Responding to some of my previously published musings and
observations about the recently-launched MacBooks and MacBook Pros, a
reader suggested "wait a little more, let's say about half a year, 'til
the next updates and then get the future 'old' unibody MacBook Pro as a
refurb."
![aluminum MacBook]()
Procrastination in these these matters has its appeal, especially
with my present G4
PowerBook still providing reasonably satisfactory service - but
then logically follows the argument that the revision B unibody MacBook
Pros will likely be better than the revision As, so maybe it would be
better to wait until they hit the refurb channels and so on, ad
infinitum.
I'm definitely an advocate of not updating for the sake of updating
or to have the "latest and greatest" (however briefly), but objective
factors do eventually impact the upgrade dynamic. My PowerBook G4 is
wonderful, but nearly three years into the Macintel era, I'm beginning
to bump up against its limitations, including the inability to run a
growing roster of Intel-only software that I should be reviewing. More
prosaically, the 80 GB hard drive is pretty nigh full as well, and
while one could install a larger-capacity drive, that's no simple
operation with the aluminum PowerBooks and would still amount to a
stopgap.
It's probably time to take the plunge.
![older MacBook Pro]()
The
contenders that make sense within my budget limit are the holdover
2.1 GHz MacBook White,
the new 2.0 GHz base model
Unibody MacBook, or a refurbished last-generation 2.4 GHz
15" MacBook Pro, and I'm not really smitten with yesterday's
MacBook, other than that it still has FireWire support.
Between the other two, the old school MacBook Pro seems to me the
better value. It's faster, has a larger, higher-resolution display (I'm
fairly ambivalent about the matte vs. glossy debate but do
provisionally lean toward matte), and a real discrete graphics
processor with dedicated video RAM to drive it - the latter reportedly
still about 2x as fast as even the MacBook's swish new Nvidia GeForce
9400M integrated 3D graphics. Both displays are LED backlit, so that's
a wash. The MacBook Pro comes with a DVI port and an adapter for other
formats - but you need a $30 optional Mini DisplayPort dongle for any
external display with the MacBook.
Both machines come with 2 GB of RAM, but the MacBook Pro has a 200
GB hard drive vs. 160 GB for the MacBook. The MacBook Pro has both
FireWire 400 and FireWire 800 ports, and it provides a lot more
peripheral connectivity than the Unibody MacBook with its paltry two
USB 2.0 ports, only one of them full-powered. I find the ports on my
current PowerBook oversubscribed much of the time, so that's definitely
an issue for me, especially since none of the Intel machines has an
internal modem. I'll need a modem for Internet access for a year or so
yet until broadband finally makes it to this neck of the woods
(hopefully), so there goes one USB port unless someone comes out with
an ExpressCard 34 dialup modem. The MacBook has no ExpressCard slot;
the MacBook Pro does.
There's the backlit keyboard, which I like on my 17" PowerBook, but
which is not available on the entry-level MacBook, although that would
be far from a deal-breaker for me. I also like old-school type
keyboards better than the avant garde "chiclet" ones.
In the MacBook's favor are its undeniable coolness (also reportedly
literal coolness of operation) and its more rugged and solid unibody
construction, the glass trackpad, extreme ease of access to the hard
drive, and it's $50 cheaper. Not enough, IMHO considering what you
don't get.
Further Reading
