Apple Macbook 2.0GHz Review

The Apple MacBook (starting at $1,299) is available with two choices of Core 2 Duo processors and a choice of hard disk drive or solid state drive. There is only one 13.3" screen offering, a 1280x800 WXGA glossy display with LED backlighting.



Our MacBook has the following specifications:

Mac OS X v10.5.5 (Build 9F2114)
Intel Core 2 Duo P7350 2.0GHz (3MB L2 cache, 1066MHz frontside bus)
2GB 1067MHz DDR3 SDRAM
160GB 5400rpm SATA hard disk drive
13.3" glossy widescreen TFT LED backlit display (1280 x 800)
NVIDIA GeForce 9400M graphics (256MB of DDR3 shared memory)
8x slot-loading SuperDrive (DVD±R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW)
iSight webcam
AirPort Extreme WiFi (IEEE 802.11a/b/g/n)
Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR (Enhanced Data Rate)
Mini DisplayPort, Ethernet, two USB 2.0 ports (480Mbps), Audio out and microphone in
Dimensions : 0.95" x 12.78" x 8.94" (H x W x D)
Weight: 4.51 pounds
Integrated 45-watt-hour lithium-polymer battery
60W MagSafe power adapter with cable management system
Build and Design

The new "unibody" construction of the MacBook for late 2008 makes this MacBook one of the most impressively built 13-inch notebooks we've seen in recent memory. When you pick this notebook up it feels like you're holding a solid piece of metal. In a manner of speaking, you are. The unibody chassis is milled from a solid block of aluminum, making the MacBook one of the most durable 13-inch notebooks you can buy for less than $2,000. A thickness of less than an inch and a weight of roughly 4.5 pounds likewise help to make this update to the MacBook line a compelling choice for students and road warriors.

Bottom line, despite the impressive thinness of the design, the MacBook is quite solid and durable thanks to the aluminum construction. We don't recommend dropping the MacBook (or any notebook for that matter) but the MacBook should survive any use and abuse that a college student or corporate road warrior can deliver over several years of travel between home and school or home and work.




The MacBook lid does not have a latch to hold it closed, but the hinge mechanism works well and firmly holds the lid in place. While we're on the topic of the hinge, Apple made the strange choice of using black plastic around the hinge rather than brushed aluminum like the rest of a the chassis design. This isn't a major problem, but it looks a little odd and plastic doesn't give the same impression of durability as aluminum. On the bright side there is almost no flex to the screen thanks to the metal lid.



Performance and Benchmarks

The MacBook has reasonable performance based on the 2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo P7350 processor. The P7350 isn't the most impressive Core 2 Duo processor in the Intel lineup, but it certainly performs much better than the processors used in the Apple MacBook Air. The XBench benchmarks indicate that the new MacBook is a solid update in Apple's current lineup. As you'll see in chart below, the MacBook has a solid performance boost over previous generation MacBooks. The startup into Leopard is quite fast, and it's clear that Apple didn't have to sacrifice processor speed in order to bring this thin unibody laptop to consumers.

The Nvidia GeForce 9400M graphics should provide adequate performance for most games and won't have any trouble with high-definition video output to an external monitor. That said, this isn't a gaming notebook and won't break any records with current 3D games.

The 160GB Toshiba hard drive in the MacBook provides a reasonable amount of storage and performance. The 5400rpm 2.5" hard drive is relatively average for notebooks in 2008. However, since the MacBook is more expensive than your "average" notebook we would have liked to see a faster 7200rpm hard drive at the $1,299 price tag.

You can also configure that MacBook with a 2.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo P8600 processor (a modest performance increase) and a larger 250GB or 320GB hard drive ... or a much faster 128GB SSD. Unfortunately, the faster processor and faster drive increase the price of the MacBook to between $1,599 and $2,199.

With the basics out of the way, let's jump into the performance benchmarks.

XBench is a comprehensive benchmarking solution for Mac OS X commonly used to compare the relative speeds of two different Macintoshes.

