Dell Studio 1537

The Dell Studio 1537 is a sight for sore eyes, with our model coming with a red lid to round out its overall smooth appearance. It also comes with some decent firepower behind that standard Studio beauty, packing a latest generation Intel Core 2 Duo P8400 2.26 GHz to go along with 4GB RAM, a 320GB HDD and a dedicated 256MB ATI Radeon HD 3450 GPU. When you consider that you can get all this for a cost that won’t exceed three digits, the Studio looks like a solid value.

Design

Case look and feel

Like most Studios, the look and feel of the case is very nice. The red lid and silver Dell logo in its center looks stylish and the texture is smooth to the touch. Opening the lid you’ll see a silver frame around the wide, glossy screen, with a tiny webcam peering out at you from above and unfortunately some thin strips of rubber padding for when the lid closes (it’s useful and discreet, but other laptops manage to close fine without them). There is a Dell logo on the bottom of the display, but you’ll hardly notice it as its on a level with the hinge. The silver border extends around the black speakers and backlit keyboard, which is a nice effect, and the trackpad is simply a slight depression in the palmrest. The front of the laptop is tapered slightly so that the back is deeper than the front, avoiding the boxy look. When considering the overall look, the word smooth comes to mind again and again.

Size & Weight

If only it were lighter it might actually be as smooth as it looks, but at 6.11 lbs (more with the 9-cell battery) you won’t be casually lifting up the studio with one hand to show it off (not that we recommend that anyway). With dimensions of 14”x10.3”x1”/1.3” (front/back), the Studio isn’t exactly thin either. Our version came with the extended 9-cell battery, which props up the back at an angle that is not uncomfortable for typing but adds about another .75” to the depth in the back. The Studio isn’t so thick that it looks bad at all, so don’t worry about those style points. It’s just clearly not competing in the thin-and-light laptop category.

Keyboard and Trackpad

First and foremost, the backlit keyboard (optional) looks nice, it really does. It powers up gradually when typing and fades away after about 60 seconds without typing, and can be turned off or dimmed to save power. Overall the keyboard is full sized and comfortable to type on, with a limited but acceptable array of function keys and no dedicated number pad. There is a set of multimedia touch buttons above which light up the same white of the keyboard, as well as a few status lights in the top right corner beneath the speaker bay. The trackpad as well is comfortable to use, set slightly to the left and decently sized.

Display quality

The display quality is great, with the only shortfall being a rather average WXGA 1280x800 resolution. However, the display is LED backlit and extremely bright, making outdoor use a possible even in direct sunlight (the display is glossy, but we were able to see the words on a document clearly through our own reflection). Viewing angles are almost perfect, with a wide sweet spot and very little washout from the sides or below even at extreme angles (from above there is a good but lesser range).

Connectivity description

The Studio 1537 has a capable assortment of connectivity options, including HDMI, eSATA, and mini FireWire. The front and back are virtually barren, leaving just about everything to be handed by the left and right sides.

Starting with the most interesting, on the left side you’ll find a multicard reader, a remote control slot, 2 audio out jacks as well as audio in, Ethernet, 1USB and 1USB/eSATA, VGA, HDMI, a wireless on/off switch and a unique button for Dell’s “Wi-Fi Catcher” software. Not a bad haul.

On the right side the mini FireWire, 2 more USB ports and the slot loading DVD player are found, as well as the power jack and power button. The power button lights up when it’s on, but for some reason the Wi-Fi Catcher button which is symmetrically opposite it doesn’t light up, even when you’re using it, disturbing the symmetry.

The only thing on the front is the infrared sensor for the remote, and the only thing on the back is an exhaust fan. Frighteningly, due to the hinge design of the Studio, when the display is extended backwards about half this fan is covered up, the other half potentially blasting hot air onto the frame of your LCD. Barring some unusual circumstances this situation shouldn’t come up much though.

Upgrading possible?

Upgrading is always possible with Dell, which offers a wide assortment of Studio colors and designs. Beyond that, processors are available from the T4200 to the T9550, HDDs up to 500GB, WUXGA (1920x1200) resolution, and more. Unfortunately for potential gamers the 256MB GPU is as good as it gets, although that should be enough for the optional Blu-ray player to run smoothly. You can also get Vista Ultimate if you want, or at least some 64bit version of Vista, because it’s wasteful that our model came with Home Premium 32bit and 4GB RAM (32-bit operating systems can only utilize 3GB).

