Saw a MB today, thought it was a bit bland and heavy

I got start off by saying I'm a PC man. I haven't seen or touched a Mac in ages.

So anyhow today I was out looking at notebooks and saw a few worth noting, the 14" LG T1 and the 13" Vaio SZ. I was impressed at how sleek they looked and how light they felt, especially the SZ.

Then I turned the corner and there was the Macbook. I can't help but think they're sorta bland looking, but my best guess is that this minimalist simplistic approach is part of the design concept.

Then I picked it up and was like whoah do I need to work out or is this mofo a bit heavy... yeah I was expecting it to be lighter. It was a bit of a let down, but a bigger disappointment was to come. I turned it upside down and OMG it had the battery removed, meaning OMG this thing is gonna weigh more with the battery!

Looking at the SZ kinda set me up for this, but I'm wondering what components compared to the SZ are making the MB heavier? Maybe something that could be swaped out for something lighter, no?

I just occurred to me, the SZ and the MB have to hook up, have some serious strenuous sexorz and make babies, so we could have the ultimate lappy, yeah! lol... sorry for bad humor.

 

I like the heaviness of the MacBook, it makes it feel more solid. To me, the SZ feels cheap and plasticy.

 

Yeah I can see what you're saying, sorta... and it can be a bit of a subjective thing...

The SZ didn't feel cheap when I looked at it though, but then again looking at the price tag made it a bit hard for that thought to even cross my mind...

 

Thats biased fanboy.

 

Lol, yeah, the MB is a bit heavy. I also wonder why... and why it's thicker than the MBP. Ah well, I'm going for the MBP not a mB myself... so oh

I tell you what feels cheap, is the dells inspiron laptops. I'm using my moms e1505 while I'm ahome... and man... it's nice, but feels like a cheap piece of plastic.

 

Trust me, that's not just fanboy talk. I own an SZ-120 and though it is technologically a marvelous machine, you would think it would have a better build quality for the coin you pay for it. The plastic parts don't fit that tightly and feel as though they would snap off with very little effort (and some people's have). I don't know about later models, but I'm afraid mine wouldn't stand up to much heavy wear and tear.

 

I have to agree somewhat and I forgot to mention that the MB just felt and looked bulky, compared to the SZ and T1 at least.

 

I know. I was looking at them at Circuit City, and I couldn't believe it was a Sony. One of the HP's felt sturdier.

 

The MacBook look is basically carried over from the iBook. The design really was more to be simple and basic, and most important to be durable..... this was especially true of the iBook design (one nice thing about iBooks is that even really old ones are still really sturdy and durable). It's sort of the tradeoff you get. Definitely heavier and "bulkier" than Sony's S and SZ series, but also really two different kinds of laptops.

The Sony S and SZ series are designed most of all to be as thin and light as possible while also still providing a fair amount of power (as opposed to the super ultrathin/ultralight laptops which normally sacrifice even more to get even thinner and lighter).

The MacBook isn't really necessarily that bulky though.......... at 1.08 inches thick, it's actually thinner than the iBook was. I think that the overall nature of the design though probably contributes to the impression that it is "bulky", since it has a very simple without a lot of seams or extras, or some of the things you'll find on the S and SZ series which make it look "sleeker".

In terms of the weight of the MacBook, it is mainly a combination of the materials used and the polycarbonate shell used. This does add to the weight, but also contributes to the overall durability of the machine, something we've been able to see the results of with old iBooks that are still going strong.

Personally when I owned an iBook, I actually really liked it a lot precisely because of that durability; I also had friends with PowerBooks at the time (the 1" Titanium ones), and the PowerBooks actually were a bit more "delicate"; you could feel more flex in them, etc.

The current MacBook Pros are an improvement over the older PowerBook G4's in my opinion... closer to the iBook and MacBook line in terms of a general "solid" feeling.

You can get a better idea of what the internals are like here:

http://www.powermax.com/articles_reviews/article.php?id=26

I don't know that I'd really compare the MacBook to the SZ; the main thing they have in common would really be that both are 13.3" widescreen laptops. Outside of that though they are really two different laptops with two different goals and markets.

-Zadillo

 

I didn’t intend to compare them. It just turned out that way because when you go to computer shops you usually end up looking at other stuff and comparing.

The Macbook is the notebook I’m looking for and I’ve been trying to convince myself to get it for the last month or so and hey what better way to convince yourself than to go see one live and in color, but in doing so I strayed and looked at the SZ and T1, and by the time I got around to the Macbook I was a bit underwhelmed as I described.