XBench 1.3 summary results:

Model Overall Score

MacBook 2008 (2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo) 126.23
MacBook Air (1.6GHz Intel Core 2 Duo) 50.76
Mac Mini (1.83GHz Intel Core 2 Duo)
94.58
MacBook (2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo) 95.89
MacBook Pro (2.2GHz Intel Core 2 Duo) 106.05
PowerBook G3 Pismo (500MHz G3) 18.47



wPrime is a program that forces the processor to do recursive mathematical calculations, the advantage of this program is that it is multi-threaded and can use both processor cores at once, thereby giving more accurate benchmarking measurements than Super Pi. (Lower scores indicate better performance.)


Notebook / CPU wPrime 32M time
Apple MacBook (Intel Core 2 Duo P7350 @ 2.0GHz) 38.421s
Apple MacBook Air (Intel Core 2 Duo P7500 @ 1.6GHz)
68.173s

Dell Inspiron 13 (Pentium Dual Core T2390 @ 1.86GHz) 44.664s

Toshiba Satellite U405 (Core 2 Duo T8100 @ 2.1GHz)
37.500s
Sony VAIO NR (Core 2 Duo T5250 @ 1.5GHz) 58.233s
Toshiba Tecra A9 (Core 2 Duo T7500 @ 2.2GHz) 38.343s
Toshiba Tecra M9 (Core 2 Duo T7500 @ 2.2GHz) 37.299s
HP Compaq 6910p (Core 2 Duo T7300 @ 2GHz) 40.965s
Sony VAIO TZ (Core 2 Duo U7600 @ 1.20GHz) 76.240s
Zepto 6024W (Core 2 Duo T7300 @ 2GHz) 42.385s
Lenovo T61 (Core 2 Duo T7500 @ 2.2GHz) 37.705s
Alienware M5750 (Core 2 Duo T7600 @ 2.33GHz) 38.327s
Hewlett Packard DV6000z (Turion X2 TL-60 @ 2.0GHz) 38.720s



PCMark05 comparison results (Higher scores indicate better performance):

Notebook PCMark05 Score
Apple MacBook (2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo P7350, Nvidia GeForce 9400M) 3,961 PCMarks
Apple MacBook Air (1.6GHz Intel Core 2 Duo P7500, Intel X3100)
2,478 PCMarks

Dell Inspiron 13 (1.86GHz Intel T2390, Intel X3100)
3,727 PCMarks
Lenovo ThinkPad X301 (1.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo SU9400, Intel 4500MHD) 4,457 PCMarks
Sony VAIO NR (1.5GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T5250, Intel X3100) 3,283 PCMarks
Sony VAIO CR (1.8GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T7100, Intel X3100) 3,612 PCMarks
Sony VAIO TZ (1.20GHz Core 2 Duo U7600, Intel GMA 950) 2,446 PCMarks

Lenovo ThinkPad X61 (2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T7300, Intel X3100) 4,153 PCMarks
Lenovo 3000 V200 (2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T7300, Intel X3100) 3,987 PCMarks
Lenovo T60 Widescreen (2.0GHz Intel T7200, ATI X1400 128MB) 4,189 PCMarks
HP dv6000t (2.16GHz Intel T7400, NVIDA GeForce Go 7400) 4,234 PCMarks
Fujitsu N6410 (1.66GHz Core Duo, ATI X1400) 3,487 PCMarks
Alienware M7700 (AMD Athlon FX-60, Nvidia Go 7800GTX) 5,597 PCMarks
Sony VAIO SZ-110B in Speed Mode (Using Nvidia GeForce Go 7400) 3,637 PCMarks
Asus V6J (1.86GHz Core Duo T2400, Nvidia Go 7400) 3,646 PCMarks



3DMark06 comparison results (Higher scores indicate better performance):

