Oct 21 2008
First impressions of the new Macbooks…
One week after Apple CEO Steve Jobs unveiled the latest MacBooks and MacBook Pros in the One Infinity Loop, local media finally get the chance to touch and feel the latest aluminum-clad MacBooks and MacBook Pros!
At today’s media conference held in Ritz-Carlton, Ms Angeline Tan (below), Apple’s Asia Pacific Product Marketing Manager for Portables and Wireless, took us through the new features like aluminum unibody and etc. of the new MacBook. (I think most of us sitting there already knew all about it… just let us touch the MacBooks!)
After the presentation, everyone scrambled for the tables where the MacBook and MacBook Pro rest. I sat myself on the front row and was one of the first to touch and feel the new alu-MacBook. (since I don’t have the money to buy MacBook Pro, I’m concentrating on the MacBook here)
By itself, the new MacBook is already a sight to behold with its smooth edges and curves at the corners. It gets even better when you hold the MacBook in your hands. Not only does it looks good, it feels great. The aluminum build is solid and sturdy unlike the white MacBooks of the past. Moreover, there’s not even a single grain of roughness as you run your hands through the top, rear and sides of the MacBook. Like a fellow member of the media said, “I can just do this all day long!” as he ran his palms around the MacBook.
Besides the body-caressing fetish the MacBook induces, it’s 13.3-inch display is absolutely marvelous, and a joy to look at. I queried Angeline about the potential problems that the reflective nature of the glass display poses, especially in my photojournalism work when I need to file photos out in the field. Her reply is simply to dial down the brightness of the display and the problem is solved. Since I can’t bring the alu-MacBook out for a test, I can’t know for sure if that is really the solution. (Again, when’s the review set? 
)
Anyway, I was eager to test out the all new glass multi-touch trackpad. It doesn’t feel like glass at all! In fact, it just feels like any trackpad there is in the market right now. However, the multi-touch trackpad makes a world of difference when you run two fingers to right click, three fingers to swipe and four fingers to activate Expose. It really feels even much cooler than my iPhone!
Finally, I put the much touted new NVIDIA GeForce 9400M graphics engine to test by launching Call of Duty 4. After maxing the graphics specs of the game, it feels a bit laggy. Again I asked Angeline about the lackluster performance. She replied the MacBooks present at today’s media conference are production sets and not the final build, so we can’t really judge the performance from these sets.
What?! You mean after all that body-caressing and salivation, these are production sets only!
Oh man, I can’t wait to get my hands on the “final build” of Apple’s latest aluminum MacBook…
