There's been a huge amount of negative press about this product from people who aren't the target demographic. But I'm sold; for the first time since I bought my 2011 13" Air, I can see a device that better suits my usage pattern.
Many people scarcely plug anything into their laptops, but they move them around all the time. Weight and size are everything, but, in this age of totally ubiquitous photos, a good screen is also essential. Apple has spotted a target market, aimed carefully and hit the bullseye in my view.
The new MacBook is a testament to Apple's collapsing technical acumen. They eliminate all ports except for one outdated USB port? This craven stupidity should send the last adherents running. But running to what? Windows isn't even a viable option anymore.
It's a sad day for people who need real computers. Jony Ive is a pompous, clueless hack who should be fired for introducing crippling regressions to a brand that could be as great as its reputation.
Look at this POS: One USB port, which will require an adapter to do anything. So if you're going to require an adapter anyway, why not make that one port a modern one: Thunderbolt. Thunderbolt can carry USB, video, Ethernet, external storage... ALL AT ONCE. And it can be daisy-chained, which is hugely important when the computer has ONLY ONE PORT. So WTF is Apple doing making its sole port USB?
We can only hope that consumers send this piece of clueless garbage to oblivion, as they did the idiotic iPod Shuffle that could only be controlled with Morse code over a proprietary headphone wire.
Do you remember that the original MacBook Air also shipped with only a single USB port? Do you think perhaps that the Apple of 2008 was dumb for doing so? Yet today the MBA is one of their most successful parts (after 7 years of iteration). I think this too will evolve; they will release a 14" model, add a second port, possibly Thunderbolt, when the Skylake parts are released, lower the price $100, etc.
I think it's also telling you bring up the 3rd gen iPod shuffle, without also acknowledging that Apple did in fact replace it with the now 4+ year old 4th gen. If this MacBook is a flop they will fix it. The new MacBook is a testament to Apple's willingness to create the smallest and lightest laptop they can.
Exactly Air had atleast a dedicated charger + USB and DP, this shit has 1 single port. Its sort of pathetic. Had Apple just updated the Air with better screen no one would have complained. This is just a pretty and overpriced tablet. I pass!
And don't forget that this single port is a first generation USB-C which means that it's limited to 5 Gb/s. Also being fanless, I'd love to see the results of the Geekbench stress test. When my 15" rMBP's fan went bad, just 10 iterations caused the speed to drop (due to the quad core i7's internal temperature regulation) to MBA speeds. I have a feeling any power hungry application will bring this thing to its knees.
I down own any Mac devices, but I've seen countless people using their MBA or iPad with keyboard at work and in public. People have multiple computing devices nowadays. It's not unreasonable to have a lightweight laptop AND and mobile workstation with a graphics card and lots of ports ... MBP
Most people with iPads (tablets) and iPhones (smartphones) are already accustomed to not having much internal storage and simultaneously not the ability to plug in anything to expand it ... so the lack of connectivity has already been "bred out" of Apple's target consumers.
@BittenRottenApple, I disagree that "The new MacBook is a testament to Apple's collapsing technical acumen.". Their ability to shrink the motherboard to such a degree is astounding and I'm also very intrigued by the new trackpad.
However I do see the new MacBook as a monument to the megalomaniacal hubris of Jony Ive. This steaming heap was designed with the same twisted mindset that has caused every iPhone to be thinner than the previous model, the bassackwards idea that function should follow form. One I/O port that doubles as a charging port? Utter stupidity. It's also a testament that Tim Cook is clueless about what makes a good computer or his inability to saying no to Jony Ive or both.
Ever since Jony Ive was given more power, the operating systems have become uglier and buggier and every time I use iTunes 12 I want to scream.
More and more soldered RAM, not a single model with expansion slots, lobotomized Mac minis and now this atrocity. Apple needs to get rid of Ive before he does any more damage.
Question: Does anyone see this Apples version of a high end ChromeBook like device? It has less connections, a significant reduction in processing power (move from I5/i7 to Core M) and relies more on cloud based storage?
Other than the obvious OS differences, compare this to the specs in the new Pixel.
I don't think your comment has any relevance to the post you replied to. Whether Apple does or does not give a s*$@ about Chromebook (which apparently is handily beating Apple hardware in educational institutions) does not make this MB less similar to Chromebook.
They're similar, although I really do see it as the author put it, a iPad fusion with a Mac Book.
Also the philosophies outside the basics (lightweight, good screen, portable) are very different (the biggest to me is the MacBook actually has significant local storage).
Yep. A HEAVY dose of "iPad this and iPad that" comparisons, but yet, still NOT a touchscreen, thus bearing no applicable crossovers. It's a laptop, not a tablet. It's almost as misguided as some of the comments I've seen saying this would be a great gaming laptop for them to replace their existing MacBook with... (excepting the weak GPU, no ability to plug in power AND a mouse, lack of OSX games, or if you're just going to Bootcamp Windows anyway....well, those of us who think about such things are obviously not the "target demographic").
It has about as much to do with the Chromebook that it does with any other laptop. It has a screen, a processor, and a keyboard.
This is way lighter - the lightest laptop ever to have a HD display, for sure. Compare it to the Samsung notebook with Core M or any other Core M machine. Not because the processor is so important - but the Core M allows manufacturers to make a very thin, fanless design that doesn't need a huge battery. So given these capabilities, different manufacturers came up with different solutions.
Apple invented a new kind of battery for this MacBook. They also put their expertise in manufacturing into it in a way that it's going to be impossible to copy.
Makes absolutely no sense to compare it to a Core i5 device; and I didn't see any "cloud storage is where it's at" thing about the MacBook either. It's got 512GB flash?!
I think this is a precursor to a new device type for the MacBook Air. I don't think Apple is going to abandon a market brand name that has been very successful. This MacBook clearly out does the Air in its Air-ness. That only leaves Apple to stop selling the Air or change the product materially.
16x10 displays; good move. I think the price is too high when considering all their products, so it leaves me thinking more so that we will see a new Air and device to fill in the $800-$899 price range.
But it's not crippled like a chrome book. You can run any OSX software on it and you can save stuff to its reasonably large hard drive. Two reasons why I want one and can't use the chromebook.
No, just as an overpriced, underpowered addition to Apple's already confused line of laptops. Chromebooks are just a modern, more powerful version of yesteryear's dumb terminals, running yet another flavor of Linux, an OS more fragmented than Android.
"but, in this age of totally ubiquitous photos, a good screen is also essential."
a good touchscreen is essential. Once you have used a touchscreen laptop, you an never go back.
Mac OS being non-touchscreen is so archaic, it is so natural to use your finger on the screen as you are looking at it to flick through photos or quickly zoom.
I'm not really sure about the importance of touch. I and all of my colleagues have touchscreen ultrabooks. Of that group of maybe 10 people, only one uses touch regularly. The rest of us prefer to use our touchpads - you get less arm-ache, a cleaner screen and you don't look like a prat in meetings as you wave your arm randomly in front of you.
Of course, 10 colleagues are not a statistically valid sample. But it's a useful indication.
I tend to use my touchscreen for scrolling. I put my hand in the bottom right hand corner with 4 fingers behind the screen and scroll with my thumb. It is a lot more natural to scroll using the method instead of using the touchpad or keyboard. This alone is enough for me to only buy laptops with touchscreens now.
"you don't look like a prat in meetings as you wave your arm randomly in front of you."
So noone you know uses an iPad at work either? Try sitting with a laptop actually on your lap surfing the web and see how much better a ouchscreen is than a touchpad.
No-one I know perches their iPad at 30 degrees to vertical and places it at arm's length in front of them on the Board Room table ;-)
The difference is posture. You tend to hold a tablet like a book, but, in a business environment, laptops tend to be placed on a table. I can see that a touchscreen laptop might be more practical when you're curled up on the sofa, but, personally, I prefer to grab my phone in that situation.
I don't think this laptop is aimed at the business market, but rather at the general consumer market, who would tend to use touch more extensively if given a choice, I suspect.
Most people use it for scrolling. You're far more likely to see someone "holding" their laptop by the base of the screen, using small swipes of their thumb to scroll a webpage or whatever.
The touchpad on a Mac though supports all those actions. I'm not an Apple fan. Far from. But gestures built into the OS and executed through the touchpad are flawless.
Perhaps for you. But personally I can't stand touchscreens for either laptops or desktops. Especially desktops. I'm much faster and more accurate with a good trackpad or mouse. Plus, no smudges all over the screen.