Goals and markets aside, in the weight department I think there’s really no contest, but after your post I now see this as a by product for a sturdier, durable, minimalist shell design of the Macbook...

I can live with the minimalist nothing sleek or fancy going on shell design of the Macbook. I still would of welcomed a bit less weight though.

 

aye, but 5.2 lbs still isn't bad at all. I'm using a e1505 righ tnow, and thats like, 6.2 lbs and feels like nothing.
Then again, thats not me. I'm not into ultra portables, and 5 lbs doesn't bother me since it's a bit under mile walk to school and work for me.
But yeah, the MB is definently a sturdy machine.

 

What? You have arms the size of small twigs?

Although I can see your point, the MacBook could be lighter. Especially considering the MacBook Pro is only 140 gram heavier.

 

Against my better judgement I will leave this thread open for now, but please keep it clean. I can see this getting out of hand.

 

Again, it really comes down to materials. The MacBook is made largely of polycarbonate, whereas the MacBook Pro is made of a special hardened aluminum alloy designed to combine lightness with strength. The MacBook is able to achieve durability with polycarbonate, which is less expensive, while the hardened aluminum alloy of the MBP achieves something similar but is a more expensive material.

-Zadillo

 

It has a 13.3" screen, it's plastic, and weighs more than the LG T1 (which has a 14.1" screen and is made out entirely of plastic).

For about .6 more pounds you have the same weight as a 15" MBP.

That's just sad (engineering wise).

 

I really don't agree with this at all. From looking at how a MB is constructed, I don't see anything sad engineering wise. It's like saying that the Panasonic Toughbooks are sad engineering-wise because they are so much heavier than some other laptops.

Also, it is misleading to just say they are "made of plastic" - polycarbonate is not like any old plastic.

The LG T1 is a completely different class of product, and is designed first and foremost to be as lightweight as possible for its specs; and it also costs over $2000.

I honestly don't get why people are comparing the MacBook, which is designed for different purposes than the SZ and the T1, when it is designed to be more durable than them, and also costs half as much, generally.

The SZ and T1 are fine machines, but they are thin and light laptops designed at a different price point and for a different purpose.

Again, saying that it is "sad engineering" because the MacBook is heavier than an SZ or T1 just doesn't make much sense at all. Completely different materials, completely different purposes for the laptops, completely different price points. If the T1 or SZ had to come in at $1099 Sony and LG would probably end up having to design pretty different notebooks as well and use different kinds of engineering.

-Zadillo

 

While I would certainly like the macbook to be lighter, it is a no go comparing a $1099 laptop with a $2000 one. If Apple ever releases an 13 or 12" MBP that costs about that, then we can compare weights.

 

I know, I am certainly not complaining about the weight. I'm just implying that if you can't carry a MacBook . . . you should *ehm* do something about it.

I'm quite satisfied with the weight of my MacBook Pro, if I may add

 

Come on now you got the cheapest lower spec Macbook against the higher spec SZ or T1?

If I do the opposite and put the more expensive Blackbook against the cheaper low spec SZ and T1 (which have a GeForce Go 7400 and GMA 950 respectively, but they are T2300 1,66Ghz Core Duo though) the price diference is between 67 and 167 euros. Now the higher spec T1 and SZ can get into the 2000€ and I can agree it's not comparable price wise...

Maybe they're more expensive in the US I dunno. Here are some prices of Fnac Portugal of the lower spec T1 and SZ:
Blackbook: http://www.fnac.pt/produto.aspx?cat...computadoresPortateisMac&produto=885909108282

LG T1: http://www.fnac.pt/produto.aspx?cat...computadoresPortateisLg&produto=8801031071432

Vaio SZ: http://www.fnac.pt/produto.aspx?cat...mputadoresPortateisSony&produto=4905524329865

...and Fnac is one of the more expensive shops around here. If I really looked around I could probably find the lower spec T1 around the price of the Blackbook or slightly cheaper...

Now the white Mackbooks still have the lower spec SZ and T1 beat price wise by a 400-500 euro margin, I can't contend that.

 

It's all relative. I don't think you get my point when you said Toughbooks are "so much heavier" than other laptops. Isn't it logical to think that as laptops have decreasing screen sizes, the laptops get lighter?

When comparing MBP and the Macbook, there is a drastic change in screen size but the weight change is relatively not that drastic.

