The Macbook's aluminum case labeled "Unibody" still sets standards on design and workmanship. Furthermore, haptic and stability are also on the highest state-of-the-art level. Compared to the other MacBook Pro Unibody laptops, the design of the 13" MacBook appears to be more adapted to the proportions and is therefore the most optically pleasing Apple notebook today.

Only the somewhat hard front edge and the glass trackpad placed far front could become unpleasantly noticeable at longer use.

Single-Keyed Keyboard

The new MacBook keyboard is also based on the pre-work of the MacBook Air and is identical to the keyboards of the new MacBook Pro (15" & 17"). The single keys are, like in the predecessor, let into the case directly and have a soft stroke with a palpable pressure point. Thanks to the multiple screwing of the keyboard unit to the full-body, the keys sit tightly in the case and don't clatter. A bending isn't possible due to the aluminium cover, either.

The Apple keyboard's layout is well-executed for the Mac OS X. An immediate touch typing was possible without further ado in the practical test. The small arrow keys (rather disagreeable mainly for gamers) and the thin enter key have remained untouched.

Apple builds the practical background key-light only into the top model and is unfortunately omitted in the small MacBook.

As always, Windows PC switchers have to be warned. The layout is optimized for Mac OS X and due to the sparse lettering (i.e. the lettering for the "[]{} symbols are missing) you won't come about trial & error attempts in the beginning.

The new Glass Trackpad

The new trackpad is made of glass and also identical to the bigger MacBook (Pro) Unibody notebooks. The excellent gliding traits and the fabulous drivers for Mac OS X (including multitouch gestures) are also pleasing. The missing touchpad keys are bearable under Mac OS X; under Windows you always again meet its limits (i.e. with drag & drop) because of the more moderate driver support. Hence, Windows-users should additionally include an external mouse.

Mirror, mirror… - This is the best way to describe a display surface covered with a glass facade. The maximum brightness of 265 cd/m² of our test device was once more considerably lower than that of the 2.4 GHz test devices in our first tests (318 cd/m² and 300 cd/m²). The brightness is still sufficient for interiors. But, the pre-set stable glass panel reflects very strongly in bright surroundings and especially outdoors, though.

The maximum contrast of 166:1 is similarly weak as in other MacBook models and the illumination isn't very homogeneous, either. Generally, it's therefore not an outstanding display, but in comparison to the older white MacBook demonstrably better, though.

The color space of the little 13" wide screen is, as it is common for standard notebook TN displays, more modest and stays considerably below the standard RGB color space (see diagram).

The MCP79 chipset with integrated GeForce 9400M graphic also comes to use in the smaller 2 GHz MacBook Aluminum, as in the bigger and in the new plastic MacBook. 256 MB of the fast DDR3 RAM are assigned to the graphic unit in Mac OS X. Hence, the graphic performance is comparable to starter graphic cards with a dedicated graphic memory (ATI Radeon HD 3450 or Geforce 9300M GS).

The white polycarbonate MacBook is equipped with the same processor/graphic combination from Apple and differs itself only through the applied DDR2 main memory. This should especially brake the graphic performance somewhat.

Crysis was just still playable with an average of 30 fps at "low" detail settings and a resolution of 1024x786 in the practical gaming test. With a lower resolution you should also "get through" in the challenging game's progress, but the graphical delight is very limited with theses settings.

Older and less demanding games, like Sims 2 or Spore should run well on the MacBook (as well as on the stronger one).

On the whole, you can say that the performance of the 9400M suffices for undemanding, occasional gamers.

After we've had the 2.4 GHz Unibody Apple MacBook in review, the small 2.0 GHz starter version introduced itself. The buyer receives a 2.0 GHz Core 2 Duo T7350, a smaller hard disk, and unfortunately an unlit keyboard for 300.00 Euros less.

The superb Unibody case, which sets standards on design, workmanship and stability, stays the same. The outstanding input devices please the small MacBook's user.

The performance is for all "normal users" sufficient and only users with an "increased computing requirement" (i.e. video coding, frequent video editing, recompiling demanding software…) might need the higher efficiency of the 2.4 GHz model.

On the contra side of the MacBook series are the meager interface equipment, the reflective display (which does spoil outdoor operations considerably), the high purchase price and the still weak Window drivers.