LAPTOP GALLERIES

Back iBook G4 got their start, polycarbonate plastic has been a staple of Apples notebook line the most affordable. These materials are from the same type of glass used in bullet-proof, hardened to handle its fair share of abuse, but they are attractive and less costly to implement than metals. Aluminum housing, on the other hand, tend to appear in laptops of luxury and upscale as the MacBook Pro 13-inch Asus U30Jc-1A ($ 899 street) and HP Pavilion DM4 ($ 905 direct) . Despite the fact that the plastic is thick and difficult to work as metal MacBook is probably thin (1 cm thick) and weighs only 4.6 pounds, which is roughly the same weight as U30Jc-1A (4 , 7 lbs) and 13-inch MacBook Pro (4.5 kg).

Despite the 13.3-inch widescreen display is very common these days, the MacBook is one of the few remaining running a resolution of 800 by 1280. Systems like the Asus U30Jc-1A and Dell Inspiron 1464 ($ 670 direct) have similar resolutions 1366 by 768, and are comparable to the MacBook in terms of brightness, clarity and sharpness. MacBook and MacBook Pro 13-inch to use a keyboard Chiclet style, but the MacBook has no backlight on the keyboard, a handy feature when working in dim light. If the typing experience is essential, I think the Lenovo ThinkPad Edge 13 ($ 899 direct) has a Chiclet keyboard better, the Dell Inspiron 14 is the best experience to write with your keyboard.

Apple touchpad click is probably the best in the industry. Although I am a major fan dedicated mouse buttons, the experience of Apple Navigation perfectly executed. The oversized touchpad recognizes up to four fingers, and can easily perform many touch controls, including a new exercise called the roll. Many have tried to imitate the gestures of touch and Apple all have been insufficient. Case in point: HP DM4 had a hard time bouncing cursors and called touch controls that were not invited. The touchpad itself is surprisingly large, but there are still plenty of room to comfortably rest your palms.

Software Features disappointing, Great

The MacBook features are left virtually untouched since the previous version, except for a small improvement: The audio and video streams DisplayPort now (previous version was the only video). For anyone with a MacBook and a digital camera, I feel your frustration. SD card slot, a vital role in the MacBook Pro (13 and 15 inch only) and a laptop with Windows (even a netbook), is again absent from the MacBook.

The remaining feature set is modest at best, two USB ports, mini DisplayPort, Ethernet and a headphone jack. Even the 250GB hard drive seems low compared to the Asus U30Jc-1A (320) and Dell 1464 (500 GB). MacBook hard drives can be upgraded to a higher capacity, as prices approach a 13-inch MacBook Pro configuration.

When the MacBook does not respond within the features, is definitely the software. No other computer maker make a series of higher quality software, including iLife 09 and Utilities endless. And despite the 1 year warranty is pretty standard, customer service is top rated Apple the company.

Better than the game, the batteries

2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo P8600 is a minor speed bump from the previous match, can be found in the MacBook and MacBook Pro 13-inch configuration. Not as fast as Intel Core i3 and i5, which are found in almost every other laptop (Core 2 Duo based on the technology last year). We conducted performance tests on both Windows (via Boot Camp) and OS 10.6.1. Video encoding tests, which measure the speed of the processor supports the Asus U30Jc-1A, 1464, Dell and HP DM4. MacBook scored 1 minute 8 seconds behind the Asus U30Jc-1A (50 seconds) and HP the DM4 (47 seconds), a good pace.

Tests such as PCMark Vantage and Cinbench R10 (made in the Mac operating system), which measures overall performance, do not do well either. Besides the processor, the difference can be attributed to the MacBook with less system memory (2 GB) than its competitors (all with 4 GB). And its hard to find a consumer notebook that ships of less than 4 GB of memory in those days.

Despite his speed was disappointing, the MacBook regained some ground floor courtesy of a new graphics chipset from Nvidia. The GeForce 320M is an integrated chipset, but has more firepower than the discrete 3D card on the Asus and HP-1A U30Jc DM4. In 3DMark06 (5231) and Crysis (26.8 fps), the tests, the MacBook was clearly the best game of the machine through its two competitors. And benefits both HD and Nvidia based graphics chipset you can download some of the work of video decoding from the processor. In other words, HD video at 720p and 1080p look clear varieties, and was completely free of lag and fragments.

Like the MacBook Pro 13-inch MacBook now comes with bigger battery (and the 63.5WH 58WH), and thus increases battery life. Compared to the previous iteration, the battery jumped 4 hours 35 minutes to 7:12 MobileMark 2007 (for Windows-based test). Oddly, the MacBook lasted for more than 13-inch MacBook Pro (5:05), even if they have the same batteries and parts. I also did a video roundup (loop MP4 video file), OS 10.6.1, and reached the same conclusion: The MacBook scored 06:47 this test, OS 10.6.1, the MacBook Pro 13-inch lasted 5: 18 This indicates that the MacBook has a battery back-use efficient than the MacBook Pro 13-unch. I suspect that the plastic is more heat than metal, and an empty memory location is able to play the role of the battery life of the MacBook. Basic Web Surfing MacBook, Apple will take more than 10 hours.

Comparison between the Asus U30Jc-1A, a group of large battery (84WH), with 8 hours of MobileMark 2007.

Apple MacBook (Core 2 Duo 2.4 GHz) is for Mac-loving students and general purpose users who do not need the SD card slot, backlit keyboard and design of aluminum MacBook Pro. Its a beautiful machine, only surpassed by one user experience, excellent battery life and Apples reputation for being a provider of excellent service. Compared to its Windows counterparts, the lack of an SD slot and start with only 2 GB of memory is reason enough to recommend the 13-inch MacBook Pro (Core 2 Duo 2.4 GHz) on the MacBook. That, or go with our editors choice "for the general public category, Asus U30Jc-1A.