White MacBook last MacBook standing
By Nilay Patel 
posted Jun 8th 2009 7:28PM
posted Jun 8th 2009 7:28PM
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Thank god for this article, with the 2 non apple stories before this, I was getting worried.
Apple had a major event today, you know. We didn't see you complaining last week when we blew out E3 and the Palm launch.
Hey !! this is an unbiased, honest, and true-to-facts mac blog ....
oh .... wait ...... no .... i mean .....
Obviously, Nilay, you should have covered Apple *during* E3 and the Pre launch.
Nilay, I understand the gravity of today's event (never mind the fact that I consider the new phone underwhelming), but there's at least 2 avoidable articles today.
iPhone 3G vs. iPhone 3G S: the tale of the tape & Video: iPhone 3G S looks the same but it's not, really are essentially the same. In fact in both, you guys say "hey, we don't know crap, but here's what we think we know". Meh. And that video tour of the new phone? Aww, come on.
In any case, it's end of the day and I want to eff around with people's sentiments.
@DirtyVegas: I wouldn't say "avoidable" as much as... pointless.
F**k you, Engadget! Where's all the N97 coverage?
Exactly!
Only joking.
Lets see here...
E3 = 4 articles by engadget
WWDC = 17 articles by engadget
Yeah sounds fair, considering all the amazing innovations by apple today
Today is Apple's day. Resume reading tmrw if you don't like it.
Personally, I think it's odd that they have an entire product line (i.e. MacBook) dedicated to a single product (i.e. white plastic MacBook).
If they kill off the white plastic MacBook, and they probably will, then would all MacBooks be "Pros"? Makes you wonder if Apple is going to replenish the "MacBook" product line with something entirely different sometime this year... netbooks/ultraportable/tablets anyone?
Why don't you just skip the article?
Nilay and co, I hope you keep doing what you've been doing. This stuff is being covered in a way that's appreciated. Fuck the squeaky wheels.
I'm a proud and new Mac convert! Just got the new 2.53 GHz 13" MacBook Pro with an SSD!
@a13xx94: Congratulations, you paid $350 to upgrade from a 250GB Harddrive to a 128GB SSD that can be bought normally for
stupid comment system! That was supposed to say "that can be bought normally for less than $300"
Yeah, I was worried, too. I think that at least every other article should be about Apple products. Engadget should cover the world's best products and forget about those other crap products that companies are trying to sell.
In Engadget's defense, this article seems more of knocking Apple than praise.
Nilay: For such a major event... nothing major actually happened.
iphonerulez: Where the hell were you? I don't remember seeing a single comment from you on the 3GS articles :D
"F**k you, Engadget! Where's all the N97 coverage?"
If you haven't noticed, Engadget is an American blog. Americans are highly anti-Nokia. Thus, Engadget = anti-Nokia.
I wonder if they are clearing the macbook line out for a netbook or tablet line
I have a feeling that there is a reason for this, I definitely think there is a new MacBook coming, would be kinda weird to leave the white all alone.
Dunno but Apple needs a $599 entry point.
@Cellien, That's called the "no commitment but still bend over for AT&T" iPhone.
More like they need a $799 entry point, which sounds more likely. I want but don't expect Apple to release a tablet for anything less than that.
I'd like to see them put their Iphone hardware & OS into a 12" form factor and have that be their netbook entry.
I'm glad that difference was made. Now it's easy to discern what model is a Pro machine or not.
Look, that laptop was not PRO yesterday... it will not be more PRO today because Apple say so.
Cheap screen, slow drive, no firewire or esata or whatever... slow processor, no memory, high price.
Consider a Studio 15, way better for the money. Reviews are stellar and it look great. You can install OSX on it if you want.
um ... firewire IS there, also the new pro battery ....
Firewire there... ok. Its a bit better. You need Firewire for any HDV work or plug your external hdd.
@Boards of Canada
What you talking about, its got the same screen as the 15", has a Firewire 800 port, upto 8GB ram and 3.06Ghz cpu; same as 15 and 17". To be fair, It does need dedicated graphics to make it a Pro though. For clarity, how different was the 12" Powerbook to the 15" Powerbook?
This fugly piece of dirty trackpad junk needs to be discontinued. Longline the aluminium!
i have a aluminium macbook with 2 months that means i have a macbook pro
Sorry to burst your bubble, but yours is only a lame aluminum unibody macbook. If you want it to be pro you will need to buy a new one and get raped by apple. :)
@fernando, sorry to burst your bubble man, but your's is still an old MacBook. That SD card slot in the new MacBooks makes it a "pro".
