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First Look: All-new 12-inch Apple MacBook
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NewsPoster
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Apr 15, 2015, 04:22 AM
 
The all-new 12-inch Apple MacBook is here and MacNN and Electronista have our hands on it! It is Apple's definitive statement on the future of notebooks, but it is available right now to customers who want to go along for the ride. If you're in the market for an ultraportable notebook made for the mobility age, the MacBook has to be on the top of your shopping list. There is nothing else quite like it on the market, with the device boasting several firsts for Apple and the industry.

The 12-inch Retina MacBook is not for everybody. That much is obvious. It does not come with legacy ports, nor is it a high-performance machine when it comes to processing power. So if wired connectivity is high on your list of must-haves, or you need to crush a demanding video workload, this notebook is not for you. Does that instantly make it flawed? If you've read some of the early reviews of the 12-inch MacBook, you might have been led to think so; but we here at MacNN and Electronista think different. It is not for some distant future where other ultraportables inevitably follow its design lead. It is built for right now, where many of us carry a portable wireless hotspot (generally our smartphones) offering Internet and other wireless connectivity right in our pockets when Wi-Fi isn't handy.



For the set of users where portability is absolutely paramount, the 12-inch Retina MacBook is shaping up as a dream machine. If you understand who and what it is designed for, the obvious "limitations" are a non-issue. If you are primarily concerned with getting Office-style productivity done while you are on the road, this machine has been designed from the ground up this very purpose. While the Windows PC world is putting forward the case for 2-in-1 machines that purport to offer the "best of a notebook experience," combined with the "best of a tablet experience" -- but often offering a mediocre mix -- Apple remains firmly of the view that the best notebook experience is offered by a notebook, and the best tablet experience is offered by a tablet.



To this extent, the new MacBook is all about pushing the design of an ultraportable notebook to the extreme, but without compromise to fundamentals -- like the incorporation of a full-size keyboard, or a full-size trackpad and a (stable) area to rest your palms when typing: this machine has been built around these non-negotiables. The entire width of the device has been built around the full-size keyboard. Designed around a new butterfly mechanism and featuring keys that are 17 percent larger, it is quickly becoming a revelation to us in how much faster and more accurately one is able to type on it, even as it takes a little while to adjust to its shorter-than-usual travel. Its all-new, more-precise backlighting is also a pleasure to use.



We've already talked at length about the new Force Touch trackpad on the new 13-inch MacBook Pro, which was originally designed specifically for the Retina 12-inch MacBook. As the leading edge of the MacBook is so thin, Apple's traditional trackpad with a mechanical "diving board" mechanism wouldn't fit. Thinking laterally, Apple's engineers realized that the Taptic Engine used in the Apple Watch would be able to simulate a click. Taking this capabilities of the Taptic Engine to further, Apple added the Force Touch functionality from the Apple Watch to the new trackpad as well. The result is the most capable and functional trackpad ever made, in our view. It also shows that the trackpad is far from done as an input method in this age of touchscreen everything, and that it may well still be the best method of control for notebooks.



Perhaps the most important component on any notebook is its display. The new MacBook offers the latest in Apple's Retina display technology, delivering pixel apertures that are 30 percent larger, enabling such a high pixel-density display to exist on a notebook, yet still delivers up to 10 hours of battery life. It almost packs as many pixels into its 12-inch display as Apple packs into its non-Retina 27-inch iMac. The result is crisp text that makes working with it an absolute pleasure. It also uses the same anti-glare glass technology that Apple has incorporated on the iPad Air 2, and its iMac with 5K Retina display. The entire display enclosure is also stupendously thin, thanks to lessons Apple has learnt from making incredibly thin iPads.



The 12-inch Retina MacBook also features Apple's first all-aluminum notebook enclosure. How so, you might ask? If you look carefully at the hinge-mechanism on the new MacBook, you will see that it is, for the first time, one single piece of aluminum, extending as one from the top display component - previously, this was a separate (but bonded) plastic component for the sake of antennas. It is also Apple's first MacBook to feature a fanless design. There is perforated speaker grill sitting just atop the keyboard that also cleverly acts as a passive cooling solution to help keep the Intel Core M chip powering it cool. Overall, the MacBook is also very light, at just 2.03 pounds (920 grams), but which remains extremely rigid and sturdy, thanks to Apple's unibody enclosure.



The Intel Core M chip at the heart of the MacBook is based on Intel's "Broadwell" architecture, which is essentially a 14nm die-shrink of its preceding "Haswell" design. It has been a long time coming from Intel, as OEM's have been waiting for Intel to release a ultra-low voltage chip that has enabled the first super-compact fanless ultraportable designs. The base model, our review unit, is clocked at 1.1GHz, although it can Turbo Boost to up to 2.4GHz for short bursts where required under load. It is matched with 8GB of 1600MHz LPDDR3 RAM. Although we will delve deeper into the performance capabilities of the new MacBook, it is suffice to say that it is absolutely fit for its designed purpose.

