Some might call it the new MacBook in old-school style

Even if it did not make a fuss out of it, Apple discreetly revised the previous generation of its MacBook laptop. What is more interesting, though, is that the new version comes dangerously close to the new unibody version of MacBook in terms of technical specifications.

Essentially, the polycarbonate white version MacBook is now fit with the new NVIDIA 9400M platform, which was previously the crucial factor that would apart the previous generation from the new one. The 9400M graphics-processing unit promises to deliver much improved performance over the previous Intel integrated GPU, as the former is powered by a 256MB DDR2 shared memory.

And if it wasn’t enough, Apple decided to power the revised old MacBook with a new iteration of the Intel Core 2 Duo processor. While it still clocks at 2.0GHz, the important addition is the broader 1,066MHz front-side bus, which makes more use of the computing power than the old 667MHz one.

Of course, there are still technical differences in what performance concerns, but they are not quite essential for the everyday user. As an example, the white MacBook retains the 120GB hard drive, while the new version sports a more spacious 160GB model. Still, customers can go for a hard-drive upgrade, including a 160GB S-ATA HDD for $50, a 250GB model for $150 and a home-theater-oriented 320GB drive for an extra $250. All these hard drives have 5400rpm speed and are able to deliver decent performance.

Even though the revised white MacBook also has other minor upgrades, such as bundling 2GB of RAM instead of 1GB and the transition from Bluetooth 2.0 to Bluetooth 2.1, Apple didn’t bring other functionality improvements from the current generation of their laptop line-up. Primarily, users will still not be able to upgrade to a backlit keyboard, a sought-after addition for a big part of Apple customers. As well, the 2GB RAM chip will deliver slower performance than the one on the current MacBook, as it is clocked at a lower 667MHz, compared to the 1,066GHz of the latter.

As the fresh version of the old  MacBook has a price tag of $999, many analysts wonder whether a big part of the potential MacBook buyers will take advantage of this offer and choose the previous generation over the new one. There are several reasons to do so, as the differences between the two are negligible for the pragmatic and economic-depression-oriented user.

However, some analysts pointed out that Apple took this decision for the sake of the sales figures. On the other hand, others pointed out that the Cupertino- based company is only aiming to sell enough units of the MacBook series in order to keep the entire line-up profitable.