it seems that boutique notebook builder Malibal (pronounced mal-la-bull) is ready to see desktops die. The company specializes in custom-built desktop replacements. No thin-and-lights. No ultraportables. No "mainstream" models. The Veda series is its largest, with an 18.4-inch LCD that can be loaded with Core 2 Quad Extreme QX9300 (ours was), 8GB of DDR3 memory (had that, too), and it comes standard with dual Nvidia GeForce GTX280M graphics cards. However, while the components are top-notch, the design could use some help.

In Malibal's favor, all of our complaints about the notebook are things out of its control; the system is a design by laptop OEM/ODM Clevo. What the company can take credit for is the expert assembly, ample component offerings, a promise of excellent service and support, competitive pricing, and a no-risk purchase policy; all good things, considering the significant expense of the system.

As mentioned earlier, all of our issues with the Veda have to do with design. Overall, the laptop, despite its monstrous size, is good looking. The body is free of branding, but is lit up like a Christmas tree; colored light pours from the rear fan vents, the front-firing speaker grills, and a tribal tattoo-like design on the lid. A touch-sensitive key above the keyboard lets you cycle through different colors or you can let it rotate through the colors every few seconds or, thankfully, shut them off altogether. The lid, the keyboard surround and palm rests, the touch pad, and the row of touch-sensitive keys topping the keyboard are all covered in high-gloss black plastic. After 10 seconds of use, all of those surfaces had some manner of hand- or fingerprints on them.

The ports, inputs, and outputs--except for the power--are crowded on the left and right sides. If you plan to connect this to an external monitor, speakers or headset, keyboard and mouse, and Ethernet, you're going have nothing but cables spewing from the sides. And speaking of crowded, given the notebook's considerable size, the chiclet-style keyboard has noticeably small keys. What's weird is that the size worked well for gaming, but was not ideal for typing. The touch pad is small as well and has no physical border, just a line of blue light around its edge. Also, though it's nice that there are eight programmable macro buttons to the left of the keyboard, they take up a seemingly unnecessary amount of space.

The 18.4-inch wide-screen LCD display offers a 1,920x1,080 native resolution, which is standard for a screen this size. Despite its glossy "GlassView" panel, the display performed well, with very good color and contrast, and excellent wide viewing angles. Above the screen is a 3-megapixel Webcam, which worked well in our Skype tests, as did the dual, built-in mics. What's not all that good is the speaker system. Despite having five speakers and a subwoofer, the sound in music, movies, and games lacked depth, regardless of any audio tweaks we made. The speakers are basically just better than nothing and you'll want to take advantage of the Veda's S/PDIF output for external speakers or headphones.

As for ports, inputs, outputs, and networking, there was nothing we really saw missing from this build. Audio I/O jacks are on the right side with a USB 2.0 port and an eSATA/USB 2.0 combo port. There's also an RF-in if you want to connect an external tuner. On the left side is everything else, which again, makes for kind of a mess if you load up all the ports--or even just a few.

While our review unit was configured with nearly every high-end option available and cost more than $5,000, the Veda actually starts at a more reasonable $2,272. The specs for that system are considerably less impressive: 2.53GHz Intel Core 2 Duo P8700, 2GB of DDR3 RAM, a 250GB 5,400rpm hard drive, a DVD burner, and no operating system. (Yes, you can save yourself some cash by not getting an OS preinstalled.) The dual Nvidia graphics cards are included in that price, though.

In contrast, we had a 2.53GHz Intel Core 2 Quad Extreme QX9300, along with 8GB of DDR3 RAM, three 80GB SSDs, and the dual 512MB Nvidia GeForce GTX280M graphics cards. The configuration provided exceptional performance on our multitasking, image-processing, and audio-encoding tests. Though this combo was outperformed by the AVADirect Clevo D900F, that notebook used a 3.33GHz Intel Core i7-975 Extreme Quad Core desktop processor.

In our PC gaming tests, the Veda didn't crush the competition, but it did outperform the other laptops. This includes a similarly configured Alienware M17x. (In fact, it bested the Alienware slightly in all of our performance tests.) However, frame rates were particularly good, at 1,920x1,200, providing smooth play on graphically demanding games.

Juice box

Malibal Veda series
Off (watts)	1.5
Sleep (watts)	2.2
Idle (watts)	51.8
Load (watts)	204.6
Raw (annual kWh)	347
Annual operating cost (@$0.1135/kWh)	$39.38

Battery life, as expected, is pretty short at just 58 minutes on our video playback battery drain test. To expect the high-performance components in our review system to last long on battery power would be foolish, but of all the desktop replacements we've recently tested, the Veda had the worst battery life. You can buy an extra battery for $135, but it hardly seems worth it, especially since you have to remove and replace three screws to swap it out.

