A look at Apple's new MacBook and Mac mini

Continuing my look at Apple's newest computers, here's my take on the new Macbook 13-inch and Mac mini.

MacBook 13-inch

Apple's replacement for the 13" plastic-case MacBook keeps the price at an entry-level (for Apple) $1,000. They've given it the large glass-surface, multi-touch, gesture-enabled trackpad of its bigger siblings. They've also rounded the case's edges, switched to an LED-backlit screen, and installed a non-user-replaceable, 10 percent higher-capacity battery with twice the claimed service life (1000 charges) and two hours longer claimed charge life (7 hours).

A couple things were dropped from the previous model: the external battery-charge indicator, the FireWire port, and the remote-control pickup. I guess Apple doesn't consider this a media-centric laptop.

Under the hood, Apple has bumped up the processor from 2.13 GHz to a 2.26 GHz Core-2 Duo. The hard drive went up from 160 GB to 250 GB. The weight has gone down about 5 ounces to 4.7 lbs.

Some nice touches: The cover snaps closed magnetically, and has a thin, soft-plastic gasket around the edge that might help keep moisture from reaching the keyboard in transit. The seamless bottom panel is actually plastic-coated aluminum, which should help spread out the heat and reduce hot spots on your lap. The top surface of the wrist-rest area stayed cool in our tests.

All in all, this MacBook is a better value than the prior one: a little faster, a little lighter, a little longer running, and able to hold more stuff.

The new Mac mini

Mac mini

Apple's latest entry in the compact desktop arena hasn't changed on the outside, but has the expected configuration improvements inside. The Mac mini $600 model goes up from the previous 2 GHz to a 2.26 GHz Core-2 Duo processor, doubles the memory to 2 GB, and expands the hard drive from 120GB to 160GB. It keeps the FireWire 800 port, the generous 5 USB ports (though two are taken if you use a wired keyboard and mouse), and the mini-DVI port along with the adapter needed to connect a DVI display (you can buy a $19 adaptor for a VGA display.) Apple has added a mini-DisplayPort connector, now standard on Apple PCs, for Apple displays and the few non-Apple displays that can fit it.

For $200 more, the sibling model has a 10 percent faster processor (2.53 GHz), doubles the hard drive to 320GB, and doubles the memory to 4 GB.

The Mac mini remains an enigma, being shipped without a keyboard and mouse, presumably to keep the price low. If you add Apple's wired ones, the price goes up $100, or you can go wireless for $40 more. You'll also want speakers if you plan to play music, since the mini's internal speaker is insipid.

In my next post, I'll take a further look at the design and style of Apple's new computers. —Dean Gallea