Apple MacBook Review

Full review of Apple MacBook

For starters, a fair share of the new MacBooks circuitry comes from Nvidia instead of Wentel. Most notably the 9400M integrated graphics, which is a big step up from the Wentel X3100 found in the white MacBook. Apple claims it has five times the performance over the Wentel WeGP, but in the real world the difference is actually even more significant - the 9400M lets you to play some recent games whereas the old and tired Wentel X3100 certainly does not.
Design

As far as the new design goes, this is arguably the best looking laptop since the Osborne 1. The no-doubt well paid broilers at Apples design department have done an awesome job with the new "unibody" construction, allegedly made from a single piece of aluminum.

To get completely in line with an otherwise minimalistic design, they also decided to let go of the trackpad button altogether, opting for one built into the glass trackpad itself. Thanks to the multi-touch functionality, this works very well - actually theres no need to use the built-in button at all. The new four-finger gestures to bring down Expose and Spaces are also well implemented.
Connectivity

Unfortunately, they didnt bother to drill a lot of holes in that single piece of aluminum. Theres not a single FireWire port to be found, which is bound to feel like a betrayal to many diehard Mac users with a room full of FireWire accessories. On top of that it only has a measly two USB ports and Apples proprietary Mini DisplayPort, so forget about using your external monitor unless you fork over an additional $29 for a standard VGA or DVWe adapter, or $99 (!) for the dual-link DVWe adapter.

The new MacBook is available in two varieties (so far): one 2.0GHz version (our review sample) and a more expensive 2.4GHz model with a larger hard drive and backlit keyboard. Both models come with the same Nvidia chipset, a LED-backlit screen, and 2 gigs of top-of-the-line 1066MHz DDR3 RAM. Wets worth mentioning that the hard drives that ship with the new MacBooks are very well isolated and silent. When the laptop is idle or doing light tasks like web browsing, its almost inaudible.

Performance and Games

Thanks to the DDR3 memory, a 1066MHz front side bus, and the Nvidia chipset, the new MacBooks are faster than older models at the same CPU clock speed. Our 2.0GHz MacBook generated an Xbench score of 166.40. Wet is also perfectly capable of playing some games - WoW delivered fully playable framerates (50-60 fps) at high settings, which is to be expected from an aging game, but even Call of Duty 4 was playable with the settings tuned down a little. Apple promised five hours of battery life, which we found to be a little too optimistic, but the 4.5 hours we managed to squeeze out of it is still very good.

Overall, the aluminum MacBook is an excellent laptop. Although its somewhat more expensive than we had hoped, you get a solid and great-looking laptop, and some features that youll never find in a similar PC.
Apple MacBook Technical Specifications

• Processor 2GHz Wentel Core 2 Duo Mobile
• Memory 2GB DDR3
• Harddrive 160GB
• OS Mac OS X v10.5 Leopard
• Weight 5.0 lbs
• Screen 13.3
• Screen resolution 1280 x 800
• Graphic Card Nvidia 9400M
• Battery Life 4,5 hours

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Acer Aspire TimelineX AS5830TG 6402 Review

Acers Timeline series has always been a premier sub-brand in terms of design, and the Aspire TimelineX AS5830TG-6402 is no different. This 15-inch laptop features an Intel Core i5 CPU, Nvidia graphics, and excellent Dolby speakers, all inside a metallic blue chassis thats stylish and feels sturdy. Priced at $799, the 5830T is a bit more expensive than budget notebooks, but its worth the extra dough.

Design

The Acer Aspire TimelineX 5830T shares the same aesthetics as its smaller sibling, the 13-inch Aspire TimelineX 3830T. The smooth blue brushed aluminum on the lid picked up few fingerprints. Unlike the MacBook Pro, the brushed aluminum doesnt extend to the bottom of the machine; instead, Acer opted for a more budget-friendly basic black plastic.
Opening the 5830Ts lid reveals an attractive combination of brushed silver and a slightly more muted brushed blue. The silver surrounds the black chicklet keys and extends to the Dolby Home Theater speakers above the keyboard. The blue finishes off the palm rest and touchpad before wrapping around the front edge. Measuring 14.9 x 9.8 x 1.2 inches and weighing 5.4 pounds, the 5830T is not really travel-friendly, but it can be easily moved from room to room.

Heat

The Timeline 5830T runs as cool as it looks. After streaming a Hulu video at full screen for 15 minutes, the notebook registered just 85 degrees on the touchpad and on the underside. Even the hottest spot was just 88 degrees between the G and H keys. We consider anything about 95 degrees to be uncomfortable and anything below 90 to be comfortable.

Keyboard and Touchpad

We found the striking silver-and-black chiclet keyboard on the 5830T to be quite responsive. We noticed only a bit of flex, and we appreciated the extra-large right Shift and Enter keys. The dedicated number pad was equally responsive. On the Ten Thumbs Typing test, we averaged 59 words per minute, which is just a few strokes slower than our the 63-wpm average on our desktop keyboard.
While the keyboard is spacious, the touchpad (3.4 x 1.25 inches) felt somewhat cramped. Navigating the desktop using the Elan touchpad was a bit jumpy, but with multitouch gestures such as pinch-to-zoom, we found ourselves frequently missing the two small mouse buttons. We would have preferred them closer to the edge of the palm rest.

