Review: Apple MacBook

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Apple has pimped its 13.3 inch entry level laptop with a new aluminium case and a glass trackpad that will make iPhone users swoon

Apple MacBook 13.3
Mark Frary

It’s a rare laptop that makes you want to stroke it but the new version of Apple’s 13 inch MacBook is one of them. The old version of Apple’s 13 inch take on the laptop market was starting to look a bit long in the tooth so the new updates had to be something special and oh, were they special. The most obvious change, and the thing that makes it stroke-worthy, is the new aluminium casing.

For the business traveller, what an aluminium case brings is sturdiness. If, like me, your laptop goes with you everywhere, you need something that will withstand a few knocks and twists. In particular, the screen is comfortingly substantial. So many laptops that try to aim at the business traveller market make do with flimsy screens to trim down on weight.

Ah yes, weight. That’s the drawback. This is not an ultraportable by any means. The previous 13 inch model weighed 2.4kg; the new aluminium one 2.04kg. Compared to the new generation of netbooks, this is a lardy laptop. Even full spec PC laptops are coming in far lighter than this.

As with everything Apple, design is a key differentiator. This is a beautiful laptop to behold. You can see that the designers at Apple HQ had a field day here - the glowing Apple logo on the lid, the neat array of ports, the drawer-less DVD drive slot and a glass screen that goes right to the edge of the lid

Another design innovation comes with the glass trackpad. It’s as large as a beermat (but not so sticky) but comes without buttons. Instead, the trackpad is clickable. This takes some getting used to but you soon get used to it – even for more complex tasks such as dragging and dropping which are often more of a pain with a trackpad than a mouse. What will delight many users, particularly those who have iPhones, are the gestures you can use with the trackpad: single finger drag and drop, pinch zoom and four finger drags to show and hide all open applications. PC users will probably fumble but these really are impressive once you get used to them.

Business traveller friendly laptops often suffer with their keyboards – the small size of a laptop often leads to a cramped keyboard. Not here. The keys are not all jammed together against each other but float freely in their own bit of case space, just as they did on the old Sinclair Spectrums.

The spec

325x227x24.1mm, weight 2.04kg, Bluetooth 2.1, 802.11n wi-fi, 2.0 or 2.4GHz, 13.3-inch LED-backlit screen (1280 by 800 native resolution), 2GB SDRAM, Nvidia GeForce 9400M graphics processor. 160 or 250GB hard drive. 8xDXD± R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW), five hour battery life

The hype

They say: “All engineered to standards that don’t even exist yet.”

The reality

We say: The aluminium casing really is a delight. Once you have stroked one, going back to a plastic body will be impossible.

The bottom line

£1,120 inc p&p from John Lewis including delivery (2.4Ghz, 250GB model)

The verdict

The aluminium pimping of this second generation Macbook 13.3 make it a robust choice for the business traveller and that lengthy battery life will appeal too. Weight could be an issue for some but the design will appeal to many, particularly those tempted by the top-end Sony Vaio notebooks.