Apple missed a huge opportunity for a really great product by not including a touch screen and allowing the screen to pivot all the way around so that it could be used on the lap like an iPad. One wonders if they made this dubious decision by choice to avoid negatively impacting iPad sales. It's hard to imagine it would have been a technical hurdle. Perhaps OS X just doesn't work well enough (yet) on a touch screen. I would have ordered one today if that feature were in-place but no deal.
Many,perhaps most, of the people that say this is an awful machine are not, as you said, the target market for it. Some of these people would never buy an Apple product.
The one port issue is bogus. Get a dongle if you are paranoid but the vast majority (95%) people will never need more than one connection at a time. Wireless printers are the norm. Wireless DSLR cameras are getting common. Wireless HDD connections are possible and of course the cloud is wireless.
This will kill the Air because of the retina display.
What's bogus is the idea that shaving a tiny amount of thickness off is worth nixing all connectivity options. There are already Windows devices with comparable thickness and weight, but that have actual ports. And they're cheaper. Unless you're married to OSX, there's really no reason to even look at the MacBook.
Bogus to you. I'm happy to lose a port that I never use if it makes my laptop thinner and lighter. I'm happy to pay more for a device that matches what I use it for.
I predict that this will fly off the shelves and become the single most popular laptop that Apple sells. The market for thin, light and sexy is very, very large.
I understand light, that's my primary concern too, but how does it being even thinner than the past help you in any way? If it was a bit thicker, it would fit the same way into any slim bag.
Adding one extra USB port would not make it thicker or heavier, and would make it more convenient/usable for a lot of people, even if it would not be useful to you.
"Adding one extra USB port would not make it thicker or heavier, and would make it more convenient/usable for a lot of people, even if it would not be useful to you."
Difficult to say - the chassis tapirs very quickly. It looks like a second USB port would have fit, particularly next to the headphone jack but I haven't actually measured it. Agreed that it would make the device a lot more useful though.
Amen to that, kyuu ^. There are absolutely limits to how thin and how light a laptop can be and still be superior to heavier, thicker ones. I believe Apple, in the Macbook, has found, and surpassed those limits. First, thick/thin-ness: once you've gotten thin enough to be quite compact to store in a bag or briefcase and to pick up and carry, further thinness will not produce incremental benefits unless you are disabled and can barely carry, say, a light, thin book. We can agree that's a niche audience, not Apple's target. Otherwise, the thickness itself - independent of weight - and they absolutely can be - the only tangible result of any further thinness (than about 0.6" IMHO) is, as we can see, an inability to fit ports in to enable very useful connectivity - even to people who don't realize how useful it can be, if only rarely. Point is, no benefit to getting thinner, definite downside, for many. Now let's go to weight. I personally cannot think of a use case where a weight below about 2.5-2.75 lbs becomes a game changer. Again, except in the case of someone disabled with difficulty gripping and carrying a 2.5 lb very thin book-like device, the added weight reduction - from, say, 2.6lbs (where increasing numbers of Ultrabooks are, and more are headed) does not appear to produce any tangible, measurable benefits, but there are definite downsides to lowering the weight - to 2 lbs, and below, particularly in a form factor as small as 12", further particularly where the base of the laptop, with the keyboard, are also extremely thin. The problem with laptops that are so light and thin is that you can't use them comfortably or efficiently - uh, er, in your lap! The same often applies to thin, bouncy tray tables on planes and trains.
Here's a real-life example: I've been a laptop fanatic since they were invented (handle on Notebook Review and Tablet PC Review is "Lovelaptops!") and for the past 7 years have chased the lightest, thinnest ultraportable, then ultrabook available, with the most powerful specs and greatest versatility, best screen, etc. In 2011 I discovered what I thought was the holy grail. It was the now legendary - if you're in the right crowd - Sony Z, a.k.a. the Z1, first in the series of 3 from 2010-2013. It had a 13" screen, Raid0 SSDs up to 512GB (in 2010, recall), nVidia d-GPU, every port you could imagine, WWAN,2 SD slots, ExpressCard slot, Ethernet, 4USB, VGA, a blu ray burner (which could be yanked out and replaced with any 2.5" HDD or SSD), backlit full travel chiclet keyboard, user replaceable RAM, battery, wifi and WWAN cards, even the semi-proprietary SSDs could be expanded FHD 95% Adobe RGB color gamut (perhaps irrelevant here, but point is this was a far better laptop than the Macbook, most ultrabooks and the MacBook Air of 2012-2015. It weighed 3.06 lbs and was 0.75" at its thickest. It was also $2,500 - $3,500 and sold like hotcakes because, well, it was that good, that revolutionary, particularly for its power+versatility/size+ weight ratios. The machine was a thing of beauty (all aluminum one piece keyboard deck, magnesium/carbon fiber lid). I was salivating for it, waited until they went on sale. I took it home, set it up and proceeded to use it at my desk, and I was in heaven.
Then I started testing it out on my lap. :( :( :( Grrrrrrrr! The darn thing just kept bouncing in my lap no matter how lightly I tried to press the keys. Even with a 13" form factor, I just couldn't find a place to balance it on my legs. The screen would wobble with every key press. (I kept it and loved it and still use it, but never on my lap and rarely even traveled with it because of the bad balance on airplane tray tables.) If this sounds familiar at all, you may have or once had a Microsoft Surface Pro, especially the SP3, as the first two were non-starters on your lap. But the SP3 has a larger footprint, better weight distribution between keyboard and screen parts and the "magical" infinitely adjustable kickstand. Still, it proved to be virtually unusable on your lap. Guess what? It weighs about 2 lbs has a 12" screen and the keyboard is incredibly thin and light - very similar in form and weight distribution to the new Macbook. It too only manages one USB port, but that's in addition to a (Apple copy) magsafe type power port and a mini display port. For any kind of professional or business person, this would be the absolute minimum amount of connectivity.
Sorry for writing such a long tale to make a simple but incredibly relevant - IMHO - point that illustrates the folly of continuing to make laptops thinner and lighter. Tablets and phones? Pretty much no problem, though gripping a really thin phone can be annoying, subject to being dropped more easily. If you truly can get used to the highly unconventional keyboard and track pad, and you just adore OSX and hate Windows. One of the worst things about Apple coming out with the Macbook at this time is that it probably signals the end of development of more features on the MBA, particularly putting a decent screen on it. So you may think the with the MacBook Apple has created a paradise for those seeking powerful computers that are thin and light as a feather, but I beg to differ. I feel that Apple has permanently relegated the MBA to second class status (or it would surely cannibalize sales of the Mac Books) which means that professionals have one and only one technically Ultraportable laptop and that is the suitable for working professionals and business people, and it weighs in at 3.6 lbs and 0.71 height/thickness. I am not an OSX fan but even if I was, now would be the time I would give Windows 10 a try and look into all those sleek, sexy Ultrabooks made by Lenovo, Asus, even Acer, Dell and HP, averaging about 2.7 lbs and 0.6 - or I'd lug around a 3.6 lb rMBP 13 for the same performance, feature set and screen caliber of all those Windows Ultrabooks but at a higher price, 0.5-0.8 lbs heavier, pretty rotten experience running Windows with lack of driver support proudly bragged about by the manufacturer. Take heart though: it's not really ugly!
The MacBook isn't top heavy. Most of the weight will be contained in the batteries at the bottom, easily the densest part of the computer. It's not going to bounce that badly, else they wouldn't have let it out of testing.
Besides, the reason the SP3 bounces so much is because the keyboard is literally suspended above the surface the computer is resting on.
As a Surface Pro user, I can vouch that I rarely need the USB port, except for storage. It would get really annoying if the charger doesn't also contain a USB port or two, but I think that's already far-fetched. I can't stand devices that I can't charge while something is plugged in.
"Wireless DSLR cameras are getting common." - in Canon's current rnage, only 5 of 15 camera models have WiFi, and 95% of the installed base wouldn't have WiFi.
If this was a Microsoft product, you would be on here telling us how they didn't understand the market.
1. Wifi SD cards aren't all that expensive. 2. It is a perfectly legitimate product strategy to target a subset of the market, such as those who are happy to be closer to the bleeding edge. 3. You can plug a camera into this thing if you need to.
What people are trying to say is - in a nutshell - that Apple's decision to only include 1 single USB port can't be excused because of technical reasons. The space to include a second *full-sized* USB port exist as proven by other manufacturers with thinner products offering a better port selection. Instead they have deliberately crippled the product. Microsoft was called out on the stupid music sharing feature of the original Zune, why should we not call out Apple when they make similar decisions?
