At a Glance
Expert’s Rating
Pros
- Greatly improved graphics power
- Sleek new design
- Bright LED display
- Multi-Touch glass trackpad
Cons
- No video adapters or Apple Remote in the box
- No FireWire port
- Battery life shorter than previous MacBook model
- Entry price higher than before
Our Verdict
In October 2008, Apple introduced a new MacBook design that housed the company’s consumer-friendly laptop into a MacBook Pro-like aluminum enclosure with a large glass trackpad. Graphics have improved with the addition of an Nvidia GeForce 9400m chip. While the integrated graphics continue to share memory with the system RAM, there’s more shared (256MB as opposed to 144MB) and it’s the faster DDR3 SDRAM. Like the MacBook Air, the MacBook no longer ships with FireWire ports — just two USB 2.0 ports.
The latest MacBooks are a big improvement over the previous models–as long as you can live without a FireWire port. While battery life wasn’t as strong as the previous model, the sleek new case design, major graphics improvements, power-sipping LED display, and Multi-Touch glass trackpad make the MacBook a very strong upgrade.
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