Summary, good first laptop, and a cheap price of 299! We are happy, and it came with windows 7, so new experience for us. We have xp and vista on our older PC’s.

- It’s well built and feels very solid which surprised me given its low price.
- It is powerful, I can watch HD 1080p video including YouTube videos once you update to the Beta Flash Player 10.1
- The keyboard has full sized keys making it easier to type compared to smaller netbook.
- The 11.6 screen is excellent. I never had to do any horizontal scrolling to view any websites.

The only negative is that the layout of the keyboard is a little weird. Especially the tiny direction arrows. I’ve gotten used to it the more I type on it.

Design – One of the most striking elements, for me, about thew new 13-inch MacBooks is that Apple has went to the aluminum enclosure, for this consumer priced machine. The aluminum notebooks from Apple have always looked, felt, and held up quite nicely, my Powerbook is a testament to that. Now, the aluminium form factor is available starting at $1299.

This particular notebook is perhaps the best feeling of any notebook I have held. Upon opening it from the box, I was immediately impressed. While feeling light and sleek, it feels sculpted from a block, so very solid. This must be due to the new unibody structure that Apple is touting. I don’t know how they do it, but I do agree it feels wonderful on your lap and looks great on your desk.

Performance – The performance of the new MacBooks have really taken a step forward. While the Core 2 Duo Processors are about the same speed as the last generation of the plastic MacBooks, the graphics in these notebooks are on another level. The new Nvidia graphics in the notebook is keeping up with my aluminum iMac’s graphics, impressive for a notebook! The magazines that have reviewed the notebook say the same thing. The graphics performance on this Macbook is 3-5 times faster than the previous Intel Integrated Graphics. This is a solid step forward.

2 GB Memory – This is a sufficient amount, for the type of applications many people will run with Mac OS X. I use 4 GB on my iMac, but 2GB for my notebook is fine. If I want more later, I can swap it out.

Hard Drive – For the first time, the hard drive is easy to access in the MacBook. This is great! Not only can you upgrade to a faster or bigger hard drive, when you need to someday, it will prolong how long you can use this notebook. Hard drives are one of the weaker points in a computer due to the physical moving parts. With this notebook, we have easy access to the battery and hard drive, so if everything else keeps running, we can keep this notebook going for years, something that makes me feel good about the investment. I have wished user accessible hard drives on a Mac notebook, and it finally happened.

Super Drive – It’s still nice to be able to watch and burn DVD disks.

Software – The lastest version of Mac OS X Leopard is included alongside iPhoto, iTunes, iMovie, iDVD, etc. A lot of great programs to get the new Mac users going.

Connections – I have several Firewire devices, so I was sad to see Firewire removed from the MacBook. However, USB has been so much more successful that you can understand Apple’s move. Thankfully, most of my firewire devices are USB compatible as well.

Overall, I seriously considered the MacBook Air, when it came out back in January. However, I’m glad I waited and that Apple released this 13-inch Aluminium MacBook. To me, it feels even better in your hands and on your lap than the Air, plus you get a significantly faster computer with user replaceable battery and hard drive. While the glare on the glass screen is terrible compared to the matte display on my old Powerbook, images and movies do look a lot better and “pop.” I’m glad I decided on the MacBook. I haven’t had any issues, and I would certainly recommend it to anyone looking for a new notebook.