While Apple Inc. unveiled its new line of laptops today to significant media fanfare, some Mac junkies looking for the rumoured US$800 notebook were left in the cold.
The Cupertino, Calif.-based computer maker announced its entry level MacBook computer would be priced at $999 – just $100 less than its previous starter notebook. The bottom-end MacBook will come equipped with a 2.1GHz Core 2 Duo processor, 1GB of memory and a 120GB hard drive.
The company did, however, make good on speculation that it would be enhancing its graphics cards. CEO Steve Jobs said that the new MacBook and MacBook Pro lines will ship with Nvidia Corp. graphic processors, which on MacBook models could deliver up to five times the 3D graphics performance of the chips inside previous models.
The most expensive machine in the MacBook Pro series – which features with two Nvidia graphic chips – will cost $2,499, while an updated MacBook Air notebook will cost $1,799.
The new laptops are available immediately from Apple’s online store, retail outlets and other licenced dealers.