MacBook Refresh 2008

Updated 25 Oct 2008: No longer pending agency approval

MacBook

MacBook Pro

MacBook Air

Yes... The new MacBooks are finally refreshed into a new look. These images are taken from Apple Store Singapore. They sure look beautiful. The MacBook itself is made from one precision aluminium unibody.

Other than the new look, there are some other "hidden" stuff in the new series for 2008:

1. Intel chipset with 1066MHZ frontside bus, 3MB shared L2 cache (Pro and Air is 6MB)
   
   
2. DDR3 memory. Most laptops only have DDR2. Memory is faster.
   
   
3. LED-backlit display. That means better battery life.
   
   
4. Multi-touch trackpad. Finger gestures similar to the iPod Touch and iPhone
   
   
5. MacBook and MacBook Air are using the Nvidia 9400M chipset, which is 5x faster than the old Intel X3100 chipset.
   
   The MacBook Pro has 2 chipsets! One is the same as the MacBook, and the other is the Nvidia 9600M GT with 256/512 MB GDDR3 memory. Yes... DDR3. The reason for the 2 chipsets I understand is that they want to conserve battery. Normal usage will only activate the 9400M chipset. The Mac somehow will switch to the other chipset if you require more graphical processing power.

Battery power with all these processing power? According to their statistics, its about 5 hours with wireless connectivity. That's equivalent to my current MacBook's lifespan too. Not to mention that its lighter than my current MacBook.

There is one catch though. For some reason in Apple Singapore website, it states that all the new series are pending agency approval. I've never seen it before. Only the white MacBook (not the new series) is available for sale (slightly below $1,600).

Weird.
It's no longer pending agency approval. Today's papers advertised that some sale is happening at epicentre.