Apple MacBook Multi-Touch White 2009
Apple MacBook – 2009 Year Model with Multi-Touch Trackpad
Most of the consumers liked almost everything about the Unibody Macbook that was released a year ago; we have used the word “almost” because there was one thing about the laptop that everybody just hated and that was, the small white coloured sticker on the laptop that stated its price. Now, Apple has decided to make its laptop much more expensive than the previous version. This hike in the price is due to the fact that this laptop is built like a Pro, but then, lacks some of the high-end features.
Perception of Apple:
Usually, we expect a macbook to cost something closer to the average budget notebooks and crowd the shelves of the retailers. Most of the consumers can survive with the decent construction techniques of iBook or macbook design. And we felt that the whole point of having the macbook and macbook pro line-ups are completely different strokes for different folks. But as Apple thinks that they are underrepresented in the sector of value, they have released an updated white plastic macbook that is based on the Nvidia 9400M IGP chipset and some of the key benefits of the new aluminium model have been cut off to bring down the price of this model to that of one of its starter notebooks.
White Glossy Plastic Polycarbonate body:
Just take a 13″ Apple MacBook Pro and replace its metal exterior with white plastic and here you are, with the macbook: we found no other better explanation for its design. The interior, exterior along with the keyboard is made out of gleaming white glossy plastic polycarbonate that we have owned and loved through the years, and thus continues to retain the very clean aesthetic of its predecessors. With this kind of a white finishing, the macbook manages to hide the finger prints too. As in the case of the macbook pros this one too features a very sturdy unibody construction and the resulting product feels that it would stand the test of time.
Friendlier Notebook:
Unlike the aluminium clad macbook pros that have black coloured keyboard that interrupts the snowy white colour of the laptop, this one has a much friendlier attire with its all white finishing. The bottom part of the Apple Macbook Laptop is held in place by eight screws that are coated in a soft, light grey rubber that keeps the laptop from slipping off from the desk and also would feel comfortable on your laps.
Slightly larger and heavier:
By having its dimensions as, (H x W x D) 13.0 x 9.1 x 1.1 inches and weighing 4.7 pounds, the Apple macbook 2009 model seems to be slightly larger and heavier than the macbook pro of (H x W x D) 12.8 x 8.9 x 1.0 inches and 4.4 pounds. And we had to check this out twice because, as you would expect, the aluminium body and glass screen of the Unibody macbook to weigh more, but not less. But as you can see, this is not a big difference. The macbooks are really very tough to beat, if you are in search of a small laptop.
Built Quality, Hit and Miss:
As in the case of its predecessors, the built quality of Apple macbook White Colour Laptop is a hit and a miss. There are some small gaps where the panels come together and the battery sticks a wee-bit outside the laptop. And keep in mind that controlling the tolerances with the plastic construction is a bit harder than, when metal is used. Yet, you will not find any creaks and noise while using the macbook, it is almost silent. The plastic hinge on the macbook is flexy and fragile feeling and is nowhere near the hinge of the aluminium model. Instead of using the LCD latch mechanism, Apple has made use of a magnetic latch.
The Reference Keyboard in Apple MacBook:
The chiclet keyboard of Apple is adapted by most of the rival laptops for a good reason. The key travel is very short and the action is quiet too. The keyboard of macbook is not backlit unlike the keyboards of macbook pro. And of course, some concessions have to be made for the price. However, it seems to be the only concession made with the keyboard as this island style keyboard is well spaced, the keys are comfortable to touch and give very snappy response. The base of the keyboard is reassuringly flex free.
Innovative Touchpad:
The touchpad is same as the ones that you would find on Apple’s other notebooks, this doubles as both touch pad and touch button. This is the largest trackpad that we have ever seen, measuring 4″ x 3″. Not only is it the largest, it is the one with extremely low friction too. You will be able to press down on the button, even without thinking about the fact that there is no such dedicated button. We had already seen this touchpad and button combo on the HP Envy 13 Laptop. Though this touch pad is a little bit fussy to setup, once you have dialled the settings to suite your preference, it works great.
