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Updated White Macbooks Outperform Their Unibody Counterparts

R

rugox

macrumors regular
Original poster
Oct 16, 2008
124
0
"Although the upgrades that Apple's last-gen $999 Macbooks received last week seemed unimpressive, when benchmarked and pitted against the $1299 unibody Macbook, last-gen's model proved to be 5% faster than its unibody counterpart at nearly every test."

http://gizmodo.com/5277951/updated-macbooks-outperform-their-unibody-counterparts

How lame. I have a unibody 2.0ghz macbook and hearing this pisses me off. I bought this beacause it had better specs then the previous macbooks(white,black). I mean, the unibodies were the upgraded versions of the macbook and now the white(previous) macbook gets an upgrade that surpasses the UPGRADED unibody macbook?
 
Glad I bought it and got to sell my old WhiteBook, sold the iPod Touch, and got a wireless all-in-one printer for $85.
 
That's exactly why I'm waiting for WWDC :(. I hate waiting, but I'd rather wait and be satisfied than rush and make an impulsive buy that'd I'd regret later. It's really not that long a wait, and I'd hate to think I could have gotten more bang for my buck if I'd only waited.
 
rugox said:
"Although the upgrades that Apple's last-gen $999 Macbooks received last week seemed unimpressive, when benchmarked and pitted against the $1299 unibody Macbook, last-gen's model proved to be 5% faster than its unibody counterpart at nearly every test."

http://gizmodo.com/5277951/updated-macbooks-outperform-their-unibody-counterparts

How lame. I have a unibody 2.0ghz macbook and hearing this pisses me off. I bought this beacause it had better specs then the previous macbooks(white,black). I mean, the unibodies were the upgraded versions of the macbook and now the white(previous) macbook gets an upgrade that surpasses the UPGRADED unibody macbook?
Click to expand...
This is why i think we will see something happen with the unibody MBs june 8th.
 
Well of course if you are considering buying the macbooks now, you would of course wait until WWDC has passed since Apple might bring out an update. But, I bought my unibody right when it came out.

I know Apple has a habit of releasing hardwares and upgrading them in the near future. I also know that this is the con for those buyers who buy the new release right away instead of surveying any possible changes or flaws to the new hardware.

But I want to stress the point that it has been their habit to UPGRADE THE NEW HARDWARES TO ANOTHER VERSION. They upgraded the white(PREVIOUS version) macbooks. So those buyers, including myself, who bought the unibody right away, got totally screwed by this white macbook upgrade because essentially, we bought something that can't even outperform the previous generation. Isn't this the first time Apple did an upgrade on a previous generation hardware?

Apple probably did this because they wanted to get the sales of white macbooks going again since they were so dominant in the macbook sales. How selfish, strategic, and unordinary. And that's in a bad way.
 
I don't care if it's a little bit slower. I just bought mine 2 weeks ago and I decided I could either be upset that I now have an out-of-date laptop, or still be glad that it doesn't crack, looks a whole lot sleeker, and the touchpad is to die for.
 
rugox said:
Well of course if you are considering buying the macbooks now, you would of course wait until WWDC has passed since Apple might bring out an update. But, I bought my unibody right when it came out.

I know Apple has a habit of releasing hardwares and upgrading them in the near future. I also know that this is the con for those buyers who buy the new release right away instead of surveying any possible changes or flaws to the new hardware.

But I want to stress the point that it has been their habit to UPGRADE THE NEW HARDWARES TO ANOTHER VERSION. They upgraded the white(PREVIOUS version) macbooks. So those buyers, including myself, who bought the unibody right away, got totally screwed by this white macbook upgrade because essentially, we bought something that can't even outperform the previous generation. Isn't this the first time Apple did an upgrade on a previous generation hardware?

