Apple Quietly Launches New MacBook Notebooks

The new MacBooks take advantage of Intel's "Santa Rosa" Centrino mobile platform like the MacBook Pro, with 2.0 and 2.2 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processors, the Intel GMA X3100 graphics processor and an 800MHz frontside bus.

The notebooks come with an 80GB, 120GB, or 160GB 5400RPM SATA hard drive and 1GB of 667MHz DDR2 SDRAM (PC2-5300) with support for up to 4GB. A 250 GB drive is also an option.

The launch comes almost a week after Apple launched its next-generation operating system, Leopard OS 10.5, which allows users to boot both itself and Microsoft Windows when starting up their Macs. Apple sold more than 2 million copies of the Leopard OS in its first weekend on the market.

The new MacBooks, like their predecessors, are available in white and black. The basic configuration in white with a 2.0GHz processor and an 80GB hard drive sells for $1,099. Taking advantage of the 2.2GHz model raises the price to $1,299 for a MacBook with a 120GB hard drive and SuperDrive, and switching to black and upgrading to a 160GB hard drive and Super Drive costs $1,499.