Review by NotebookNotes.com

The aluminum MacBook was introduced last year and represents a complete redesign compared to the previous generation of MacBooks that used a white or black plastic casing.
The most significant change under the hood was Apple’s switch to a Nvidia-based GPU and motherboard design, dropping the lackluster Intel GPUs used by the chipsets featured in the previous generations of Apple MacBooks.

In the box

The MacBook comes with an the usual Apple AC adapter brick and an additional extension cord. A cleaning cloth for the glass display is also included, as it’s a bit of a fingerprint magnet. Apart from a short manual and some Apple stickers, that’s it. If you want the Apple Remote or display adapters, you’ll have to purchase them separately.

Display

The 13 inch 1280×800, 16:10 display is glossy and features LED backlighting.
At highest brightness levels, whites can be positively blinding and the display is very legible - even when working next to a window.
However, the glossy display is quite reflective and the fact that the entire display is covered by glass increases its reflectiveness.
The display is now flush with the bezel though, which looks very nice.
The Apple iSight camera behind the glass is hardly noticeable and provides acceptable image quality. Perfect for video calls and recording podcasts.

Design

The new models feature a so-called “unibody” design - the entire body is made out of a single piece of aluminum. This gives the notebook an extremely sturdy feel. There’s no “give” when typing and when closed the entire system feels very rigid and sturdy.

Keyboard & trackpad

The keyboard is very nice to type on and all the keys are a nice size. The large trackpad, which supports up to 4-fingered multitouch gestures, is very smooth and responsive. The unusual “button” that is activated by pushing down on the trackpad itself works very well and you’ll find yourself missing the “swiping” and “pinching” gestures when using external peripherals.

Performance & graphics

This machine feels very snappy and is a marked improvement over the previous generation MacBook. Causal gamers in particular can finally consider the MacBook for mid-range games such as Call of Duty 4 or GTA IV, which it will run fluidly at native resolution.

Battery life

Apple claims “up to 5 hours of wireless productivity”. In my experience you can easily get around 4 hours of general browsing, provided you dim the display a bit. If you’re running CPU intensive applications, e.g. running Windows in Parallels or VMWare, you’ll see battery life cut to around 2.5-3 hours. The battery is user-replaceable, but not quite as easily accessed as on the previous model (you now need to open a latch to reveal the lithium-polymer battery). The cover for the battery area has a tiny gap between the rest of the casing, which is not very noticeable though.

Special features

The Mini DisplayPort connector means you’ll need to budget for a 30 $/€ DVI or VGA adapter as well if you plan on using it with an external display or projector.

Conclusion

The aluminum MacBook is a substantial upgrade over the previous generation. The new casing gives the notebook a much more professional look and feel and the Nvidia chipset makes it a viable option for casual gamers and professional users with GPU-intensive applications who are looking for something smaller than the 15 or 17 inch MacBook Pros.

Review written by Adrian Thomas

Pro & Con

Pro	Con
Improved graphics performance Vastly improved case design Sturdy build quality	Glossy screen Lack of Firewire port might put off users with lots of Firewire peripherals Battery cover fit not always perfect

Rating

Editor rating
User rating	n/a

Buy online

Buy for $1,499.99