Coming of age

Like always Apple has loaded its new 13-inch Macbook with lots of changes. The most prominent of these is a new trackpad. Read more...

Whenever Apple launches a new product, it's a safe bet that it offers noticeable improvements in hardware and /or software. So it came as no surprise that we found the new 13-inch Macbook loaded with lots of changes. The most prominent of these is the introduction of a new manufacturing process and an innovative new trackpad. But do these add up to a revolutionary new product?

Thirteen-inch Macbooks used to be the overlooked stepchildren in Apple's range of laptops. Since they were aimed at the student/budget segments, they never seemed to get the innovations seen in higher-end models. But this has now changed — the new 13-incher has shed its dowdy, plasticky finish in favour of a sexy, sleek aluminum finish that makes the product look more expensive than it is.

Aluminium armour
Examine the laptop more closely, and the first question that comes to mind is: Was the body cut out of a single block of aluminum? The answer is yes. This is Apple's new technology, in which a laptop and its entire range of components are encased using a new process simply called 'Unibody'. The body is carved from a solid block of aluminum, similar to the plates of an aircraft, or the armour of a tank.

What does this do? First, it aims to eliminate the problem that all plastic-based laptops have - quick wear and tear. The new aluminum body may not totally eliminate wear and tear, but it certainly slows down the process considerably. The body will take a few scratches here and there with rough use, but it'll certainly look a lot better a year later than a standard laptop.

Game for a challenge
The graphics processing unit (GPU) test is the one which examines the laptop's game readiness. For this we used two HD samples of well-known movies; the Mac version of World of Warcraft's ongoing beta for its upcoming expansion Wrath of the Lich King and the demo version of Call of Duty 4 (Mac). In the movie test, the 13-inch was spot-on. Not only was it able to render HD videos with minimal lag, the overall CPU usage remained very low as the new GPU supports hardware acceleration. This made the movie experience quite enjoyable.

Next came the WoW test, in which the laptop proved more than up to the task. The game has some very intense Player vs Player (or PVP) action. In each situation the GPU did not falter, even when there were more than 40 characters on screen engaging in massive magical/physical warfare. The game looked incredibly sharp and the frame-rate stayed stable at around 43 frames per second, allowing for smooth gameplay.

The final test was the most telling. As is universally known, COD4 is a game that combines visceral action with an incredible storyline and a great engine that runs very fluidly. The new GPU lived up to the task. At the laptop's native resolution, with medium to high settings, we saw fluid gameplay with an average frame rate of 35-40. We did experience some lag during very intense action scenes but it was nothing serious.

Stylish, not squeaky
Although the quality of Apple's products have always been top-notch, the finish of this range has been quite staid until now. The new Unibody finish looks stylish without being gaudy, and has made the laptop thinner and slightly lighter. Since it's a metal frame, there's zero flex anywhere on the body — and no audible squeaks.
The screen now offers a backlit LED display with a native resolution of 1280 x 800, which offers a much sharper display than earlier models in this range.

In another Apple innovation, the LED panel's screen is a single piece of glass, which is virtually "edge-to-edge". This gives users a larger viewing area, which is very welcome in a laptop this size. The screen as expected is a fingerprint magnet and requires daily cleaning, or it can quickly become annoying.

Moving on to the keyboard, not much has changed here. Previous products have had excellent keyboards with the odd key-lag issue. This problem has now been eliminated. The keyboard has recessed keys that ensure good typing speeds, a smooth finish that allows you to work comfortably for hours on end, and adequate space between keys (for such a small laptop).

A few hits and many misses
The trackpad has been completely revamped. The standard mouse pointer area and two mouse buttons have been axed in favour of a large trackpad that not only allows cursor manipulation but also double-clicks. This "multi-touch" lets you perform various activities common with the iPhone and iPods. You can pinch the screen to zoom in or out, swipe left/right to scroll sideways in a picture gallery, or tap to bring up the right-click menu. The trackpad area is made of a new "wear-resistant" etched glass, which is smooth and non-textured but comfortable enough to work with.

How do we find the new trackpad? Annoying! Not only could we not navigate in a precise manner, we often found ourselves hitting right click inadvertently. There's an odd lag while navigating between windows, and the multi-touch often fails to recognise actions. We had to dig out an old Logitech notebook mouse to get around this.

While a few users took to the trackpad just fine, the overall feedback was negative, with most users describing it as more of an annoyance than a good move.

Connectivity-wise, this machine retains its standard range of ports. There are 2 USB ports, a magsafe connector, one mini-display port, an 8x Dual-layer DVD-RW, a Kensington security lock, and the standard audio in/outs with a gigabit Ethernet slot. Wireless connectivity is handled by Bluetooth 2.0 EDR support.

Our test piece came with a 2GHz processor with a 3 MB L2 cache, 2GB of DDR-3 1066 MHz RAM , a 160GB HDD, and Mac OSX 10.5.5. The graphics, previously handled by Intel onboard graphics, have now finally been moved to Nvidia's newly unveiled GeForce 9400M graphics processor with 256MB of RAM which is taken from system memory.

Small wonder
We did our tests under real-life conditions — we checked battery life, multi-tasking capability, and gaming with the new GPU. In each case, performance was adequate. In the battery life test, we got 3 hours and 45 minutes while watching videos, surfing over Wi-Fi, running multiple browsing windows, and using MS Word. In a dedicated movie test, we easily watched an HD movie that ran for 2.5 hours, restarted it, and got another hour or so.

This is a very good score for such a small notebook, and Apple gets full marks for being able to optimise its OS for better battery management.

Multi-tasking on OSX has been a non-issue for a while. We were able to multi-task quite smoothly, and even with 2GB of RAM it was a lot more responsive than (say) a Windows Vista notebook with similar specs.

Full circle
The 13.3-inch Macbook has come full circle. At one time it represented the most sober laptop in the range — now it's a sleek, powerful and desirable machine with great battery life and great graphics. And at ₹79,700 it's decent value for money. We recommend it without reservation to anyone looking for a good 13-inch laptop.