Features

The Studio 1537 comes with a few interesting features, some of which make the machine easier to look at and others which make it easier to use. The backlit keyboard and lighted touch-buttons garner obvious style points, and even the power cord itself has a glowing blue ring around it when it’s plugged into the wall. HDMI, eSATA, a biometric fingerprint reader and (optional) Blu-ray, Bluetooth and remote control help round out the feature set. The integrated webcam and accompanying software for easily making videos and other media is nice, and the dual headphone jack is a nice touch so that you and a friend can both listen to audio without disturbing those around you. There’s also a very Mac-like dock installed by default at the top of the screen for links and favorites, which we found to be a little too large and gaudy for our tastes (but fortunately can be easily closed).

Performance & Conclusion

Performance

The 1537, although unable to utilize 1GB of its 4GB RAM, is packed with a powerful processor, a dedicated GPU and ample RAM for most tasks. Although the specs fall short of the top notch, we expected the unit to perform well in testing. For more information on our testing procedures, see here: (http://www.laptoplogic.com/about/test/)

Windows Vista Experience Score

Processor: 5.2

RAM: 5.9

Graphics: 4.0

Gaming Graphics: 4.1

Primary HD: 5.5

An overall score of 4.0 isn’t bad, and it’s clear the GPU is what’s keeping the score from being higher. We expected a little better from a dedicated GPU, but then again, it’s only 256MB.

PCMarkvantage

Lenovo T400 3746

HP HDX16 3320

ThinkPad X301 3308

VAIO FW270j 3235

Lenovo Y530 2872

Dell Studio 1537: 2845

The Studio again performed a little under our expectations here, falling behind multimedia laptops such as the HDX and FW270j as well as the business ultraportable X301. It compared decently to the Y530, although that computer has inferior specs aside from the Nvidia 9300M, also 256MB.

WorldBench 6

Lenovo T400 91

Toshiba E-105 83

HP HDX 16 80

Dell Studio 1537 79

VAIO FW270j 74

Lenovo Y530 70

In everyday task performance the 1537 looks a little better. Here it outperforms the Y530 and is equal or better to the aforementioned multimedia laptops.

Battery Performance, General Use

Dell Studio 1537 357

ThinkPad T400 (Integrated) 334

Toshiba Satellite E-105 260

ThinkPad X301 235

VAIO FW270j 181

HP HDX 16 156

With the 9-cell battery, battery life was exceptional, clocking in at almost 6 hours before turning off. This was at 60% brightness and with WiFi and backlit keyboard enabled… if you really squeeze, you could probably approach 7 hours on this battery.

Battery Performance, DVD Use

Toshiba Satellite E-105 210

Dell Studio 1537 206

Lenovo X301 117

VAIO FW270j 101

HP HDX 16 80

Asus G50 80

Again, the battery life proved excellent here, easily surpassing three hours. That’s enough time to watch two average movies (as we did), or for the adventurous of you out there, one viewing of Lord of the Rings.

Real-life usage

In usage the laptop was fairly comfortable to use, although it has some flaws. The 9-cell battery pokes out narrowly from the bottom of the laptop, which does tilt the machine at a decent angle for typing, but unfortunately makes it very uncomfortable for actually placing on your lap. It also runs fairly warm, in particular in the front under the palmrest (it is less noticeable in the back because of the tilting). The laptop runs very quietly though even when playing Cds, and the sound quality is good.

Conclusion

Overall the Dell Studio 1537 is a stylish machine that is powerful enough to handle your media without breaking the bank. The modern Intel Core 2 Duo CPU along with 4GB RAM and a 320GB HDD go a long way when combined with a dedicated GPU, although not quite as far as we were hoping. Still, the colorful lid, extremely bright display and attractive overall design make the Studio a desirable laptop at a desirable price.

Dell Adamo

The Adamo is more of a fashion statement than a laptop, which Dell has proven through its mysterious (until now) adamobydell.com teaser website and the short glimpse we got of it at CES.