I have a non-unibody (multibody?) MacBook Pro and my sister has the unibody MacBook. The only reason I thought the MacBook Pro was better is because the LED screen is much more clear, crisp, and less washed-out. Does the new Unibody 13" MacBook Pro have a better screen or are they pulling a GM and just rebadging the 13" unibodies?
They did a mild upgrade of the screens a bit ago, but i do wonder that too. But they did make some nice changes to them, like sd slot and firewire 800.
It's a rebadging, but with SD card slots and slight specs bump.
Here's what's changed since the original unibody MacBook in October:
1) 4GB RAM standard for higher 13" unibody configuration
2) $100 less
3) Improved screen (even better than the original unibody 15" MacBook Pro screens)
4) SD card slot
5) Firewire 800 (compatible with Firewire 400 devices with adapter)
6) 7 hr battery life (from non-removable battery however)
7) Base 13" unibody now gets backlit keyboard (as opposed to the higher configuration only)
I'd say there were some significant changes.
Yup, it is merely a rebranding.
it has a better screen :)
Macbook Mini or Macbook Touch is coming. Thus the loneliness.
Good point. I think that is one of the biggest news of the day. I don't see Apple keeping a single product in the Macbook line. I think it lays room for Steve to announce a Macbook touch or netbook at the end of the month.
I wish they'd just got rid of the white and called them all MacBooks. (minus the pro bit)
I wish they would bring back the black MacBook since a black MacBook would be more in line with the current stylings of nearly every other product they make now. Plus the iPhone and MacBook would match, just like bffls.
This leaves an opening in the MacBook lineup to introduce a netbook for his holiness' return.
wish they announced ipod touch 3gs:( their phones are way too expensive for non-contract versions, wouldnt mind a new touch, i've got a 16gb v1 atm.
"...blur the line between consumer and professional machines."
What constitutes a "professional" machine? That it's made out of aluminum? Or you are referring to a higher price with same specs to other cheaper PCs?
i believe they may be referring the the lack of a dedicated graphics card
It seems someone is taking a shot with bitter sarcasm since Apple Pro models are a bit more than they can afford. Some people's wallets are better suited for $250 netbooks.
"Still, it's not hard to tell one from the other on the outside, at least: MacBooks are plastic and MacBook Pros are aluminum. We all straight?"
Unless it happens to be one of the original aluminum Macbooks, in which case it is still a Macbook.
Confusing as ever. Would you expect any less?
I wonder if they changed their video output this time... (Micro Display Port, anyone?)
Confusing?
They added three letters to the front, bumped up he processor speed, and changed a few holes on the side. Understanding that there are some models out there that are very similar--yet slightly inferior--isn't a difficult task. Plus, who doesn't want the "pro" label?
=D
Are you guys going to be doing a first look, or hands on of the MacBook Pro 13? I'm very interested to see how the new screens on both the MBP13 and MBP15 stand up...
They're all Powerbooks to me. ;-)
(And lest someone bring up PowerPC, the original Powerbooks ran on 68k)
They stopped being PowerBooks with the Unibody redesign. :-( I will hold on to the last Revision MacBook Pro before the redesign as long as I can. Makes me feel like I still have my trusty old PowerBook. :-)
me too. the new naming is three years old now and I still find myself referring to them as powerbooks
P-P-P-P-P-POWER BOOKS!
Stupid.
The common difference between pro and non pro has been the graphics chipset. So in order to keep everyone happy, larger normal macbook, same specs basically, but a smaller macbookpro with a more (slightly?) powerful graphics chipset.
This would be much better imo:
10" Unibody Macbook - Up to 1.8Ghz C2D ULV, 3GB DDR3, Nvidia (woo!)
13" Unibody Macbook - up to 2.4Ghz, 4GB DDR3, GeForce 9400M
15" Unibody Macbook - up to 2.6Ghz, 8GB DDR3, Geforce 9400M
13" Unibody MacBookPro - Up to 2.5Ghz, 8GB DDR3, Geforce GTS 150M 256MB
15" Unibody MacBookPro - Up to 2.8Ghz, 8GB DDR3, Geforce GTS 160M 512MB
17" Unibody MacbookPro - Up to 3.06Ghz, 8GB DDR3, Geforce GTX 250M 512MB
Most people barely make use of 4gigs of ram, let alone 8. Amazing how people are so caught up on specs, but at the same time, most of you will never use your machines to its fullest potential.
How about a customizable computer :O
One where you can actually tell them what you want?!?!?!
Man, that 13.3" MacBook Pro is really professional.
Mindblowing specs all around.
