Black Apple MacBook: Art or fashion?
Tags: apple, core, hard disk, electronics
"Art produces ugly things which frequently become more beautiful with time. Fashion, on the other hand, produces beautiful things which always become ugly with time," mumbled the French poet Jean Cocteau, possibly between tokes on his notorious opium pipe. So, which is the MacBook, Apple? Art or fashion?
Since we've been salivating on our review model for a solid 22 hours now, we're tempted to believe it's art. It's noticably heavier than other laptops of its size we've seen, but it does offer a 2GHz Intel Core Duo processor, a single-layer DVD writer and an auto-parking motion sensor (for taking the read/write head off the hard disk to prevent data loss during a tumble, rather than for helping to parallel park the MacBook in Knightsbridge's hectic lunchtime traffic).
Delving into the MacBook's functionality, there's a bunch of improvements to note. We managed to replace the hard disk in minutes, as apposed to the fifty screws the old 12-inch PowerBook was barricaded with. It also ripped a DivX movie from DVD in about 35 minutes -- that's only about ten minutes slower than the quad-core G5 we have in the office here. Slick.
The MacBook is one of those rare bits of consumer electronics that fashion editors and technology writers seem to have equal claim to expertise over. This laptop is as much a sartorial flourish as it is a collection of wires and silicon diodes. The £90 premium for the black MacBook over the white makes the message from Apple clear. You're not paying for a functional benefit here, but for the status symbol and exclusivity of carrying the Jimmy Choo shoe of computers. While the tech journalist is apt to blindly accuse Apple of overpricing, it's the fashion writer who has the inside knowledge here.
Apple's premium pricing on the black MacBook should actually improve sales, because the psychology of fashion dictates that higher-priced items are perceived as being higher-fashion, especially when the proleteriat will balk at their price. Apple is using the pricing structures traditionally applied to clothing to sell electronics. Who else would dare? -CS
Update: a full review of the Apple MacBook (2.0GHz) is now live.
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Chris StevensThu 18 May, 2006 1:11pm
Thanks Angelfire1982, you're right -- we've made a correction in the article. The specs on Apple's site for the black MacBook's CD drive are: Slot-loading SuperDrive with double-layer read support (DVD+R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW): writes DVD-R and DVD+R discs at up to 4x speed, writes DVD-RW and DVD+RW discs at up to 4x speed, reads DVDs at up to 8x speed, writes CD-R discs at up to 24x speed, writes CD-RW discs at up to 10x speed, reads CDs at up to 24x speed
LionelTue 15 August, 2006 2:33am
Just want to point out you put 512GB of RAM as opposed to 512MB.
Cheers.
AnonymousSat 16 September, 2006 6:57pm
Ive got a black macbook and the £90 For the black was well worth it. I always felt the white laptops were abit 'OOh, look at me im differnt' But the black one blends in with all the acers and dells that it sits next to at collage. The apple on the back also shows up much nicer on the black, and its important to have that on the back of course :-)
damien Tue 12 December, 2006 2:18pm
It may look at first glance like a Dell or other bogstandard PC, but you know it's miles better than anything running on Microsoft. Be smug inside, it's like driving a cool fast car that does not look like a stupid spoilered lairy BMW. Some people will never get cool industrial design, those that do would not use Dells or BMW's ! ! ! Plus extra points from Macusers who will recognise the black version as the best one.
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Angelfire1982Thu 18 May, 2006 12:54pm
Feel I should just comment on an error. The optical drive in the MacBook cannot write dual-layer DVD discs. It is capable of reading dual layer DVD's in the form of DVD+R DL (as well as normal DVD movies) but not writing them. It is capable of writing DVD+ and DVD- R/RW discs. This is according to the info posted on Apple's site.