shimrra
10-16-2008, 12:21 PM
It’s taken me a day to shake off the disappointment and post about how bad these new Apple notebooks are. Even worse, they represent a poor value when compared to their predecessors.
MacBook
The new form factor is great - it’s like a metal HP DV5. Metal always trumps plastic in durability. But more importantly aluminum is a good conductor of heat. Apple’s notebooks of the past eight years are extremely poor at handling heat. I base this on ownership of about five different aluminum and six plastic Apple notebooks since 2000. Infra red thermometrs are so much fun!
A chipset update for the MacBook was overdue. Nvidia’s new solution seems to offer all the benefits of Montevina along with a better GPU - all in a single chip. From what I have seen this 9400 IGP is about twice as powerful as Intel’s GMA 4500.
Despite the misleading and vague claims on Apple’s site this is by no means a gaming powerhouse. You are looking at a best case scenario 3DMark06 score of 2500 points. That is about half what is need to make today’s games playable at decent settings. Spore will run nicely though.
It seems the T7350 2.0 Ghz CPU is being used. This is a Penryn core with 1066 FSB - in other words the latest and greatest mide range mobile CPU. Intel’s new Wi-Fi solution may or may not be in there too - with the break in chipset Apple can use anything they like. This is all good but what is with the skimpy RAM and storage?
Equipping a premium notebook with 2 GB of RAM is unforgivable. Even the cheapest budget notebook has 4 GB of DDR2. And Gateway provides 4 GB of DDR3 in a gaming notebook for less than the base MacBook price. Likewise, the tiny 160 GB HDD is pathetic at this price.
The MacBook costs twice as much as a WinTel notebook pitched at the same market. What do I mean when I say WinTel notebook? In am thinking of a HP/Dell/Acer/Gateway/Toshiba with 14″ screen, T5750 CPU at 2 GHz, 4 GB RAM and 320 GB HDD that can easily be had for $600-650 on any given weekend. Sure, the Vista machine is not as solid - the materials are not as good - but it has twice the RAM and twice the HDD. To most users, even Apple buyers like me, the extra RAM and HDD are more important than a slightly faster CPU and new chipset platform.
You folks are smart. You know the Mac has higher FSB, more level two cache, faster (although still weak) IGP and an LED backlight. But how important are those things to you? Are they worth $700?
In these times a product with same/more functionality that also allows me to keep $700 in the bank is probably going to win 9/10 times. But Apple is happy (and profitable) batting .100 so who am I to judge?
MacBook Pro
Is hybrid SLI supposed to blind me to the fact that similarly spec’ed machines can be had from all of Apple’s rivals for half the price? Has no one noticed that except for the 9600M GT GPU the spec is pretty darn close to the Macbook?
The same piddly 2GB of RAM is present, but in exchange for the $1000 premium Apple springs for the $20 more expensive HDD and you get a servicable 250 GB.
HP’s HDX 16 looks very similar to the MBP for about $850 less. You get full Centrino 2 a nice Nvidia 9600m and more ports than the Mac - including HDMI which is going to come in handy with the included Blu Ray drive. Asus also has some comparable models for about $800 less than Apple’s Pro notebook. It takes zero effort and talent to find suitable MBP substitutes for much less money (how is that for modesty).
So Where is the Review?
There won’t be one. Reviews on this site are self funded. That way, when a product sucks I can tell you that without pandering to a marketing whelp who cries like a baby and threatens to stop sending review samples (it happens). I don’t need to test the Apple MacBook or MBP to know it’s a poor value. And if the value is not there, who the hell cares about anything else?
When the price differential was 20-30% you could make a case for Apple’s build quality, OS and application suite. But you still would have been wrong.
Apple quality is a myth, as any of their last 4-5 notebook introductions demonstrate. Vertical stripes, faulty power bricks, faulty batteries, faulty video chips, bad RAM sockets, strange sounds, discoloration, backlight issues and surface temperatures that are dangerous are just some of the issues.
Apple’s OS is a masterpiece that just keeps getting better. However, right or wrong it runs fantastic on entry level commodity hardware using a few well developed hacks. If Apple isn’t going to sell their OS stand for generic X86 hardware then they should at least put together a basic solution using cheaper components at a killer price.
iLife is wonderful, but with the Wintel discount you can easily buy Adobe’s comparable consumer Photo/Video suite. You could also add the standard version of Office 2007 ($99 bundle special) and still have $400 left over.
Has Apple lost touch with the consumer? I think so. Reckless spending and endless credit got us in to this economic mess but the nasty correction seems to have sobered us. Apple missed their market by about six months.