A LOT of people prefer the 13" to the 15", and I don't know anyone that prefers the 17". Size matters, more so than specs.
Don't get me wrong; I've always wanted a 13" MBP. Actually, a 12" MBP would be ideal for me.
But I don't want a 13" MBP which is "Pro" in name only. At the very least, it has to have the 9600M GT GPU from its bigger cousins; I'd accept a $100-200 premium for that.
I never understood why you needed a graphics card to be pro.
Because the "Pro" machines were targeted at graphics professionals - people who do video editing, print, media, photoshop...all of which have applications that run better with a real graphics card.
I'm pretty pissed at todays announcement concerning Macbooks, FFS I Only bought a 2GHz 'book less than 6 months ago and now they pull this stunt. I KNOW what everyone after this is gonna say, 'You should've known apple were gonna do something like this' = YES I know, but not quite this soon.... September / October is cool but come on!!!
Serves me right but now its gonna go on ebay and I'm goin back to a WINDOWS Laptop (or spend the cash on 2 GTX 295's for my PC lol), and fuck the iPhone too, I'm gettin an Android phone instead, and I'll like it better, then maybe I'll get a Zune HD too, they look nice!
Kay, sounds good. Hope you enjoyed your stay. Don't let the door hit you on the way out.
Because you are pissed that Apple added "Pro" to the end of your machine? Other than that, they added an SD slot (which you can get a USB adapter for for like... $8 at Walmart) and Firewire. If you really needed Firewire that badly... you shouldn't have bought that MacBook to begin with. That just stupid on your part. And if you are talking about the casual bump in specs... well, you do realize that Apple bumps the specs on their MacBooks once every two or so months, right? These MacBooks will be outdated themselves in around 2 months.
So yes. Whine and bitch about not having "Pro" on your MacBook.
The shift to MacBook Pro for the 13" unibody model really brings the "Pro" pricing downrange. Does this shift the MacBook brand into a lower performing, lower priced range, say, suitable for an Apple response to netbook pressures?
And they are all still $500.00 over priced
Good, its back to the way it is supposed to be. I wasn't too happy when the 13 inch MacBook was basically a MacBook Pro by looks. Metal has always been pro, and Plastics have always been Consumer. The way god intended. Lol It does look like Apple is trying to re lineup the Notebooks though, I predict the White MacBook is on its last revision like that. Either replaced with a new design or a tablet like machine.
The white MacBook is the last Proless MacBook, not the last MacBook.
Seriously, guys. Wanna lay off just a bit? The only thing more annoying than the incessant apple posts is the constant whining. Besides, Engadget distributes coverage based on hype. Apple events get more hype therefore they get more media coverage.
I do agree that Apple should drop the WhiteBook and merge all products into a single MacBook line. On the other hand, rebadging the 13" unibody to the MBP brought back fond memories of my old 12" PowerBook G4. Apple (kinda sorta) brought back our ultra-portable pro. Now if only they could squeeze a 9600m in there...
I don't understand why they removed the more useful ExpressCard slot and replaced it with the more constrained SD card slot.
You could buy a ton of ExpressCard accessories, including card readers.
Might be paving the way for 3G onboard and pulling the expresscard in advance. The SD is also cheaper to include. A 5 in one would have been nice since not everything uses SD.
Astonishingly enough, my laptop can pack both a 5/4 ExpressCard slot, AND a 5-in-1 memory card slot!! How's that for innovation?
I don't get it. This seems like a step back for apple. Instead of gently discontinuing the polycarbonate macbook by having the single model available, they are laying their weight on it to support the basic macbook line. So what are they gonna do? I thought the unibody macbooks were awesome. That was the future for apple. Now what? Are they going to continue using the polycarbonate until the next generation? It would just be plain awkward now to pull the 13in "Pros" back to the nonpro standard.
In my opinion. It would have been better for apple to get rid of the white macbook, lower the price of the unibody 13in (even if it means ditching 40 gigs of hard drive space), and put the the low end 15in pro (the one without 9600gt) as a regular macbook.
That's just my opinion though. What do you guys think?
They can't drop the unibody pricing to match the white MacBook pricing, which is what they would need to do in a recession if they wanted to completely drop the white MacBook. Why drop it? It probably sells well and is a great value.
What would make things more confusing is your idea to call the 9400m 15" MBP a regular 'MacBook'. I mean I totally understand your logic, but the fact that all 15" MBP's are unibody makes split naming more confusing.
In the end, the names are just that names. If you need dedicated graphics or a Firewire port or a ExpressCard port, you're going to be buying on specs, not just relying on the name or material the computer is made from.