Radically overhauled last year, Apple's MacBook line of laptops moved to aluminum construction, edge-to-edge glass over LED displays, and oversize multitouch trackpads (with the exception of the lone $999 white plastic model). The latest round of updates is more of a refinement than another revolution, but it adds some much-sought-after features, while lowering prices on many configurations.

Most notable, the 13-inch aluminum unibody MacBook has been promoted to join the MacBook Pro family. It's a move that makes sense, as the differences between the two lines were becoming increasingly blurred. To complete the transformation, the 13-inch Pro regains its missing FireWire port, making it even more useful for creative professionals on the go.

New to the Pro line is something we never thought we'd see on a MacBook: an SD card slot. Standard on the 13- and 15-inch Pro laptops, this corrects one of our main MacBook annoyances. We're also pleased to see the backlit keyboard--previously found in only the more expensive 13-inch versions--filter down to even the $1,149 base model (which is a nice discount from the previous $1,299 entry price).

Some have strong feelings about the nonremovable battery--similar to those already found on the MacBook Air and 17-inch Pro. It's a legitimate concern, but we think the promise of better battery life (Apple claims up to a 40 percent improvement), and three times as many recharge cycles as older batteries is just as important.

There are still a few items on our 13-inch wish list--matte screens, mobile broadband options, Blu-ray--but Apple has done an admirable job filling in some of the major missing pieces. By offering more features for less money, the 13-inch MacBook Pro remains one of the most universally useful laptops available.

The design and construction of the system remain largely the same as last year's model, with a solid block of aluminum carved down, rather than a thin outer shell that has had support struts added to it. It's both lighter and sturdier than the older plastic versions of the 13-inch MacBook.

The new Pro also retains the same oversize trackpad, where the entire surface depresses like a button--although a simple tapping (as on a PC laptop) will also work once you turn that option on in the settings menu. We've become accustomed to the two-, three-, and four-finger multitouch gestures, which let you hide all your apps by sweeping four fingers up on the pad, or bring up the application switcher by sweeping four fingers left or right. Once you get used to that, going back to a regular touch pad is difficult.

According to Apple, the new display offers a wider color gamut, and the screen certainly looks bright and colorful, but we wish the same matte-screen option offered on the 17-inch MacBook Pro was available across the line. The 13.3-inch wide-screen LCD offers a 1,280x800-pixel native resolution, which is standard for screens this size, but we'd love to see Apple try its hand at a 16:9 laptop display.

While the LED screen means a thinner lid and some battery life benefits, the edge-to-edge glass covering the entire display panel grabs stray light rays with ease, making the glossy screen hard to see in some lighting conditions.

By bringing back the FireWire port (now FireWire 800) and adding an SD card slot, Apple has addressed most of our most pressing issues with the previous 13-inch model. Pro photographers will point out that they usually use CompactFlash cards, but the rest of us won't have to always remember to pack a USB card reader or cable to directly connect our cameras. Connecting to another video display, however, will require a sold-separately dongle for the Mini-DisplayPort video output.

The 13-inch MacBook Pro performed as expected in our benchmark tests, with the 2.26GHz GHz Intel Core 2 Duo CPU roughly on par with the 2.4GHz processor in the late-2008 version of the 13-inch MacBook. Trading up to the faster 2.8GHz Core 2 Duo available in the 15-inch MacBook Pro yields a marked improvement on paper, but for most anecdotal use--Web surfing, working on office documents, multimedia playback--any of the current MacBooks will be more than adequate. An even faster 3.08GHz CPU is available on the 15-inch MacBook Pro, but the 13-inch model tops out at 2.53GHz.

We found the same Nvidia GeForce 9400 graphics as last time--a GPU that redefined the meaning of integrated graphics. The previous 13-inch MacBook gave us almost 60 frames per second in Quake IV (admittedly not the most hardware-intensive game) at 1,024x768-pixel resolution. Only the 15- and 17-inch versions offer the second, discrete GeForce 9600 GPU. But being able to play new games, even at lower resolutions, on this system is a major plus for nonhardcore gamers.

The new battery in the 13- and 15-inch MacBook Pros is nonremovable, but Apple claims the system can last up to 7 hours while surfing the Web, and about half that for DVD playback. To assuage concerns about the sealed battery, according to Apple, the new models are good for at least 1,000 full recharge cycles--which it estimate to be about five years of use. We were able to run the system for 5 hours and 42 minutes on our video playback battery drain test, which is about 40 minutes longer than the current 15-inch MacBook and more than an hour longer than the basic white MacBook--the only model Apple still offers with the older removable battery.