The Multi-Touch Gestures in Mackbook 2009 Model:
The multi-touch gestures work very smoothly too. You can fling the windows desktop up, towards the top of the screen by having just a clear desktop by just pushing four fingers towards top of the touchpad. You can use your two fingers to zoom in and out of the pages as you do in Apple’s iPhone and the response is swift without any jerking or finickiness. Right-clicks are achieved by clicking with two fingers, but you can also set the bottom-right corner of the pad to act as a right button, something that also works in Windows via Boot Camp. Just swipe with three fingers to move forward and back in your web browser or move through your photos. You need to just rotate with two fingers to quickly reorient a photo or PDF. You will be delighted to see that you can rest your thumb on the touchpad and still move around the cursor without any misinterpretation of our movements by Macbook.
The 13.3″ Display:
The display of the Apple Macbook 09 is a 13.3” LED backlit matte display with a resolution of 1280 x 800 pixels, which is quite good considering its screen size. The plastic screen coating is high gloss, but not as bright as the glass screen of the Aluminium macbook. The display is absolutely bright and crisp. However, the difference between this model and its pro relative is that, this one does not have the same 60 percent greater colour gamut, and so, here lies the catch for the photo editors. The colours seem to be washed out when compared with its predecessor. Hence, if you have any idea of doing any video or photo work, an external monitor would be better.
The text sizes and the amount of usable real estate of the display are decent. From side to side, the viewing angles are excellent, but it degrades quickly as the screen is tilted towards the front. Pressing the display firmly from its back does not cause any ripples in the LCD. No artifacts are visible during the playback of any dark scenes or DVDs. And the display is greener than ever: power efficient, free of harmful toxins such as mercury, and made of arsenic-free glass.
Speakers:
Coming to the speakers of the Macbook Laptop 2009 from Apple, they are loud enough to fill the room, but we found that they lacked some degree of bass. High range sounds like the ones coming from drums and guitars tended to be quite overwhelming and at times, were somewhat harsh too.
Good collection of ports and slots:
We were really happy to witness Apple splurge a bit more with its selection of ports and slots. This 2009 release of Apple macbook has two USB 2.0 ports, mini DisplayPort, Kensington lock slot, Ethernet and even a headphone jack on the left. An integrated card reader would have been a great addition. And on the right side of the system, you will find the SuperDrive DVD burner slot and one more USB port. The Dell Studio XPS 13 has all the ports mentioned above along with a FireWire and HDMI.
Mag Saf Connector:
A tiny 60 Watt power adaptor has been included in the package, which adds yet another half pound to the travel weight. Apple has given the Macbook its Mag Safe Connector and this innovation eliminates a few risks from the notebooks. For instance, a sudden yank of the chord releases the magnetic connector before the notebook is pulled off from the place or the socket breaks. As a bonus, you can tell if your MacBook is fully charged when the LED on the connector changes from amber to green.
iSight Web Camera:
Just above the display, you will be able to find the iSight web camera, which does a good job in portraying the images, but had a tough time adjusting to the low light conditions. The webcam can be used along with the built-in microphone and the included iChat software too. With this cam, can video chat with up to three of your friends. You can use your iSight with Photo Booth to take quick pictures and add fun photo effects. Or use it with QuickTime X to record a video and share it to iTunes, MobileMe, or YouTube with just a click. Best of all, there is no need to waste valuable primping time installing software or configuring the camera. Like everything Mac, iSight just works, right out of the box. The embedded mike did a great job on picking up every little sound that we make.
Connectivity:
The macbook 09 comes with both WiFi and Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR connectivity. Even when 100 feet away from the WiFi access point, all the bars of the WiFi meter were high in the laptop.
Features and their Corresponding Performance:
The macbook’s specification has not changed dramatically, it runs on 2.26GHz Intel Core 2 Duo P7550 processor with 2GB RAM, which is the same processor that is employed in the mackbook pro. But surprisingly, this one is less powerful than the processor that was employed in the 2008 model macbook, which had a 2.4-GHz Intel Core 2 Duo P8600 CPU and 2GB of RAM. In the GeekBench tests, the macbook 09’s model scored 3464, which is about 50 points lesser than its previous model. In the Boot Camp Mode, running Windows 7, this macbook’s geekbench score dropped to 2597 and hence, moved between the Dell XPS 13 model that scored 2596 and Samsung Q320, that scored 2834. In the PCMark Vantage in Boot Camp mode, though macbook scored less than its competing Dell and Samsung model, it surprisingly managed to score about 500 points higher than the macbook pro which runs on the same processor with the same amount of RAM.