I keep buying Dells because I can actually upgrade them (easily) and they include as much as they reasonably can. Some examples: +on the M6700 you can do (4) SATA drives) +on their new XPS 13 they have room for (2) USB ports, mini-displayport, headphone jack, SD card reader, etc. ++you can choose a 1920x1080 display for longer battery life, or you can choose the ultra high res if you want more pixels ++the SSD is easily accessible and is upgradeable (i.e. buy the 128GB model and upgrade to 512GB, or 1TB [once they are available in m.2 format])
"The one port issue is bogus. Get a dongle if you are paranoid but the vast majority (95%) people will never need more than one connection at a time."
It's not bogus fanboy. That one port is also used as the charging port, so you can't use it at all while charging. Apple fanboys come up with the most laughable and delusional excuses.
"This will kill the Air because of the retina display."
It will also be significantly worse than the Air in every way except the screen. Apple sheep will buy it because they're stupid.
Consider that your failure to understand and accept other people's priorities says more about your own intelligence than theirs. I kid, I kid, if you could do that, you wouldn't be making such a fool of yourself.
This laptop should have many hours of battery life and charge in an hour or two. So, plugging in a peripheral directly into the USB port needn't be a major disruption, unless its a long term thing.
Of course, this could all be addressed if the charger has a second (or third) USB port.
Maybe in your circles all those things are common, but most people don't have DSLR cameras, wireless hard drives, etc. Maybe a wireless printer since those are cheap. But USB keys are still a normal, heavily used thing. Now you're saying you have to plug in an extra device that they don't give you for $1300 in order to use anything that plugs in. If nothing else, how about to charge your phone? I often times plug in my phone to my laptop on the table to charge it so I don't have to plug the phone into the wall. Especially at work. Where Mac's belief that you don't need more than 2 USB ports is insanely limiting.
The one port issue is bogus because in the near term (months or likely even years), multiple Type-C ports are almost as useless as a single Type-C port. You'd need accessories and adaptors anyway!
I'm much much more annoyed about the removal of magsafe than I am about the port count.
Typical response from an obvious Apple fanboy. With all due respect, your post is nonsense. Apple is asking a whopping $1300 to $1600 for a laptop that is significantly worse in every respect when compared to the Air, the screen being the lone exception. Performance is significantly worse, especially while trying to drive a 2K screen. The keyboard is worse. The battery life is worse. It has one port, and that port is used for charging, which means you can't even use it while charging.
This new Macbook is nothing more than a hideously overpriced netbook. Apple sheep have more money than sense, but a fool and his money are soon parted.
"Many people scarcely plug anything into their laptops"
Complete BS!
"Weight and size are everything"
Again, complete BS! I don't remember anyone running around screaming about how the Air was just so darn heavy and thick.
This reminds me of the original MacBook Air in many ways. The original Air had far fewer ports than typical laptops, no optical drive, no user swappable battery, a slower CPU than any existing Macs (and perhaps any Intel mac, ever), a premium price, and was also the lightest, thinnest laptop most people had ever seen.
Many critics panned it, but it was clearly the machine if you favored portability over performance, and the performance was adequate for some web browsing, writing email, etc.
The original Air was compromised by the silicon available at the time, the next major revision had better CPUs and graphics capabilities to choose from. Performance was more than adequate and battery life was amazing. Before long, the entire Apple notebook line looked like the original air. Unibody construction came first, then the non-user serviceable battery, the rMBP eliminated the optical drive, and legacy ports. The PC notebook market is moving in the same direction (though more slowly)
The design elements of this MacBook are going to become common in future MacBook Air's and Pros in the next few years.
You may ride the "portability" backwagon only for so long. Even though given out of the context the weight reduction for this MB looks significant if you take into account the average weight of the bag/backpack it goes in all of a sudden this weight reduction becomes fairly insignificant. And the thickness reduction is even more so. Also, you seem to be abusing the argument that people considering the design of this BA to have too much compromises are simply not a target crowd. Discussions like this at least in part serve the purpose of figuring out what the target crowd is. With your line of arguing it would be OK for a company to release a totally useless device because, you know, it's just that all 100% of people are not the target crowd - but the device is fine.
Many people flocked to the MBA because it was the first really portable Apple laptop. And because it was a well executed build of course. But in regard to true portability they were far behind already existing laptops.
What are your thoughts on the new Dell XPS 13? It is smaller than your 13" Air but has a larger screen that the new MacBook. Is it a good fit for your usage scenario or do you need the 0.6 lbs less? I am not being sarcastic, how do you view the two machines?
Personally, like this article mentions, I wish Apple had included a USB-C connector on each side of the machine (like Google did with the new Pixel).
However, I remember when the iPad came out and I thought "Only one port?! That'll never work!" Obviously I was wrong. We will see how it goes this time around, though it is very nice to see an industry standard port this time instead of an Apple proprietary connector (30-pin connector, lightning, magsafe, etc.)
Why does apple continue to make things smaller while reducing functionality, and then gets praised for its 'amazing design'??
Seriously, why won't they make a laptop with a touch screen? And why for god's sake would they reduce the number of ports to 1, and force people to buy an adapter to plug anything else in other than the charger?
This is a terrible design flaw. Who gives a sh*t if its 2mm thinner and .4 lbs lighter? Are we all such weaklings that we would trade functionality over a difference of a couple millimeters and less than half a pound less?
They should have kept last year's design and added a touch-screen, or added the USB type C port, and kept the other ports as well.
WTF are you talking about? Who cares about price, weight and size, when this product is crippled by a hopelessly defective design? You can't hook up a power adapter and external storage at the same time. You can't hook up an external display and external storage. Hell, you can't even plug in a thumb drive!
This product is the most asinine piece of shít Apple has produced, and that includes the (thankfully) short-lived Shuffle that could only be controlled by a gimped Morse code.
Jony Ive is a pompous hack who should be fired before he further ruins a once-promising brand.
"Many people scarcely plug anything into their laptops"
I think there are a lot of people out there who would like to be able to plug a USB drive in to their laptop while they're charging it. USB drives are extremely common.
Hmm, it's very easy to underestimate how diminutive this thing is. It almost seems JUST thick enough to have the 3.5mm headphone jack fit in the side of the body.
As a "laptop" it's certainly crippled, both in terms of CPU power and ports. As a highly mobile, minimal OS X machine it's interesting though.
As soon as you will be able to buy monitors with builtin USB Type C support (acting as a charger and USB-hub at the same time) this should be very nice to handle (just plug in one cable for everything when you're at your desk).
And I bet USB keydrives with one Type A and one Type C plug on opposite ends will start to sell really well very soon...
the problem is when you talk in into a random room and have to do a presentation and all there is HDMI at best, VGA if you're unlucky, or when you have to give stuff to a friend on his years old USB keydrive.
Apple's multiport adapter isn't cheap or small, but USB-C is just electrical DisplayPort, so adapters should be cheap. The one caveat is that it doesn't support dual-mode DisplayPort (DP++) but that just means you need active instead of passive adapters (they still don't require external power), and if you look at Monoprice then that just means going from a $7 adapter to a $15 adapter.
What I'm trying to say is that, given a USB-C to MiniDP or DP adapter, all your existing active DP adapters should work (passive ones won't). And before long, Monoprice is sure to start pumping out cheap USB-C to HDMI/DVI/VGA adapters.
I have to have adapters for this for work laptops. I'm issued both a full size MacBook Pro and an HP workstation laptop. The HP laptop only does display port so I need a dongle for HDMI and VGA.
It is certainly ballsy of Apple to try to sell this iPad-meets-netbook for $1299. Undoubtedly vast hordes of Apple customers will buy this, but the question is whether this is the future. It certainly follows the Apple business plan as this new Macbook is undoubtedly has very high profitability.
Anand called it years ago, the iPad and Air would eventually merge. This is it folks. So I guess we should be keeping in mind when comparing this to serious laptops. Don't look at the new MacBook for your next business laptop, but if you want an iPad with a keyboard, Apple's got the perfect product for you.
It's even worse in Europe. It costs at least 1449€ here, other variants cost 1799€. I know that the Euro is very weak at the moment, but that's just ridiculous.
You can thank differences in price advertising for that. The European prices have to include the relevant country's VAT, whereas you need to add applicable sales taxes to the US price.