Notebook 3DMark06 Score
Apple MacBook (2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo P7350, Nvidia GeForce 9400M)2,116 3DMarks
Apple MacBook Air (1.6GHz Intel Core 2 Duo P7500, Intel X3100)502 3DMarks
Dell Inspiron 13 (1.86GHz Intel T2390, Intel X3100) 470 3DMarks
Lenovo ThinkPad X301 (1.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo SU9400, Intel 4500MHD) 712 3DMarks
Sony VAIO NR (1.5GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T5250, Intel X3100) 504 3DMarks
Toshiba Tecra A9 (2.20GHz Core 2 Duo T7500, NVIDIA Quadro NVS 130M 256MB)932 3DMarks
Toshiba Tecra M9 (2.20GHz Core 2 Duo T7500, NVIDIA Quadro NVS 130M 128MB)1,115 3DMarks
Sony VAIO TZ (1.20GHz Core 2 Duo U7600, Intel GMA 950) 122 3DMarks
LG R500 (2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T7300, NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GS 256MB) 2,776 3DMarks
HP dv2500t (2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T7300, NVIDIA GeForce Go 8400M GS 128MB) 1,055 3DMarks
Dell Inspiron 1420 (2.2GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T7500, NVIDIA GeForce Go 8400M GS 128MB) 1,329 3DMarks
Sony VAIO FZ (2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T7300, Intel X3100) 532 3DMarks
Dell XPS M1330 (2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T7300, NVIDIA GeForce Go 8400M GS 128MB) 1,408 3DMarks
Samsung Q70 (2.0GHz Core 2 Duo T7300 and nVidia 8400M G GPU) 1,069 3DMarks
Asus F3sv-A1 (Core 2 Duo T7300 2.0GHz, Nvidia 8600M GS 256MB) 2,344 3DMarks
Alienware Area 51 m5550 (2.33GHz Core 2 Duo, nVidia GeForce Go 7600 256MB 2,183 3DMarks
HP dv6000t (2.16 GHz Intel T7400, NVIDA GeForce Go 7400) 827 3DMarks

Audio

The built-in stereo speakers in the MacBook are surprisingly impressive. After the downright horrid performance of the monospeaker in the MacBook Air, we expected the speakers in the MacBook to be underwhelming. Fortunately, the speakers in the new MacBook produce distortion-free sound at reasonably loud volume levels with excellent highs and midtones. The bass is rather lacking, but that's not a big surprise in notebooks that don't have a dedicated subwoofer. In short, the MacBook has reasonable audio performance for a notebook in this class.

The audio out port (headphone minijack) provides excellent audio output. There's little or no distortion or static and the sound on my earbuds was quite enjoyable.

Battery

The MacBook uses an integrated 45-watt-hour lithium-polymer battery. The lithium-polymer technology should have a longer lifespan than standard lithium-ion batteries found in most notebooks. Unfortunately, there is no higher capacity battery available from Apple.

Apple claims that the battery inside the MacBook provides "5 hours of wireless productivity." Our real-world tests suggest that estimate is very accurate. With the MacBook's power management set to maximize battery life and a 100 percent charge the battery life ended up coming to 4 hours and 47 minutes with the display switching between maximum and minimum brightness and wireless on.

Heat and Noise

One downside to an all-aluminum design is the entire notebook acts as one gigantic heatsink. In the case of the MacBook, we expected the machine to run extremely hot when under stress. Thankfully, our tests show that the MacBook manages heat quite well. Even after running multiple benchmarks the MacBook the temperatures remained at perfectly acceptable levels. Below are temperature readings listed in degrees Fahrenheit.

There really isn't much point in mentioning "noise" when it comes to the new MacBook because this notebook is extremely quiet. I overlooked the cooling fan in the initial teardown because I never heard it running during benchmarks. This thing is very quiet.

Conclusion

You'll have a hard time finding anyone in the United States today who hasn't heard the phrases, "I'm a Mac" and "I'm a PC." Apple heavily invested in both design and advertising around that design over the last decade. Those investments have clearly paid off, but is the new MacBook really as impressive as Apple wants you to believe? Well, the answer depends on your answer to this question: Are you a Mac, or are you a PC?

The lack of ports and overly glossy screen make the MacBook a less than compelling option for students and road warriors. On the other hand, if you specifically need a "Mac" the new MacBook is an excellent value.

Bottom line, if you need a Mac laptop for less than $1,500 then the new MacBook makes a good choice. However, if you're just looking for a high-performance, portable notebook with rugged build quality I suggest you consider an HP EliteBook 2530p ... which retails for just a little more than the MacBook but is a far superior notebook.

Pros:

Slick design
Cool touchpad
Durable build quality
So quiet it seems like it has fanless cooling
It's a Mac

Cons:

No Firewire ports
No standard video out ports
No eSATA port
All the ports are located on one side
Flat keyboard keys
13-inch mirror masquerading as a display
It's a Mac

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