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macbook 3.1

From all the sub-notebooks that I have owned and tested, this macbook 3.1 stands out as a reliable mobile performer. Granted that it is Apple proprietaire piece of work, it lives up to the expectation of a fast, quiet, long-life battery performance.

The design is simply "Apple". The cleanliness in form and lines is still carrying Apple Trademark - simple and cool.

For the 1st Intel based Core Duo, Apple surprises many with a solid replacement of the iBook and PowerBook.

The lid is being held close by magnets instead of traditional latches, giving it a surprise and nice touch. The MagSafe power adapter eliminates the worriness of bad connection and ensures long working device.

Start up and shut down are amazingly fast. The macbook 3.1 is quiet and cool in performance, and with 5hrs plus of battery usage, this is truly portable.

The glossy screen offers bright pictures to video watching. Music enjoyment is particular good with the speakers behind the hinges and in the back - crisp and plenty loud for a notebook.





Specifications:

Operating Systems:

Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard - current at 10.5.8

Architecture:
. Intel based

CPU Section:
. Intel Core Duo,
. 2.00GHz, 4MB L2 Cache

Memory: - upgraded
. 4GB
. DDR2 SDRAM @ 667MHz (PC2-5300)
. Max. Supported Memory: 4GB

Drives: - upgraded
. 250GB Sata-150 5400rpm
. DVD +/- RW (+R double layer) / DVD Ram

Drives Speed:
. DVD-SuperMulti (+/-R double layer)
. Write: DVD-R x8, DVD+R x8, DVD+R x8/DL, CD-R x24, CD-RW x8
. Read: CD x24, DVD x8

Display:
. TFT Active Matrix
. 13.3 WXGA
. 1280x800

Graphics:
. Intel GMA X3100, 144.0 Allocated memory
. Dynamic Video Memory Technology 4.0

Interfaces:
. 1.0 x Audio - SPDIF output/headphones - Mini-phone 3.5 mm / TOSLINK ,
. 1.0 x Network - SPDIF input/line-in - 4 pin USB Type A ,
. 1.0 x Audio - Ethernet 10Base-T/100Base-TX/1000Base-T - Apple

mini-DVI ,
. 2.0 x IEEE 1394 (FireWire) - Radio-Ethernet - 6 pin FireWire ,
. 1.0 x Display / video - Mini-phone 3.5 mm / TOSLINK ,
. 2.0 x Hi-Speed USB -
. RJ-45 , 1.0 x Network

Connectivity:
. Airport Extreme (Broadcom firmware),
. Bluetooth Cambridge Silicon Radio

Multimedia:
. Intel High Definition Audio

Built-In Camera:
. Built-in with microphone.
. Offering sharp pic on YahooIM and Skype and iChat.




Keyboard:
. Touch Pad
. DE QWERTZ

Features:

it is an Apple!


Softwares:

. Apple DVD Player ,
. Apple Mac OS X Mail ,
. Apple Dashboard ,
. iWork '08 (Trial) ,
. Apple iChat ,
. Microsoft Office 2004 for Mac Test Drive ,
. Apple Address Book ,
. Apple QuickTime ,
. Photo Booth ,
. Front Row ,
. Apple iCal ,
. Apple XCode Developer Tools ,
. Apple Spotlight ,
. Apple Quick Look ,
. Apple Safari ,
. Drivers & Utilities ,
. Apple iLife '08 ,
. Apple Spaces ,
. Apple Time Machine


Supplied Accessories:
. MagSafe adapter (60W 16.5V)
. Lithium polymer (5500mAh)
. Power Cord

Dimensions:
. in Inches
. 12.8 x 8.9 x 1.1
. Weight with Supplied Battery and Supplied Drive : 5.1lbs

What's in the Box:

. Notebook
. AC Adapter
. Power Cord
. Manual, quick setup

Looks & Design

Apple leaves nothing out when it comes to design and look and feel. This macbook 3.1 proves just that. The minute you have it in your hands, you are bound to want it, if you are so in with Windows, of course.

Small details such as battery leds shown at charging (5 green dots) and magnetic latch add some class to the notebook.





Screen:

This 13.3 inch LCD (WXGA, 1,280x800 pixels) offers excellent viewing with sharp pictures and bright clarity.





Keyboard

The keyboard is well laid out and offer good typing with its chiklet keys. The simple and pretty layout makes it easy on the eyes and fingers during typing.




Touchpad

It is of a wide footprint, responsive and comfortable.




Multimedia Keys

. None, just an ON/OFF button





Wireless Performance–

Good connectivity, with its ability to quickly find and connect to any available networks.

