We hope you won’t get too excited about these new MacBooks, because their changes are minimal since the last line. New, slightly faster CPUs, a change to the keyboard, and (of course) Mac OS X Leopard preinstalled don’t seem like much. In general, this line is solid, but not as lust-inspiring as other Mac laptop lines in the last few years. (Ah, for the 12-inch PowerBook G4 days…)

 

If you’re a big-picture thinker, the CPU change signals longer-term strategy and capabilities for more innovative, faster MacBooks later on. On the other hand, you’re probably not buying a Mac for its avant-garde possibilities—you’re buying it for what it can do for you now.

 

The differences amount to a new Intel processor (it’s the fourth-generation Centrino platform, code-named Santa Rosa, an update from the older Calistoga chipset) that bumps the CPU speed from 2.16GHz to 2.2GHz in the high-end (black) MacBook. The frontside bus runs at 800MHz—yes, that’s faster than the previous 667MHz bus, but since the RAM only runs at 667MHz, it can’t use the 800MHz to its fullest. But 4GB maximum RAM, double the amount of the old MacBooks? That we can get behind.

 

The other significant difference in this new line is the keyboard, which will be familiar to new iMac users. Most of the F keys are now assigned to special functions, like useful controls for iTunes, Dashboard and Exposé buttons, a mute key, and so on. Now when a phone call comes in, you can hit the Play/Pause or Mute button on your MacBook instead of having to navigate to iTunes. You can still assign F5 and F6 to whatever you want in the Keyboard & Mouse System Preferences. Longtime Mac users will mourn the Apple logo, which has been removed from the Command key (sniff). There’s also no number pad or Num Lock key, but who even used those keys anyway?

 

One more thing about the keyboard: As with the previous MacBooks, those matte keys feel nice in a tactile way, and we like that they’re spaced apart for a nice sense of typo reduction.

 

Users of Mac laptops prior to the MacBook/MacBook Pro lines may notice that the glossy, 13-inch screen feels cramped, despite the widescreen format. Because the screen is arranged horizontally instead of vertically, we still feel a little like we’re on the tiny floor 7 1/2 from the cult movie Being John Malkovich. And the interface itself seems a little small—we’re still not sure whether that’s because of Leopard or the display’s low resolution. (Before you buy, you should assess whether the 13-inch display will make you a claustrophobe.)

 

What about the performance, you ask? We give it a big “eh.” The overall speed is pretty good, and now that the new Intel GMA X3100 graphics processor uses 144MB RAM for video instead of the previous 64MB, our Doom 3 frames-per-second test squeezed 9 fps out of these MacBooks, while the previous ones had only produced 5.6 fps. (That doesn’t mean this is anywhere close to a gaming Mac, though.) We have to say, though, that even the relatively clean (i.e., not many apps running or installed) low-end MacBook gave us the spinning rainbow beach ball a few times.

 

If you’re trying to decide between these two models, you may think, “Of course a 2.2GHz processor is faster than a 2.0GHz processor.” And you’d be right. But our processor-intensive tests showed that the higher-end (black) MacBook was only about 4 to 6 percent faster than the low-end (white) MacBook.

 

A couple more personal issues with this MacBook line: The black MacBook’s matte outer case quickly gets very oily from your fingers, so before long, it’ll look less like a sleek notebook Mac and more like a fast-food bag. Also, the glossy screen is a matter of taste. Yes, the onscreen color is better and text is sharper, but if you have trouble with its glare, you have to get the MacBook Pro so you can choose the matte screen option—there’s no matte option with the MacBook.

 

If you can afford to spend an extra $500 to $900, you might seriously consider taking a step up to the MacBook Pro. For that money, you get a bigger, LED-backlit screen in your choice of glossy or matte finish, a less smudgy outer case, dedicated VRAM, twice the RAM, a backlit keyboard, and an ExpressCard/34 slot. That’s a lot more Mac for the money.

 

The bottom line. Thrills are not plentiful in this latest MacBook line, and at the moment we recommend you save your dollars to upgrade to the 15-inch MacBook Pro instead for the best value. It’s possible that by the time you read this, Apple will have announced that lust-inspiring line at January’s Mac Expo.

 

 

2.0GHz CORE 2 DUO MACBOOK

 

COMPANY: Apple

CONTACT: www.Apple.com

PRICE: $1,099 (white model)

SPECIFICATIONS: 2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, 1GB RAM, 4MB shared L2 cache, 5,400-rpm 80GB hard drive, Combo drive, Intel GMA X3100 graphics processor with 144MB of DDR2 SDRAM shared with main memory, 13.3-inch glossy widescreen display, two USB 2.0 ports, FireWire 400, Gigabit Ethernet, 802.11n AirPort Extreme, Bluetooth 2.0

Comes with Leopard. Cool new keyboard keys.

Not very different from previous version. A little poky. Shared main/video memory affects performance.

 

 

 

2.2GHz CORE 2 DUO MACBOOK

 

COMPANY: Apple

CONTACT: www.Apple.com

PRICE: $1,499 (black model)

SPECIFICATIONS: 2.2GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, 1GB RAM, 4MB shared L2 cache, 5,400-rpm 160GB hard drive, double-layer SuperDrive, Intel GMA X3100 graphics processor with 144MB of DDR2 SDRAM shared with main memory, 13.3-inch glossy widescreen display, two USB 2.0 ports, FireWire 400, Gigabit Ethernet, 802.11n AirPort Extreme, Bluetooth 2.0

Better value than white model. Good overall speed. Comes with Leopard. Cool new keyboard keys.

Black coating gets oily. Not very different from previous version. Shared main/video memory affects performance