Photos: Hands-on with the updated 13-inch Apple MacBook

By Scott Stein and Dan Ackerman on 10 June 2009, 11:07am

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Photos: Hands-on with the updated 13-inch Apple MacBook Image 1

Apple's lowest-end laptop occupies a special place in the Mac spectrum. As of WWDC 2009, it's the last MacBook standing in the lineup -- all the other Apple laptops are now MacBook Pros. The MacBook (we can call it 'the' MacBook now) is also the last to retain the polycarbonate white plastic glossy casing that once defined a whole line of machines.

While the MacBook's more pedestrian appearance may not catch the eye as much as the unibody aluminium MacBook Pros, don't be fooled by its throw-back looks -- inside, Apple's done a good job of keeping the components on a par with its more expensive brothers. In fact, the white MacBook has comparable specs to the lowest-end 13-inch MacBook Pro. Its 2.13GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor is close to the MacBook Pro's standard 2.26GHz one, and the Nvidia GeForce 9400M graphics processor is the same one that's in the MacBook Pro unibody 13-incher, so the gaming and media capabilities are comparable.

Depending on your specific needs, for £749, you're getting a real bargain with the last MacBook. You can either approach this as 'for £150 more I can get a MacBook Pro' or 'I can get something nearly as good as a MacBook Pro and save £150'. The latter perspective, however, requires you to be willing to skip some of the Pro-level features.

The MacBook comes with two USB 2.0 ports, a mini-DVI port, a FireWire 400 port, and both a headphone and mic jack. The 160GB hard drive can be upgraded to a maximum of 500GB when ordering -- a first for a MacBook. The polycarbonate body, as always, feels sturdy and well built, if thicker than the aluminium versions, and the pleasingly minimalist glossy plastic exterior and matte white interior might be more prone to picking up scratches and staining.

What you're missing by not upgrading to the £899 13-inch MacBook Pro is a better colour-depth LED-backlit screen, a thinner, lighter body, FireWire 800, DDR3 RAM (the MacBook only has DDR2), a longer-life 7-hour (according to Apple) non-removable battery, a bigger multitouch touchpad (this smaller one does support some multitouch gestures), and an SD card slot. If you can live without these, then the MacBook might just be your best bet.