<p>Apple offers two (well, 3 technically) versions of the 13-inch macbook. They offer the white plastic one for $949 (with education discount) and they offer 2 versions of the aluminum macbooks for $1199 (with edu discount) and another aluminum for 1499 (with education).</p>
<p>Is there any advantage for the aluminum macbook over the plastic one? is it worth the extra dough? I know its more aestheically pleasing, but are there any other pros?</p>
<p>The newer has more hard drive space, it also has DDR3 RAM instead of DDR2 RAM.</p>
<p>The unibody has an LED-backlit screen and a more advanced touchpad.</p>
<p>I have the normal white one. It discolors after a month, and then you’ll notice the casing cracking in all sorts of places. Thankfully, Apple have realized how bad the design is, and they will replace the case as many times as you want within your warranty time.</p>
<p>Get the aluminum one. If you are going to get the old ones, get the Black one. The white shiny ones are too plasticy and crack. Not to mention they get discolored and dirty VERY fast.</p>
<p>Isn’t there a “cover/skin” you can get for the white one? Kind of like a “skin” for a cell phone?</p>
<p>I have 2 white plastic MacBooks, one over 3 years old. Other than a very slight chipping near one top edge and extremely minor superficial scratches, they look new. I do every once in a while clean the keyboard.</p>
<p>The laptops are carried in padded sleeves inside backpacks, bags, etc. You need a padded sleeve no matter what. There are lots of skins for MacBooks but they really aren’t necessary.</p>
<p>The aluminum machines are better but the white MacBook at $949 is $300 less.</p>
<p>My mom has the white one and I just got my aluminum one today with the free ipod touch. The trackpad is nicer and the aluminum one is just all around sexier. See if you get additional discounts through your school because I got mine (2.4ghz, 4gb ram, 250gb) for 1399 through my school’s computer store site which is a couple hundred less than the education discount.</p>
<p>danw316,</p>
<p>Which school do you go to? I wasn’t aware that certain schools had steeper educational discounts than others.</p>
<p>The white MacBooks now have the same 160 GB hard drive as the aluminum ($1,200) versions.</p>
<p>I’ve been told about 100 times that schools don’t get more of a discount.</p>
<p>I just ordered the 2.4 gHz processor aluminum MacBook yesterday. Got it for $1299. I was extremely happy with that. No sales tax, just $35 for shipping (which includes the 8Gig Touch and a few other misc things).</p>
<p>I’m lucky that my school has a better discount than the Apple Ed store, and they were even more on sale through their end of year clearance of in stock computers.</p>