Apple MacBook Video

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Created: 10/14/2008

Video description: Apple's redesigned 13-inch MacBook is essentially a shrunken version of the more expensive 15-inch Pro line. With its new aluminum body, new trackpad, and Nvidia graphics, it's an even more attractive choice for mainstream laptop buyers than was the plastic model it replaces.

Apple MacBook Video Transcript

[ Music ] ^M00:00:03

>> Hi, I'm Michelle Thatcher [assumed spelling], Senior Associate Editor for CNET reviews and I'm here today on the Apple campus in Cupertino, California where Steve Jaubs [assumed spelling] has just announced a bunch of improvements to the company's MacBook and MacBook Pro lines. Specifically, this guy right here, it's the new MacBook design made all of aluminum it's what Steve Jaubs called the Next Generation MacBook and you can see the case is entirely made out of aluminum instead of black or white plastic like previous versions of MacBook. We've still got the lovely 13 inch display but this one actually is a LED back-lit display with an entirely glass screen. Other new features with this system include the touch-pad, which is just one single pad, you can see there's a much larger scrolling area, it's gestured enabled and also made out of glass, and you'll notice there's no button on this touch-pad; that's because the touch-pad itself is a button, you can just press down on it to click. So, there is a big change inside the case as well, Apple has switched to in videos integrated graphics card instead of the Intel integrated graphics for graphics performance. The company claims that this will actually result in 5 times the graphics performance, which I know will be welcomed to a lot of budget buyers who like to play casual games but don't necessarily need the full power of a dedicated graphics card. Of course, with the new integrated graphics and the LED display, which is supposed to conserve power, you have a neat little feature, it's such a tiny thing but I really like it, there is a battery life indicator on the outside of the machine now, so you can just look at the side of your machine, press this little button, and see exactly how much juice you have left. This aluminum MacBook splits the difference in cost between the MacBook Pro and the previous generation MacBooks. Its base configuration costs $1,299 and it's available immediately in Apple stores. I'm Michelle Thatcher for CNET.com. ^M00:01:52 [ Music ]

Apple MacBook (Core 2 Duo 2.4GHz, NVIDIA GeForce 9400M) Review

Editors' rating

8.5

out of 10

Price range

$1,299.00

PowerMax

See all 1 stores

The good: New aluminum construction looks good, feels solid; giant touch pad; attractive edge-to-edge glass on display; improved integrated graphics; backlit keyboard on some models; thinner than previous version.

The bad: Still no ExpressCard or SD-card slot; loses FireWire port; all-clicking touch pad is a bit awkward, at least initially; $1,299 now gets you a slower CPU than it did before; no matte-screen option.

The bottom line: Apple's redesigned 13-inch MacBook is essentially a shrunken version of the more expensive 15-inch Pro line. With its new aluminum body, new trackpad, and Nvidia graphics, it's an even more attractive choice for mainstream laptop buyers than was the plastic model it replaces.

Read full review