After spending several weeks with my new MacBook, I can safely give a full review. The dust of my initial hype and awe has settled, and I'm left with a great notebook (as expected) with some minor, yet annoying, quirks. Check the jump for the full review.
Shortly after the MacBook was announced, I purchased the 2.0GHz white model (60GB HDD, 512MB RAM, SuperDrive). I knew from the first startup that it was simply a much better machine than the 14-inch iBook it was replacing. I might have been sacrificing some vertical screen size; but the glossy finish, widescreen aspect ratio, and vastly improved resolution (1280x800 vs 1024x768) and brightness more than made up for it.

You may have noticed that Apple is no longer offering a sub-$1000 notebook; the cheapest MacBook weighs in at $1099 (before any potential student discounts) and has a 1.83GHz Core Duo Processor and Combo Drive. Upgrading to the $1299 model nets you a slightly faster (2.0GHz) processor and SuperDrive (DVD Burner). For $1099, you're getting a really good deal, and the $1299 model is worth the extra cash if you'll take advantage of the speed or DVD burner.

For reference, the first batch of MacBook Pros shipped with 1.83GHz Core Duo chips (they've since been upgraded to 2.0GHz and 2.16GHz). Besides the smaller screen size, the only really notable difference between the MacBook and its much pricier cousin, the MacBook Pro, lies in the video card. You see, the MacBook uses an integrated Intel GMA 950 graphics chipset that shares video memory with the main system RAM (the MacBook comes with two 256MB sticks of PC2-5300 RAM by default); whereas the MacBook Pro has an ATI X1600 dedicated graphics card. If you want to play HD video (720p, 1080i, 1080p all ran without a hitch), edit photos and videos, and take advantage of all the graphical effects in Mac OS X 10.4 "Tiger", the GMA950 is perfect. For 3D-intensive games, however, it's simply not that great. While you can get a game like Quake 3 to run very well, a newer title like Half Life 2 (running through Windows using Boot Camp) would play much better on a MacBook Pro. The lack of a dedicated graphics chip is really the only limiting factor of the MacBook; and it's only limiting if you wanted to play such demanding games. Otherwise, you need not worry about the GMA950.

With that out of the way, let's take a look some other aspects of the machine. It truly is a very powerful portable computer, and it is closer to its "Pro" brethren than it ever was (iBook vs 15 inch PowerBook, for example). Apple didn't sacrifice things like the processor, L2 Cache, System Bus Speed, or the built-in iSight Camera and wireless remote. The result is a very fast and aesthetically pleasing machine that really feels like a great value. The MacBook is very zippy in starting up and running common applications: Safari, Mail, Photo Booth, and the iLife suite all run flawlessly, as expected. Adding effects in iMovie is noticeably faster, and iPhoto now scrolls through and my collection of pictures like butter. The added speed is welcome when it comes to things like adding effects, importing songs into iTunes, converting songs to MP3, adding files to GarageBand, making ZIP archives, etc. You'll spend more time doing what you want to be doing and less time looking at that spinning beach ball. If you want a really fast experience, though, you should upgrade the RAM. 512MB is barely enough to run GarageBand well when there's a lot of software instruments going; and with the video card eating into the main RAM, the extra memory really makes a difference. Personally, I upgraded to 1.25GB with ease; I opened the battery compartment, unscrewed a little bay door, popped out the old stick, and put a new one in. The upgrade process is even easier than it was on the iBook since you don't have to lift up the keyboard. Indeed, the keyboard on the MacBook is now built right into the bottom half of the machine. The result is a keyboard that's a bit more spaced out than you might be used to, but it looks and feels really nice. The keys feel firm and have a nice push to them. No complaints with the new keyboard design here.