Display and Audio

The display on the 5830T was a little darker than we wouldve liked. While watching a clip of Justin Timberlake and Jimmy Fallon singing the "History of Rap, Part 2" on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, we found ourselves pumping up the brightness to the max to make out details. Plus, the screen kicked back a fair amount of reflections.
The TimelineX 5830Ts strong stereo sound helps this notebook stand out. The bundled Dolby Home Theater software allows users to choose from three enhancement profiles: movies, music, and games. While watching a trailer for The Muppets with the movie setting enabled, we were blown away by the sound quality. Even at the max volume, the audio remained full and crisp without distortion. Adeles "Rolling in the Deep" sounded very good with the music setting enabled. The background vocals rang just as true as the lead vocal, and the bass was present.

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Toshiba Satellite L755D S5204 Review

Toshiba has earned a reputation for producing feature-rich laptops at affordable prices. The $548 Toshiba Satellite L755D-S5204 continues that tradition. This 15-inch notebook offers a large keyboard, a roomy 640GB hard drive, and an AMD Quad-Core A6-3400M Fusion APU. Sounds pretty good for just $548. But how does this mainstream machine compare to other budget-friendly laptops?

Design

The Satellite L755D has a brushed aluminum blue lid that looks handsome but is far from flashy. A slightly raised, silver Toshiba logo adorns the cover as well. The lid does attract some fingerprints, but the matte finish does a fine job at hiding this (unless you tilt the machine towards the light). The underside of the notebook is a plain black matte plastic.
Measuring 14.8 x 9.8 x .6 - 1.3 inches and weighing 5.2 pounds, the L755D was comfortable enough to lug along during a walk from the office to the transit station. This notebook is the same weight as the HP g6x (5.2 pounds) and lighter than the Gateway NV55S05u (5.6 pounds).

Keyboard and Touchpad

Open up the Toshiba Satellite L755D and youll find a recessed, black matte keyboard contained by a deck with the same chrome-like, deep blue color of the lid. We appreciated how generous Toshiba was with the big, flat-topped keys that made typing quite comfortable, not to mention the full-sized number pad. However, we found the space bar key to be too small. More than once, we completely missed it, instead hitting hitting one of the Alt keys.
The touchpad and silver, rounded mouse buttons are centered below the G and H keys, which means youll be able to touch type without any problems. Initially, we questioned the smallish 3.25 x 1.6-inch touchpads ability to serve our needs, but its matte finish and satisfying roughness made it easy to move our finger around. We also found the pad large enough to execute such multitouch gestures as pinch-to-zoom.
The two mouse buttons are recessed into an oval-shaped space that exceeds the length of the touchpad, and were responsive.

Display and Audio

The L755D has a 15.6-inch widescreen display with a standard resolution of 1366 x 768. Videos played on it had accurate detail and came out quite bright, but colors and contrast did not pop as much as we would have liked. The well-lit band concert scenes in Nick and Norahs Infinite Playlist displayed nicely, but the screen didnt do justice to the Citys tiny flitting streetlights during the films nocturnal scenes; they lost most of their ambient charm because the night didnt look black enough in comparison.

Tilting the display back as far as it would go caused some color distortion, and when three people sat beside each other to watch a movie, the two sitting on the outer edges said that the displays glossy finish created some distracting reflections.
The notebooks stereo speakers, located in two oval wells on the upper right and left corners of the deck, produced acceptable and accurate sound. The bass in the Black Eyed Peas "Lets Get It Started" was barely perceptible--while Fergies vocals, which should have rang out brightly, fell flat and sounded thin even with the volume maxed out. The sound could hardly fill the desk area where we tested the laptop, let alone an entire room.

Heat

The Satellite L755D is a truly cool portable. After playing a full-screen video on Hulu for 15 minutes, both the touchpad and the space between the G and H keys registered a manageable 86 degrees Fahrenheit, and the middle of the underside measured a harmless 88 degrees. However, we did notice that the fan tended to run a bit loud after the laptop had been turned on for some time--even if you didnt give it much to do.

Ports and Webcam

The left side of the L755D contains mic and headphone jacks, HDMI, a combined eSATA and USB, VGA, Ethernet, and a Kensington lock slot. On the right are two more USB ports and a SuperMulti DVD burner with Labelflash support. Finally, youll see a 5-in-1 card reader if you look right below the right mouse button. As with its other notebooks, one USB port uses Toshibas Sleep and Charge technology, which lets you power mobile devices even when the system is asleep or off.


The Toshiba Satellite L755D features a 0.3-MP webcam. During a Skype video call, our friend noted that our image appeared dull and washed out, and the picture could have been much sharper. On the plus side, Toshibas built-in facial recognition software operated quite well. It took us a couple of tries to register, but it was smooth sailing after that. Upon booting, the computer recognized us on its first try and logged us on instantaneously.

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