Not for Gamers

From looking at the specs we understand that it’s not a performance laptop by any means – the base model has an ULV (Ultra Low Voltage) 1.2GHz Core 2 Duo processor, integrated Intel graphics, 2GB of 800MHz DDR3 RAM and a 128GB SSD. The latter will certainly contribute to making it a little faster than the average 1.2GHz laptop, but it’s still a slow machine.

The starting price for this thing of beauty is $1,999, but if you feel like splurging you can upgrade to a 1.4GHz processor and two more gigs or RAM for $700 more. Obviously it’s not performance you’re paying for with the Adamo, but its incredibly thin build and eye-pleasing exterior.

Quality Time with the Adamo

Holding the Adamo actually makes you feel that you’re holding an expensive laptop – its aluminum build is very solid including the keyboard, and the brushed-metal touchpad is surprisingly pleasant to use. It has a very nice-looking edge-to-edge glass display with a 1,366x768 resolution and to save additional space Dell has removed the optical drive, opting for a matching external one (not included) which uses the Adamo’s built-in eSATA port. You may choose between a slot-loading DVD-RW drive for $120 and a Blu-ray drive for $350.

DellBook Air

While we were playing with the Adamo, close by Dell staff took the opportunity (several times) to point out that it’s thinner than the MacBook Air. It is thinner than the MBA at its thickest point, but you would hardly know that from looking at it as the MacBook Air has a tapered chassis. It’s also half a pound heavier.

Unlike the Air, the Adamo comes with a 64-bit copy of Windows Vista installed. Unfortunately Vista does not run all that well on low-end systems, and there’s no option to customize the Adamo with an XP downgrade or Linux. Potential buyers might want to wait until Windows 7 is released, which will work better with slower systems and even netbooks. On the other hand, the Adamo seems to run Vista fairly smoothly, partly thanks to the quick solid state drive.

We will add some benchmarks to this page when we’ve had some extended quality time with a review sample.

ASUS Eee PC 1000HE

Asus continues to define the netbook standard with the new Eee PC 1000HE. Although the difference compared to previous 10-inch models is quite miniscule it continues in the Eee PC tradition of providing good value for your money.

One of the improvements in the 1000HE is a slightly faster Atom N280 CPU at 1.66GHz (compared to the N270 at 1.6GHz) with a higher FSB speed – 667MHz instead of 533MHz). The difference here is noticeable but just barely.

Design

Asus insists on using glossy surfaces on most of the Eee series netbooks, which looks nice but also attracts a lot of fingerprints. From the front you can see the tilted aluminum colored trackpad buttons even when the lid is closed, and it also has four LEDs to indicate power, hard drive activity, wireless and battery.

The Eee 1000HE makes good use of the limited space available and has a near full-size keyboard (92% of standard notebook size) and an easy to use, large trackpad with forward-angled buttons. The slanting buttons feel a little strange at first, but once you get used to them you wonder why it’s not more common.

Overall, Asus has done a great job with the design of the 1000HE, even if very little has changed since previous models. But why change a good thing?

Features and Performance

In-depth performance comparisons and benchmarking don’t make as much sense with netbooks as with full-size laptops, since most of them use almost identical components. Naturally a 0.06GHz increase in CPU speed does not make for a big performance difference, but it provides a small boost thanks to the increased front side bus speed. On average its performance is slightly above par in the netbook segment.

ASUS claims that it can provide a battery life of up to 9.5 hours, but that probably requires that you keep it on idle with screen brightness turned down and WLAN turned off for the duration, but you can still squeeze nearly transatlantic battery times out of the 6-cell – 7 hours and 10 minutes in our general usage test, a great result nonetheless.

Connectivity

All of the ports are placed on the sides of the notebook – the left side has an Ethernet port, one USB and audio line-in and line-out. On the right side is a memory card reader, another 2 USB ports and VGA out. The Wi-Fi card offers support for draft-n, which gives you access to the fastest wireless technology at the moment.

Conclusion

The ASUS Eee PC 1000HE is a bit bulky compared to some “premium” and more expensive netbooks, but all in all you get a lot more for your money with the Eee compared to other brands. Its keyboard and trackpad are very comfortable to use, and the system is very well built. The best part, however, is the 7+ hours of battery life you can squeeze out of it, which is way better than average

MSI Wind U100

Today we’ll be looking at the MSI Wind (U100) netbook. This 10” netbook sets some feature standouts at a very nice price point. It has Bluetooth, Wirless b/g/n, LED backlighting, and this model sports the hefty 6-c ell battery pack – toting it’s battery life to nearly 6 hours (3 more than the 3-cell). Of course, the standard now for Netbooks is the Intel Atom CPU - but other variables can occur. This model has 1 GB of RAM, a 160gb hard drive, and came with a nice little carrying pouch.

