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.
The roadwarrior rating
9 out of 10
