MacBook 2.2GHz review

Apple's MacBook range has evolved gently since its initial release in 2006, and this latest update appears to be another modest upgrade. However, the performance improvements are significant.

The reason for the speed boost is the migration to Intel's Santa Rosa platform, as used in the MacBook Pro. While Santa Rosa uses the same mobile version of the Core 2 Duo, codenamed Merom, as the previous MacBook, the new architecture increases the frontside bus speed to 800MHz and reduces power consumption by allowing the bus speed to be reduced where possible and enhancing the sleep state.

Other features of the Santa Rosa platform are better graphics support in the form of the Intel GMA x3100m, and support for 802.11n wireless networking. Santa Rosa also includes a formof flash memory cacheing, known as Turbo Memory, but this hasn't been implemented in either the MacBook Pro or this new MacBook.

The only other spec change of note, aside form the frontside bus and graphics chip, is a bump in processor clock speed from 2.16GHz to 2.2GHz. Standard memory remains a reasonable 1GB, in the form of two 512MB Dimms. This means that there are no free Ram slots, so to max out the Ram to 2GB, you'll need to ditch the 512MB cards. The hard drive on this, top of the range model is a 160GB 5400rpm serial ATA disk, and the optical drive, a 8x dual-layer SuperDrive.

In addition to support for 802.11n wifi, there's Bluetooth 2 built in, as well as a gigabit Ethernet port, two USB 2 ports, a FireWire 400 interface and a mini DVI socket. There are also 3.5mm jacks for digital and analogue audio in and out. These are complemented by built-in stereo speakers, which sit at the back of the keyboard and use the lower screen bezel to bounce sound back at you, and a built-in mic.

There's also the now ubiquitous iSight camera above the 13.3in display. It's worth noting that there is no video adaptor in the box, so if you want to use the mini-DVI port to connect to a projector or screen, you'll need to buy the appropriate connector.

In our tests, the MacBook did surprisingly well. The Xbench CPU test showed a 21% improvement over the black 2.16GHz MacBook that was the top of the previous range, and the Quartz graphics test improved by 57%. As you would expect, the disk test results were unchanged.

As has been the case since the MacBook was first introduced, there's a premium to pay for the black model. The only difference in specification between this and the faster of the two white MacBooks is an additional 40GB hard drive space. The difference in price is £120. In other words, if you prefer black to white, Apple will stiff you for an additional 12% or so on top of the price of the cheaper model (allowing £20 for the additional hard disk space).

Is it worth it? For most of us probably not. But there is one aspect, other than pure aesthetics, to consider. The white MacBook does get rather grubby after a while, particularly around the keyboard and the screen bezel. This is much less noticeable on the black model.

Despite the price premium, the black MacBook 2.2GHz is a superb machine, and well worth £949.