From a design standpoint, current MacBook 13-inch (Aluminum) owners shouldn’t be too envious—you can hardly tell the earlier model apart from the new one. The MacBook Pro 13-inch measures only an inch thick, despite having a built-in optical drive, and uses the same Unibody enclosure carved out from a thick slab of aluminum. These are the fundamentals—a metallic chassis and a thin design—that have contributed to Apple’s success. Ultraportables like the Dell Adamo and the Sony VAIO VGN-Z590 have employed similar tactics but were deemed too expensive. Meanwhile, systems like the HP Pavilion dv3z, the Lenovo IdeaPad U330, and the Gateway UC7807u may be cheaper, but their chassis are too thick and “plasticky.” The Acer Aspire 3935 (6504), with its thin metalloid chassis, is the only one that can give the MacBook Pro 13-inch a run for its money.