I’ve had lots of people ask me, should I purchase a white MacBook or the new Aluminum MacBook. I thought it might be worthwhile to do a side by side comparison to help consumers make an educated decision with their purchase.

Price:

The new white MacBook’s start at just $999.99 while the new aluminum MacBook’s start at $1,221.00. Pricing is a very important factor for some people but what’s more important are the feature differences between the 2 which I believe is well worth the extra $200.00

Features:

Let’s Talk about the similarities first:

• Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo 1066MHz frontside bus 3MB shared L2 cache
• Screen Size: 13.3-inch (viewable) glossy widescreen
• Software: Mac OS X v10.5 Leopard
  • Time Machine
  • Mail
  • iChat
  • Safari
  • Photo Booth
  • Front Row
  • Boot Camp
  • iLife ’09
    • iPhoto
    • iMovie
    • GarageBand
    • iDVD
    • iWeb

Now for the differences:

• Memory: While both MacBook’s have the same amount of memory ( 2 GB ) and can both be upgraded to 4 GB, the speed of the memory is quite different. The white MacBook supports 667MHz DDR2 SDRAM while the aluminum MacBook supports 1066MHz DDR3 SDRAM, which is quite a bit faster but would not be a reason for me to spend the additional $200.00 to purchase the aluminum MacBook
• Hard Drive: The white MacBook comes standard with a 120GB Serial ATA 5400 rpm drive and supports up to a 320GB hard drive. The aluminum MacBook comes standard with a 160GB Serial ATA, 5400 rpm drive and supports up to a 320GB hard drive, much like the white MacBook but it also support the new 128GB solid-state drives. This is definitely a reason to purchase the aluminum MacBook over the white one.
• Display: While both MacBook’s offer the same 13.3-inch (viewable) glossy widescreen with a 1280×800 pixel resolution, there is one major difference that the aluminum MacBook offers which is that the screen is LED-backlit which helps with power consumption and longer screen life. This is definitely a big plus for the new aluminum MacBook and is also a reason I would spend the extra $200.00 
• Graphics Card: Both the aluminum and the white MacBook have an NVIDIA GeForce 9400M with 256MB shared but since the memory is shared the GeForce in the aluminum MacBook uses DDR3 vs. the DDR2 that the white MacBook offers. Not really a reason to spend the extra money though, in my opinion.
• Battery: According to apple, the battery in the white MacBook lasts 4.5 hour while the one in the aluminum MacBook lasts 5 hours. I’m thinking that there is no real difference between the 2 batteries but mainly the LED display that the aluminum MacBook uses that prolongs the battery charge.
• Enclosure: Not too much to be said about this other than the white MacBook has a Polycarbonate enclosure and the aluminum MacBook has a precision aluminum unibody enclosure. In my opinion, more stylish and more durable.
• Weight:  The white MacBook weighs approximately 5.0 and the aluminum MacBook weighs 4.5 pounds.
• TrackPad: The TrackPad on the aluminum MacBook seems to be far superior to the old style used on the white MacBook. My favorite feature is that the TrackPad is glass and doesn’t wear down like the ones on the white MacBook’s. It also offers Multi-Touch gestures and what’s best of all is that the whole trackpad is a clickable button, so you can click anywhere on the trackpad. In my opinion this is one of the best features of the new aluminum MacBook and is definitely worth the extra money.

Overall in my opinion I would definitely spend the extra $200.00 on the aluminum MacBook unless you really like the white color, I would recommend the new style and the extra features speak for themselves.

Hopefully you enjoyed this article and it was somewhat educational to you. Please feel free to comment and ask me any questions you may have.

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