Apple probably did this because they wanted to get the sales of white macbooks going again since they were so dominant in the macbook sales. How selfish, strategic, and unordinary. And that's in a bad way.
Click to expand...
I understand your frustration but is a 5% increase in speed really going to spoil your enjoyment in your mac? Id still rather have the unibody knowing that the white MB is a hair faster. IMO the unibody is built much better with a few extra perks that make it worth it.
 
Your new alu macbook would be outdated when the NEW UPDATED ALU MACBOOK comes out.

The White macbook is not something new, it is previous generation hardware, and it received an update that surpasses the next gen aluminum unibody macbook. So it's like saying the next gen macbook was outdated by the previous gen macbook....

bubbagumpshrimp said:
I understand your frustration but is a 5% increase in speed really going to spoil your enjoyment in your mac? Id still rather have the unibody knowing that the white MB is a hair faster. IMO the unibody is built much better with a few extra perks that make it worth it.
Click to expand...

Yes, of course, I'm definitely satisfied with the build quality and performance of the unibody macbook. But, the fact that Apple released this upgrade on a previous generation macbook that performance-wise beats the unibody disturbs me because it goes against the logic of technological advancements. I knew the alu macbook would be quickly outdated because Apple releases lots of updates but not by a previous generation macbook.
 
i got my macbookwhite a week or so ago i think maybe the day or the day after the specs were upgraded. the only reason i didn't get the unibody was because i was on a pretty tight budget, and honestly wasn't patient enough to save a couple more $$$.

anyway, while i am definitely happy about getting the new guts, i don't necessarily think it takes that much away from the unibody. i'm still going to probably get cracks in the plastic, the palmrests and still going to get discolored (i'm already starting to see it :( .), and honestly i kind of feel like i have to baby it a bit more than i'd like to because of it's construction.

my point is, sure it's what, 5% faster, there are still so many things that are better about the unibody.
 
I don't see why are you so angry.

When the unibody line came out they updated the white MB as well (added Superdrive and reduced the price by 100$). You chose uMB because that whitebook wasn't good enough.

Since then Apple updated whitebook 2 times and did nothing with uMB yet, but why are you pissed off? Its not like they would have replaced your rev. A uMB with a rev. B for free...

At the time of your purchase you have chosen uMB for whatever reasons. You weren't forced to buy it and at that time, were you?
 
It's not surprising.

I'd take all the DDR3 fans lightly as well. Unless you want to show off synthetic memory benchmarks.
 
eXan said:
I don't see why are you so angry.

When the unibody line came out they updated the white MB as well (added Superdrive and reduced the price by 100$). You chose uMB because that whitebook wasn't good enough.

Since then Apple updated whitebook 2 times and did nothing with uMB yet, but why are you pissed off? Its not like they would have replaced your rev. A uMB with a rev. B for free...

At the time of your purchase you have chosen uMB for whatever reasons. You weren't forced to buy it and at that time, were you?
Click to expand...


You certainly haven't paid attention to details.
You are asking me why I'm pissed off due to the fact that I chose to buy the aluminum macbook at the time...If you read my post correctly, that's not the central idea.
 
rugox said:
You certainly haven't paid attention to details.
You are asking me why I'm pissed off due to the fact that I chose to buy the aluminum macbook at the time...If you read my post correctly, that's not the central idea.
Click to expand...

Why do even care that Apple didn't update uMBs yet? Are you going to buy one soon or what?

I don't get it
 
"Well of course if you are considering buying the macbooks now, you would of course wait until WWDC has passed since Apple might bring out an update. But, I bought my unibody right when it came out.

I know Apple has a habit of releasing hardwares and upgrading them in the near future. I also know that this is the con for those buyers who buy the new release right away instead of surveying any possible changes or flaws to the new hardware.

But I want to stress the point that it has been their habit to UPGRADE THE NEW HARDWARES TO ANOTHER VERSION. They upgraded the white(PREVIOUS version) macbooks. So those buyers, including myself, who bought the unibody right away, got totally screwed by this white macbook upgrade because essentially, we bought something that can't even outperform the previous generation. Isn't this the first time Apple did an upgrade on a previous generation hardware?

