I love my White MacBook and I’m sure if it was able to express such emotions it’d love me too, but being of the non-unibody variety it’s had a couple of casing related issues (the latest being sorted by Apple as I type) which have made me realise it’s not sufficiently robust for my needs.

With neither the new white unibody MacBooks and MacBook Air not including firewire ports and the 13” MacBook Pro’s £899 price tag being just £100 more than its polycarbonate sibling it wasn’t too hard to decide which model to buy.

The build quality of the aluminium unibody Pro is in a whole other league to the mid 2009 white MacBook, I can now pick my machine up without feeling like it might break (a feeling I developed after the adhesive holding the screen casing together came away after just 3 months) at any moment.
The multi-touch touchpad is a nice, even if for me it’s not the killer feature some find it to be.

The backlit screen looks gorgeous with colors far richer than the white MacBook I’ve migrated from and the underlit keyboard, far from being the pointless gimmick I’d previously considered it to be, makes typing in low light a breeze without being a battery-killer.

But for someone who uses their machine on the move, the real bonus over my previous MacBook is the built-in battery which provides up to 7 hours use. I’ve not achieved quite those lengths but I have been able to get 5-6 hours solid use, ideal for those times I’ll be away from a power point.

I was previously sceptical about being tied to a built-in power source, in my experience manufacturer battery life claims bear no connection with real world use so I’m pleased to say my doubts were misplaced.

The build issues with the white MacBook were a disappointment especially as my now ancient iBook G4 is in great condition, based on my experiences to date I suspect I’ll be saying the same about my Pro in a few years time.

Specs:
• 13.3-inch widescreen LED-backlit 1280 x 800 glossy display;
• 2.26 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo with 3MB shared L2 cache;
• 1066 MHz front-side bus;
• 2GB 1066 MHz DDR3 SDRAM, expandable to 8GB;
• NVIDIA GeForce 9400M integrated graphics;
• 160GB serial ATA hard drive running at 5400 rpm, with Sudden Motion Sensor;
• a slot-load 8X SuperDrive with double-layer support (DVD±R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW) optical drive;
• Mini DisplayPort for video output (adapters sold separately);
• built-in AirPort Extreme 802.11n wireless networking and Bluetooth 2.1+EDR;
• Gigabit Ethernet port;
• built-in iSight video camera;
• two USB 2.0 ports;
• one FireWire 800 port (FireWire 400 compatible);
• SD card slot;
• one audio line in/out port, supporting both optical digital and analogue;
• glass Multi-Touch trackpad and illuminated keyboard;
• built-in, 58WHr lithium polymer battery; and
• 60 Watt MagSafe Power Adapter.

Source: Apple