Hard Drive and its Performance:
Apple Macbook has a 250GB hard drive that runs at a spindle speed of 5400rpm. This HDD proved to be quite fast for the system. In the Snow Leopard OS, it copied a 4.97GB folder filled with multimedia files at the rate of 27.8Mbps, which is 7Mbps faster than the average. The drive boots to the Snow Leopard OS in a very speedy 26 seconds. The laptop does a speedy transcoding too. It takes just more than 2 minutes to transcode a 114MB MPEG4 file to AVI using handbrake in the Snow Leopard. This rate is much above average. The music and video streamed from the system was without a hitch.
Graphics card and Performance:
The Apple Macbook 09 is equipped with an Nvidia GeForce 9400M graphics card, which is same as the one used in the earlier Macbook pro laptops. In the 3DMark06, the graphics card was able to notch a score of 2160, which is same as that attained by the macbook pro, 60 points higher than the Dell model that makes use of the same graphics card, but about 450 point below the Samsung model, as it uses the advanced Nvidia GeForce G105M GPU.
Software Bundle with Apple MacBook White:
Apart from the excellent Snow Leopard OS, the macbook comes loaded with Apple’s iLife 09 creativity suite, which includes iPhoto, iWeb, iDVD, iMovie and GarageBand. The iPhoto offers you with features like Face Detection, GPS Meta Data Support, Facebook and Flickr integration. The iMovie offers shake reduction and GarageBand offers you with music lessons. Yet another software included is the Time Machine Backup. Though we are glad that Apple has not annoyed us with any of the trial versions, we would have loved to have a word processor or a lesser rudimentary than notepad.
Lack of Mac viruses is pretty well known and continues to the strength of the platform. Speaking of viruses, you can dual boot Windows if you wish to do so. This ability is fully supported by Apple and is administered within OS X via Boot Camp. This is great if you already have an investment in some Windows software and lessens the cost of switching you do not have to buy Mac versions of your apps right away.
Not Much of Configuration Choices:
Unlike the various configuration options available on the Macbook Pros, allows you opt for different processors and displays, the only option the Apple offers to its Macbook consumers is just to upgrade the RAM to 4GB, a 320GB hard drive of spindle speed 5400rpm and 500GB, 5400rpm hard drive for a few extra bugs.
Hot Laptop:
The Apple macbook Notebook 09 model is hot not only by its looks, but physically too. The touchpad got as hot as 82 degrees Fahrenheit, keyboard about 92 degrees and the base, about 97 degrees. All this was noticeable when you keep the device on your laps.
An Above Average Battery Life:
The other major change is the battery. The MacBook now has a fixed internal cell just like the MacBook Pros although there is no external LED display to show its charge. Macbook 09’s battery lasted for about five hours and ten minutes in Snow Leopard, which is about two hours less than the time claimed by Apple and is about an hour less than the battery life of the Macbook Pro. But this is about an hour longer than the average battery life of these types of laptops and is much better than the Dell Studio model and Samsung laptops.
Thanks to its advanced battery chemistry and charging technology, the MacBook battery can be recharged up to 1000 times which is good for about five years of typical usage and lasts nearly three times the lifespan of typical notebook batteries. That makes for less waste, and that, in turn, makes for one environmentally friendly battery.
Apple MacBook Warranty Details:
Apple has retained its standard limited warranty of one year for parts and labour and 90 days of toll free 24 x 7 phone support. If you are not happy with this, you can opt for AppleCare Protection Plan that includes three years each of parts and labour coverage and phone support too for some costly price.
