital and analogue;
• Scrolling TrackPad;
• the infrared Apple Remote; and
• 60 Watt MagSafe Power Adapter.

[Steve B]

black?

[Bob Crabtree]

Originally Posted by k0m0d0_dragon

black?

Yes, the more expensive model.

You're not telling me, are you, that you think this is targeted at people who'd want to run Windows?

[DR]

I am shocked they put a price premium on the black unit....


... well to be fair, I am not shocked... but :|

[Steve B]

hehe... u always have a price premium with apple though, thats why they're so desirable
i always thought of the Macs as something of the Light side of the Force, the jedi as it were. The innocent smooth curves of Princess Leia, pasty white skin of luke skywalker and the mean-machine of Chewwie inside.
PC's on the other hand, self explanatory really.
I am ur fath...no ur not, u just want to touch my 7900GTX!
ill stick with Darth thanks

[trashcanmonkey]

very nice, poor graphics tho
i suppose that thats predictable in the budget version, and the choise of a better GPU would make it far to similar to a Macbook Pro for Apple's comfort.

[joshwa]

the black one looks like those cheap 14" dell inspiron 1300s

[trashcanmonkey]

hum sought of... I know which one i would go for tho!

[TheAnimus]

hell yeh given the extravogant price!

i like thou that apple have gone for pratical colours again thou.

my tablet pc, a tecra m4, has this loverly black matt texture coating on the main body, then this horrible light silver on the lid..... so it gets all dirty and scratched. Laptops need to be dark to hide the sin they containe!

[joshwa]

have you noticed the weird keyboard?:
http://www.engadget.com/2006/05/17/h...apple-macbook/

[dangel]

Great - another Apple product that fails to excite

Why the heck throttle the darn thing with naff graphics? Smacks of 'got this good deal with intel so...' to me.

I agree on colour - black is a must for luggables - anything else looks horrible within a few weeks!

[TheAnimus]

hey i like that keyboard (and prase from me for an apple product means a fair bit)

rather i like it to look at, clean dirt from. But mabye not to type on. Still i won't nock that till i've tried it, if it feals nice to type on that might be a very partical apple innovation (now that would be a first!)

[Stoo]

Originally Posted by dangel

Why the heck throttle the darn thing with naff graphics? Smacks of 'got this good deal with intel so...' to me.

Because it's not designed to be a games machine, it's designed for browsing, email, maybe a bit of photoshop/web design and webcam usage, and for that it doesn't need the latest ati/nvidia uber chipset, the intel one will do the job just as well for a fraction of the cost.

If you want to do gaming/3d work you need the macbook pro

[dangel]

Originally Posted by Stoo

Because it's not designed to be a games machine, it's designed for browsing, email, maybe a bit of photoshop/web design and webcam usage, and for that it doesn't need the latest ati/nvidia uber chipset, the intel one will do the job just as well for a fraction of the cost.

If you want to do gaming/3d work you need the macbook pro

Tosh - it's about saving them money and increasing their margin - even an old 'basic' 3d chipset could of been shoved in there for next to nowt.. Just cos it's an Apple doesn't excuse it for being underspecced for the price - remove apple-tinted glasses

[Stoo]

Originally Posted by dangel

Tosh - it's about saving them money and increasing their margin - even an old 'basic' 3d chipset could of been shoved in there for next to nowt.. Just cos it's an Apple doesn't excuse it for being underspecced for the price - remove apple-tinted glasses

Re-read my comments again, and you'll see that the main reason I stated was cost, because it doesn't need much if any 3d capability.

If you look at who the macbook is aimed at, the equivilent Dells mostly use Intel GMA integrated graphics..

http://www1.euro.dell.com/content/pr...n=specs#tabtop
http://www1.euro.dell.com/content/pr...hs1&l=en&s=dhs


What apple tinted glasses? They're transitions lenses!

[mull]

Reasonable student pricing available, if anyone's interested; 844 quid for the middle version, probably the pick of the bunch. Can virtualise Windows with the Parallels software to run any course specific software, too, kinda cool.