MacBook 2008 Review: Much better than the new MacBook today

Apple launched this interesting MacBook on October 14, 2008, and continued to manufacture it until June 8, 2009. And this is also one of the best Apple laptops to date, with the ultimate keyboard and many other small but cool features that today's super model MacBook users only dare to dream of, from battery level indicator, to the hard drive can almost be replaced hot!

In fact, the MacBook 2008 is so good that you can still use it as your main computer today without a problem. So what is this MacBook that has been "praised"?

Review 2008 aluminum monolithic MacBook

12 years is an unusually long life cycle for a laptop. Each of us when buying a new laptop is asking the question, not knowing how long the machine we are about to buy will "last" for a long time? One of the reasons why the 2008 MacBook is so durable is that it can easily be repaired and upgraded.

Regarding configuration, MacBook 2008 uses Intel Core 2 Duo 2.4GHz processor, 4GB RAM DDR3 1067 MHz, Nvidia GeForce 9400M 256MB GPU, 13.3-inch LCD screen with 1280 x 800 resolution.

The latest version of the operating system that can be used is OS X 10.11.6 El Capitan - you will not be able to install some new software, such as Logic Pro X. However, that is not a big problem because not everyone uses such software.

Unlike previous iPad or iPhone models, the MacBook 2008 in 2020 is still "as fast as the wind", just like when it was released. Perhaps "thanks" to Apple does not allow operating system upgrades beyond 10.11, so this laptop still reaches the optimal speed, ensuring its usefulness. If you upgrade your HDD to SSD, it's even faster than when you first bought it!

Features that make MacBook 2008 better than the new MacBook today

Here is a list of a number of features that today's Mac users will want to drool over, all of which appear on the 2008 MacBook:

- 2 full-size USB-A ports

- Ethernet port

- Headphone and microphone jack, support optical audio input and output

- Mini Display port

- Charging MagSafe

- The sleep mode indicator is blinking

- Battery LED indicator, with battery test button on the side of the device

- Removable battery

- Removable hard drive

- DVD / CD drive

Not over yet. The 2008 MacBook also has a great backlit keyboard, which is comfortable to use because of its high accuracy and robustness.

However, the hardware of the 2008 MacBook still has its weaknesses: RAM is limited to 4GB (you can add it yourself without any problems), and the screen is of non-Retina type. In actual use, the difference between Retina and non-Retina may also be temporarily acceptable. Finally, there is no expansion card slot.

Repair ability

If you open this MacBook, you will be surprised at the space inside it. The components are still firmly attached, but certainly not as tight as the current MacBook.

Compare it to a home-made cheese sandwich, with wholemeal bread, and some lettuce leaves topped with shredded cheese. Today's modern MacBook resembles a pastrami sandwich sold at fast food stands in New York, crammed with too much meat, there's no room for even a drop of mustard.

That means fixing everything becomes relatively easy. Flip the battery cover on the bottom, and you'll be able to remove the battery by pulling a piece of plastic. The hard drive is nearby, and you can pull it off and replace it in minutes with just a few screws. Wow! Assuming the hard drive is broken, you can replace the new hard drive and continue working almost immediately! You can replace the SSD in it also.

Apple also allows users to remove the internal optical drive and replace an SSD drive instead. RAM is also easy to disassemble and replace - unlike solder RAM that dies into circuits like today's MacBooks.

It can be seen that you can completely replace all the components that wear out over time and keep your laptop in a "good" state forever. Even fixing the trackpad itself is easy, and if you can, you can buy a new trackpad to scratch.

SSD

There is one trick anyone using older Macs has to do: replace the rotating hard drive with an SSD. On laptops, this is more important than desktops, because laptops often use slow-speed hard drives, only 5,400rpm (although the iMac will still use one of these sluggish laptop hard drives in . 2020).

Replacing the SSD drive will cause your aging Mac to spring up immediately. You will notice the difference when your computer boots up immediately from sleep mode, and performance is equivalent to iOS, instead of having to wait for applications to bounce on the dock up to 15 times to start. And on MacBook 2008, replacing SSD is extremely easy. However, you should not replace the HDD with an SSD. A more reasonable way is to replace the optical drive with an SSD, and keep the HDD of the machine intact. At that time, you can turn the HDD into a backup and set a backup schedule from SSD to HDD every day, then unmount the HDD to save battery. Speaking of battery, after 20 years, if used properly, the MacBook 2008 battery can still last more than an hour, and you can replace it at any time.

Conclusion

All praise, but no one would recommend buying a 2008 MacBook at this time. You can own it for less than $ 200, but who knows how it has been treated by the previous owner? You will probably have to replace everything inside. But if you, or your friends, or your relatives, have a 2008 MacBook, you probably don't need to consider what it is.