What’s The Best MacBook To Buy in 2011?

This one’s easy, as when we’re talking about MacBooks and not MacBook Pro’s or Airs, there’s only one MacBook currently on sale that you  can buy and that’s the 2.4GHz Apple MacBook in white with a MSRP of $999. (you can do better on the price)

MacBook White 2011 2.4GHz (see lowest price)

Now if it were my choice and you don’t need to save every penny to buy a MacBook, I would do all I can and buy  the MacBook Pro instead in the same 13.3 inch format as the MacBook but adds a whole lot more features when you compare the two side by side. On the new MacBook Pro there’s a faster processor, more RAM capability and the new Thunderbolt technology that will be the defacto standard when connecting other devices sooner than you’d think.

13 inch MacBook Pro: Best of  All MacBooks (click to see price)

The MacBook is a nice computer, no doubt but with the last refresh being last year in May 2010, the MacBook is starting to show it’s age, especially when compared to the newer big brother. Unless you need to buy a much cheaper computer, I would stick with the MBP when shopping for a MacBook this year as the MacBook Pro’s are the newest and fastest MacBooks.

Let’s compare:

Processor

MacBook: 2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo

MacBook Pro: 2.3GHz dual-core Intel Core i5

RAM

MacBook: 2GB standard, up to 4GB allowed

MacBook Pro: 4GB standard, up to 8GB allowed (16GB, according to OWC)

Graphics

MacBook:NVIDIA GeForce 320M graphics processor with 256MB of DDR3 SDRAM shared with main memory

MacBook  Pro: Intel HD Graphics 3000

Storage

MacBook: 8x superdrive, 250GB Hard Drive

MacBook Pro: 320GB Hard Drive, 8x SuperDrive

I/O interfaces

MacBook: USB 2.0

MacBook Pro: USB 2.0, FireWire 800, ThunderBolt  Port

As you can see, for the added $200 expense the 13 inch 2.3GHz MacBook Pro is the winner here as it adds the same clock speed, (close enough)  but with a much faster Intel processor.

Lightest MacBook

MacBook Air. The lightest MacBook (click for best price)

And just to make things even more confusing there’s the MacBook Air, which for those needing the smallest and lightest Apple notebooks, this is the choice you’re looking for. The upside with the MacBook Air is the weight of course, weighing just 2.3 lbs, the 11 inch MacBook Air is the lightest notebook you can buy and they start the same as the white MacBook’s do at $999.

The MacBook Air is stripped of a lot of stuff in order to make it the cheapest and lightest MacBook. Gone are the hard drive and optical drive. For the optical drive, you can buy an extra optical drive that plugs into the MacBook Air. If you need an optical drive, I would  suggest you buy a MacBook white  instead as I see no point in trying to slug around a CD drive, as it negates the portability of the MacBook Air in the first place.  Another thing gone on the MacBook Air is the hard drive, which instead is replaced with  a 64GB or 128GB hard drive depending on the configuration of MacBook Air you buy. There’s also a 13 inch MacBook Air, but I think for any serious work, the 1.4GHz Intel Core 2 processor is back in time, even if the SSD hard drive speeds  up read and writing of data.

So. If you really, really need the lightest Apple notebook you can buy, then grab the MacBook Air, but the best selling and best deal when it comes to MacBooks in 2011 is currently the Apple MacBook Pro 13 inch and with some shopping around for the best price can be had closer to the $999 list price of the white MacBook than you would believe.

Buy the 13inch MacBook Pro as currently, it’s the best MacBook of  the bunch.

Tagged best macbook 2011, best macbook this year, lightest macbook, macbook air, macbook pro, this year's best macbook, white macbook