I've been using this machine for a couple weeks now. It replaced a white Macbook that was about a year old. The unibody construction is very rigid and light. The laptop is less than an inch thick and only weighs 4.5 lbs. Because it is made of aluminum it seems much more scratch resistant than the plastic. Having owned numerous Dell and Apple laptops over the years this is by far the best I've owned.

Display
The display is very bright. Even at a brightness level of 50% it is very bright. The LED backlighting makes a big difference. The color is very good and the viewing angle is terrific as well. Better than any other laptop display I've seen.

The aluminum shell on the screen is very sturdy. I was afraid it being so thin would compromise durability but I seems more durable than the thick plastic lid of my previous White Macbook. The display also has an iSight (webcam) built in that is pretty inconspicuous which I'm happy with.

Keyboard
The Macbook keyboards are great! With the added backlighting to the 13" models the keyboard is just as good as the 15" and 17" Macbook Pros. The backlighting is automatic based on the light around the Macbook and it always turns on when I want to use it.

The trackpad is now just one large glass pad. I'm going to assume that it won't wear as much as the plastic trackpads on the older Macbooks. It took a couple minutes to get used to not having a dedicated button to click and drag but once you get over the mental block you just believe it has a button and it works as expected. I had to make a few minor modifications in the the system settings to allow for tap clicks and two finger right click but it is only two checkboxes and is how I like it setup.

The keyboard and trackpad are the best in the industry in my opinion. The multi-touch trackpad is great and will only become more useful for gestures while the keyboard offers the great feel for typing in broad daylight or in the dark.

Performance
This machine actually is a 2.23 Ghz Core 2 Duo which is a downgrade from the White Macbook at 2.4 Ghz. However with the new chipset and the nVidia integrated graphics chip and faster bus speeds the computer is more responsive and faster in most of my unscientific side by side tests even with half as much RAM. I'll be putting another 2G for a total of 4GB.

Most of my usage is in web programming and design (Photoshop and Illustrator) so I don't need a lot of horsepower, just enough to keep things responsive while I move between 10+ apps.

The biggest improvement is the nVidia graphics chipset which I believe to be the biggest differentiator in performance. The OS is able to just give the graphics chip more to do so everything just feels more responsive.

Battery
One of the big touted improvements is the battery. At one point the battery meter said I had 8.5 hours of usage. I worked all-day without plugging in and I ended up with about 7.25 hours of usage even with wifi, and a bunch of development apps open all day long. I'm very impressed. The weight is still about the same (4.5 lbs) but the life is much improved!

Ports
With the latest update the MacBooks gained SD slots and the 13" gained Firewire 800. It also has 2 USB slots which is adequate for my needs but may not be enough for other more demanding users. I'm happy with the addition of Firewire back to the 13" Macbook. I have a few external drives and Firewire is by far the most efficient way to work with external drives on a Mac.

Software
The iLife suite is great for consumers. I love iPhoto, Garageband, and iMovie. OS X also has a great assortment of default applications that I don't think I could live without (Mail, Address Book, iCal, etc.) The OS integration between apps (Apple or 3rd party) is one of the best things about OS X and part of the reason I made the switch to Mac 4 years ago.

I'm also glad that I can get Snow Leopard for $10 (Shipping/Handling) in September. Not only do I get to take advantage of a big upgrade in hardware but I also qualify for the latest OS at a discount although not much since it will only be a $30 upgrade for everyone!

I'm currently running Virtualbox so I can test sites in internet explorer on Windows. It isn't used for anything else so I don't really care about performance much and I enjoy the free Open Source solution to virtualization even if it is about a year behind the commercial solutions.

Summary
The new 13" Macbook Pro is the best laptop I've ever had. It has a bright display, a rigid unibody making it the most durable laptop I've owned and at 4.5 lbs. my back is happy. I just may buy a new case because my old case seems so bulky and overdone.

The keyboard and trackpads are great to use and easy to adjust to your individual preferences. The new edition has all the ports and access I could want and the battery life is fantastic. Together with all the default software you get with Mac OS X this is a great deal! I also took advantage of the Back to School deal and got a new iPod Touch and printer for free (after online rebate). Right now I don't think you can get a better notebook. Many people complain about the "Apple Tax" but if I paid an Apple tax then it has already paid for itself in less than 3 weeks.

I am a happy customer with a great laptop for work and play that will last me until I'm ready to upgrade – probably next year when Apple releases the next latest and greatest MacBook.