Inside Apple's new unibody polycarbonate MacBook (teardown photos)
Released Tuesday, Apple's refreshed MacBook has already been dissected, revealing similarities to the Macbook Pro and Air lines.
The mad geniuses over at iFixit have already thoroughly disassembled and examined the new MacBook, less than 24 hours since the product hit the Apple store.
The new model replaced the existing MacBook line, and kept the same $999 price point. The price point is one of the only aspects that has remained from the previous generation. The new MacBook instead borrows heavily from both the MacBook Pro and Air models.
Some of the major changes include:
Polycarbonate unibody construction
Display featuring LED backlighting
A multi-touch glass trackpad
Integrated battery
No more FireWire or IR port
No external battery indicator
No Mini-DVI port, replaced by a Mini DisplayPort
iFixit has highlighted several interesting aspects of the new design:
The new battery is only 5 more watt-hours than the previous version's yet it adds two hours of run time, meaning the machine is markedly more efficient
The battery is actually lighter than the older model
Unlike the earlier model, AirPort and Bluetooth share the same board, and all three antenna cables route into the display, meaning a possible improvement in Bluetooth range
The MacBook has exactly the same GPU and CPU as the baseline 13" MacBook Pro
iFixit plans on creating detailed repair guides for the MacBook in the future, updates can be monitored by following the Twitter feed @ifixit.
The mad geniuses over at iFixit have already thoroughly disassembled and examined the new MacBook, less than 24 hours since the product hit the Apple store.
The new model replaced the existing MacBook line, and kept the same $999 price point. The price point is one of the only aspects that has remained from the previous generation. The new MacBook instead borrows heavily from both the MacBook Pro and Air models.
Some of the major changes include:
Polycarbonate unibody construction
Display featuring LED backlighting
A multi-touch glass trackpad
Integrated battery
No more FireWire or IR port
No external battery indicator
No Mini-DVI port, replaced by a Mini DisplayPort
iFixit has highlighted several interesting aspects of the new design:
The new battery is only 5 more watt-hours than the previous version's yet it adds two hours of run time, meaning the machine is markedly more efficient
The battery is actually lighter than the older model
Unlike the earlier model, AirPort and Bluetooth share the same board, and all three antenna cables route into the display, meaning a possible improvement in Bluetooth range
The MacBook has exactly the same GPU and CPU as the baseline 13" MacBook Pro
iFixit plans on creating detailed repair guides for the MacBook in the future, updates can be monitored by following the Twitter feed @ifixit.
Comments
Also impressive the amount of efficiency put into the machine.
On the down side, if the internals are same as the MBP13 it is sad that firewire was omitted would have been nice port for a backup drive.
They should have implemented FW3200 across the board in all new macs for the past year anyway. Maybe Light Peak can take it's place, but until then removing FW is just dumb. I was going to be in the market for a low end mac laptop soon, but I will most certainly not be getting one of these. Without FW3200 or some obvious way to add Light Peak in the future, I think I'll just hold out a bit longer.
My video camera outputs Firewire. I was so looking forward to this purchase. I use both Macs and PCs. I understood why I was going to pay a little more and was Okay with it. Now, I just don't know. I'm going to investigate my options and one thing is for certain; I'm going to wait!
I'm so dissapointed in the omission of Firewire. I was going to get the previous model white macbook because of it's lower price and Firewire. I then heard about this upgrade so I decided to wait a few days. Now this! I don't get it..
My video camera outputs Firewire. I was so looking forward to this purchase. I use both Macs and PCs. I understood why I was going to pay a little more and was Okay with it. Now, I just don't know. I'm going to investigate my options and one thing is for certain; I'm going to wait!
Didn't Apple say something like 'Firewire is for the Pro' a while back? Anyway, I think the new MB looks pretty (except the underside), and when my MBP dies I think I would buy the new MB. I do miss a cardreader though. Every laptop has one these days, even my friend's tiny Samsung netbook!
The rest of the day's annoucements look at least sort of interesting, but the new mac book fails badly. No FW?! Seriously, didn't they learn their lesson the last time they tried to remove FW? ...
Your right. FireWire should be in *all* computers and it should stay in there forever regardless of whether the target market really has any FireWire devices to attach to it.
So what that pretty much all video cameras and removable hard drives are USB now? If one guy somewhere with a FireWire hard drive wants Firewire 400 ports, they should be there dammit! Because they are not making that thing for the majority, they are making it for me, and people like me who still have some FireWire devices and just don't want to switch or buy new gear.
I know that FireWire is on all the MacBook Pros, but even though I like the superiority that comes with using expensive FireWire devices, I'm cheap. I want to be able to buy the lowest-end, cheapest, entry-level MacBook and have it come with all the ports that a professional user would expect.
Apple is supposed to be building consumer products and I'm a consumer so I should always get exactly what I want. In fact if they don't give me everything I think I want, they aren't doing their job right, and it's probably evidence that the company itself is going to fail. This is because my experience is basically the yardstick by which everything must be decided.
It's been this slow incremental movement to a position they could have started with back in 1998.
Sililarities? Like their FireWire and SD slot?
You know my beliefs about FW. Gone tomorrow, but I still think they've jumped the gun. End of next year, ok.
The rest of the day's annoucements look at least sort of interesting, but the new mac book fails badly. No FW?! Seriously, didn't they learn their lesson the last time they tried to remove FW?
They should have implemented FW3200 across the board in all new macs for the past year anyway. Maybe Light Peak can take it's place, but until then removing FW is just dumb. I was going to be in the market for a low end mac laptop soon, but I will most certainly not be getting one of these. Without FW3200 or some obvious way to add Light Peak in the future, I think I'll just hold out a bit longer.
How could they implement something that isn't available yet?
FW 3200 will become available sometime in 2010. When in 2010, who knows?
You should at least read up on this stuff first.
Woah woah woah. No IR port? How am I going to use my shiny new Apple Remote with it then?
Bluetooth?
Apple is supposed to be building consumer products and I'm a consumer so I should always get exactly what I want.
That made me LOL!
For consumers like my sister (already has an old white MacBook), my wife (has a Vaio CR that's very similar to a MacBook -- hates it and wishes she had a Mac now), and my friend Jules (old PC broke, is looking to get a new laptop for web/email/photos/iPod sync), this seems perfect.
They're not interested in Firewire -- I doubt they've even heard of it. They want a small, light, good looking, well built laptop with a good screen, and a good battery life. And that's very easy to use, and doesn't require constant fettling. A card reader might be useful, but on the basis they've all got various Sony cameras, an SD slot is pretty useless! They want a good quality laptop that will last, so are willing to spend a bit extra to get it.
Me? Well, I want Firewire (although I found it very hard recently to buy a portable Firewire HD -- I could only find one at a large online electronics retailer. It was a special Iomega Mac model, with FW400, FW800, and USB -- so it'll still work in a new MacBook) to use for video storage and editing of the HD video from the Lumix GH1 I have on order (and an SD slot would be useful -- shame my MBP is too old). But then, I'm a bit of a geek, not a mid-level consumer.
So, before you decry the lack of features that you want, try and think what the vast majority of consumers actually want. And if you do really need that Firewire port, stop buying lattes for a month, and save up the extra cash for a Pro.
and why is the board inside so dark? weird!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fgril_j5EIc