any strong opinions between white and unibody?

[tricktionary]

I'm gonna buy my first macbook. But I really can't decide which one is the better choise: unibody mac 2.0/ 4gb /ddr3 1066 mhz OR white 2.0/ 4gb/ ddr2 667mhz...?? White macbook is a freaking 200euros cheaper and i'm not that sure is there any huge difference between ddr2 667mhz and ddr3 1066mhz.. So why should I spend 200e more to the unibody? I just wan't to make the right decision. Thanks guys..

 

[morrisman1]

you should spend the extra and get the unibody if:

~ you want the LED backlit screen which is brighter, more energy efficient and doesnt have to 'warm up'
~ you want the (absolutely amazing) glass multitouch trackpad which is an absolute gem to use and is miles ahead of the old one
~ you want the advantages that the aluminium unibody gives (rigidity and wont look worn after time, and i think the unibodies run cooler cause of the thermal characteristics of aluminium)
~ you want a glass screen which is rediculously easy to clean
~ you dont need firewire.

i think i have covered it there. Graphics performance on the unibody will be better because of the DDR3 ram and in general the system should be a little more snappy.

 

[andalusia]

I personally had this dilemma. I don't think it's quite worth paying the extra 200 for a new body, ddr3 ram and a glass trackpad. The old screen is perfectly acceptable for everyday needs, and can even be used in the sun (unless it's incrediblyoverthetoptoomuch bright!). The extra amount just isn't work it in my opinion. However if you have money to burn you might not care The NVidia Whitebook has a better battery life too.

 

[morrisman1]

The NVidia Whitebook has a better battery life too.

ive owned both (well not the nvidia one but the x3100 one with the 2.2ghz cpu) and the the battery life is about the same. i can get over 5 hours out of the unibody if i dont use wireless. with wireless its about 4.5 hours and thats even running microsoft word!

the unibody has a small battery but is more energy efficient. It also charges at a much slower rate which i presume apple has done to prolong the battery lifespan

 

[andalusia]

ive owned both (well not the nvidia one but the x3100 one with the 2.2ghz cpu) and the the battery life is about the same. i can get over 5 hours out of the unibody if i dont use wireless. with wireless its about 4.5 hours and thats even running microsoft word!

the unibody has a small battery but is more energy efficient. It also charges at a much slower rate which i presume apple has done to prolong the battery lifespan

But from what I've heard, the Unibody ones mess up quicker.

 

[andalusia]

And just to add on, you can get 800Mhz RAM for your Whitebook anyway so the difference can be even less.

 

[Matek]

Generally I would also advise against the unibody - it's a 200$ saving and you don't really give up anything major. The only problem I can see is the build quality, which is very bad on the plastic model. Every single person (including myself) I know with the white MacBook has had plastic crack somewhere. It's mostly aesthetic, but it won't happen on the aluminium one.

 

[magamo]

My Rev. C white MB can handle day-to-day tasks just fine, so the current model should do so too. Unibody MB should be slightly more responsive, but it's the same difference if you ask me.

 

[silverblack]

The unibody is a little lighter, and run a bit cooler.

 

[VSMacOne]

But from what I've heard, the Unibody ones mess up quicker.

Oh please do expand on that.. what HAVE you heard?!



to the OP, obvious advice from me is to go for the Unibody. This is my first Mac, I waited about 2 months for this new one to come out and I've been very satisfied with its performance. Everything about it is well thought out and it runs quieter and cooler, has a brighter screen, nicer trackpad (there's really no comparison with any other trackpad), it's lighter and overall just a sturdy laptop.

 

[andalusia]

There are several threads about how shocking it is.

 

[kasakka]

I'd also add that the white MB only supports external displays up to 1920x1200 resolution since the mini-DVI out is only single-link in Apple's infinite wisdom. If it was dual link I would've bought one already because the unibody mini-DisplayPort doesn't work properly with 30" screens.

IMO the 200€ price difference makes the white MB much more attractive.

The memory speed will make no real life difference. The display quality isn't good on either model.

 

[VSMacOne]

There are several threads about how shocking it is.

Come on now you can do better than that...
What exactly is shocking?

 

[marold280]

unibody macbook would be slightly faster. amazing trackpad. looks nicer. awesome.
White macbooks connect with you . for some reason, mine seems to look more funky than the the uni.
its sort of like really expressive.

i really want a unibody though. Screw expressiveness

 

[johnny13oi]

The battery life is longer on the white nvidia macbook. I get about 6.5 hours on battery with wifi on and brightness at a comfortable level. Probably half an hour or more with wifi off. Much longer than the 4.5 hours of the aluminum macbook on wifi. And also I have 4GB of 800Mhz ram and the difference in performance between this and the aluminum with DDR3 is almost negligent. benchmarks put me at about less than 5% difference in gaming performance and that could easily be due to slight variances.

 

[bikalpapaudel]

Well. I was in exactly same position some time ago.

AluBook:

- LED backlit screen. Better contrast, brightness levels, thinner.
Unfortunately if the Aluminum back plate gets dented and you have to replace it, the screen goes too, since its glued to the back plate. THAT will make it expensive!

- DDR3 RAM. This will show up in regular tasks and games as graphics depends on system RAM. However, since the RAM is 2GB in both which is not really adequate in today's terms, you might not see much benefit.

- 160 GB HDD. The Aluminum one has more disk space, the white one is at 120GB but on that level, I doubt it would be a problem. Not for me atleast.

- Battery Life. Apple says you get better life out of the newer MacBooks. But its under their 'ideal' conditions.. I think its not much different.