Verdict:
With a stellar industrial design, extravagant ergonomics, superior performance and above average battery life, the 13.3” MacBook 09 is very compelling to buy. Cost wise too, it is on par with its rivals, but of offers you with a longer endurance. Owners of the previous MacBook won’t feel too aggrieved by the changes with this model, but new buyers face a quandary. The only dilemma that you can ever have is, thinking about spending just a few more bugs and have the MacBook Pro and enjoy a few more vital features and gimmicks like a sleeker aluminium chassis, an SD card slot and a backlit keyboard. If you are not in the necessity of having these features, the latest MacBook is the best choice.
Apple MacBook 13.3″ Notebook – Technical Specifications, Features
| Manufacturer | Apple |
| Model Name | Apple MacBook Multi-Touch White 2009 |
| PC type | Notebook |
| Series | MacBook |
| DIMENSIONS AND DISPLAY | |
| Dimensions (H x W x D) | 13.0 x 9.1 x 1.1 inches |
| Weight | 4.7 pounds |
| Available colours | White |
| Display type | LED-backlit glossy widescreen display |
| Display size | 13.3-inch |
| Display resolution | 1280 x 800 pixels |
| PROCESSOR, MEMORY, STORAGE | |
| Processor type | Intel Core 2 Duo processor |
| Clock speed | 2.26 GHz |
| Front Side Bus | 1066MHz |
| Chipset | Intel 945GSE |
| RAM installed | 1024 MB (1GB) |
| RAM type | 667MHz DDR2 RAM |
| Max Ram Supported | 4GB |
| Hard drive size | 250GB 300GB, 500GB – Optional |
| Spindle speed | 5400rpm |
| Optical drive | 8x slot-loading SuperDrive (DVD±R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW) |
| INPUT | |
| Keyboard | Built-in full-size keyboard with 78 (U.S.) or 79 (ISO) keys |
| Track pad | Multi-Touch track pad for precise cursor control; supports two-finger scrolling, pinch, rotate, swipe, three-finger swipe, four-finger swipe, tap, double-tap, and drag capabilities |
| GRAPHICS, VIDEO AND SOUND | |
| Installed Graphics Type | 256MB of DDR3 SDRAM shared with main memory |
| Graphics processor | NVIDIA GeForce 9400M graphics processor |
| Speaker Details | Built-in stereo speakers |
| Microphone | Built-in omni directional microphone |
| Audio Output | Combined optical digital output/headphone out Supports Apple Stereo Headset with microphone |
| Video out options | DVI output VGA output Dual-link DVI output |
| COMMUNICATION FEATURES | |
| Ethernet | Built-in 10/100/1000BASE-T Gigabit Ethernet |
| Modem | Nil |
| Wireless | Built-in AirPort Extreme 802.11n Wi-Fi wireless networking IEEE 802.11a/b/g compatible Built-in Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR |
| Mobile internet | None |
| Webcam | Built-in iSight camera |
| CONNECTIVITY | MagSafe power port Gigabit Ethernet port Mini DisplayPort Two USB 2.0 ports (up to 480 Mbps) Audio in/out Kensington lock slot |
| SOFTWARE | |
| Operating System | Mac OS X v10.6 Snow Leopard |
| Special package | iLife (includes iPhoto, iMovie, GarageBand, iWeb, iDVD) |
| Other software | Time Machine, Quick Look, Spaces, Spotlight, Dashboard, Mail, iChat, Safari, Address Book, QuickTime, iCal, DVD Player, Photo Booth, Front Row, Xcode Developer Tools |
| BATTERY | |
| Battery technology | Built-in lithium-polymer battery |
| Battery capacity | 60-watt-hour |
| Power Adaptor | 60W MagSafe Power Adapter with cable management system |
| Estimated battery life (mfr) | 7 hours |
| MISCELLANEOUS | |
| Box contents | MacBook 60W MagSafe Power Adapter, AC wall plug, and power cord Install/restore DVDs Printed and electronic documentation |
| Security | Kensington lock slot |
| Environment friendly features included | BFR free, PVC free, mercury free, arsenic free display, recyclable polycarbonate display, 20% smaller packaging, meets energy star version 5.0 requirements and rated EPEAT gold. |
| WARRANTY AND SERVICE | One year warranty for Parts and Labour 24×7 toll free service support |
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