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Black Macbook's to make a return

Woodcrest64

Woodcrest64

macrumors 65816
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Aug 14, 2006
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From Computing Forever

http://computingforever.com/archives/1229

Rumor: 2011 MacBooks in 3 to 4 weeks? Black MacBook returns?
Posted on April 3, 2011 by Dave

An unconfirmed source calling themselves digiamac4471 has informed Computing Forever that the white MacBook, last updated on May 18th 2010 will be refreshed within 3 to 4 weeks and will feature new Sandy Bridge Core i3 series processors along with a ThunderBolt I/O port, a lower price point and the return of a Black chassis option. Reports have indicated that supplies of current generation white MacBooks in US Apple Retail stores have become constrained, indicating an imminent refresh of the popular consumer notebook. The black MacBook was discontinued in October of 2008 following the introduction of the then aluminum MacBook, which was later reclassified as a 13.3 inch MacBook Pro. The current white Macbook design was introduced in October of 2009 and features a unibody polycarbonate shell. The Black MacBook is expected to be made from the same material. Our source indicted that Apple wish to reintroduce the black MacBook to maintain uniformity across its consumer devices like the iPad and iPhone, which also offer black and white options, although the White iPhone 4 is not yet available.

The Return of the BlackBook?

At present there is only one stock MacBook configuration offered, which is a 2.4GHz Core 2 Duo. Two models will now be on offer and preliminary spec details reveal updated Core i3 dual-core CPUs being used for the entry level model with an undisclosed clock speed. The use of Core i3 would be a first for Apple as their recently updated MacBook Pros use both Core i5 and i7 only. The i3 will be offered in the entry level white MacBook at a lower price point of $899. The remaining specs are almost identical to the entry level MacBook Pro: 4GB of RAM, 320GB Hard Drive, Intel HD 3000 GPU, 7-hours of battery life and a HD FaceTime Camera. The second MacBook option will be the black edition featuring the same specs again but offering a Core i5 2.1GHz dual-core CPU. A 500GB hard drive will also be an optional extra for an additional $60. Prices for this model will start from $1099. It appears with this refresh that Apple wishes to further differentiate the consumer MacBook lineup from the Pro series beyond just the obvious outward chassis construction differences. Solid state options continue to be lacking on the MacBooks along with the absence of memory expansion ports and support for more than 4GB of RAM.

Stay Tuned. We will have more on this story as it progresses. Watch the video below where we discuss this story further.

I sure hope this ends up being true :)
 
Best Buy shows the Macbook as "Back ordered" so there may be some truth in a refresh soon....
 
I hope they come out with one! I really liked the black ones and white is still cool but black is so much cooler! :)
 
will it be as durable as the previous black macbook? the casing on the current and previous white macbooks is simple atrocious, you can get 10 scratches in the first week, with black macbooks you only wont even get 10 scratches in a year! unless your really clumsy. i replaced the casing on my white early 2009 9400m macbook with black casing, it was an extremely smart decision. also will the new plastic macbooks still have a glossy keyboard like the unibody plastic, or a matte keyboard like the old ones?
 
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Yep, the MacBooks are due for an update. Not sure I believe the black rumour, as Apple has so many 13" laptops now. But I'd be very tempted to get it.
 
If they still offered the Black Model I would have probably still picked up the white model.

Honestly, i wish they made the MacBook and MacBook Pro 13" the same again. When I bought mine I didnt think $200 was worth going to the 13" MBP just for the Ai design, and SD slot.
 
Honestly, given the current prices of the entry-level Macbook Pro.. the need for a Macbook is not necessary.. Just look at how powerful the entry-level Macbook Pro is and its only like 150.00 more than the MacBook.. Not worth it, I think Apple should dump the Macbook and just use Macbook pros.
 
Joshuarocks said:
Honestly, given the current prices of the entry-level Macbook Pro.. the need for a Macbook is not necessary.. Just look at how powerful the entry-level Macbook Pro is and its only like 150.00 more than the MacBook.. Not worth it, I think Apple should dump the Macbook and just use Macbook pros.
Click to expand...

150 is alot for some and many don't ned a mbp......
 
and the macbook entry will still be "better" than the 999 air

and if theres a black one i bet its a glossy black like the white
 
Hmm that would be great if true. I've always liked the black MacBooks and I don't see too many people with one. Getting rare now.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
I submitted this to Page 2 a couple of days ago but I haven't seen it pop up yet. I too would be all over a sandy bridge black macbook. We'll just have to wait and see.
 
I think it is more likely that MacBooks disappear and a redesigned MacBook Air takes the centre stage as the entry level Mac laptop.
 
I would love that. I have the original BlackBook right now and love it, the design and color scheme (obviously) is what does it for me. Of course that and Mac OS X :)

But yea, having a higher spec'ed Macbook would be great.
 
I really hope this rumor is true. There is most definitely still a place for at least one more refresh of Apple's entry-level consumer laptop. The plastic MacBooks are the ultimate college laptops. They pack a full-size hard drive where the MacBook Air's SSDs would come up short. Moreover, it nails that important sub $1,000 price point. Also, my current laptop is falling apart and would gladly welcome the return of the BlackBook. I could see Apple refreshing the iMac and MacBook lines in tandem in May. *Fingers crossed*
 
If they offered a black i3 i'd be all over it, more so if they added the 1440x900 display.
 
Sweet. For the longest time I couldn't decide between a 13" MBP or a 15" MBP... I was begrudgingly settling on a $2000 computer, simply because I couldn't let myself justify a $1200 computer that couldn't play any newer PC games. For $900, and black, that's a no-brainer!
 
kim2272 said:
I'm thinking about selling my MacBook now. Do any of you think there will be a significant design change to the white one?
Click to expand...

Well for overall design I don't know about many changes with that; the build quality is already great and unless they made it out of aluminium (which is highly unlikely) it should look around the same.

As for internals, I'm thinking an iCore processor and probably larger capacity harddrives. The Pro is still Apple's most powerful laptop and although they might tune up the specs, it won't bleed over into Pro territory.
 
While I'm happy that ole' Blackbook will make a return I am no way in hell going to buy another Macbook to replace mine. Way to underpowered.
 
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