The baseline configuration costs £1050 in the UK, which is about USD1590 at today's exchange rate. Take out the 20% VAT and the price is £875, which at USD1320 is virtually the same as the advertised US price of USD1299 if you allow for some forex drift.
I'm pretty sure that it will also sell great as a business "laptop". As long as your business doesn't require juggling with lots of USB-periphery but requires a lot of carrying the thing around. And yes, the price just mirrors Apple's expectation of the demand. I wouldn't be surprised if they're right with expecting huge demand. It's a sexy machine.
Business use with laptops (at least around our office) normally involves plugging your notebook in to power, wired ethernet, display, and optionally a mouse/keyboard. Laptops are portable when people go to meetings, but then get turned into desktops when they get back to their desks.
There is nothing about the new macbook that prevents this... In fact, it enables it. The single USB-C port serves as a docking solution. You only get a single port, but that's also only one port to plug in to "dock" the notebook. To the Apple multiport adapter, you have connected your power, your monitor, and a USB 3 hub with your keyboard, mouse, and a USB 3 ethernet adapter.
Is that a bit of an octopus connection? Sure, but all that stuff is plugged in at your desk, not carried around, and it means that you get back to your desk and only have to plug in a single cable with all that stuff. It's what Thunderbolt promised, but without having to pay a small fortune for a thunderbolt dock.
Except business laptop docking ports have all been proprietary (read: expensive), and tied to specific laptop models, and may be discontinued if you need to replace them. I had a Toshiba laptop with a docking port on the bottom, and by the time I started thinking about buying it, it had been discontinued (and was stupid expensive even before it was). USB-C docking stations, or even just a homebrew solution as I described, are standardized, cheap (because anybody can make one on the cheap) and should work with any notebook that has a USB-C port with video.
Depending on what one actually does at work, how will this handle spreadsheets or anything that requires some computing power?
Dropping the i5/i7 process for a less capable one makes me think this is now approaching an Apple version of Google's chrome books. Sure you can install programs on Apple devices, but with Citrix Receiver, your company can have all the programs you need for your work available to use in any Chrome book.
Any business will look at costs and other than sexy looks, what are you getting for your money that you can't get from a Lenovo PC or Chromebook?
I do see apple selling these, but I don't think anyone can truly justify the higher costs if questioned on their choice.
Actually, I see this selling very well as an executive laptop, or a laptop managers take to their meetings (Which they are seemingly in all day long).
The poster up above didn't mean it as a work station. He meant it as a machine people take to meetings and on business trips. The performance and battery life are fine for this job.
Ryan - Great initial hands-on description! Question for you, do we know the trade-offs (besides potentially the QHD resolution you referenced) using USB-C vs. a DP/mDP port? Will input lag be much worse vs using a direct DP port? I like the idea of migrating to a single connector for power/peripherals, but I wonder if the USB-C + mDP might have been a better option for more power-users that rely on external displays.
I don't see why you'd get any input lag just because the signal travels along a different kind of cable and connector. But of course power-users always will be more happy with a device with more and more diverse ports. The MacBook Pro Retina costs exactly the same, has a more powerful CPU, longer battery life and more ports... But it's also larger, thicker and heavier.
And behind connectors on both ends are controllers with their own latency. Especially in case of one-fits-all solution like type C here, lag WILL happen.
That is exactly what I was getting at. A mDP port is just that, small/compact video connection with more added lag. This will have controllers and adapter in the chain and likely could be problematic. For sure this is better than USB 2.0 and 3.0, but those had a LOT of lag for any display usage.
With USB Type C the DisplayPort signal goes right over some of the lanes. There's just a different kind of cable and connectors involved. This is totally different than transporting display content over USB (the protocol).
When using DP over Type-C, it's full, raw DP. There's no TB-like encapsulation going on, just a simple mux allocating some lanes to DP. So there isn't any kind of processing going on that would introduce lag.
That's great! Thanks for the confirmation. I had a little trouble locating something definitive on that. If that is the case, the only limiting factor here is the # of ports, which can be solved for with the available adapter. Very cool. Still, 2 would be nice (use one while charging). :)
"Dual display and video mirroring: Simultaneously supports full native resolution on the built-in display and up to 3840 by 2160 pixels on an external display, both at millions of colors"
I would be surprised if there was any noticeable input latency. A DP dongle is not a USB-powered DP adapter, it's more or less a direct passthrough of the displayport stream.
Despite the name change, from Air to just plain Macbook, I can envisage people buying this as a MBA upgrade and then being a little disappointed in battery life, performance and usability. I feel the single USB Type-C port for charging and use is a simplification - a lot of more professional MBA users will want to charge and use a mouse, and carrying extra adapters negates the portability aspect more than usual.
The ideal user for Apple is someone coming more from an iPad foundational base, rather than someone looking to upgrade their 2-3 year old MBA. I wonder what will happen to that Air naming philosophy, as it already implies it to be the lightest models that Apple makes. If they refresh the air for something Broadwell-U with cTDP down, it won't be the thinnest and lightest any more. It makes Apple's target audiences a little fuzzy.
On the plus side, when we take Lenovo who moved to Core-M for Y3P over Y2P, so if Apple makes the jump at the same time, there is less loss/competition in that aspect. Though that 480p camera rings some alarm bells - perhaps going after super super thin just isn't worth it. Make it 16mm and add in some more battery capacity perhaps.
I have NEVER seen a Macbook user using a mouse. While I agree that there are reasons to want more than one port, the mouse certainly isn't one of them. And of course the current Apple mouse included with all iMacs even doesn't need a cable (it works via BT).
I've used my desktop mouse on my macbook sometimes, particularly when I want to do some gaming on the go... But generally, a mouse (at least a normal USB mouse) is less efficient to use than the touchpad, because you give up the gestures and precise scrolling.
I'm primarily a PC user. 90% of my use is on my desktop running Windows 8.1, where I use a normal mouse exclusively. But when I'm on my macbook air, the trackpad is generally better for what I use the macbook for.
It also helps that the trackpad on macs is far better than any other laptop I've used: it's my first Apple laptop, and the trackpad is enormously better than that on my previous Toshiba, Dell, or Compal notebooks... or anybody else's notebook that I've used in the past.
Why would this be unsuitable for someone seeking to upgrade a 2-3 year old Air? If they have an Air, they're almost certainly not a power user. This machine provides a very handy upgrade where it matters - screen and portability - and compromises on the secondary things - CPU, connectivity and battery life.
Again, because it's severely compromised in every single way when compared to an Air. The only exception is screen resolution, and the weak Core M processor is going to struggle to run that screen with anything other than web browsing or Facebook crap.
"This machine provides a very handy upgrade where it matters - screen and portability - and compromises on the secondary things - CPU, connectivity and battery life."
LOL! This post sums up Apple fans perfectly. They consider CPU, GPU, performance, connectivity and battery life to be secondary to the way something looks.
Shock news! Internet troll demonstrates marked inability to empathise person who doesn't share his priorities.
I'm no Apple fan. I own one Apple product, a 4 year old Air which almost always runs Ubuntu. I bought it because at the time it was cheaper and lighter than any Windows Ultrabook. This new Macbook is the first Apple product that I've seen since 2011 that has me contemplating opening my wallet. Given the way that I use a laptop, it's a clear and very significant upgrade from what I currently own.
And, yeah, I care how things look. My wife looks beautiful. So does my house. And my dog. Do you live in a hovel with a slapper and mange-ridden mutt? Good luck with that!
The Asus UX305 is thinner than the MacBook, has a 720p camera and proper USB and SD card ports. A bigger footprint for a 13.3-inch machine of course, but I do wonder to what extent the thinness has an impact on the parts that can be used:
You you sure this is aimed at iPad users? It doesn't share any of the same software.
Also, if Apple was planning to keep a device the size of the current MacBook Air wouldn't they have renamed the MacBook Air MacBook and introduced this new device as the new MacBook Air, right?
"Also, if Apple was planning to keep a device the size of the current MacBook Air wouldn't they have renamed the MacBook Air MacBook and introduced this new device as the new MacBook Air, right?"
- And that logic right there is why this device is so confusing. What I get from this is that Apple didn't have the cojones to change up their MacBook Air design and decided to just introduce this as the new MacBook. When it is pretty obvious this fits the ultrabook "Air" mantra. Definitely a difference of vision between two apples.
