That's good to know, I can read the serial number engraved on the case, if I hold it to the light just right, and use a magnifying glass, and juggle pencil/paper to write it down and hopefully type it in w/o error. So convenient.
But sometimes you might just come across some info about the Apple computers from that time period (or any other vaguely labelled product in general), and you want to know if this applies to your model, and maybe the computer (or product in question) isn't nearby.
I know my current Lenovo is a G-710, my old E-Machines is an EM-725, and my very old ASUS is an EEE-PC901. Easy, I even have it memorized w/o even trying.
With Apple, you can look it up as you say, and if someone just asks offhand, you need a paragraph to explain, 'it's an early spring 2009, or was it late spring/early summer - with the xxx chip set, but before they changed to the xyz bridge and they were between the aaa and bbb GPU, but with the ddd display port, but before they increased the default memory and hard drive size, they are all just commonly called "MacBook Pro", with no extension letter/#, so it's confusing.
-ERD50