Apple CEO Tim Cook has often said that the DNA of late co-founder Steve Jobs runs deep in Apple, and of this, the new MacBook is the perfect illustration. Stay tuned for our full review of the all-new 12-inch Retina MacBook, where we will be running it through its full paces.

-- Sanjiv Sathiah
( Last edited by NewsPoster; Apr 15, 2015 at 05:20 AM. )
     
Inkling
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Apr 15, 2015, 08:29 AM
 
With an iFixit score of 1 out of a possible 10, I wouldn't touch this new laptop with a 10-foot pole. Even a loose connector between modules will be almost impossible to reach and fix. And that's not a hypothetical problem. I had and fixed precisely that problem on my aging white MacBook. The iFixIt report is here: https://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/Retina+Macbook+2015+Teardown/39841
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DiabloConQueso
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Apr 15, 2015, 09:34 AM
 
Eh, while that might be an issue for you, it's not for me. As the article states, this isn't the laptop for everyone -- but who it is for, it's damn near perfect (and rest assured there's a good bunch of us out there). It comes with a year warranty, so any "loose connectors" would be taken care of by Apple promptly, and AppleCare would extend that benefit out another two years.

This wouldn't be my only Mac, either, so being without it for a day or three while it's being repaired wouldn't hamper my productivity. I'll be racking up about 2,500 road miles across 5 days in early May, and my only gripe is that I'll be taking my Core 2 Duo MacBook Air with me instead of this beauty.
     
Charles Martin
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Apr 15, 2015, 11:29 AM
 
This thing only has *one* connector, so there's not a lot that can "get loose." To put it colloquially, this ain't your father's aging white MacBook.
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Spheric Harlot
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Apr 15, 2015, 12:34 PM
 
Inkling, I realize that you almost never, ever return to a comment thread once you've made a comment, but the reality is that — provided you can make friends with the new keyboard — this machine is pretty much the perfect computer for you as a writer.

Light enough and small enough to always be there, never be a hassle, ten hour battery life, super crisp display for text, and an absolute minimum of internal modules and interconnects that could fail.
     
Charles Martin
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Apr 15, 2015, 01:01 PM
 
Indeed, Spheric, you're right. This thing would be ideal for an on-the-go writer, which is probably what draws me to it (thought ultimately I'll stick with my current rig -- at least for now). The only thing I can't quite embrace is how much more costly it is over the MBA, but that's mostly because Retina and such.
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Spheric Harlot
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Apr 15, 2015, 01:10 PM
 
That's just a matter of time.
     
Ham Sandwich
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Apr 15, 2015, 01:58 PM
 
Well it is a "first look" so I wait to see how the editors think it performs (and how that display with 30% more aperture compares practically to other displays at full brightness, thinking Pro Macbook displays).
     
jpellino
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Apr 15, 2015, 03:04 PM
 
Hands-on today at the Apple store. The screen is flat-out gorgeous. Hope this becomes their default display for laptops.
Just sayin'
     
DiabloConQueso
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Apr 15, 2015, 05:23 PM
 
How was the trackpad? Is it everything they're hyping it up to be?
     
panjandrum
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Apr 15, 2015, 07:22 PM
 
Nice first-look review thanks! I hope to get my hands on one in the next couple of days when the local Mac shop promises to have a few in as display models. (But not to purchase, I need way more storage than I can reasonably get via. solid-state at this point. Well, at least on my budget...). The only thing I question is the price. I think maybe a non-retina model would be nice, priced at a lower point than the 11" MBA? I don't know, it's just, in terms of price, I'm having trouble figuring out where this product belongs, as the MacBook Pro 13" with Retina is far more bang-for-the-buck and is VERY portable. Maybe the MBA should have gotten the Retina displays, with the new MacBook becoming the entire budget-line? Just wondering about how this will all pan-out price-wise as I don't see a really clear reason to go for a MB over a MBP. (That may change when I hold one in my hands of course...)
     
Spheric Harlot
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Apr 15, 2015, 08:10 PM
 
The reason for the MacBook over the retina MacBook Pro is absolutely clear: just over HALF the weight, and a substantial reduction in size.

It belongs right where it is: a view of the future of consumer laptops, priced at a premium right now because components are expensive.

There is no way to build what the MacBook needs to be (and is) as a "budget" line right now.

The MacBook Air *IS* the non-retina MacBook. Adding a retina display to the MacBooks Air would increase the price by at least $200, which is right around where the MacBook is.