Apple probably did this because they wanted to get the sales of white macbooks going again since they were so dominant in the macbook sales. How selfish, strategic, and unordinary. And that's in a bad way. "

I think you have missed few of my replies.

Also, I'm not pissed off. I'm indignant.
 
rugox said:
So those buyers, including myself, who bought the unibody right away, got totally screwed by this white macbook upgrade because essentially, we bought something that can't even outperform the previous generation. Isn't this the first time Apple did an upgrade on a previous generation hardware?
Click to expand...

Does it even matter? It's not like you're gonna have benchmark competitions with your mates who own white macbooks. And besides, you have a better chassis, screen and trackpad than the PlacBook owners.
 
it doesn't outperform my 2.4 :D

but, in all seriousness i think people are overreacting just a little bit about this. apple updated the white macbook because they couldn't justify producing a unibody macbook at the 999 price range. so they did the next best thing and performed a moderate upgrade to the white macbook.

i'm sure most of you all won't be complaining needing an extra second to load up your itunes...

this was something that was consuming me awhile ago. i said f' it and bought my macbook and decided to enjoy it. it is one of the many pitfalls of ANY laptop - you simply can't stay up to date for long. live with it. if you don't want to deal with it - buy a pc desktop and upgrade to your hearts content.
 
OMG, something released 8 months ago has been surpassed... what in the world to do...
 
Lone Deranger said:
You're not pissed off you say? Really? Read your first post again... ;)
Click to expand...

Read it. And? Read what you quoted again.

If Apple releases an update on the unibody macbooks and the specs get upgraded, which is, an inevitable thing with the ever-changing technological advancements, there is nothing to complain about.

The fact that an older model got upgraded to outperform the new model is where it's wrong. Read my further posts before you conjecture me with "deal with technological updates and advancements" statements.
 
Heres a direct link to the article:

http://www.macworld.com/article/140945/2009/06/213ghzwhitemacbook_benchmarks.html

I really don't see how a bunch of synthetic benchmarks using outdated software and testing methods that don't reflect real world usage or performance confirms that the new white MacBook is faster.

Also, only 38 frames per second for Quake 4 on the UniBody MacBook? I know its capable of running such an old game better than that.

If anything, in real world, aside from games, the new white MacBook and the UniBody should be equal when all things are taken into consideration.

Why don't they run some real benchmarks? No more of this stuff that doesn't reflect real world usage. No more outdated software. No more transcoding AAC to MP3 in a version of iTunes thats about a year old now. Run games in Windows, not OS X.
 
A white Macbook from mid 2007 would outperform the low end unibody as well. What does it matter? The difference is absolutely negligible.
 
mikes70mustang said:
your also forgetting that the polycarb macbook gets way better wifi reception
Click to expand...

Thats not my experience. For me the WiFi reception is exactly the same as the plastic model.

nick9191 said:
A white Macbook from mid 2007 would outperform the low end unibody as well. What does it matter? The difference is absolutely negligible.
Click to expand...

Uh.. no? The Mid-2007 model had a 2.16GHz Merom based Core 2 Duo running on the Napa platform with an Intel GMA 950 GPU and it was officially stuck at 2GB of RAM, unofficially 3GB. The Napa platform also used DDR2 667 and the FSB ran at 667MHz. The late 2007 model had the same generation processor running at 2.2GHz with an Intel GMA X3100 that performed worse than the previous generation product. The Santa Rosa platform had an 800MHz FSB but the RAM speed was stuck at 667MHz.

The UniBody sports a Penryn based Core 2 Duo running at 2GHz and 2.4GHz ($1299 and $1599) on the nvidia 9400M platform running DDR3 at just over 1GHz. The Penryn Core 2 Duos are usually around 10% faster at the same speed depending on what benchmarks you refer to.
 
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