This compares to $1199 (or $1099 for students) for the basic 13” MacBook Pro. The Apple MacBook is available direct from Apple for $999-or $899 for those who qualify for student pricing. We’ll have to see if there have been any improvements on this side when we get our hands on one. The screen, which has often been a criticism when compared to the MacBook Pros, appears to be unchanged with a 13” LED-backlit LCD panel with a resolution of 1280x800. The plastic ‘unibody’ chassis retains the familiar multi-touch trackpad, iSight webcam, stereo speakers, and chiclet keyboard. An integrated slot loading DVD writer is standard. The wireless side is well catered for with Bluetooth 2.1+EDR and WiFi 802.11a/b/g/n.

Otherwise the MacBook is unchanged with two USB 2.0 ports, Mini DisplayPort, combined audio in/out port, and Gigabit Ethernet comprising the usual limited wired connectivity of Apple’s products. This makes it a tough match for just about anything else out there with similar performance. Perhaps the most important part of the upgrade is a larger capacity integrated battery that boosts battery life to a very impressive 10 hours, up from a still impressive seven hours of the previous MacBook. Should you need to upgrade either, it would be strongly recommended to do it yourself to save on the small fortune Apple charges, especially as you can sell the components you remove. Storage comes in the form of a 250GB 5400RPM HDD with 320GB and 500GB options available at an additional cost of $50 and $150 respectively. The MacBook comes with 2GB DDR3 RAM, which is upgradable to 4GB for $100.

Macbook mid 2010 battery