I guess I have a little too much OCD in me or something. I'd just rather have everything uniform; that makes a big difference. To me, the pro lineup used to be distinguished by the use of dicrete graphics. I reallly dont think a macbook without a discrete card should be included in the pro lineup. That makes a lot more sense to me as it basically has the same specs as a 13in unibody. Just a bigger screen.
I just got a studio xps 13 -- 2.53Ghz, 4GB, 9500M, 128GB SSD for 1400 bucks. I also just configured a similarly specced macbook pro for 1900 and this is without the 9500M. Blatant ripoff. Don't Apple fans usually say that macs are the same price as PC's???
Okay. Macs are expensive. We get it. What I want to know is: If you avoided the "blatant ripoff" by buying Dell, why does the MacBook pricing offend you so?
Because there's way too many articles about them, that's why. For an announcement that features a grand total of zero innovation, there's been about 20 posts about apple in the last 10 hours.
Number of necessary articles today:
1. Liveblog
2. Snow Leopard announcement
3. Macbook spec bump/line revamp (this post should be an update to that one)
4. iPhone 3Gs announcement
Oh, and Nilay, you didn't blow out E3 or the Pre launch. Compared to this, anyhow.
And +1 on the studio xps 13. Just bought one with 2.66 GHz, 4 GB RAM, 9500 graphics, 256 GB SSD, and a 9 cell battery for $1600. This replaces my late 2006 MBP, which I was foolish in buying and which Apple wants $800 to fix.
How much are paying per year for backup software, and antivirus software?
How many hours (worth at least $50/hour ... or is your time worth less?) are you spending futzing with the above software, defragging, optimizing Vista, etc. etc.
So total cost of ownership is less than a Mac? Not really.
What do you do to organize photos, videos, contacts, passwords, calendars, etc. and have them all sync perfectly online and with your phone? i.e. Do you get as much bang for every buck spent on the Dell, ... Hardly.
So investment wise, it makes no sense to by a Dell at any price, but it's up to you to learn that the hard way it seems.
"How much are paying per year for backup software, and antivirus software?"
$0 for backup software (I just copy My Documents over to an external once a week). Same as I did on a mac, I couldn't stand time machine.
$40/year for antivirus.
"How many hours (worth at least $50/hour ... or is your time worth less?) are you spending futzing with the above software, defragging, optimizing Vista, etc. etc."
Almost 0 on the software. Don't need to defrag, since I saved money by not getting a mac I was able to get a top-of-the-line SSD.
Optimizing Vista? Aside from downloading SP2? Almost none.
"So total cost of ownership is less than a Mac? Not really."
I paid for plenty of apps for Mac, too. And Apple just quoted me $800 to fix mine.
"What do you do to organize photos, videos, contacts, passwords, calendars, etc. and have them all sync perfectly online and with your phone? i.e. Do you get as much bang for every buck spent on the Dell, ... Hardly.
So investment wise, it makes no sense to by a Dell at any price, but it's up to you to learn that the hard way it seems"
I organize photos just fine with Bridge CS3, which is what I used on OS X, too. iPhoto is terrible for Prosumer level work, and said work has zero need to be on my phone. Contacts I let gmail and my phone handle. Passwords I remember. Calendars I use google calendar and don't need it on my phone because I can remember stuff.
I spent nearly 3 years on OS X, and never really enjoyed it that much. I spent 3 years booted into XP about 75% of the time. Leopard is just as bloated as Vista, and Snow Leopard is just a service pack. Windows 7 is way better than Leopard, and judging by today's announcement of Snow Leopard, I really don't see how it would beat Windows 7, either.
Don't get me wrong. I like Dell. I've owned just as many Dell PCs as Macs. I just happen to like Apple more. While I agree that MacBooks are expensive, I also believe that you get what you pay for. If Dell (or any other PC maker) could manage to produce a laptop with comparable components to a MacBook/Pro in a form factor of comparable thickness, I would switch back in a heartbeat. So far the closest I've seen a PC laptop get to a MacBook is the Dell Studio 14z - almost but not quite there.
To each his own. If I wanted the most performance for my money, I'd go buy a Dell. If I wanted the most refinement for my money, I'd buy a Mac. Nothing wrong with either brand.
DBrim: If you feel that Apple has done you a great injustice then I highly suggest that you let them know about it. I've been treated poorly by both Dell and Apple before. From my experience Apple is usually a little more reluctant to lose a customer than Dell.
Risto T: The antivirus/backup argument doesn't really hold up well as you should be taking the necessary precautions no matter what OS you run. But I will always support the argument that OS X continues to be a more refined OS than Windows Vista and even Windows 7.