 

smaller doesn't always mean lighter.

Just think back to chemistry, you can have two cubes the same dimensions, but different elements, the one that has a larger atomic mass is going to be heavier than the similar dimensioned cube which would be of another element.

So really that isn't a logical arguement, it just comes down to what materials are used.

 

Not really. I can think of a number of cheap 12 and 14" laptops that are quite heavy, just as I can think of some relatively lightweight 17" laptops.

I cited the Toughbook as the most extreme example; there are 12" toughbooks that are very very heavy, but they are also incredibly durable (insanely so).

There are also definitely ultralights, and the more money you pay, the lighter some of them are thanks to very expensive materials (you need to start getting very expensive materials to get that combination of light weight along with durability, as in the SZ series).

 

It appears that they are charging a significant premium for the Black MacBook there (although I guess that has a significant tax on top of it). 1532 euros comes out to $1947 in US Dollars....... the Black MacBook in the US costs $1399 in US Dollars. And as others have noted, this also includes essentially a $150 premium for the black color, as the comparable equipped white MacBook with a hard drive upgrade would be about $1250 in USD.

I can't comment on the comparable prices in Euros. I'm not totally sure about the price differences though. I guess just much higher prices for Apple computers for some reason (maybe some additional tariff for a US computer compared to Japanese or Korean? I don't know).

In the US, the cheapest SZ is just under $2000 and the T1 is also around $2100.

-Zadillo

 

That is one expensive T1... It must have some high specs?

Yes tax is 21% here (among the highest in the EU), so you have to factor that in... anything outside of the European Union gets taxed before that supossedly, but I don't know how it works out really.

Anyhow I felt I should do a more straight forward price comparison of these notebooks at least in Portugal:

White Macbook 1,83 Ghz 1115€
White Macbook 2 Ghz 1324€
Blackbook 2 Ghz 1532€

LG - T1-7556P 1,83 Ghz 1399€

Sony SZ-1HpB 1,66 Ghz 1700€
Sony SZ-2HpB 1,66 Ghz 1900€

The Macbooks weigh 2,36 kg (according to specs)

Now specs vary a bit the T1 is 14” , GMA 950, 1024 RAM, 1,83 Ghz Core Duo 60G HD, weigh 1.9 kg, etc...

The Vaios are 1,66 Ghz, Geforce Go 7400 512-1024 RAM, weighs 1,83 kg I guess the rest is more or less comparable. I wonder what the SZ would cost with integrated graphics…

I though LG didn't sell notebooks in the US? Anyhow how much does the equivalent Vaio SZ costs there?

So to sum it up the low spec T1 is somewhat comparable to the Macbooks here. The SZ, not really...

 

Hard to say about the SZ's, since they have now been replaced by the SZ3xx series, so any SZ1xx and SZ2xx that are still out there are generally at discounted prices. But just for example, an SZ230 (with a 1.83GHz Core Duo I believe) is usually $2100 new, but is currently about $1800 after rebates.

I'm not sure about the LG T1. The only place I've seen it is an import version for sale from Dynamism.com, where they sell it for about $2100 (but that is not totally fair, since any imported notebooks from Japan are going to cost a bit more).

Anyway, I do agree on a pure specs basis, if the price difference was so small and I was not interested in OS X, I'd be tempted to look at the T1 and possibly the lower end SZ.

-Zadillo

 

heheh the price of a white, 1,83Ghz Macbook here in Brazil is R$4999 = US$2300. Not so mad about Portugal's taxes now 1000100001?

 

holy crap, thats a ton of money Wooky!
Remind me never to move to Portugal!

 

If you compare the current notebook offerings (not obsolete ones) then you will see that in most cases, the weight of notebooks with larger screens are heavier provided the same materials are used.

 

I assume you mean never move to Brazil right?

 

Design wise I seriously prefer the look of the Macbook, but with a GMA950 it is not for me period. I think my manner of preference comes from other things that I own like the black Hummer H3 and the black Samsung thin A-900 phone. Guess I'm just a sucker for things in black, and a little added weight is not that much of an issue. I remember the time I used to carry my 10 lb Sager laptop around without complaint, so a half weight Macbook is nothing to me. The hinge design feels and looks much more durable than the SZ. I may end up with an SZ though if Apple doesn't come up with new versions of Macbook or MBP by tomorrow, Sept 12th. Anyway, whatever you decide, get what you really want. I don't think you can go wrong either way as long as it suits your needs. They are both nice laptops.