Because Aluminum Makes Us Hot

With nary an envelope in sight this time around, Apple still manages to pull out their latest aluminum based MacBook notebooks in their usual flair and style in spite of the various leaks surrounding their latest and prettiest. Apple's continual efforts at maintaining secrecy to drum up fervent interest hasn't quite succeeded in the secrecy aspect but the fervent interest aspect, well, that's pretty much guaranteed, no?

Pretty much gone are the white polycarbonate designs of the MacBook series; instead, Apple has opted for a unibody aluminum construction that looks and feels like the earlier MacBook Air. Given Apple's track record of revamping their design lineup for an entire range, it comes as no surprise that the new MacBooks would take after the Air. Like the Air, the newer MacBooks sport a full aluminum chassis but are much thicker and have more connectivity options as well as an optical drive. Noticeably missing from the new lineup is the lack of FireWire support on the non-Pro versions of the Macbook, a significant departure from the previous models. On a side note, this could be an indication that Apple might eventually even drop FireWire technology from all future products for the more ubiquitous USB 2.0 standard (and its successors).

Back to the new MacBook, it has a whole bunch of other changes and we'll take a closer look over the next few pages. But first, let's start with the notebook's exterior look and a table of its specifications:-

Covered in an aluminum unibody shell and looking all pretty is this baseline Apple MacBook.

Sporting a clean front with nary a port is our review unit of the Apple MacBook. The little notch at the side is the IR port.

The right side of the MacBook plays host to a slot loaded SuperDrive.

If ports are what you're looking for, then look towards the left side of the MacBook with its MagSafe power port, Gigabit LAN port, two USB 2.0 ports, a Mini DisplayPort and audio in and headphone jacks. There's also a bunch of battery indicator lights to let you easily know how much juice you have left on your unit. What's missing from the usual lineup is the FireWire port that Apple has left out.