Measuring about only one inch thick, 12.8 inches wide, and only shy of 9 inches deep, the new MacBook keeps the balance between design and portability, just like the Vaio SZ series of Sony.
A short time ago I saw the Unibody Macbook,
it just had everything i liked. What I disliked most about the notebook was its sticker price. Apple decided to make the new MacBook more expensive than previous editions since it's built like a MacBook Pro but lacks some of the high-end attributes.
Unibody, Apple's preferred word, is a little misnomer, cause of the bottom panel is split, also lid and display are made up by different parts. In terms of creaks and noise while using it, this MacBook is almost quiet. Although the placstic hinge on this model is more fragile than the hinges on the Aluminum models, its not useless. Rather than a LCD latch mechanism all MacBooks use a magnetic latch. This model has the white plastic polycarbonate we have known and loved through the years. Just like its earlier versions (I can say I owned three versions) build quality is hit and miss. There are small gaps where panels come together, and the battery still sticks out a wee bit. Its performance doesn't match that of the MacBook Pro, which is outfitted with discrete graphics and more memory, but the MacBook's combination of design, features, and software significantly narrows the value gap between Apple laptops and the PC competition.
Controlling tolerances with plastic construction is harder than when using metal.Apple builds the MacBook from a single chunk of polycarbonate - the same rigid material you might know from Nalgene bottles, CDs, and even bulletproof windows. It's tough, and the MacBook shows it. When inspected from all around the chassis, the polycarbonate could make a cheap laptop feel very fragile, but on MacBook it feels tough. The same solidification that happened on the MacBook Pro carries right over to plastic version, and we love it just the same.
LED backlit screen system is used on the 13.3 inch display (it is a standard feature of Apple products recently), LED backlit displays are known for their low power consumption rates and quality. Still, they are not the same as more expensive Pro models, you need to pay more money to get a better display. Other points of differentiation include the lack of an SD card slot and a backlit keyboard and one forward-looking change we'd like to see is a move to 16:9 displays, which are quickly becoming an industry standard. The MacBook's 13.3-inch wide-aspect display is just about the perfect size: it's large enough for watching movies or working with two windows open side by side, still its small enough to allow you to put and airplane table on your lap.
I need to mention its bright very much (measurements show 230cd/m² which is above average), also the 1.280x800 display resolution provide the perfect screen detail for this size of display. MacBook offers a glossy display, this is first on an Apple laptop, keep in mind to be careful of bright places, gloosy coating causes glare.
In fact, I am not a fan of Chiclet-style keyboards, I always enjoyed traditional keyboard clicks, but Apple's is one of the best in the business.
Be aware of the FireWire port doesn't exist on MacBook anymore. We would have thought this would be a good opportunity to add the same SD card slot found on the Pro 13-inch, but it was not to be.
Generally performance is good, but there are speedier notebooks on the market from brands like HP, Acer and Dell at about the same price. None of them have what are the MacBook's best features; OS X and iLife.
When our video playback charge drain test is applied, the Apple MacBook kept going on for 5 big hours plus 42 minutes. Toshiba's Satellite T135-S1310, however, showed the advantage of using an Intel ULV processor, going for an additional 30 minutes to pass 6 hours of total running time.
