Macbook White VS. Aluminum

There are a few other differences you might want to think about.

In particular I believe the current white unibody Macbook has a much better quality LCD display than the aluminium Macbook. There are lots of threads on here about the poor quality of the aluminium Macbook LCD. Try MRoogle. Go and look at the white Macbook in store - you'll see it has a very good LCD.

Also I believe the white unibody has better battery life than the aluminium Macbook (I believe it is 7 hours vs 5, but you would need Google to confirm this)

Have a look on the Apple refurb store
http://store.apple.com/us/browse/home/specialdeals/mac?mco=OTY2ODY3Nw
They have Macbooks starting at around $849 with a 1 year warranty

Personally I would favour the better screen & battery on the white over the "bling" of the aluminium. But that's an entirely personal preference, not a piece of advice!

Best of luck with your purchase.

I feel the two points the above poster made are valid, however I think the build quality and durability of the aluminum MB is much better. I've had both and wouldn't go back to the plastic white macbook again. You won't see a heat fracture in your aluminum like you will eventually see in the plastic.

PhilSE said:

I was going to eventually buy the white unibody macbook for $970 with the education discount and tax included. I really like the look of the aluminum better than the mac and I wouldn't mind sacrificing a bigger hard drive/ram for the aluminum macbook. Does anyone know any places you can purchase 2009 aluminum macbooks? I would need to buy a 2009 model because I'm only 14 and I only have $800 at the moment (I've been saving awhile) and I don't have a job.

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Normally when Apple puts out new models the old ones will end up in the apple online store "www.apple.com/store" under "Special deals/refurbished Mac". Everything there should be around 15% under the fair value of the product. For older models, they will eventually adjust the "fair value", so a MBP that cost $1199 two weeks ago but is now outdated should have a "fair value" of say $1000, and should be sold 15% below that. On their website you would see something like "Save 28%", but that's 28% below what it was sold for, not 28% below what it's worth.

Apple hasn't made that adjustment yet. You'll probably have to wait a few weeks before old MBPs are available cheap.

if you are only young and making a large purchase, I would recommend that you go for the new model from apple, and remember that you can get an educational discount also!

This way, things are far less likely to go wrong, and your first mac is a nice new product. not someone else's reject.

Now there is nothing wrong with refurbs, but as a first purchase, at your age, I'd go for the new (and better!) product

you can buy a new white unibody macbook from microcenter for 799.00 that is the way to go.

Jay S. said:

you can buy a new white unibody macbook from microcenter for 799.00 that is the way to go.

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That really does seem like a great offer.

The apple referb store has every once in a while. I would get the 2.4Ghz Alum, it has 4GB of ram,it's DDR3 too, just like the UB MB.I have considered selling my UB MB before for one.There much nicer. But just a warning, there has been reports of bad screens and battery's in the Alum MB's.

macgeek18 said:

The apple referb store has every once in a while. I would get the 2.4Ghz Alum, it has 4GB of ram,it's DDR3 too, just like the UB MB.I have considered selling my UB MB before for one.There much nicer. But just a warning, there has been reports of bad screens and battery's in the Alum MB's.

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I bought a new 13" MBP and had to get rid of either my plastic unibody model that was a couple months old or my aluminum macbook that was bought in early 2009. The plastic one was faster, had a bigger hard drive but I opted to sell it and keep my older aluminum just due to it being built SO much better. Everything about the aluminum machines feels better to me. I'll never buy another plastic MB.

not only do the aluminum ones look nice, they actually feel good as well.

order from microcenter, they have the new white macs for $799 and $100 off he mbp's

PhilSE said:

This isn't my first mac. Right now I have a mac mini with has a 60 GB hard drive and 512 mb of ram. So it's pretty awful. About the MicroCenter deal, I don't have one that is close, but I have heard that people can get Apple to price match. If I wanted to price match, do I have a better chance going into an Apple store or calling?

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I think it would be better to go in and ask a genius. Over the phone they seem to be more bound to rules than the guys in store.