Design
The MSI Wind – which they’ve coined as a acronym for “Wi-Fi Network Device” is the latest Netbook offering from MSI. This 10” LCD screen netbook comes in a few different configurations and colors – our model we ordered is the “white” model (not the Love edition either which has fun little heart design all over it) and sports some decent sex appeal. The LCD bezel isn’t too large, the latchless LCD design is always a plus. There’s a simple row of LED lights to tell you the status of normal network / HDD operation and it features a unibody touchpad button (which, is something to discuss later)

The size for this netbook is similar, if not almost identical to most other netbooks out there measuring in at 10.23" x 7.08" – with the height ranging from .75” – 1.25” with the battery at the back. It’s a little larger than some, mostly due to the 6-cell battery, which also means it’s somewhat significantly heavier than some at 2.6lbs. The battery however, protrudes downwards helping in providing air circulation / heat dissipation which isn’t bad. It also raises the keyboard to a more comfortable typing angle. All good things, but the size is notably bigger, but the gains are well worth it in my opinion.

Keyboard:
The keyboard on the MSI wind is actually very tactile. It offered great travel distance and the noise was minimal. The layout is very familiar, with the only gripes coming from the crowd either not used to the function key where it is. You can’t win them all – but I have no real complaints against they keyboard. It’s a plus that it’s white as well, (not backlit) but it offered better visibility in extreme dark areas. There was some flex, but not in the amounts that would merit it bad. I did notice however that the keys in some areas were taller than others (corners, edges) and were very, very close to hitting the LCD, time will tell how wel this holds up to the abuse bloggers / travelers will put it through, but my thoughts is that it will hold well.

Display Quality:
Being LED backlit, the LCD on the MSI wind carries a 1024x600 resolution and it has a matte finish. The color push on the MSI seems to be slightly green – but more importantly, the viewing angles on the MSI Wind is amazing compared to similar netbooks. I was successful to have nearly 180 degree left to right without severe color shifting, and even though it was not glossy, the color representation was very nice. You will get darker and better “contrast” with a glossy screen (as in the Aspire One) but the tradeoffs are that it produces extreme glare, and from what I have observed, extremely limited viewing angles.

The contrast is a bit low, but that isn’t a huge concern for a netbook – as it contains no optical drive to fully take advantage of video content (although, you can watch video on it, but not optical media).

Connectivity
The MSI Wind, much with other netbooks, offers some consideration as to how you wish to use the unit for it’s connectivity installed. Most if not all netbooks offer at least one USB 2.0 port but anything after that is sort of up to the manufacturers.

On the left, you have 2 USB 2.0 ports and the poser connection.
The right houses one more USB 2.0 Port, a 4-1 card reader, microphone in, audio out, VGA out, and an Ethernet port. It’s pretty simply for exterior ports.

However, it’s sometimes whats inside that matters to most. With the Wind, this models sports the ability to connect via B/G/ or the new N standard for wireless networks. It also has Bluetooth built in – taking advantage of not using a USB port for using Bluetooth devices that might require a dongle. It’s something that I think should be on the priority of the netbook crowd – purchase one that will fit your current or future needs, not based on price alone.

Upgrading
Upgrading is possible, but not without seemingly voiding some sort of warranty. The RAM and Hard drive can be upgraded, but much further than that isn’t possible. Again, these netbooks are made for a purpose, and modifying past these thresholds often isn’t beneficial, and down right dangerous. There is a small following of how to overclock the Atom processor using software, which we will cover on a later date.

Performance
We take a different approach to testing these specialized machines and is outlined on our “How We Test page” located at http://www.laptoplogic.com/about/test/ We try to run the tests in as a controlled environment / variables as possible. But, sometimes we’re limited to the software / hardware provided. In this example, Windows XP is loaded on the machine, giving us standard benchmark programs to be run.
WorldBench 6: 33
Considering the raw power required by some of these tests, and the paltry processor and specifications provided – a score of this nature isn’t surprising, but it’s notable to see that it can do some of the intensive application test runs (although much slower) If you plan on doing heavy Photoshop or audio rendering, be prepared to either have extreme patience, or a different laptop / computer in mind.

