Apple Macbook - Pretty Pretty Please?

Four Fingers to Rule Them All

Four Fingers to Rule Them All

Let's talk about what's familiar first before we start going on the changes made to the MacBook on its road to the unibody shell. It still has the same rounded curves of the white MacBook and spaced out keyboard (which comes with backlit illumination if you pick the higher-end model). The glossy 13.3-inch screen is still there, and the same 1280 x 800 resolution greets you from the moment you turn on the notebook. If you discount the aluminum chassis, then it's basically almost the same design with a few variations, notably on the length of the hinge connecting the screen to the notebook and the placement and size of the power button.

This is of course just talking about the outward appearance and design feel... the biggest change still lies in the new button-less trackpad. Button-less is the name of the game here, and Apple has traded buttons for increased trackpad space on its new glass trackpad. It may sound like a big very big change to some, but if our experience is anything to go by, it's basically still the same experience once you've learned to treat the entire trackpad as a button (which it is).

Apple has also added four-finger gestures to the trackpad on top of the already impressive list of multi-touch gestures on the MacBook and these new four-fingered swipes activate a range of new stuff. Side to side gives you the app changer, swiping upwards or downwards will quickly hide or reveal all your current applications running (aka Expose).

Last but not least, the audio clarity was decent despite the speakers being hidden beneath the keyboard, though you'll find that the sound tends to come out from the hinge instead of where it lies beneath the keyboard. It's kind of a good thing really, since the screen is there to "bounce" the sound back at you instead of being scattered all over.