- Multi-Touch trackpad. Large, supports many swipe gestures and stuff like that. Zoom in/out like iPhone.
If you have it, you will feel limited without it. If you dont have it, you wouldnt care. Though it does ease out stuff, its just about training yourself to get used to something or the other.

- UniBody Enclosure. This makes the AluBook sturdy. But its thin. A thin aluminum plate is very prone to dents. And it is much less resistant to impacts.
Though it does not crack as opposed to some WhiteBook cases we've read about. Nevertheless, the WhiteBook should be able to take much serious impacts than the AluBook.

- Firewire. If you need firewire, you have no option but get the White MacBook, or MacBook Pros. And you dont have an extra USB port to sompensate!

- Mini-Displayport. This thing eases out connectivity to Apple's LED display and stuff. It has become popular with current generation Macs and is good to have as an option. But I wouldnt take its absence on WhiteBook to be a dealbreaker. You get adapters anyways.

- Thinner and lighter. 0.5 pounds lighter and a tiny bit thinner. Doesnt make a difference to me.


WhiteBook
- Cheaper
- Can take more impacts, plastic.
- Has Firewire
- Updated to all the UniBody hardware other than DDR3 RAM.
- Has a better battery life under certain conditionsm, say low brightness and the fact that its battery is a higher capacity than that in UniBody.


Sums it all up I guess?

 

[ZebraineZ]

Get the white macbook I got mine like what? about a year and a half ago, and I LOVE IT! Works just like it did out of the box, just the screen dimmed a bit over time, and the 'newness' has faded overtime, but the performance is still perfect! With the new white ones today I bet you can get about 3x the performance of what mine can do, and a brighter screen if you want a little bit more then what the macbook can get you, get the aluminum, but remember you won't have any firewire so if you need it then you are out of luck.

 

[bobriot]

Again like yourself I was in the same boat, I decided on the poly macbook but I ended up getting a unibody from the apple refurb store for only £80 more. Having had it now I am glad I didn't get the poly as I think the build quality is better (my brother in law has the poly) and the led screen is nice the trackpad is top notch and the list goes on. Plus it looks the biz.

It is worth the extra.

 

[FieryFurnace]

If I would get a MB today, I would still go with the white one.
I think it just looks better - I still cannot get used to the Alu look and I don't need the new track pad (I never use it anyways, always have a mouse).

Actually, I was in that situation last October. I waited for the MacBook event, with hopes of a $800 MacBook and all that stuff that was rumored at that time.
Then there was the event,..., I was very disappointed that day.
The new MB look is just not for me, I don't need a better GPU either and the price difference sealed the deal for me.

 

[Beerfloat]

Welcome to Macrumors. We have strong opinions about pretty much any topic. Particularly Macs.

Soo, you could spend the 200$ difference on a sweet 22 inch widescreen to go with that whitebook. You can even pick a matte one if you swing that way. Or maybe you want to get a spare replacement battery to go with it. Or an external Firewire disk. Or get both, and enjoy the fact that you can even use them at all, which no amount of money is going to do for you if you go unibook.

 

[michael.lauden]

The battery life is longer on the white nvidia macbook. I get about 6.5 hours on battery with wifi on and brightness at a comfortable level. Probably half an hour or more with wifi off. Much longer than the 4.5 hours of the aluminum macbook on wifi. And also I have 4GB of 800Mhz ram and the difference in performance between this and the aluminum with DDR3 is almost negligent. benchmarks put me at about less than 5% difference in gaming performance and that could easily be due to slight variances.

too bad it's ugly, and doesn't have 'full' multi touch

and we've all talked about the DDR2 vs DDR3 RAM... let's not get into that again. i definitely doube you can get 7 or 7.5 hours out of your whitebook, unless you are at minimum brightness - and are not running any applications.


the extra 250-300 bucks for the unibody is WELL worth it. i just hate that 'cat tounge' trackpad feel. oh well just personal preference i guess

 

[fireman13]

Generally I would also advise against the unibody - it's a 200$ saving and you don't really give up anything major. The only problem I can see is the build quality, which is very bad on the plastic model. Every single person (including myself) I know with the white MacBook has had plastic crack somewhere. It's mostly aesthetic, but it won't happen on the aluminium one.

I think this is reason enough to go with the unibody!

 

[Sun Baked]

I think this is reason enough to go with the unibody!

However, if you have to stretch to buy the other unibody, then a drop can be very painful and kill your wallet.

A perceived "worse than" build quality can sort of make up for the I dropped the machine and got a scuff vs. I dropped and they want to charge me almost the same as a new machine for a repair.

 

[leekohler]

However, if you have to stretch to buy the other unibody, then a drop can be very painful and kill your wallet.

A perceived "worse than" build quality can sort of make up for the I dropped the machine and got a scuff vs. I dropped and they want to charge me almost the same as a new machine for a repair.

Yes- which is why I bought the last Black MacBook (dropped 4 times already and is perfectly fine) when it came out. I'm too rough on my laptops to have to worry about denting aluminum. However, if you aren't going to be carrying it around a lot, go for the aluminum.

 

[tayloralmond]

Go Whitebook

If you're that serious about saving money, I'd go with the Whitebook. If you wanted to bridge the RAM speed gap, go buy 4GB's of DDR2 800MHZ RAM (Yes you CAN do this on nVidia Whitebooks) and a 7200RPM HDD. I really doubt that you're ever going to notice a performance difference between the Whitebook and the Unibody if you do those things. I know my Whitebook runs great with just the 7200RPM drive and 4GB's of 667MHZ RAM.