Unfortunately, we haven't seen any changes to the basics of Apple's warranty and support plans. New MacBooks still include a standard one-year, parts-and-labor warranty, but only 90 days of toll-free telephone support. This, along with the proprietary nature of Apple's products, makes purchasing an extended Apple Care warranty almost a necessity, but a necessity that will cost $249 for three total years of coverage for 13-inch systems and $349 for 15- and 17-inch models.

Juice box

Apple MacBook Pro 13-inch
Off (watts)	0.5043
Sleep (watts)	0.6349
Idle (watts)	6.5
Load (watts)	40.1
Raw (annual kWh)	35.01
EnergyStar compliant	Yes
Annual operating cost (@$0.1135/kWh)	$3.97

Find out more about how we test laptops.

System configurations:
Apple MacBook Pro - Summer 2009 - Core 2 Duo 13.3 inch - 2.26GHz
OS X 10.5.7 Leopard; Intel Core 2 Duo 2.26GHz; 2048MB DDR3 SDRAM 1066MHz; 256MB Nvidia GeForce 9400M; 160GB Hitachi 5,400rpm

Apple MacBook Pro - Summer 2009 - Core 2 Duo 15.4 inch - 2.8GHz
OS X 10.5.7 Leopard; Intel Core 2 Duo 2.8GHz; 4096MB DDR3 SDRAM 1066MHz; 256MB Nvidia GeForce 9400M / 512MB Nvidia GeForce 9600M GT; 500GB Hitachi 5,400rpm Apple MacBook - 2008 - Core 2 Duo 13.3 inch - 2.4GHz OS X 10.5.5 Leopard; Intel Core 2 Duo 2.2GHz; 2048MB DDR3 SDRAM 1066MHz; 256MB Nvidia GeForce 9400M; 250GB Toshiba 5,400rpm

Dell Adamo
Windows Vista Home Premium SP1 (64-bit); 1.2GHz Intel Core 2 Duo U9300; 2048MB DDR2 SDRAM 800MHz; 779MB (Shared) Mobile Intel GMA 4500MHD; 128GB Samsung SSD

Apple MacBook - Summer 2009 - Core 2 Duo 13.3 inch - 2.13GHz
OS X 10.5.7 Leopard; Intel Core 2 Duo 2.13GHz; 2048MB DDR3 SDRAM 800MHz; 256MB Nvidia GeForce 9400M; 160GB Hitachi 5,400rpm

Dell is following hot on the heels of HP’s announcement last week and offering access to free music with the purchase of a new laptop. Unlike HP’s download-only tracks Dell has decided to go down the subscription route and is teaming up with Napster for the promotion.

With selected laptops customers will be given a complimentary subscription to the Napster Unlimited service. With that you get the following for 12 months:

• Access to 8 million music tracks
• Ability to play then online from any PC
• Unlimited downloads on up to 3 PCs
• 60 DRM-free tracks to download and keep

As this is a subscription service at the end of the 12 months if you do not decide to carry on with a paid subscription you don’t get to continue listening to any of the music you downloaded other than the 60 tracks.

Dell is hoping that such an offer will make its Inspiron and Studio laptops more desirable with the service being easily accessible from pre-installed software called Dell Dock and a Napster desktop shortcut. Dell Dock is used to setup the free subscription period before access is possible through the Napster link.

Advertising and availability of the offer by Dell is expected to appear before the end of October. It is thought Dell laptops in Best Buy will carry the promotion first followed by direct sales through the Dell U.S. website.

Read more at Pocket-lint and MusicWeek

Matthew’s Opinion

Just a note that this may be a slightly tweaked version of Napster Unlimited where by the streaming is available, but the downloads to 3 PCs aren’t. Until Dell confirm the promotion on its website we can assume it is the full Napster Unlimited offering and I hope that it is as it makes for a great year’s worth of music access.

This is a much better offer than the one being HP is running across Asia. The problem I had with the HP promotion is the fact it is only 1,000 songs wrapped in DRM which you lose after a year except for 120 you get to keep. That’s a limited music selection and a sudden loss of access after 12 months. With Dell and Napster that’s not the case; if you like the service then start paying for it and continue to enjoy all the music you downloaded.

I think this helps Napster more than it helps Dell. If someone uses the Napster Unlimited service for the full 12 months it’s quite likely they will subscribe as it is obviously of use to them. If you don’t like it then just don’t use it and don’t sign up after a year.

The subscription option is likely much cheaper for Dell to get on to laptops because there is no music licensing sales involved, it is just paying for access to a subscription service for a year. In fact, Napster may not be collecting any revenue from Dell for this and instead hoping that lots of customers will sign-up and start paying it directly in 12 months.

Of all the bloatware we see added to laptops this is definitely one of the more useful. You can keep the 60-day Office trials, hobbled video and photo editing suites, and “helpful” utilities. But give me a 12-month music service subscription and I might just give it a go.