MacBook Pro
Finally a laptop with desktop performance. MacBook Pro. Its a stupid name I know. But at long last Apple have a laptop with a processor quick enough to run OS X applications really really fast. The Dual-core Intel chips provide speed very close to the Dual G5 desktops in most aplications. You also get much brighter screens, a power cable you can't damage by kicking it, a really fast video card for gaming, 3D visualization and CoreImage heavy programs like Aperture. Add to that the built-in iSight, Pre-N wireless card, Apple remote, Front Row software, what's not to love? MacBook Pro 2.4 Ghz Core 2 Duo, 15.4"TFT, 2Gb, 200Gb HD £1105+VAT MacBook Pro 2.5 Ghz Core 2 Duo, 15.4"TFT, 2Gb, 250Gb HD £1361+VAT. MacBook Pro 2.5 Ghz Core Duo, 17 "TFT, 2Gb, 250Gb HD £1531+VAT.
MacBook Air
The ultra-portable, super skinny, low-fat MacBook Air If like me you carry your laptop with you everywhere, you understand how important weight is. Carrying a laptop bag stuffed full of cables, disks, chargers, notes and DVDs quickly becomes a pain in the neck. The Air weighs under 3lb. has an ultra-fast Intel processor. It can have a massively fast and low power solid state hard drive. It doesn't have firewire, ethernet or an optical drive. Some will love it, others will won't get it. Which type are you? MacBook Air 1.6 Ghz Core 2 Duo, 13.3"TFT, 2Gb, 80Gb HD £1020+VAT MacBook Air 1.8 Ghz Core 2 Duo, 13.3"TFT, 2Gb, 64Gb Solid State HD £1735+VAT.
Powerbook G4
The Ultimate consumer laptop. MacBook with Intel Core 2 Duo. The MacBook comes complete with everything you may want in a laptop. Wireless, Bluetooth, Video camera, microphone, remote control, crisp 13" widescreen ultra bright LCD, and a bundle of fun software. You also get the MagSafe power lead from its big brother. Finally Apple let you drive an external screen in "extended" dekstop mode as well. Bundled with OS 10.4.9, iLife 2006, and capable of running Windows via BootCamp or a Virtualization system, what's not to love? Price is right as well. 2.1Ghz Core 2 Duo, 13;"TFT, 1Gb, 120Gb HD at £595+VAT, 2.4Ghz Core 2 Duo, 13;"TFT, 2Gb, 160Gb HD at £707+VAT, 2.4Ghz Core 2 Duo, 13;"TFT, 2Gb, 250Gb HD in Black at £808+VAT

But first, a little confession...

Ok, I’ll admit it. You won’t get my usual unbiased advice when it comes to an Apple laptop. I’ve owned an Apple laptop for 10 years, and I cannot imagine life without one. The convenience of being able to carry your work around with you, even if its just pottering about at home, is justification enough in my view.

MacBook Pro: Less money, more RAM, LED backlights

So what's new? Firstly, the price has dropped across the range. Secondly, all of the machines come fitted with 2Gb RAM as standard, which is important as running things in Rosetta gobbles RAM, and Creative Suite 3 seems to consume RAM at an alarming rate. Lastly, the 15" models feature an industry first: LED backlighting. Not only is this environmentally more friendly as they don't use Mercury, but also the backlight should last longer and remain brighter. No more dingy screens aftr 3 years use. The 17" model can be fitted with an optional 1920x1200 pixel display for all you video editors.

As before, they use Intel Core 2 Duo chips, that run much cooler than the previous Core chips, but also include 4Mb of cache to further tweak performance. Plus they run at a slightly faster clockspeed and are quicker than the old generation at the same clockspeed. In short the new machines are quicker and cooler.

Don't forget the Firewire 800 port, support for Configure-To-Order drives up to 250Gb in size, the groovy (and remarkably practical) illuminated keyboard, the wireless card supports the Pre-N wireless standard. What's that? In short, Pre-N wireless devices are able to support much greater data transfer rates, over much wider areas than wireless B or G cards. What's not to love?

Updated MacBook

So what's new? Just like their big brother they get Intel Core 2 Duo chips. So less fan noise, less heat, longer battery life. All models get 1Gb RAM, get bigger hard drives and drop a few quid in price. We all like to save money and get a bit of bargain don't we?

Desktop Power in laptop sizes

For a long long time the performance of Apple laptops have dragged behind that of PCs. Why? Basically the G4 chip isn't very "state of the art" any more. However the MacBook Pro changed all that. Intel processors suddenly give Apple portables performance that can match, or sometimes better, that of the G5 powered desktops. Things are made slightly more complicated by the fact that at present, most Mac software isn't designed to run on the Intel chip, so you'll be getting a fraction of the performance the machine has.

However, all Apple software has been re-writen as an "Universal" binary that will run at full speed. So iTunes, iPhoto, IDVD and iMovie will scream along, as well as the Pro apps like Aperture, Final Cut, DVD Studio Pro, Soundtrack, Shake, Logic, etc. Performance in older PowerPC programs like Adobe Creative Suite seems to be about on a par with the G4 1.5ghz machines. So no worse than the best of the old Powerbooks with your old software.

Windows at warp speed

The Intel chip also brings an intersting new possibility; running Windows , either via Apple's Boot Camp software, or via a Virtualization solution like Parallels. No more messing about with awful Virtual PC performance, Windows will run lightening fast.

Which MacBook is right for me?

A few simple questions should answer this. Is 13" too small for me? Am I doing presentations on the built-in screen? Do I need a powerful video card for 3D rendering, video? Do I want to use Aperture? If you say 13" is a bit small, I will be doing presentations on the screen, I'll do more than dabble with Aperture, or I work in 3D, video or film, you need to get the MacBook Pro. Otherwise the MacBook should do just nicely.

I need ultimate performance!

However some caveats apply. If you need the ultimate performance, for example you work in high-end music, 3D or video production, the latest Mac Pros & PowerMac G5s are much faster. Part of the reason is that laptop hard drives cannot work as fast. Also the G5 chip is highly optimized for number crunching, which is essentially what audio and video is all about, and the Quad-processor Xeon chips in the Mac Pros are faster and there are more of them!. Apple's Pro desktops are still the daddy when it comes to pushing pixels.

A MacBook or MacBook Pro with a wireless ADSL router really makes personal computing fun. I do sit in front of TV, downloading pictures from my digital camera into iPhoto, and email them to friends all without having to move. Marvellous.

Some useful links: Portable gear