Battery Performance
With a hefty 6 cell battery powering the 10” LED backlit netbook – this thing seemed to last for ages. Granted, not as long as the preposterous near 9 hours with the x200 – but trying to do only so little things efficiently for nearly 6 hours was tiring. I love computers, but when things go on for that long, my eyes hurt, my hands are sore, and usually I’ve got a neck cramp from being hunched over.

Maximum: Running on maximum backlighting, both wireless modes on (Bluetooth) and max volume - I managed just over 4 hours and 20 minutes of battery life.

Medium: With the backlight to 75%, Bluetooth disabled, and volume at 75% I ticked just over 5 hours and 25 minutes of real world usage.

Low: With the backlight on its lowest setting, wireless completely off, and no volume – I managed somehow to finish read that e-novel I’ve always wanted to and squeezed 6 hours and a few minutes out of it. 6 hours is a long time, make no doubts about it, I wouldn’t trade this sort of battery life on a netbook for anything, weight and size aside of it, it makes it a true road worthy companion.

DVD watching isn’t really an option since these carry no optical drives – however, you can load an image of your legal DVD onto the machine to watch, which is exactly what I did. After 5 hours and 10 minutes on full volume and full brightness, the MSI Wind went to sleep hinting that I should plug it in. That was two runs of the same movie…needless to say that if you want to watch a movie first, then do some spreadsheets and writing later on that cross country flight, you’re more than welcomed to, and probably have some battery left over when you land to check those annoying email requests you can’t handle till you get to your office anyways.

Real-life usage:
Using the MSI wind was a nice addition to my very busy life. The major gripes that come with using this device is the lag the processor sometimes inhibits when trying to multi-task some things, but that’s expected from the unit every so often with this CPU. Another gripe I have is with the touchpad – there seems to be some discrepancy of which touchpad the MSI wind will come with – some coming with the Synaptics touchpad with gesture control, and the Sentelic touchpad – which is what this unit came with. I’m not a true fan of any touchpad, although some are better than others, the touchpad on most any netbook leaves something to be desired. More so, the odd control of how the “scroll” functions work with this touchpad leave something to be either learned or adjusted to. I found it too sensitive, wary, and unmanageable at times, and at others, it worked as prescribed. An external mouse is highly recommended (Bluetooth can work out of the box with this netbook, rejoice and save a USB port!)

The screen estate at 10” was just big enough to do exactly what I wanted to do with said unit – it typed well, it showed pictures relatively well – web surfing was easy and watching the few ISO dvd’s I’ve made for such testing somewhat fun. And being that the processor is pretty thermally efficient, placing it on my lap, hand, or any odd place it seemed to do just fine. Noise was minimal on this unit (unlike some other netbooks I’ve come across with e.g Aspire One) and the fan was never more than a louder hum when things were really put to the test for the unit.

Again, when getting a netbook, look for the features it has and the battery life. I’ve opted to review the 6-cell version, and while I’m sure the 3-cell carries all the same features, it seems to be just that much more worthy of taking along instead of my 15.4” widescreen that barely creeps over 2 hours of battery life. Having Bluetooth built in, and pairing it with my cell phones data plan was a snap, and even though a tad slower than the coffee shop Wi-FI available, offered me piece of mind that I wasn’t getting snooped on (as easily anways).

The noticeable improvements can come from the webcam and speakers. The MSI Wind has the least desireable speakers in the form of netbooks I’ve heard, and the webcame was very unresponsive. Compared to the Lenovo S10, and Aspire One – the Wind’s webcam offered less detail, more motion blur, and the worst color rendition of all. This might deter those who will be using it on the road for video conferencing, but for me, was moot for the price and performance and casual use it will obtain. But it’s definitely something to consider.

Conclusion
All in all – a worthy netbook, nothing spectacular about the specs as it matches nearly every other netbook out there, but with a decent hard drive configuration, Bluetooth, Wireless N, and 6-cell options to boot. It may look dull on the outside, but it’s sometimes what’s inside that count, and for this little 10” netbook - the LED LCD with amazing viewing angles, great connectivity, and a nice keyboard all fit the bill. One thing I don’t like is if I want to add Ram, I void my warranty – come on, let’s skip the drama and let people do what they need to do. Asus learned, and I’m assuming MSI will be right behind them.