Great article! Really love the overall perspective you've shared (iPad meets mac) and the detailed info on certain issues (USB Type C). Classic anandtech stuff :) I've just a few questions:
(1) In Apple's "Tech Specs" page for the new Macbook, they mention that it can "Simultaneously supports full native resolution on the built-in display and up to 3840 by 2160 pixels on an external display"; just wondering if you have any thoughts on that?
(2) What do you think on the choice of Core M in Mac? Many people have slammed it, referencing poor performance from Lenovo's Yoga 3. However, I just read a review of the Asus Zenbook UX305 (which also uses a Core M processor), and it's performance is apparently significantly better than the Yoga 3. So perhaps Apple's implementation could be (just barely) 'good enough' for a Macbook? Note also that Apple says that the Core M in the Macbook "only consumers 5W of power" - not 4.5W, but 5W. Would love to hear your take on this :)
Thanks for this article, was a great read - and educational as well
1) Apple doesn't specify the refresh rate. In this case I'm not convinced that's 4Kp60 (you could do 4Kp30 with just 2 lanes) but we'll see.
2) We have a Core-M review going up tomorrow in fact. Core-M is not going to match BDW/HSW-U at times, but it's not a slouch. Whether it's fast enough for OS X though I think is still up in the air.
And 5W is Apple rounding, I suspect. The CPUs they're using don't offer 5W cTDP states.
Just read the yoga 3 pro review, thanks! Seems like many people may have to wait for the next gen core M :) Although I might be wrong, and it may be plenty fast for most users.
About the 5W: any chance apple may have had some work done with intel, and customized it?
Thanks ryan, can't wait for your full review of this macbook!
I totally do not get the point of the 3.5mm jack, that thing is plain useless and should have become another USB port instead. If they really want analog audio on that device why not make it 2.5mm put it next to the second USB port? Also it really sucks that they announce DisplayPort capability but do not offer an adapter which actually provides DP -- after all most of the current users of an external display will either have a DP display or the necessary adapters.
Also at the asking price they might as well include the 50 cent article USB C type -> USB, DP, USB C type power for free.
But damn, that thing is hot... if I only had a usecase for that...
Wait, so 2304x1440 means that we get real estate of 1152x720 in default seting? Isn't that too low for 12"? And if we'd like more space, like 1440x900 then the poor Core M must render everything at 2880x1440 and then donwscale it? Unibody designs aren't the best in heat dissipation...
Also, given that Thunderbolt 3 will be much smaller and will probably find it's way in the MacBook, maybe the 2nd gen MacBook is the one to get (as usual in new product categories).
I don't like it but as long as Apple offers this product along Macbook Air and Macbook Pro I don't care. Different target market. I just want retina display for the next Air.
While i am absolutely sold on this MacBook future, i will skip this years edition, cause: - i want exactly the same machine/design with a 17" panel (or at least 15") - no 16gb ram option... - not able to drive my 4K display... (skylake, i know) - i really hate adapters, so : - where is a usb-c to mini-displayport, usb-b & power splitter cable (or a 4K 48" screen with a usb-c port taking usb3 & displayport & supplying power, providing a hub with usb-c/a ports) - where is a usb-c to micro-usb cable - where is a usb-c to mini-usb cable - where is a usb-c to lightning cable
i want exactly the same machine (thin, light, fanless, retina), just bigger and with more ram so i can run multiple apps at the same time (obviously i'd want a faster fanless cpu but that just doesn't exist yet)
- Apple will probably never again produce a 17" notebook - 16GB is a chipset impossibility: maybe the next one - The new macbook can drive a 4K external display already - Various adapters are already available from Apple, Google, Belkin, etc. Monoprice is sure to follow.
So this is just like Surface Pro 3 with similar battery life and screen resolution? Just more expensive, without touch screen, with much slower CPU? OK.
And wait until the Surface Pro 4 is announced shortly, 2mm thinner and 200g lighter, though also running a Core-M. That will be the ultimate coimputer, not this useless piece (of nice looking) junk.
On Geek bench 64bit Core-M 5y71 single 2800 multi 4850 i3 4040Y 1662 3446 i3 4200U 2461 4713
So core-M offers much better than i3 and slightly better than i5 Surface 3, but obviusly well behind i7 surface 3. MS shoould release the surface 4 and keep the surface 3 in production too.
The Macbook, when compared to the comparable Surface Pro 3 (which means 256GB of storage, 8GB of RAM, with the keyboard attached) is a little thinner, a lot lighter, and a hundred bucks cheaper.
No touchscreen and slower CPU is true, but then, the macbook is also half a pound lighter than the surface with keyboard, and not everybody wants a touchscreen. It's a tradeoff.
Also, I just can't get on with the Surface as a laptop. It's fine if you want a (rather bulky) tablet with a keyboard option, but if you have to use it in all kinds of settings it's actually a nasty combination: The keyboards and trackpads aren't especially good and it's a really flappy setup. The surface is not a bad machine, but if you want something you can just open and use on your lap or in an airplane or on the couch or standing up this MacBook seems just suited better to the job.
And again, for a "real" laptop that thing is TINY. And lightweight. And pretty. I'm curious about the keyboard though. Shallow key travel isn't good, but steel domes instead of rubber domes sounds good. I very well remember how I was suspicious about the flat keys of my (late 2008) MacBook at first, but after more than 6 years with it now it's still one of the best keyboards I've ever used in a laptop and I use it 10 hours a day. And I type a lot.
No, it's not like a Surface Pro 3. The MacBook has higher screen resolution and an SP3 equipped with the Type Cover and with the same storage capacity (256 GB) is just about the same thickness and weight as the MacBook but costs $130 *more* than the MacBook.
The USB Type-C connector is going to be a blessing in the short run: 1. Finally! Affordable charging options for Mac portables. 2. Apple's $79 dongle is obscenely overpriced (should come in the box). But third parties should be able to release alternatives at normal prices.
I have a non-retina MacBook Pro that I plug in to Ethernet, power, Display Port every time I get to my desk. The prospect of plugging one single cable and leave the dongle/dock at my desk is very attractive to me. Seems like a little thing, but multiply by several times a day.
"Apple's $79 dongle is obscenely overpriced (should come in the box). But third parties should be able to release alternatives at normal prices."
I was thinking the same thing, but I suspect that the dongle is more than just some passive components and some ports. For one, the USB-C connector it provides has to be a fully capable connector as well. Another weird bit is that the Apple adapters only support up to 1080p for the VGA and HDMI connections while the MacBook itself supports up to 3840 by 2160 pixels (according to the Tech Specs page for the MacBook on apple.com).
I have a suspicion that when these adapters are available, we are going to find out that they are more like the Lightning->HDMI adapters that Apple makes for the iPad and iPhones. Those adapters basically accept an encoded h.264 (possibly h.265 by now on the newer devices) stream and then decode on the adapter side before sending it out over HDMI. I wouldn't be shocked to find out that these operate similarly.
As for the other USB 3.1 port, that implies to me that even if they aren't encoding the video, they still have to embed an USB 3.1 hub inside this connector. There are two upstream USB 3.1 ports (the normal Type-A port and the Type-C port). This means there has to be a hub. And I would guess that adding a USB 3.1 hub chip to the design pushes up the price a little bit.
The question I have, if this is how they did it, is why would they go down the route of using encoded video? Does it simplify the adapter in any way? Does it mean that they aren't using the alt pins, which would make them available for use by another upstream USB-C device? Are they planning on using these adapters for other product lines (i.e, future iOS devices)?
Definitely curious to see more details when these come out next month.
As a pretty happy MB Pro user I was quietly hoping I could justify a use case for this new MacBook for travel etc. But no, not even close. This is largely due to the extremely compromised port choice and the very high price for what it is. I now really have my doubts as to how well this will sell given that it is, as Ryan says, MBA meets ipad. If it was much cheaper then that is a customer demographic that might work, but not at this price.
At this price you would owe it to yourself to look at the Dell XPS 13 - which I have despite being a MB Pro user. This is not a comparison that works well for Apple, to be frank. For anyone who is a remotely serious computer user (presumably most AT readers), then I honestly think Apple has misjudged the new MB. For those that are not "serious" users, they will be hard pushed to justify the MB versus an iPad or the current MBA.
>In scaling down from the MacBook Air, Apple has also scaled down the number of port on the MacBook. What you’ll find is a single data & power port in the form of a new USB Type-C port on the left side, and on the right side is a 3.5mm headphone jack. The Air was already light on ports, but there has never been a Mac like this before.
I would point out that the original 2008 Macbook Air only had one USB port.