I wouldn't say that a certain employee wronged me or something, just the company policy. Normally out-of-warranty repairs are a flat rate of $300 or so, but since my laptop had accidental damage (two completely unrelated dents on the lid), they jacked the price way up. Replacing the logic board isn't exactly a cheap repair, but that kind of markup is ridiculous.
I also don't like what the company is becoming associated with now. I understand that there are many many users who don't conform to the stereotype of the mac user, likely yourself included from what I can tell, but Apple is choosing to associate itself with blatant arrogance and pretentiousness, and I know more than a few mac users that fit that stereotype perfectly. Attacking Windows 7 and Palm today the way they did doesn't help the matter, either. It just seems to get worse as time goes on, too.
I'm going to go ahead and possibly contradict myself and say that if you want to spend a $300+ premium in order to use OS X, that's your right. It's your money. Every OS has its targeted end user and purpose. I was just in a bad mood from all of the bloody Apple posts for something that most find unremarkable, and the constant iTrolls on the blog don't help either. I guess I'm more sensible now that the postings have calmed down.
I'm glad the Big Guns have noticed this and come to the same conclusion the rest of us have ("a big change", "rigidly-maintained product matrix", "definitely blur the line"). As soon as the store came back up this was the first thing I started discussing with my Apple-nerd comrades.
I'm going to bet the start building the "MacBook Plastic" line again and further confuse the "MacBook Aluminum" line with more hardware diversity.
p.s. goes to show how disappointing the iPhone release was that THIS was our first discussion
p.p.s. when is Apple going to wake up and start offering Blu-Ray????
Blu-ray will not come to the Apple lineup. The people at Apple see that removable media is reaching the end of its lifespan. Think about it, 25GB of space in a cloud server farm is worth next to nothing--not more than a few cents. You always have access to it (if you have an Internet connection) and it's a lot easier to carry around with you. Carrying around a piece of hardware with a footprint that size is getting stupid. The same goes for DVDs and CDs.
Try me.
Yeah whatever. Macbook "Pro"
Yeah, they just made the macbooks all macbook pros. WTF APPLE. I wanted a 13" mac with a discrete graphics card :[
all of you do yourself a favor...go buy a dell 14z and save yourself a few thousand bucks
"Apple wasn't totally clear about this earlier,"
Er, yeah they were? Were you not paying any attention then Engadget? Too busy having wet dreams about the new iPhone? Seriously, I read YOUR thread as it happened and understood quite easily that ALL unibody Macbook's were now Macbook Pro's.
It's a move that was rumoured a few months back and I say good on them, it also indicates a move to potential net tablet devices IMO. But one thing is VERY typical Apple balls up, the cost of the extra ram on there notebooks, I swear it's shot up. It's now $1000 for 8GB ram on the newly titled 13" Macbook Pro!!
I personally think Apple should have scrapped the entire 13" unibody idea totally and made it a 12" Macbook Pro similar to the days of Powerbooks long gone. It would have kept the line from becoming (incredibly) diluted and it would have freed up the MacBook name for a netbook.
how about anti glare.. any pro machine should at least have that option. If I have to be stuck with a glossy screen in a macbook "pro" then I'll just buy a Dell mini. Who cares about the specs when you have to stare at that terrible screen all day.. You are all brainwashed if you think they are "pro" because that is what apple says.. no anti glare option (except for 17") and they took out the express card slot in the 15".. that is what I call me never buying another apple product.
Hm, one wonders- if the anti-glare option was popular on the 17-inch, one assumes they would have moved it to the 13 and 15 (like they did other features of the 17, like the non-removable battery). I wonder if that means not many took the anti-glare option?
Do you think many honestly take the ssd option? Prolly the same as the matte screen (aka a small percentage).
They're clearing up the 'MacBook' name for the tablet...
What's so about the unibody macbook?
To all the people complaining about Engadget's coverage of WWDC....you need to shut the fuck up. This website is a blog and the owners can cover whatever they want. If they decide that they only want to focus on reviewing Apple products they have all the right to do it, and all the whining and bitching is not gonna change anything.
You fail to mention that because they make a notebook at a reasonable price they have to use ddr2 memory. Look it up. Apple=fail.
So are the old 13 inch unibody MacBooks now retroactively MBP or does the Pro designation only apply to the ones announced today?
MacBook as a laptop will disappear and will be the name for the future MacTablets... That's my guess
A 13-inch notebook is not a professional machine.
13-inch notebook = sketchpad
15-inch notebook = canvas
Now, tell me, which is a professional going to choose to work with: a sketchpad or a canvas?