Bottom Line:
10”, LED, Bluetooth and good keyboard are the standouts on this machine. It makes a great blogging / classroom companion. Anything much more than that and you should consider something a little larger with faster components.

Apple MacBook 2008

Overview
It's big news whenever Apple announces new products and now Apple’s bestselling consumer notebook receives the long rumored major redesign that is no doubt, another stunner. Just when you thought Apple couldn’t make the previous generation MacBook any better, they come around and offer this aluminum and glass beauty that is even thinner, lighter, and more powerful than before. Now that Apple has brought its renewed MacBooks ($1299 starting) and MacBook Pros ($1999 starting) even closer together by offering the same design, engineering, and -for the first time on the MacBook - aluminum body to both notebook lines, the once straightforward consumer and pro-line product differentiation is slowly fading away. Is this the best MacBook to date? Is it safe to call the MacBook, the MacBook Pro "mini"? Read on.

Design
The new MacBook and MacBook Pro make some significant strides in the design department. First, the MacBook for the first time, joins the MacBook Pro in offering an all-aluminum body, ditching the white polycarbonate plastic that once defined the consumer line. In fact, both machines look pretty much identical to each other - offering a black glass bezel screen and black "chiclet-style" keyboards to reflect the new Apple design direction first introduced with the current iMac and iPhone. It's a stunner for sure. The exterior borrows cues from the MacBook Air using tapered edges that trick you into thinking it's even thinner than it already is. The magnetic latch opens and closes the display with buttery smoothness and without mechanical parts. Aa satisfyingly solid "thunk" can be heard when closed. Available in the more expensive $1599 model are LED backlit keys - a first for the MacBook.

Aside from the switch to a fully aluminum casing that replaces the now-defunct white plastic and/or black matte finish of the previous generation, Apple is touting its new manufacturing process as a technological and engineering breakthrough. Using a full slab of aluminum to construct the MacBook and MacBook Pro, not only does this revolutionary process create a body and chassis that is much stiffer with no flexing, these new notebooks use less mechanical screws, parts and pieces to construct together, and thus allow Apple is able to achieve a lighter and thinner product. The result is a notebook that is so clean and so sleek looking in design, it's devoid of any evidence of screws to piece it together and without any vents, confirms that this new design doubles as an effective heatsink.

While it's nice to see the MacBook now offer the same look and materials as the MacBook Pro, Apple may now run the risk of cannibalizing sales of its own pricier MacBook Pros, as they both look almost identical to each other and features-wise, the line between the two is blurring. Call it the MacBook Pro mini if you will in appearance, Apple has revolutionized a new way to build quality notebooks that are also environmental friendly.

Size and Weight
Impressively, the new MacBook is even thinner and lighter than before, achieving a thickness of only .95 " - the same as the new MacBook Pro. At 4.5 pounds, the new MacBook is 1.5 pounds lighter than the outgoing model with weight evenly distributed across thanks to its unibody construction (read: less parts). At 12.78" x 8.94", the new machines are pretty much identical in dimensions to the last generation models.

Keyboard
Love it or hate it, Apple has now transitioned its entire Mac lineup to the retro-looking "chiclet-style" keyboard with the new MacBooks. Rather than color match the keys with the aluminum body, Apple's new design direction employs the use of black keys to give the notebook an interesting design contrast. The downside of having black keys is noticeable fingerprint smudging from oily fingers; At least it won't look and get dirty like the older white MacBooks. Aesthetics aside, the full-size keyboard is a real pleasure to type on with very solid and satisfying clicks. The keys may be flat and spaced out, but it's oh-so-comfortable to type on with just the right amount of key travel and spring action. The higher end model also offers LED backlit keys for the first time on a MacBook - once again, blurring the lines between the MacBook and MacBook Pro in features.