In fact, it wasn't until the third hardware update (Late 2010) that the Air got a second USB port.
PLEASE stop comparing it to a tablet. It doesn't have a touchscreen. It doesn't compare to a tablet. I don't care if it "looks" tablety. If it doesn't WORK tablety it's not like a tablet.
Good first impression feedback though. I think the most exciting thing is the type C connector.
1) This design is brilliant, but since I need/prefer a more robust machine I'll have to wait for the MBP to get most of these updates. The 13" MBP got some, but not the 15". If it did I may have already updated mine.
2) So why introduce this as a MacBook and not a 12" MacBook Air. Apple has left old tech in category before; you can still buy the non-Retina MacBook Pro from their store. I wonder if the MacBook Air will be re-jiggered in a year or two to be an ARM-based system with their S-series chips. Apple could pounce not hat $700-800 "PC" range with an ARM-based 12" MacBook Air using the same design as the 12" MacBook. Even their Mac App Store is setup for this, providing they introduce a way for developers to use fat binaries (which they've done in the past).
3) I think the reason the lid didn't get the cutout for the plastic insert for the glowing Apple logo is the same reason the camera was reduced to 480p. Not enough room right now, but frankly, I can't see how either of those are deal breakers, especially the glowing Apple logo which really was simply advertising for Apple.
4) I don't mind there only being one port on each side of the device but I do wish it would have been 2x USB-C* ports. That means replacing the 3.5mm jack with USB-C. Basically an internal hub in the device so that you can even charge your MacBook from either side. There might not be too many adapters now, but USB-C is too versatile to not catch on. I expect Monoprice to have USB-C-to-3.5mm-jack in the 'dollar plus change' range soon enough.
5) The beauty of going with USB-C for charging is we should now be able to use any cable, PSU, and even our vehicle's 12V port for charging. Sure, MagSafe was useful, but I don't think its utility outfights the universal utility and cost savings USB-C will offer us in the future. I think this an indication of positive changes for the future of the entire notebook industry
* Yes, I know it's USB Type-C but it's easier to type USB-C, and I don't think there is any confusion when I do that.
That's fine. Nobody has a problem with the port being USB Type-C. The problem is with there only being one port, and that one port is also used for charging.
In regard to the port situation, I've been wondering if part of the issue is due to complexity. A port that can handle every task sounds great in theory, but somewhat of a nightmare electrically. Just imagine how much more complex the solution would have to be to handle ports on opposite sides of the laptop, or even the same side, and keep in mind how small the board is.
Now, Apple could've decided to use a data-only USB Type-C port, but I wonder what would happen if you plugged the power cable into the wrong one? Also, it would simply cause confusion in people that don't really know any better.
The Chromebook Pixel has two USB Type-C ports, and both can be used for the same things (charging/data/video).
If you did have a notebook with multiple Type-C ports that didn't support charging on all the ports, then nothing bad would happen: power levels are negotiated between the devices. When you plug the USB-C power cord into a Macbook or Chrome Pixel, no power is going to flow until the laptop and the power brick have a little chat and negotiate the power situation.
A couple notes, and a couple minor complaints about the article.
As others have noted: This laptop most certainly isn't for everyone - but there *ARE* people it is right for. I tend to alternate between having my desktop be powerful, and my laptop being powerful. When it's turn for my desktop to be powerful, I go for the smallest/lightest "non-netbook" laptop I can. In the past, this has been a PowerBook Duo, a Sony PictureBook, a 12" PowerBook G4. I went a while with an iPad as my "laptop" as well. While my current laptop is my "high-end" one and my desktop is aging, once I replace my desktop, my NEXT laptop will be the "think and light" variety - and the new MacBook is a PERFECT fit for that. So, no, this isn't for me *NOW*, but in 1-2 years, it will be.
The *ONLY* niggle I have with this is the single USB Type-C port. The updated ChromeBook Pixel does it right: One USB Type-C on each side. This allows for charging plus a single peripheral at the same time, while also allowing "ambidextrous" connection of power and/or display! *THAT* is the killer use of USB-C as charging: allowing more flexible charging! I would even give up the headphone port for a USB-C on the other side (heck, I was surprised to see it after the talking-up of Bluetooth for audio.)
Then the two article complaints: It is most definitely *NOT* Apple's first multi-color portable - the spiritual predecessor to it, the original iBook, likewise came in multiple colors. (And it also was light on ports, having only one USB, plus an Ethernet and a modem.)
Likewise, this isn't Apple's first "nearly no input/output", either. The previously-mentioned Clamshell iBook had only a single USB port (although it also had Ethernet and a modem,) while the PowerBook Duo had just one single serial port! (And an optional modem.) The PowerBook Duo had a dock port to allow for connection to more devices, but USB Type C can duplicate that functionality. The iBook clamshell was even more limited - its only interface was slow USB 1.1, it's default networking was AirPort (WiFi -b,) with Ethernet of the 10/100 variety.
What an amazing design... too bad I'm not the target market for this device, I'm certainly envious of its aesthetics. I'm definitely looking forward to a more in-depth review of this machine. I may just consider it if the core-M doesn't drag performance wise.
For those who are against this laptop, chances are you were not the target market. Yes, I was a bit dismayed myself when they released a new, hot looking laptop with it's current specs. I'm sure we'll have better and aesthetically similar laptops coming out in september. However:
1) I use to teach/tutor lectures for medical students to help prep for their US licensing exams. Yes, I can see that there would be a port issue connecting whatever display/lecture devices you may potentially present in, in a business perspective or teaching perspective. Some work-arounds would be the lowered apple TV price ($69 was it? I could just attach the HDMI cable or DVI-HDMI adapter, and stream to the apple TV) and or the USB-C adapter. Honestly, I don't think it's that much of an issue -> I would always broadcast a Ad-hoc/FTP server from my laptop prior to the lecture and during my 10 minute break so all my students were able to access my lecture materials and pictures/resources used during the lecture if they didn't download it ahead of time - transferring files this way was pretty simple - my students would use their phones/laptops to download my files off my computer, making USB drives pointless. The only thing i'd miss in this new macbook would be my wireless laser pointer/presenter or wireless mouse (i'd use a miniature mouse in my hand to control my presentation as I walk around) as I would charge my laptop while I present.
2) I'm pretty sure the Core-M would render gaming unfeasible on this laptop and although having a mouse at times increases productivity on OS X, i'm pretty sure your focus would be on performance and not mobility when it comes to the new macbook. Therefore, i'm pretty certain you'd choose at least an MBA, or rMBP.
3) I would probably use this around my house for light browsing / watching videos when my iPad isn't sufficient... I'd rather take my "real" laptop if I was out and a tablet wasn't sufficient. Even on vacations my iPad isn't really sufficient (I usually broadcast my own ethernet ad-hoc in the hotel room so my family can all use the hotel internet wirelessly in our room and not be restricted to the lobby). I could see this being a great use case for students though.
I could very well be a potential consumer, especially since I have been using sub-3lbs machines since years before the original MBA was even a thought in the back of the head of Mr Jobs and Ive. Still I just don't feel tempted by the new Macbook despite all its pros. Performance wise it's more than enough. The display is really nice. Storage and RAM is sufficient. But the idea of always having to carry an adapter with me to use any of the 50 billion USB devices already in existence rub me the wrong way. I'm all for USB type C, it's an impressive evolutionary step. But just adding a single port and completely excluding a type A connector..? I'm sorry, but that's just Apple acting as a bully. And I don't like bullies.
USB type A just wouldn't fit in there. Really, there's no room for it. I know that most people have never seen an USB type C socket and so can't really judge what they see here, but please look at the right side of that device (with the 3.5mm headphone jack) and compare what you see with an USB type A port. That headphone jack JUST fits into the side. There is NO way an USB type A port would fit in that case.
And, of course: You will run into the adapter trap sooner or later anyway. You'll see more and more USB type C ports and plugs everywhere this year and next year and this will clash with type A/C ports and devices. You will need an adapter. Period.
And this time you'll not need to buy it from Apple. There will be adapters and cables and hubs and chargers in all combinations on offer everywhere.
I would really love an USB keydrive that has an USB type A plug on one side and an USB type C plug on the other side. Because this is something people will start to lust after very soon...
I totally agree, but that keyboard working onto steel domes (for switches) instead of rubber domes gives me some hope that it will be precise and defined enough to make up for the shorter travel.
