14 DAY TRIAL // Those lucky enough to have grabbed the new aluminum MacBook can confirm that it's great! One customer in particular went as far as saying that Apple's new notebook is a MacBook Air that's been working out.
“Opening the box, first thing I noticed was that its virtually identical in the iPhone 3G experience,” said flickrist Joe Russell. He added that “the back of the lid is black softy foam, and when lifting the black tab it brings the machine up and forward”. Also noted by the happy owner of Apple's new MacBook is that “the machine rest [sic] in a plastic tray, that continues to be lifted by the black tab. The enclosed accessories all look the same,” according to Joe.
He goes on to describe the box as "small but dense". Small packaging is an important aspect surrounding the new MacBook, as Apple itself notes. By reducing the size of the packaging, Apple was able to create more dense pallets of computers which take up less space when being shipped, which results in less fuel consumption and a smaller carbon footprint implicitly, the company says. But that's enough about the box it arrives in.
“First thing I noticed on the trackpad, the entire surface is in fact not a clickable button,” Joe reveals, “but rather the lower two-thirds,” he says. “And as far as it being glass, it feels more like the original textured surface of the trackpad on the MacBook Pro.”
Two things: 1. Bob Mansfield (Senior Vice President, Mac Hardware) himself reveals in the “how it's made” video that “the new trackpad is made entirely from glass”. We reckon Apple wouldn't lie about the materials it uses. 2. As far as the texture goes, the same Apple official revealed that the company had been working “for months” developing just the right texture for it. Since MacBook Air seemed satisfied with the trackpad, it was only logical that Apple didn't need to make any radical change in this area.
“I feel like I'm now rolling w/ a MacBook Air that's been hitting the gym” is Joe's final impression on the new notebook. Here's the full gallery of pictures.
Did you get the chance to see / touch one of these babies?
(Via TUAW).