Display
With a gorgeous 13.3" LED-backlit LCD screen fully encased beneath a black bezeled glass, the MacBook's display is stunning to look at even when powered off. The glossy finish makes colors really pop and adds to its enhanced vibrance, but at the cost of massive glare, making outdoor viewing difficult. Indoor viewing is not as bad, but reflections abound so be mindful of viewing angles and tilt adjustments. At first glance, the display seems identical to the previous MacBook screen with the same 1280x800 native resolution, but thanks to the new LED-backlighting, the display is evenly lit across the screen and noticeably brighter than the previous generation models. Watching movies was a real treat even though you'll find yourself seeing your own reflection in lighted areas. But when compared to the MacBook Pro's larger screen, the MacBook's picture quality is still inferior and you'll notice the contrast and blacks drop out when viewed from an angle - The MacBook Pro's, on the otherhand, looks great at any angle. This is a big reason why Apple would like for you to pay the extra money to go Pro for the better screen. A built-in iSight camera is included as well like before on the top of the display.

Buttonless Glass Trackpad
Apple once again leads the competition by offering zero buttons...no really! Apple has created the first "buttonless" trackpad built entirely of glass that also includes multi-touch technology. The entire trackpad is essential a button in itself where pushing down creates a solid click to confirm depresses. While it takes getting used to at first, the trackpad actually turns out to be very intuitive with a smooth glossy feel. The MacBook Air introduced 3-finger scrolling and the MacBook and MacBook Pro now offer 4-finger multi-touch scrolling for calling upon Expose and Spaces functionality. While quirky, you'll soon appreciate the wonders the new glassy trackpad's buttonless design provides.

Connectivity
Apple has shrewdly and neatly moved all ports to the left side of the notebook (the right side now occupies the lone optical drive), giving it a very clean and organized look so there's no cluttered wires coming out of either side. With the MacBook, you get 2 USB 2.0 ports, gigabit ethernet port, audio in/out jacks, MagSafe charge port, and the new mini DisplayPort that replaces the old mini-DVI out in an effort to save precious component space. Also of convenience is the battery meter on the same side. In a surprising move, Apple has curiously decided to omit FireWire in the new MacBook that was previous made standard across the entire Mac lineup. Now, the only way for media heads to take advantage of FireWire connectivity is to shell up the $700 for the MacBook Pro or buy a pricey adapter. While most people can argue that FireWire's adoption is dwindling in favor of USB, one of the unique things that made FireWire so special for Macs is the target disk feature, allowing the computer to boot OS X off any FireWire external drive. Call it cost-cutting or the death of FireWire adoption, we call it a disappointment.

The DisplayPort is another interesting move on Apple's part to capitalize on a new standard that not only saves component space from the larger DVI and mini-DVI ports, but transitions across all future Macs. Unfortunately, Apple is skimping on the accessories as you'll have to shell the hefty $99 for the mini DisplayPort adapter kit to connect an external monitor. Harsh.

For the common consumer, the MacBook provides just enough of what you need and nothing you don't in terms of available ports. Trimming the fat, Apple still doesn't offer any built-in digital card reader into the unit when compared to the competition and ExpressCard is a feature you'll only find on the MacBook Pro. Limited but more than sufficient.

Upgrading
One of the pains of owning an Apple notebook before was the difficulty in upgrading the basic hardware components. It took a few dozen tiny screws just to get to the harddrive! Not so with these new notebooks. Apple clearly did it's homework when redesigning the MacBook and MacBook Pro, making it very easy to open and upgrade. Only 2 aluminum plates pieces hold the base together, providing easy access into the harddrive compartment and RAM slots through a simple flip of a latche. The big news is the removable battery, now tucked neatly beneath one panel next to the hard drive. Upgrading is limited to your standard harddrive upgrade (SATA or SSD) and adding more RAM (up to 4GB max).
Performance

We've ran the awesome xbench scoring system for the Mac OSX system. The following xbench file has been generated:


Results 166.40
System Info
Xbench Version 1.3
System Version 10.5.5 (9F2088)
Physical RAM 2048 MB
Model MacBook5,1
Drive Type FUJITSU MHZ2160BH FFS G1
CPU Test 130.27
GCD Loop 231.33 12.19 Mops/sec
Floating Point Basic 110.01 2.61 Gflop/sec
vecLib FFT 89.98 2.97 Gflop/sec
Floating Point Library 161.79 28.17 Mops/sec
Thread Test 223.78
Computation 394.19 7.99 Mops/sec, 4 threads
Lock Contention 156.24 6.72 Mlocks/sec, 4 threads
Memory Test 169.95
System 187.15
Allocate 219.84 807.34 Kalloc/sec
Fill 160.39 7798.53 MB/sec
Copy 190.62 3937.16 MB/sec
Stream 155.64
Copy 148.05 3057.84 MB/sec
Scale 147.50 3047.36 MB/sec
Add 165.94 3534.84 MB/sec
Triad 162.89 3484.61 MB/sec
Quartz Graphics Test 156.66
Line 144.27 9.60 Klines/sec [50% alpha]
Rectangle 187.28 55.91 Krects/sec [50% alpha]
Circle 153.22 12.49 Kcircles/sec [50% alpha]
Bezier 151.91 3.83 Kbeziers/sec [50% alpha]
Text 152.99 9.57 Kchars/sec
OpenGL Graphics Test 137.40
Spinning Squares 137.40 174.30 frames/sec
User Interface Test 263.01
Elements 263.01 1.21 Krefresh/sec
Disk Test 34.41
Sequential 40.08
Uncached Write 60.79 37.32 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Write 24.75 14.00 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Uncached Read 29.32 8.58 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Read 113.16 56.87 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Random 30.14
Uncached Write 11.14 1.18 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Write 65.17 20.86 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Uncached Read 58.06 0.41 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Read 96.87 17.97 MB/sec [256K blocks]

Battery Life: 187 minutes Recharge Time: 122 minutes

Features:

The MacBook is a real engineering marvel. It's stunning good looks compliment the bevy of new advanced technology and engineering features. The Intel Core2Duo 2.0Ghz model ($1299) we received proved plenty capable of handling most common computing tasks and comes with a 160gb harddrive and 2gb of RAM (with the 1066Mhz FSB). A 2.4Ghz model is available as well for an additional $300 sticker price and includes a 250Gb SATA drive. Both models offer the option of the pricey but fast SSD drive.

Ditching the weak integrated graphics chipset from Intel, the MacBook finally offers a dedicated true graphics engine in the form of the nVidia GeForce 9400M making for better handling of 3D graphics and video. The results, are quite noticeable in speed and video performance throughout the system. Another great feature with this card is that it results in lower heat generation as the CPU no longer has to work so hard in processing these tasks. However, don't expect the GPU to bowl you over in graphics-heavy applications though (read gaming). But, the 9400M certainly does pack a good amount of 3D punch to your videos, media, and gaming sessions, especially with the likes of the new Adobe Photoshop utilizing thus features.

Wireless-N, Bluetooth, SuperDrive and iSight are all standard features as usual.

Heat and noise wasn't much of an issue with the new MacBooks thanks to the entire aluminum unibody acting as a giant heatsink. The notebook runs warm but not quite as hot as older models and a soft hum can be heard only when the fan kicks in intermittently. No issues here. In our battery tests, watching a DVD yielded about 2:40 of juice, and in basic tasks such as web browsing and word processing, a respectable 4:30 of life.

Conclusion
Overall, we found the new MacBook a real pleasure to use as with all Mac products we've tested. It's a gorgeous, sexy piece of machinery and certainly the best MacBook yet. But we do question Apple's decision to make the MacBook so closely identical in looks and features to the MacBook Pro... Anyway, at $1299 starting, it's a tad more expensive than we had hoped it would be, but you do get a lot for your money namely the aluminum casing, glassy multi-touch buttonless trackpad and of course, the revolutionary unibody "brick" construction and for a whole $700 cheaper than the cheapest MacBook Pro model. Nonetheless it's a excellent buy for one of the best notebooks around on the market. Some may not like Apple's new design direction (myself included) utilizing black keys to contrast the aluminum, but there's no denying this is one of the best looking laptops available.

Bottom Line:
With a dedicated GPU and aluminum body, it might be "safe" to call the MacBook the "true" successor to the highly heralded Powerbook 12". Well...almost - the lack of FireWire is a serious hit and it's still a tad too big. What about calling it a MacBook Pro mini? Not quite but its darn close. A better display and graphics card, Firewire, ExpressCard slot, and LED keys are all that gets in the way of the $700 difference, features wise. Yet, the lines between the consumer and pro models are fading away ever so slightly...Suddenly $1299 feels like a great bargain.