Apple Updates MacBooks to Santa Rosa, GMA X3100

[mosx]

If you look at Dells there is only 1 computer comparable to the Macbook; the XPS M1330.

Take the base model, add a 2.2GHz processor, Bluetooth, Wireless N card, and a 56 W/hr battery and you’ll be paying $1449. That is $150 more that a $1299 MacBook which comes with Leopard and iLife 08.

Oh please, don't give me that. If you look at the actual size comparisons of the XPS M1330, MacBook, MacBook Pro, and other 15.4" notebooks, you'll find that the MacBook really isn't that much smaller at all. Just single CM here and there.

For a little over $1500, you can confingure the XPS M1330 to have a better GPU, 85Whr battery (compared to the MacBooks 55Whr), and all of those other things.

I have my MacBook sitting next to my 15.4" HP right now and it is *barely* noticeably smaller. And my HP doesn't have the rough edges that cut into your wrists when typing.

Leopard and iLife aren't worth the inferior hardware.

The $600 15" laptops are crap. And even when you tried to equip it like a MacBook, you end up paying $1113 for something with junk software, horrible materials and design, that bigger and weighs more.

You can go to Dell, and for $1299, you can get the Inspiron 1520. It'll have a 2GHz Core 2 Duo (Santa Rosa), 2GB of RAM, 160GB HDD, DVD writer, and a 256MB GeForce 8600M GT. For $50 more you can throw in that 9 cell 85Whr battery. Yes the processor is "slower", but you're getting the same GPU as the MacBook Pro. Is it heavier? Maybe a pound more than the MacBook. Is it bigger? A cm or 2 in each direction. Junk software? Its hard to call Windows junk when you consider all the choices you get, especially when it comes to things that are important to many people.... like choices for online music stores, choices for burning software (sorry, Toast sucks), superior DVD players (DVD Player in Leopard is still a joke compared to Windows offerings), and games.

You have a point, but keep in mind that yesterday Apple was selling macBooks with GMA 950.

X3100 is definitely low end but I think, for most of us, acceptable.

Apple is still selling macMinis with GMA 950. That could qualify for "worst of the worst" GPU.

The X3100 is only on par with a low end GPU from 2002. For $1408 (MacBook in California after taxes), that is entirely unacceptable. Especially with no option to upgrade.

Dell XPS M1330 (the only Dell that compares to a MacBook)
Add a 2.2GHz processor, Bluetooth, Wireless N card, 56 W/hr battery so you get a comparable machine.
$1449 Total

And that doesn’t take into account iLife and Leopard which make the MacBook more attractive.

Bluetooth? What for? I've had bluetooth in every one of my notebooks and I've simply turned it off. Completely useless. You're also forgetting that the Dell gives you the option of the higher capacity battery, 30Whr more than the MacBook, as well as an option for a *gasp* DEDICATED GPU.

iLife? The only iLife application that gets any regular use from most users is iPhoto. Picassa and Vista's built-in iPhoto rip-off work just as good. Leopard? Not worth it for inferior hardware and a lack of a dedicated GPU.

And, again, when you realistically compare the size difference, the MacBook and XPS M1330 are NOT that much smaller than 15.4" systems, including the MacBook Pro. Just a CM or so in each direction. That means that 15.4" systems can be compared. In that case, the MacBook is a TERRIBLE value, as is the MacBook Pro. Especially when you can get a fully loaded Inspiron 1520 WITH blu-ray writer and GeForce 8600M GT 256MB for several hundred dollars LESS than the entry level MBP. Oh and thats with a 1680x1050 screen too.

It's an entirely new platform under Santa Rosa that makes the MacBook more capable and well rounded against other laptops.

Except for the fact that every other notebook out there at least gives you the OPTION to upgrade to a dedicated GPU.

When you actually do the comparison properly with 13.3" widescreen slim and stylish notebooks from Dell and Apple, the Dell is more expensive.

Again, go look at the actual size specs available at dell.com and apple.com and you'll see that the MacBook and XPS M1330 are only smaller than 15.4" notebooks by a cm or so in each direction.

Anyway, its astonishing that people here are advocating Apple's ripping off of the consumer. IT's 2007. Every notebook should at least have the OPTION of getting a dedicated GPU. The integrated GPU in the MacBook is now on par with what low end desktops 5 years ago had, according to Intel's own words. That makes it basically useless for modern games, and even older games will still only be playable on the lowest settings. The X3100 is extremely slow, doesn't offer any kind of advanced video features that integrated GPU's from other manufacturers do.. why even use it? Oh yeah, to maximize profit.