So it's a well-designed, full-featured notebook, but how's the software? Well, it comes with iLife 06 (iWeb, iDVD, iMovie HD, iPhoto, and GarageBand), Comic Life (a cool little app for turning your photos into comic book pages), a few throwaway games (themed checkers, etc), a trial of Apple's iWork suite (the publishing software Pages and Keynote, Apple's version of PowerPoint) and an Office 2004 trial; but one application is enough to keep you entertained for hours: Photo Booth. This simple application, which lets you take snapshots using the built-in iSight camera and add special effects to them in real-time is simply fun. The fact that this is on a laptop is simply incredible; don't be surprised if large groups gather around your MacBook to see what they look like with big heads or in Comic Book style. The MacBook's dual-core processor screams through PhotoBooth, which means the software adds the effects in real time before the shutter goes off at the perfect moment. Apple was even clever enough to include a built in "Flash" of sorts that turns the screen white while the camera snaps your picture.

The iLife 06 suite is a wonderful set of software, and if you've used it before, you know how great it is. iPhoto is hands-down the best photo-managing software I have ever used; you can make albums, view different thumbnail options, easily crop and edit photos, make slideshows, and quickly find pictures by keyword-searching. You can even buy (extremely nice) hardcover books, calendars, and regular prints right from the application; and sending photos in an e-mail is as easy as pressing a button. Apple's Mail app and iPhoto are integrated so well, in fact, that when viewing an email with pictures, you can see them all as an iPhoto slideshow and add desired pictures to your iPhoto library. Full-screen editing is very nice, especially if you have a Mighty Mouse to horizontally scroll through thumbnails of photos. GarageBand, however, is my personal favorite iLife App. It makes creating music almost too easy, and if you're into it, it's ridiculously fun. It might be a program that you never touch, but for me, it's the ultimate time-waster. iDVD and iMovie blend together pretty well; the themes in iDVD are second to none and iMovie is a much nicer program than Windows Movie Maker. iWeb also has nice themes, and is a pretty useful program if you don't know HTML or CSS, but I obviously prefer to do things by hand. It's really the software and the OS X operating system that makes owning a Mac so enjoyable, besides the atheistically pleasing hardware.

I'm not without my gripes, however. There are two issues I have with the MacBook, and while neither are a deal-breaker, they're annoying enough to mention. The first is the "whine". You may have heard about it; but the MacBook makes a high-pitched whining noise when idling. It's almost unnoticeable, but once you hear it you can't un-hear it. You can circumvent the issue by running PhotoBooth or any other app that uses the iSight camera to give the CPU a bit of a workout, but i'd rather Apple just fix it in a firmware update (please!). My second issue lies within Front Row, Apple's version of Window's Media Center Edition. The interface is beautiful and all, but it's not without some problems. For example, when watching a movie, there's no way to exit the Front Row layer and quickly resume the movie; you have to back-track through menus, do whatever it is you wanted to do in OS X, then enter Front Row and select the video file you want to watch again. While it allows you to resume a movie, it's a bit of a hassle. Front Row is also a little bit buggy; it crashed on me on two or three occasions from doing the same thing: removing headphones while watching a movie. It hangs up sometimes as well, but this issue is (mostly) solved with additional RAM.

With those gripes out of the way, let's spend some time with some of the nicer subtleties that really help add to the MacBook's greatness. Firstly, it has much better sound output than the iBook it's replacing. While the speakers themselves are simply NOT loud enough, they are of higher quality. The really great thing, though, is the addition of optical audio in/out ports. You can connect your MacBook to a surround sound setup or any receiver that takes optical audio and enjoy richer sound. Analog output (headphones or external speakers without digital support) is more than adequate as well. Secondly, the glossy screen is a godsend. I was not an advocate of it when it was first announced, simply because all of the HP laptops I have seen with a glossy finish look disgusting. The MacBook screen, however, is absolutely gorgeous. Colors just pop out, and the screen is incredibly bright. Viewing photos is an experience -- they really benefit from the glossy finish. I don't find any sort of reflection annoying at all, but then again i've never used my MacBook under direct florescent lighting. Then we've got the MagSafe power adaptor and magnetic lack-of-latch. Apple's implementation of magnets in the MacBook should be applauded. The MagSafe is completely symmetric so you can't insert it the wrong way, and it's finally on the same side as all the other ports. When you close your MacBook, magnets snap it shut. There's no unsightly metal pieces or any sort of latch whatsoever. It really helps the overall polish of the MacBook's already gorgeous design. And don't worry, the magnet is strong enough that your MacBook won't open up in your bag.

The bottom line? The MacBook kicks ass.