Tim Gaden17 May 2006, 11:06 PM
This week's announcement of the iBook's replacement, the MacBook, completes the line-up of Apple's Intel-powered laptops. It also gave Apple the chance to make MacBook Pros significantly cheaper for Australian users.
This week's announcement of the iBook's replacement, the MacBook, completes the line-up of Apple's Intel-powered laptops. It also gave Apple the chance to make MacBook Pros significantly cheaper for Australian users.
The MacBooks, in classic white and new, premium-priced black, straddle the gap between the old iBooks and the now-defunct 12" PowerBook. They introduce two new hardware features, a "glossy" screen and a new keyboard.
You can get a good look at the new models on MacWorld, where Jason Snell has written a detailed review. And Kodawarisian has posted some photos of pulling one apart.
While the Apple Store was down to add details of the new laptops, Apple also took the opportunity to make 15" MacBook Pros much cheaper.
Three weeks ago I paid $3,999 for the higher-specced 2.0GHz model. I passed on the CPU upgrade to 2.16GHz, which at $460 was just too much money. That upgrade is now included as standard in the faster model with no price increase, in effect an 11% price cut.
The slower model gets a CPU bump to 2.9GHz and a price drop. It now costs $3,199.
You can salivate over the whole Intel Mac laptop range with Apple's new detailed comparison chart of the various models.