It's also unacceptable that Apple forces you to spend $2000 to get a 15.4" notebook with a 128MB dedicated GPU. Some companies sell 512MB GeForce 8600M GTs in their system for under $1400! For $2000 you can get a PC that has dual 8600M GTs. If you were looking at the 17" MacBook Pro, you can get a system elsewhere with dual GeForce 7950 GTX cards with a full 1GB of RAM. Yes, the GeForce 7950 GTX is about twice as fast as the 8600M in the $2799 MacBook Pro.

Apple was getting competitive with their pricing when they first announced the MacBooks and MacBook Pros back in 2006. But now they've fallen very behind and charge much more for much less.

 

[jeremytehjerk]

bought the night before

so i ordered my macbook the night before these changes. and saw them when I woke up in the morning and immediately looked on my shipping status to see I could still cancel the order, so I called into customer service and explained that I was about to cancel but if they could switch my order to the new model I would prefer that to going through cancellation/creating a new order. The guy on the phone was kinda sketchy tried to convince me not to do it on the grounds that it would push back the shipping date.. haha. but in a few minutes laster after he accepted that I wasn't going to be convinced to take the older model to save a week or 2 shipping time he looked in their shipping information and apple had already switched my order to send me the new 2.2 macbook instead.

yay apple for switching this for me granted whatever they did caused 5 separate charges to trigger on my credit card and I got a call from fraud alert but the end result was the right place and the new macbook model. might be a small upgrade but ill take upgrades the night after finalizing a computer purchase ANYTIME.

 

[Farani]

- is there a store in NY city where I can buy some good and cheap RAM for the MB that I'll be buying (might as well max it out to 4GB if I can get a good deal)? Will they do the install for me?

Buy online at www.newegg.com
You can install it yourself... it is VERY easy. You can get 4GB's of ram for around $140 onlinw.


- does Leopard run smoothly on 1GB of RAM? I'm asking just in case I wait a little bit before upgrading my RAM...

Yes. I have 1GB on my 2.4Ghz iMac and my new SR MacBook and it runs splendidly


- the battery on my iBook was getting really weak near the end and I wonder if it's partially my own fault. Just so I don't make the same mistakes with the new one: do you leave the laptop plugged in or do you unplug it when working? Do you leave it plugged in when the lid is closed and the battery is fully recharged? Or do you unplug it?


I leave it plugged in whenever I can.


- can I expect some longer battery life from this SR upgrade?


YES! My battery is 10 mins from being fully charged and I'm running the normal setting on power settings and it estimates 6 hour and 5 mins!

 

[davenet]

I think I might... if I buy a MacBook at all. I don't exactly like supporting companies that gouge customers like this.

That Dell XPS M1330 is looking really good.

As long as you like the OS that goes along with it. Otherwise the Apple product looks alot better to me since it comes with the OS I prefer.

 

[QCassidy352]

The reason is simple. the low end model is designed to drive people to the mid and high end model. Someone just said on here that it would be hard NOT to buy a high end one. And thats exactly the point.

The low-end one is there for the people who really need a cheap notebook but want Apple. With the student discount its 999, so its there if you need it, but it's ridiculously easy to upsell.

I don't know about that. $200 for:
2 Ghz --> 2.2 Ghz
80 GB --> 120 GB
combo --> super

There are so many people who:
- wouldn't notice the processor difference
- have far less than 80 GB on their HD
- never burn DVDs

I myself would not go for the low end model given those differences, but for many, there would be no real-world difference in their experience whatsoever. So why not pocket the $200 or buy a new nano or something?

 

[imrichar]

Do the new macbooks have Leopard pre-loaded? Will the re-install DVD let you do a fresh Leopard copy without having to rely on a 10.4 install?

 

[Farani]

I don't know about that. $200 for:
2 Ghz --> 2.2 Ghz
80 GB --> 120 GB
combo --> super

There are so many people who:
- wouldn't notice the processor difference
- have far less than 80 GB on their HD
- never burn DVDs

I myself would not go for the low end model given those differences, but for many, there would be no real-world difference in their experience whatsoever. So why not pocket the $200 or buy a new nano or something?

This is what I did. I was very close to getting the middle model but went against it. I NEVER burn DVDs and I have a superdrive in my imac. I don't need 120GB's on my laptop as I store all my media on an airdisk. So $200 for 200Mhz? I'll see what 3%-5% performance gain. I can take that $200 and get 4GB's of run and multitask like a hero.

 

[flopticalcube]

Do the new macbooks have Leopard pre-loaded? Will the re-install DVD let you do a fresh Leopard copy without having to rely on a 10.4 install?

I doubt Tiger would even work on them due to the new GPU.

 

[chadder007]

Led

How do we know it doesn't have an LED backlight now? Wasn't Apple buying up a lot of 13 inch LED backlights when they got the ones for the MBP 15"?

