Apple brings consumer chic to MacBooks

Apple on Tuesday unveiled its much-anticipated MacBook, the final member of its new family of Intel-based laptops.

Billed as a replacement to the 12-inch PowerBook, the 13-inch widescreen MacBook, which is on sale now, starts at £749 for a 1.83GHz Intel Core Duo processor with a 60GB hard drive. Like the former iBooks, that model -- and the next model up, which packs a 2.0GHz processor and a 60GB hard drive -- is cased in white.

The top-of-the-line 2.0GHz model, starting at £1,028.99, comes equipped with a 80GB hard drive and is available only in black.

The new MacBooks weigh 2.4kg each and measure 28mm thick, making them about 20 per cent thinner than the iBook. According to press materials from Apple, they're also equipped with a display that is 79 per cent brighter than the iBook and the 12-inch PowerBook.

Each of the new MacBooks will come with a built-in iSight video camera, which can be used for video conferencing and video podcasts.

They also include built-in 10/100/1000 BASE-T Gigabit Ethernet, built-in AirPort Extreme 802.11g Wi-Fi, built-in Bluetooth 2.0+EDR (Enhanced Data Rate), two USB 2.0 ports, combination analogue and optical digital audio input and output ports, and a mini-DVI video output to connect up to an Apple Cinema HD Display.

Apple first announced the MacBook Pro series, which features models with 15- and 17-inch screens, in January. Rumours of the latest MacBook revelations had been swirling in recent weeks, with one Mac rumour site predicting the release would be a week earlier.