From the naming, it is obvious that the MacBook will replace the MacBook Air just as soon as the price can drop to $1000, reducing the line (again) to plain MacBook and MacBook Pro.
     
panjandrum
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Apr 15, 2015, 10:12 PM
 
Hmmm. Yeah, I think you may have hit on it there with the MacBook replacing the MBA in a year or two. That makes sense. And it is a nice size and weight, that's not a question either. It's just more that the current 13" MacBook Pro is already so thin and light, and (at least in theory) substantially more powerful... It will be interesting to see if it will sell at this price point, or of a lot of people will look at the price difference and move to the MBP (at a guess, I'll guess "no". I think the MacBook will have a lot of wide appeal and will sell very well.)
     
just a poster
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Apr 16, 2015, 02:11 AM
 
For what this is, I think it would have been more complete with LTE from Verizon/ATT/Sprint/Tmobile. Maybe version 2.

When I see the new retina screens laptops at the Apple store, I instinctively reach to touch their screens as if they are ipads. Adding touch to OS X would be a huge UI project though.
     
Sanjiv Sathiah
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Apr 16, 2015, 06:18 AM
 
I too like the idea of offering a new MacBook model with LTE support, although I'm not sure we will see it happen in the near future.

However, with regard to seeing touchscreen on a Mac, Apple has made it pretty clear that anything running OS X is going to be controlled by either a mouse or a trackpad. Touch screen interactions are preserved for iOS and Apple Watch, which are purpose made from the ground up for touch screen control.

Windows 8 is the perfect illustration of what can go horribly wrong when you try to make a desktop operating system touch-capable.
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Grendelmon
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Apr 16, 2015, 09:41 AM
 
Originally Posted by Sanjiv Sathiah View Post
Windows 8 is the perfect illustration of what can go horribly wrong when you try to make a desktop operating system touch-capable.
That's a pretty generalized statement. Examples?
     
DiabloConQueso
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Apr 16, 2015, 10:27 AM
 
One example would be that Windows 8 window widgets (maximize/minimize/close buttons, etc.) and taskbar icons are clearly sized and geared toward mouse-pointer input and not touch-input.

Windows 8 has some elements that are clearly geared toward touch input (the start screen, full-screen apps, etc.), and some elements that are clearly geared toward mouse/trackpad input (standard Explorer windows, taskbar notification icons, etc).

The fact of the matter is that a UI geared toward touch input is going to look an operate quite differently from a UI geared toward mouse/trackpad and keyboard input. Trying to meld the two together into a UI that can operate both ways efficiently is difficult. You just use your fingers much differently than you use a mouse pointer, and that's a weird problem to overcome.
     
Grendelmon
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Apr 16, 2015, 11:25 AM
 
Thanks for the feedback, Diablo. I really haven't used Windows 8 much.

This is kind of why I've been monitoring Ubuntu. The phone uses a touch interface UI that switches to the traditional Unity desktop interface when attached to an external monitor. I really think that's the way to go. The underlying operating system is the same, but switching interface GUIs on the fly when the demand is there for the mobile or desktop interfaces.
     
Sanjiv Sathiah
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Apr 16, 2015, 06:32 PM
 
Diablo, thanks for your outline of the fundamental UI issues in Windows 8 -- I couldn't have explained it better myself. These issues have been well documented on this site and plenty of others. Hence why Microsoft is so keen to distance itself from Windows 8, that it is calling its follow-up Windows 10.

Although Apple has taken features from iOS and implemented them in OS X, it has chosen the sensible path of keeping two distinct user interfaces -- one well-suited to mouse/trackpad interactions, the other for touchscreen interactions with compatible devices built accordingly.

Getting back to @just a poster's comments, it is for the above reasons that Apple will not be releasing a touchscreen-enabled MacBook anytime soon. The arrival of the brilliant new Force Touch trackpad is further evidence that Apple is much more focused on giving users even more control over OS X than ever before, in a way that is on par with what they are doing with touchscreen control in iOS and on the Apple Watch.

The added advantage of doing it this way in OS X, is that you don't end up with fingerprints all over your MacBook display. Not only that, but reaching up from the keyboard to touch the display on a MacBook is not especially ergonomic. Further, you would end up pushing your display back with every touch, necessitating constantly having to readjust the angle of the display. This is why the Microsoft Surface tablets have a kickstand, which keeps the display in the same position when you push on it, and Windows notebooks with touchscreens and a more traditional notebook form factor are pretty much a waste of time.

I believe that Apple has got it absolutely right with this approach. However, I am very keen to see whether Microsoft has finally got its hybrid UI formula right in Windows 10. If it has, hybrid devices like the Surface could really start to take off.
( Last edited by Sanjiv Sathiah; Apr 16, 2015 at 06:33 PM. Reason: typo)
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