 

[Farani]

Do the new macbooks have Leopard pre-loaded? Will the re-install DVD let you do a fresh Leopard copy without having to rely on a 10.4 install?

Yep Leopard is pre-loaded and I would assume that the re-install CD has leopard on it because there was only the standard 2 DVDs in there... no up-to-date leopard cd.

EDIT: good point... i don't think the X3100 would work on Tiger unless the last Tiger update has the drivers which I doubt.

 

[xUKHCx]

EDIT: good point... i don't think the X3100 would work on Tiger unless the last Tiger update has the drivers which I doubt.

FYI I can confirm it doesn't.

 

[whirlpool]

to all those Canadians:

Did apple change the price of the new macbooks compared to the older ones?

I'm in Oz, and the AUD is much stronger than it has been and is now almost equal to USD, yet the current prices are still as if the AUD is 1/3rd less valuable...

(Apple hasn't updated the AUS store yet, which is why I'm asking to see if I can expect a price cut)

 

[feyn-man]

I don't know about that. $200 for:
2 Ghz --> 2.2 Ghz
80 GB --> 120 GB
combo --> super

There are so many people who:
- wouldn't notice the processor difference
- have far less than 80 GB on their HD
- never burn DVDs

I myself would not go for the low end model given those differences, but for many, there would be no real-world difference in their experience whatsoever. So why not pocket the $200 or buy a new nano or something?

Just for fun. There is an old saying: A product could be so much expensive without any reason (maybe just like the black macbook). But there is always reason (known or not) if it is cheaper than others.

So I will never buy the cheapest one.

 

[Brianstorm91]

Update the UK Store for Heaven's sake

 

[~David]

So nobody knows if the iSight in these models has been updated to the newer 1.3mpx one?

 

[carlop]

well, apple is an american company, so that's the way it goes folks. I have to pay $2.99 for a box of imported Italian pasta that probably goes for a 1 euro or less in Milano.

Well I guess someone didn't know the Free Trade Agreement applies to Electronics/Computer Equipement as well.

 

[Farani]

Just for fun. There is an old saying: A product could be so much expensive without any reason. But there is always reason (known or not) if it is cheaper than others.

So I will never buy the cheapest one.

Yes, but if you don't need the extra power, why buy it?

 

[stefan1130]

This is what I did. I was very close to getting the middle model but went against it. I NEVER burn DVDs and I have a superdrive in my imac. I don't need 120GB's on my laptop as I store all my media on an airdisk. So $200 for 200Mhz? I'll see what 3%-5% performance gain. I can take that $200 and get 4GB's of run and multitask like a hero.

I agree. As soon as I'm off work, I'm going to the store to get it (the low end). I also never burn DVD's and have an iMac if need be, and I have a nice portable hard drive that most of my stuff goes on anyway. Also, I'm going to invest my saved $200(not spend $700+ at apple) on 4GB of Ram...Although I want the 4GB today(very impatient). Anybody know of any retailers that sell RAM for cheap? CompUSA is out of business. Maybe Best Buy has some.

 

[feyn-man]

Yes, but if you don't need the extra power, why buy it?

don't need? who knows that!
several years ago, when I buy my first PC, somebody tell me: why you need a 20G harddisk? A 10G HD will never be used.

 

[feyn-man]

I agree. As soon as I'm off work, I'm going to the store to get it (the low end). I also never burn DVD's and have an iMac if need be, and I have a nice portable hard drive that most of my stuff goes on anyway. Also, I'm going to invest my saved $200(not spend $700+ at apple) on 4GB of Ram...Although I want the 4GB today(very impatient). Anybody know of any retailers that sell RAM for cheap? CompUSA is out of business. Maybe Best Buy has some.

Maybe you will go to china, where you can always buy a cheaper one.

 

[72930]

don't need? who knows that!
several years ago, when I buy my first PC, somebody tell me: why you need a 20G harddisk? A 10G HD will never be used.

But paying for a 20GB disk may not have been worth it if you didn't need it until the time came for a new computer...

 

[oramaman]

How powerful is the GMA X3100? Would I be able to run Maya and 3D studio max somewhat decently with this graphics card? Right now 3ds max chugs slowly on my 512mb eMachines PC. I'm hoping that this would be a different case on a 4GB Macbook.

 

[feyn-man]

But paying for a 20GB disk may not have been worth it if you didn't need it until the time came for a new computer...

of course, if you really sure about that. But do you really sure? I don't think that all people really know what they need.

 

[MacFly123]

no superdrive on the first , lame.

I know!!! Seriously, who in the hell would ever buy that one???

 

[timmyb]

Update the UK Store for Heaven's sake

Yes yes yes!!! I'm hoping it'll be done overnight, as with the US. Could the delay be due to simple logistics, i.e. time spent flying them over so that when released they're available immediately?