Review: Apple Macbook 2.1GHz
16th April 2008 | 8:46
This review was written for a job application to Custom PC magazine.
Playing games on Apple’s newest Macbook is like taking a lap dance from the Queen. It’ll satisfy a curiosity but undoubtedly leave you emotionally desolate and financially drained. Apple has a biannual tradition of announcing they’re getting serious about gaming, usually involving the illustrious John Carmack as if his mere stage presence was proof enough that they were bringing it all home. True to form, Doom 3 was severely delayed for OS X and the Mac continued to suffer a dearth of variety.
Gaming
The OS X catalogue is composed largely of strategy games like Age of Empires, casual games like The Sims and Lego Star Wars, as well as select hardcore titles such as Call of Duty 4 and Colin McRae Rally. However, you can forget playing these last two on your Macbook as the integrated Intel GMA X3100 graphics chip only provides just enough power to play games published during the stone age (or 2004). However, the lack of volume on OS X means that high-profile titles from four years ago are still considered high-profile today, at least by retailers: Rise of Nations is still £35 years after release, whereas the PC version can be found for less than a fiver.
If you don’t fancy waiting three years to play a game like Fable, the recent jump to Intel processors and the introduction of Boot Camp means that you can install Windows XP (or Vista, though I won’t patronise you) on a separate partition and play a wealth of semi-retro games for pittance. Though you’ll be losing a rigid amount of precious disk-space and potentially paying for a second OS, having games like GTA3 and Morrowind on the move is a blessing. You will start having problems with these older games not supporting the 13.3” screen’s native 1,280×800 resolution, leaving them stretched or bordered, but then you’ll already be making cosmetic sacrifices by giving a new definition to Leopard’s “Time Machine” feature and playing these relics in the first place.
Performance
With 2GB of RAM and the unparalleled multitasking abilities of OS X, it has no difficulties coping with simultaneous instances of any program you want to throw at it, though performance predictably suffers with 3D applications like Maya. The machine itself bares the Apple trademark of beauty – small and reasonably light, with a glossy screen that displays gorgeous images. Even so, Apple’s claim of “millions of colours” is the cake of colour depth as there’s noticeable use of dithering. The touchpad recognises limited gestures for scrolling which becomes indispensable after a few minutes use. The only real negative is that the clean lines across the rim of the machine are quite sharp and begin to dig in to your wrists over prolonged use.
Conclusion
Of course judging a Macbook on its gaming prowess is as unfair as judging the Queen on her aforementioned lapdancing abilities. They were both destined to do other things. If gaming is a secondary concern and, god-forbid, productivity is your primary, then the Macbook is an excellent choice. Spec-wise it’s a surprising equal to other laptops in its price-bracket, but also boasts excellent build quality and arguably the best OS on the market. With a 20GB Boot Camp partition you’ll also be able to indulge in some classic gaming action.