I mean, I have an IBM type M keyboard (that currently hangs off of an Asus EeePC I use as an experimental home cloud server) and this thing has plenty of travel, but what makes it so outstanding isn't the travel, but the hard and precise definition of its steel spring switches. And this keyboard alone weights about four times as much as this Macbook...
A couple things you missed on the Apple Tech Specs page. The page lists "up to 3840 by 2160 pixels on an external display" as the max resolution. As well as confirms no external USB controller: "USB 3.1 Gen 1 (up to 5 Gbps)"
They should have dropped the headphone jack in favor of a second USB-C connector on the right, then sell a USB to 1/8" Headphone/TOSLINK dongle. Bluetooth headphones are increasingly common...
I'm pretty sure that there was more than one meeting Apple needed to decide on this... But deciding in favor of the headphone jack was probably a wise thing. A lot of people who will buy this device will already own an iPhone or an iPad and will use Apple headsets. Offering those people a straight way to plug it in is crucial. There would be more people being pissed off by having to buy another headset than people who are pissed off by having to buy an adapter or have to unplug the charger to attach some other thingy.
All in all, there are about a billion guys and girls who already have bought an iPhone/iPad and those who do NOT want an adapter or do NOT want to unplug the charger to attach $something are probably much fewer. I doubt very much that Apple decided this on a whim.
I'm sorry, but I find your rationale to be quite a stretch - and/or an incredible insult to the sophistication of the majority of Apple product owners. (I do not mean to impugn your own intelligence or insult you for expressing your theory; I just happen to disagree with it strongly.) Owning a crappy set of Apple earbuds and needing to buy an adapter or a set of Bluetooth headphones (which are growing enormously in popularity and are amazingly convenient and liberating) strikes me as a rather lame reason to deliver a computer at this price point that cannot be operating on AC power and have any accessory connected at the same time - without using a much, much more unwieldy and costly dongle. Someone early referred to Apple as a "bully" for forcing people to change their habits radically simply because Apple wanted to make a computer that disappears from sight when turned on its side strikes me as the height of arrogance. I think it's very likely that many customers own USBA-driven equipment that is far more expensive and integral to their work routines than is a crappy set of Apple headphones rendered useless and be forced to rely far more heavily on cloud storage when there are so many more people, IMO (haven't seen a study and, apparently, neither has Apple - the Jobs philosophy was "we don't need or want to see market research; people don't know what they need, we know what they need!"), who have not yet embraced the cloud for storing their personal data when a shocking, major hacking event is reported almost weekly. But hey, Apple knows best and, though it's implicit in a free market economy that people can buy whatever computer they choose to, the company has spent years locking people into an "ecosystem" in which they have no doubt invested thousands of dollars (iPhone, iPad, Mac, apps, even USB driven accessories) and literally cannot purchase a Windows computer without rendering all these "Apple slaves" in a position of either purchasing a dubiously desirable computer or giving up the benefits of the proprietary, interoperative assets.
Yes, Apple headphones, with an integrated microphone and remote control that are included with every iPhone and which you also can use to make phone calls from your Mac via an iPhone since Yosemite. What's so hard to understand about that?
As so often lots of strong words full of derision are a poor replacement for understanding what's going on.
I need a decent Win notebook for work that has to be highly portable so it can fit in a large-ish tool box. I had been thinking of the 13" Dell XPS 13". It's beautiful, but expensive. With the 12" MacBook being only $300 more, with a better screen and a lot more nice features, not to mention being able to be charged my work van's USB port every time I'm driving without having to turn on a power inverter, as well as the resale value of Macs over Dells, I'm heavily leaning toward the MB.
Just curious, but have you seen the two screen choices for the new Dell XPS 13? Most reviewers have rated them as the most beautiful, color rich, highly accurate, very bright (400 nits!) screens on any laptop (which would include the rMBP 13), and they offer the option of touch or non-touch, matte or glossy, FHD or QHD+ (much higher resolution than any Retina). When you say that the Macbook has "a lot more nice features" than the Dell, I wonder if you can name them. I do agree with you that the ability to charge your laptop in your car can be quite convenient and I hadn't even thought of that possibility given the USB charging port. Still, if you are not stuck on OSX or have a reason that you must have the ability to charge your laptop in your car and just can't deal with inverters, I think you'll find the Dell offers far more features and benefits for the money and has much more powerful hardware that delivers equivalent battery life.
PS: I am not a Dell fan and have reasons for not considering the new XPS 13 for my next purchase, but it's far closer to being a candidate than the new Macbook.
1) I thought they did a great job of detailing the new MacBook and features that are new to any notebook so I don't think I need to rehash it here when it's all stated in this article.
2) A touch option on a notebook I guess appeals to some, but to me. I buy a keyboard and mouse because I don't want to touch the display. Besides, a desktop OS is not right for touching, and adding some UI elements to make it look that way isn't what I call solution.
3) Matte v glossy? Please! I don't want the washed out look of matte.
4) It's funny how I kept hearing that Apple's Retinas display were pointless up until other vendors finally them and then surpassed them and now I hear how Apple's Retina resolutions aren't good enough. '3438 ÷ 1/n = ' is good indicator of where most people can't discern any more pixels. What Apple is offering in their MacBook along with an IPS panel is great.
5) Power inverters are pieces of shit. Getting one in right means having drill a hole though the firewall, hooking up to the main line, installing an additional battery for it to run off of, making sure that battery is deep cycle, adding an inline fuse, and making sure it's good enough that it won't have to be manually turned off and then back on because it clicks off from the main power surge. I just bought a new vehicle and was going to pay a professional to do it right because I can't be bothered. With the new MacBook I save all that trouble... assuming that's the only thing I need to have plugged in.
6) On Amazon the Dell is $300 more than the MacBook for that display, weighs about 30% more than the MacBook, and gets worse battery life. If anything is a good buy based on specs to price it would seem the Asus ZenBook UX305 with a QHD display would be the way to go.
Dude. This is a complete ripoff compared with an xps 13, which is much much powerful overall, better screen, better screen ratio, better battery life, even touch screen if you want (I dont)
This Macbook is just an insult to intelligence at this price
"Apple can’t get the MagSafe port small enough to use on the MacBook, and there’s only room for one port of any kind on each side of the laptop"
There has to be room for additional connectivity, the thickness is maintained for most of the left and right sides of the body. I would think at least an additional USB port on the right side, and perhaps a dedicated display out on the left. But I think the size of the motherboard is actually more of a problem in this regard than the dimensions of the body.
Regular use of any sort of wired peripheral just isn't practical with this laptop. This has to be Apple's ultimate example of form over function thus far, and that's saying A LOT.
When you get some REAL hands-on time (in April), can you please trying running Windows 8(.1) or similar in VMWare Fusion or Parallels Desktop 10 on the new MacBook? I'd really like to know if the new MacBook (e.g. the 1.2Ghz CPU model) has enough CPU and GPU grunt to run Windows reasonably well. (Speaking as a Mac user who also needs to run Windows stuff sometimes). Thanks...
...sorry, I should have said "I'd really like to know if the new MacBook (e.g. the 1.2Ghz CPU model) has enough CPU and GPU grunt to run VIRTUALISED Windows reasonably well"...
This laptop is just applied technology. It's physics, transformed into a piece of art thanks to Apple's manufacturing and design expertise.
As there were: - USB type C allows them to get rid of all other ports. Other companies hold on to the other ports - they'd never think to do this - they will do what they've always done. If it wasn't for Apple we'd still have RS232 ports (remember those?). Not for any good reason, just because it's always been there, and there'll be two people who complain when it's gone. - Core M allows for a fanless and thin design so they did that - New battery tech to solve the problem of how to fill all the gaps that can be filled with battery. - Retina display because you can't go back it's so much better. - Unibody design and Apple magic sauce as well as the best designer in the world to make it look like that.
The end goal is to have a computer appliance rather than a big complicated beast of a machine. It's also about optimizing away all those things people hardly ever use. In almost all laptops I had, I've never used any of the ports. Only exception: USB. And this has that.
Sure it's more clumsy to have a USB-C type adapter to connect your DVI or HDMI monitor - but it's also something that only maybe 5% of users ever do. So it's worth the trade-off. For 95% of users not having a separate DVI port is an improvement. Apple of course has much more precise numbers that the ones I just made up...
The new MacBook is a testament to Apple's collapsing technical acumen. They eliminate all ports except for one outdated USB port? This craven stupidity should send the last adherents running. But running to what? Windows isn't even a viable option anymore.