Bluetooth support is excellent with its automatic devices recognition and pairing of mouse, headphone, speaker and printer.


Optical Drive

The slotted double layer supporting DVD drive performs flawlessly and quietly.


Sound

Crisp and pretty loud for a sub-notebook.


Heat and Noise

It is quiet and cool, with the ventilation comes from where the hinges of the display.




Gaming Performance

One cannot say much about macbook gaming performance, especially with this 1st generation model. The integrated Intel X3100 is not what gamers want when choosing a notebook.


System Performance

This is totally opposite to gaming. CAD, photoshop run superbly on this system. No lag between switching apps. This can be contributed to a good OS X that Apple offers and the integration of every device present within the system.


Input and Output Ports

Front:

Plain with a designer notch to open up the screen and the power Led.




Right Side:

. DVD slot drive,




Left Side:

. Microphone,
. headphones,
. FireWire,
. Apple Mini-DVI,
. NIC
. Power jack
. 2 x high-speed USB ports
. PC Card,




Back side:

. Speakers,
. Vent




Bottom:

. Battery lock and battery release, serving as gateway to memory slots.




Gaming Possibilities

Decent for all games made for OS X.

System Performance

I need to find something that can relate to Windows users.

Battery Life

The notebook provides up to 5+hrs on a Lithium polymer battery.

Pros:

. Look and design
. Nice multimedia and day-to-day notebook
. Good to excellent system performance.
. Solid for business traveling due to its long battery usage.
. Quiet Operation

Cons:

. None as I see it so far.


Conclusion:

Not an Apple fan - though I like the iPhone, the iPodTouch and the macbook - this notebook has (and still) served me right. I use it as a front end to our work HP mainframe, when traveling and for simply multimedia works.

I have thought many times of upgrading it to the latest model of this series, but in the end, this macbook still holds its performance and yet to let me down.

Would I buy another macbook in the future? The answer is a definitive YES.

2nd part for pics with covers:

Outfit:



Top:




Back side:





Underside:



Front:



Left side:



Right side:



cheers ...

Whilst waiting for some "official" NBF benchmarking

http://www.xbench.com/

Xbench score results: 63.99

* System Info:
- Xbench version: 1.3
- System Version: 10.5.8 (9L31a)
- Physical RAM: 4096 MB
- Model: MacBook 3.1
- Drive Type: FUJITSU MHY2250BH

* CPU Test: 113.35
- GCD Loop: 234.13 12.34 Mops/sec
- Floating Point Basic: 112.11 2.66 GFlop/sec
- vecLib FFT: 71.06 2.34 Gflop/sec
- Floating Point Library: 124.64 21.70 Mops/sec

* Thread Test: 154.03
- Computation: 172.56 3.50 Mops/sec, 4 threads
- Lock Contention: 139.09 5.98 Mlocks/sec, 4 threads

* Memory Test: 137.25

- System: 157.10
-- Allocate: 237.40 871.80 Kalloc/sec
-- Fill: 128.84 6264.53 MB/sec
-- Copy: 140.40 2899.97 MB/Sec

- Stream: 121.86
-- Copy: 115.30 2381.52 MB/sec
-- Scale: 115.36 2383.25 MB/sec
-- Add: 129.41 2756.73 MB/Sec
-- Triad: 128.94 2758.31 MB/sec

* Quarz Graphic Test: 143.27
- Line: 136.54 9.09 Klines/sec (50% alpha)
- Rectangle: 167.32 49.95 Krects/sec (50% alpha)
- Circle: 137.68 11.22 Kcircles/sec (50% alpha)
- Bezier: 141.57 3.57 Kbeziers/sec (50% alpha)
- Text: 137.50 8.60 Kchars/sec

* OpenGL Graphics Test: 20.56
- Spinning Squares: 20.56 26.08 frames/sec

* User Interface Test: 196.53
- Elements: 196.53 901.96 refresh/sec

* Disk Test: 38.56
- Sequential: 69.39
-- Uncached Write: 87.90 53.97 MB/sec (4K blocks)
-- Uncached Write: 88.22 49.91 MB/sec (256K blocks)
-- Uncached Read: 39.64 11.60 MB/sec (4K blocks)
-- Uncached Read: 103.02 51.78 MB/sec (256K blocks)

- Random: 26.51
-- Uncached Write: 9.74 1.03 MB/sec (4K blocks)
-- Uncached Write: 70.01 22.41 MB/sec (256K blocks)
-- Uncached Read: 62.78 0.44 MB/sec (4K blocks)
-- Uncached Read: 55.42 10.28 MB/sec (256K blocks)


cheers ...