Apple MacBook Late 2009

Just a year ago, in October 2008, it looked like the white plastic-cased MacBook was headed for the scrap heap. Apple had just introduced a new and more expensive model sculpted out of aluminium, and although the plastic version was kept on sale to provide a less-expensive option for the budget-conscious education market, it was …

[Andy G]

No apple remote...

Does this even have the sensor for the apple remote? I heard it doesn't

[bex]

Won't sell in the UK

Can't see many of these shipping in the UK when the alu macbook with its extra fratures is only £100 more

[RichyS]

Remote-ly interesting

It might be worth pointing out that (in this case) there's good reason to not bundle an Apple Remote. There's no IR sensor anymore.

I think the main purpose of this laptop is to make the 13" MacBook Pro look better value!

[Neill Mitchell]

Control freaks

"There’s a mini DisplayPort for connecting the computer to a monitor, which means that you’ll need to buy a separate adaptor if you want to hook it up to a VGA, DVI or HDMI display."

Can you imagine the uproar and complaints you'd see if Dell or HP released a laptop that would only connect to their own proprietary monitors rather than standard ones? Why should I have to faff about buying and carrying round an adapter?

Apple are total and utter lock in control freaks.

No doubt the fanbois start on at me, but I would hazard that there are millions more VGA/DVI and HDMI TV owners out there than overpriced Apple monitor suckers. So why do it? This is about tie in.

[Giles Jones]

Remote

I've barely used the remote. It's handy if you want to browse tunes while you workout at home on a treadmill, but that's not something many people will do.

Besides, you can use an iPhone or IPod touch as a remote over wifi now. No line of sight issues either.

[bygjohn]

Did it have a remote for the previous two or three versions anyway?

I have a black MacBook, early 2008 (IIRC - last generation where the black one was available, anyway), and that didn't have a remote bundled with it either, so I suspect it's a while since it came with one, even while it had an IR port.

[Tony Smith]

@Neill Mitchell

IIRC, Mini DisplayPort isn't proprietary, it's part of the latest DisplayPort spec.

[/dev/null]

Combo digital optical and analog audio port?

Does it really have a "3.5mm combo digital optical and analog audio input/output port"? A 3.5mm jack *and* optical interface? Hmmmm, novel.

[Paul Durrant]

Poor Value

The 13" MacBook pro is just much better value. That £100 extra gets you:

* Smaller machine (in every dimension)

* 90g lighter

* Firewire 800 port

* SD Card slot

* backlit keyboard

* 250GB HD vs 160GB HD

* Maximum RAM of 8GB not 4GB

Hopefully the next version will bring back the firewire port /and/ lower the price.

[Piro]

Gouged by a hundred quid

$999 in the US = £610

£610 + VAT = £701

So where on earth has this magical 98 other quid gone to?

[Martin 37]

@ /dev/null

Yes, it probably does. The iMacs have this combined digital/analogue jack.

[sT0rNG b4R3 duRiD]

Here Apple... Listen

A$1299? Too dear.

Na, mate, make it $1199, 4 gigs ram, 500 gig HD.

I got a better idea, sell the machine WITHOUT ram and WITHOUT a HD.

(What I really hate are 1 gig sodimms. You buy a laptop and invariably take them out and they sit there unused... I got a bout 4 of them... and nobody wants to buy 'em off you).

[Stephen Tordoff]

Combo digital optical and analog audio port?

Yep, they've been around for years

[SmallYellowFuzzyDuck, how pweety!]

59g?

Is that a typo, that seems too light.

Who cares about the remote, I have one on my Imac and hardly used it anyway.

[Neill Mitchell]

@Tony Smith

>> IIRC, Mini DisplayPort isn't proprietary, it's part of the latest DisplayPort spec.

Erm, so why has my shiny new Samsung Monitor got VGA+DVI and my Sony TV VGA+HDMI?

A quick check on Dabs.com. They currently sell 316 monitors, 119 LCD TV's and 273 projectors. Guess how many are DisplayPort? - four. I rest my case.

I would suggest that it is widely known that only major DisplayPort player/manufacturer currently is Apple.

[Tony Smith]

@Neill Mitchell

Neill, DisplayPort is an industry standard developed under the auspices of Vesa, who did VGA and DVI.

Dell has DisplayPort machines and monitors, and three of the DisplayPort screens you mention on Dabs.com come from companies not called Apple: HP and Lenovo, to be precise. All of ATI's top-end graphics cards support DisplayPort, and many others do too.

Just because DisplayPort is not as popular as DVI, VGA or even HDMI doesn't make it proprietary.

FWIW, I think DisplayPort is largely unnecessary because of HDMI, but Vesa doesn't oversee HDMI, and wants to keep its oar in. Whether DisplayPort will take off in any meaningful sense remains to be seen.

[Bad Beaver]

And again: No Firewire

No buy.

[Anonymous Coward]

@ Piro

US prices won't include sales tax which is levied at a state level. Additionally, European warranty periods are longer than in the US, so you end up paying for that as well.

[Paul 181]

@ sT0rNG b4R3 duRiD

I will buy your 1GB SODIMM's , will fit nicely in my mac mini

I dont suppose you want to buy my 4 x 512MB SODIMM's do you ?

[Anonymous Coward]

No ieee1394, no purchase

nuff said.

[John 62]

3.5mm jack

I have only used my line in once or twice, but it is extremely handy to have. the only way to have sound in and out at once with one of these is by using USB.

I agree with sT0rNG b4R3 duRiD. Creative and Amazon sell RAM and HDDs cheaper than Apple, but at least it's better than in the past when if you got the one with the least RAM it had the slowest processor.

[Nikolaus Heger]

price...

The new price undoubtedly has to do with the fall of the pound sterling. It's not worth as much as it used to be.

I do think it's a bit of a blunder to sell the Pro 13" for just 100 quid more. Then again, note how smart companies always make the "middle" level offering the most value for the money? It seems like this is what Apple is doing too. They really want you to spend those 100 extra, and they might very well succeed...

[Anonymous Coward]

@ Paul Durrant

> The 13" MacBook pro is just much better value. That £100 extra gets you:

> * 250GB HD vs 160GB HD

Actually the 13" MBP has a smaller 160 GB hard drive, it's the polycarbonate unibody MacBook that has the bigger 250 GB HDD.

The more you know!

[Michael Jennings]

Specs and pricing

@Paul Durrant: actually for your extra £100 you get an SD slot, Firewire, a slightly smaller aluminium case, and a *smaller* hard drive.

The Pro model is actually the one with the 160Gb hard drive, and the standard Macbook has the 250Gb. Nothing sinister about this - it's just the Pro is a few months old, and they have nod adjusted the configuration as hard drives have got cheaper.

Similarly with the pricing. Apple tends to set local prices based on the exchange rate at the time a model is released, and then keep that price in local currency terms until they replace that model with a new one. Thus prices of products released at different times can have funny relationships to one another.

[/dev/null]

@Martin 37

Well, well, you learn something new every day! Apparently it's usually referred to as a Mini-TOSlink connector. Clever! However the manual for the Late 2009 MacBook on the Apple website doesn't actually mention the optical capability, though it does say it can be used to connect to digital audio equipment.