Link (http://notebookcritic.com/2008/10/15/apple-mehbook-and-mehbook-pro-announced/)
MacBook
The new form factor is great - it’s like a metal HP DV5. Metal always trumps plastic in durability. But more importantly aluminum is a good conductor of heat. Apple’s notebooks of the past eight years are extremely poor at handling heat. I base this on ownership of about five different aluminum and six plastic Apple notebooks since 2000. Infra red thermometrs are so much fun!
A chipset update for the MacBook was overdue. Nvidia’s new solution seems to offer all the benefits of Montevina along with a better GPU - all in a single chip. From what I have seen this 9400 IGP is about twice as powerful as Intel’s GMA 4500.
Despite the misleading and vague claims on Apple’s site this is by no means a gaming powerhouse. You are looking at a best case scenario 3DMark06 score of 2500 points. That is about half what is need to make today’s games playable at decent settings. Spore will run nicely though.
It seems the T7350 2.0 Ghz CPU is being used. This is a Penryn core with 1066 FSB - in other words the latest and greatest mide range mobile CPU. Intel’s new Wi-Fi solution may or may not be in there too - with the break in chipset Apple can use anything they like. This is all good but what is with the skimpy RAM and storage?
Equipping a premium notebook with 2 GB of RAM is unforgivable. Even the cheapest budget notebook has 4 GB of DDR2. And Gateway provides 4 GB of DDR3 in a gaming notebook for less than the base MacBook price. Likewise, the tiny 160 GB HDD is pathetic at this price.
The MacBook costs twice as much as a WinTel notebook pitched at the same market. What do I mean when I say WinTel notebook? In am thinking of a HP/Dell/Acer/Gateway/Toshiba with 14″ screen, T5750 CPU at 2 GHz, 4 GB RAM and 320 GB HDD that can easily be had for $600-650 on any given weekend. Sure, the Vista machine is not as solid - the materials are not as good - but it has twice the RAM and twice the HDD. To most users, even Apple buyers like me, the extra RAM and HDD are more important than a slightly faster CPU and new chipset platform.
You folks are smart. You know the Mac has higher FSB, more level two cache, faster (although still weak) IGP and an LED backlight. But how important are those things to you? Are they worth $700?
In these times a product with same/more functionality that also allows me to keep $700 in the bank is probably going to win 9/10 times. But Apple is happy (and profitable) batting .100 so who am I to judge?
MacBook Pro
Is hybrid SLI supposed to blind me to the fact that similarly spec’ed machines can be had from all of Apple’s rivals for half the price? Has no one noticed that except for the 9600M GT GPU the spec is pretty darn close to the Macbook?
The same piddly 2GB of RAM is present, but in exchange for the $1000 premium Apple springs for the $20 more expensive HDD and you get a servicable 250 GB.
HP’s HDX 16 looks very similar to the MBP for about $850 less. You get full Centrino 2 a nice Nvidia 9600m and more ports than the Mac - including HDMI which is going to come in handy with the included Blu Ray drive. Asus also has some comparable models for about $800 less than Apple’s Pro notebook. It takes zero effort and talent to find suitable MBP substitutes for much less money (how is that for modesty).
So Where is the Review?
There won’t be one. Reviews on this site are self funded. That way, when a product sucks I can tell you that without pandering to a marketing whelp who cries like a baby and threatens to stop sending review samples (it happens). I don’t need to test the Apple MacBook or MBP to know it’s a poor value. And if the value is not there, who the hell cares about anything else?
When the price differential was 20-30% you could make a case for Apple’s build quality, OS and application suite. But you still would have been wrong.
Apple quality is a myth, as any of their last 4-5 notebook introductions demonstrate. Vertical stripes, faulty power bricks, faulty batteries, faulty video chips, bad RAM sockets, strange sounds, discoloration, backlight issues and surface temperatures that are dangerous are just some of the issues.
Apple’s OS is a masterpiece that just keeps getting better. However, right or wrong it runs fantastic on entry level commodity hardware using a few well developed hacks. If Apple isn’t going to sell their OS stand for generic X86 hardware then they should at least put together a basic solution using cheaper components at a killer price.
iLife is wonderful, but with the Wintel discount you can easily buy Adobe’s comparable consumer Photo/Video suite. You could also add the standard version of Office 2007 ($99 bundle special) and still have $400 left over.
Has Apple lost touch with the consumer? I think so. Reckless spending and endless credit got us in to this economic mess but the nasty correction seems to have sobered us. Apple missed their market by about six months.
Link (http://notebookcritic.com/2008/10/15/apple-mehbook-and-mehbook-pro-announced/)