It's a sad day for people who need real computers. Jony Ive is a pompous, clueless hack who should be fired for introducing crippling regressions to a brand that could be as great as its reputation.
Look at this POS: One USB port, which will require an adapter to do anything. So if you're going to require an adapter anyway, why not make that one port a modern one: Thunderbolt. Thunderbolt can carry USB, video, Ethernet, external storage... ALL AT ONCE. And it can be daisy-chained, which is hugely important when the computer has ONLY ONE PORT. So WTF is Apple doing making its sole port USB?
We can only hope that consumers send this piece of clueless garbage to oblivion, as they did the idiotic iPod Shuffle that could only be controlled with Morse code over a proprietary headphone wire.
As a very satisfied user of a late 2010 13 MBA, I was also disappointed about the lack of magsafe. But wouldn´t it be possible to make an adapter with a (possibly slightly protruding) usb-c plug to some magnetic connection?
Alas, if you want to play ball with Apple, there are media blackouts on full hands on reviews until the things start shipping. If you're waiting for a performance revolution review, it ain't coming. This is a $1,500 statement piece with the performance of a $200.00 netbook in a slick ass package. Its for the "be seen" crowd. Order the Pink one, you'll be the toast of Starbucks!
It is more than the sum of its parts. Probably a little overpriced. But not so for the world of Apple. I've owned a Dell netbook, and this is way better than that was chugging along on an Atom CPU and dealing with a creaky plastic case. I'm no hipster. I'm just someone that likes the form and function of this laptop.
The build and size of this laptop is impressive. Is it worth the money, maybe not for some. But in the Apple universe this is a ground breaking device.
Apple should replace the phone jack with another USB 3.1-C port, so it can be charged from either side. Or one is for charging while another to input/output.
I wonder if 4k 60FPS videos will play smoothly on this machine, on VLC, MPlayerX, or whatever other video player I choose to use. If I'm paying $1700 for a laptop, I certainly expect it to handle any 4k video file I throw at it, no matter the codec (H.264, HEVC, VP9, or any other codec that's popular for 4k).
This means that we can't rely on hardware acceleration, which is probably not supported for VP9, and not even for HEVC until Apple makes the necessary API available (thanks Ryan for pointing this out). Even after Apple makes the API available, it may take a while for VLC and MPlayerX to start supporting it.
The only thing that works reliably today (I'm in the market for a laptop) is software decoding, and I wonder if the CPU is powerful enough to handle that, given its 4.5W TDP. For comparison, my Retina Macbook Pro (13 inches, 2012 model), takes 40-60% CPU playing 4k video in VLC.
Personally I'd have preferred a second type-C port in place of the headphone jack; there are loads of good Bluetooth headsets out right now, and with support for modern Bluetooth the power requirements aren't especially high, meanwhile the ability to plug in separate power and data devices would be much more valuable IMO.
Some people have pointed out that Apple may be concerned about compatibility with their Beats range, but they could have bundled a compact type-C to headphone jack adaptor if it was such a big concern.
Most interesting to me though is the lack of Thunderbolt; I know it's a bit bigger, but it implies that Apple is shying away from it for ultra-portables, though I'm a little disappointed by that. That said, I'm hoping the capabilities of USB 3.1 might push Intel to work harder at Thunderbolt, as a smaller port able to handle more power (in both directions) would be nice to see, as the number of Thunderbolt devices requiring external power is one of its many flaws right now.
All documents and files are in the cloud - transferable by AirDrop. Using a bigger screen via AppleTV with AirPlay. Top mobility x functionality with OSX rather than iOS. Perfect (for me!) screen ratio and size.
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Someone reassure me, please, that Apple is hard at work creating new stand-alone accessories based on the new butterfly mechanism for a new color-optional set of keyboards, both wired and bluetooth.... And that Apple is also working on a color-optional stand-alone version of the new Force Touch trackpad.... I'd very much like a space gray butterfly mech aluminum keyboard with number pad, and a space gray force touch trackpad to go with it, for my iMac.
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aahjnnot - Thursday, March 12, 2015 - link
There's been a huge amount of negative press about this product from people who aren't the target demographic. But I'm sold; for the first time since I bought my 2011 13" Air, I can see a device that better suits my usage pattern.Many people scarcely plug anything into their laptops, but they move them around all the time. Weight and size are everything, but, in this age of totally ubiquitous photos, a good screen is also essential. Apple has spotted a target market, aimed carefully and hit the bullseye in my view.
I want one.
Michael Bay - Thursday, March 12, 2015 - link
You say "spotted a target market" as if hipsters looking at their bad photos in the nearest Atarbucks is anything remotely new.easp - Thursday, March 12, 2015 - link
If you think that hipsters are the only people who like looking at photos, bad, or otherwise, your experience of the world is very narrow.Michael Bay - Thursday, March 12, 2015 - link
Hipsters are not people.darwinosx - Thursday, March 12, 2015 - link
Whining about "hipsters" is a very hipster like move.Michael Bay - Friday, March 13, 2015 - link
Oh, the whining expert.BittenRottenApple - Friday, March 13, 2015 - link
Great hands-on report, as usual.The new MacBook is a testament to Apple's collapsing technical acumen. They eliminate all ports except for one outdated USB port? This craven stupidity should send the last adherents running. But running to what? Windows isn't even a viable option anymore.
It's a sad day for people who need real computers. Jony Ive is a pompous, clueless hack who should be fired for introducing crippling regressions to a brand that could be as great as its reputation.
Look at this POS: One USB port, which will require an adapter to do anything. So if you're going to require an adapter anyway, why not make that one port a modern one: Thunderbolt. Thunderbolt can carry USB, video, Ethernet, external storage... ALL AT ONCE. And it can be daisy-chained, which is hugely important when the computer has ONLY ONE PORT. So WTF is Apple doing making its sole port USB?
We can only hope that consumers send this piece of clueless garbage to oblivion, as they did the idiotic iPod Shuffle that could only be controlled with Morse code over a proprietary headphone wire.
michael2k - Friday, March 13, 2015 - link
Do you remember that the original MacBook Air also shipped with only a single USB port? Do you think perhaps that the Apple of 2008 was dumb for doing so? Yet today the MBA is one of their most successful parts (after 7 years of iteration). I think this too will evolve; they will release a 14" model, add a second port, possibly Thunderbolt, when the Skylake parts are released, lower the price $100, etc.I think it's also telling you bring up the 3rd gen iPod shuffle, without also acknowledging that Apple did in fact replace it with the now 4+ year old 4th gen. If this MacBook is a flop they will fix it. The new MacBook is a testament to Apple's willingness to create the smallest and lightest laptop they can.
kron123456789 - Friday, March 13, 2015 - link
" the original MacBook Air also shipped with only a single USB port?" — yeah, and it also shipped with Mini DisplayPort and MagSafe port.vampyren - Monday, April 13, 2015 - link
Exactly Air had atleast a dedicated charger + USB and DP, this shit has 1 single port. Its sort of pathetic. Had Apple just updated the Air with better screen no one would have complained. This is just a pretty and overpriced tablet. I pass!RiotSloth - Monday, March 16, 2015 - link
USB-C outdated? Thunderbolt modern? What topsy-turvey madness is this?! Thunderbolt has been around for four years...mark3785 - Thursday, March 19, 2015 - link
And don't forget that this single port is a first generation USB-C which means that it's limited to 5 Gb/s. Also being fanless, I'd love to see the results of the Geekbench stress test. When my 15" rMBP's fan went bad, just 10 iterations caused the speed to drop (due to the quad core i7's internal temperature regulation) to MBA speeds. I have a feeling any power hungry application will bring this thing to its knees.bcrules82 - Friday, March 20, 2015 - link
I down own any Mac devices, but I've seen countless people using their MBA or iPad with keyboard at work and in public. People have multiple computing devices nowadays. It's not unreasonable to have a lightweight laptop AND and mobile workstation with a graphics card and lots of ports ... MBPMost people with iPads (tablets) and iPhones (smartphones) are already accustomed to not having much internal storage and simultaneously not the ability to plug in anything to expand it ... so the lack of connectivity has already been "bred out" of Apple's target consumers.
mark3785 - Friday, April 10, 2015 - link
@BittenRottenApple, I disagree that "The new MacBook is a testament to Apple's collapsing technical acumen.". Their ability to shrink the motherboard to such a degree is astounding and I'm also very intrigued by the new trackpad.However I do see the new MacBook as a monument to the megalomaniacal hubris of Jony Ive. This steaming heap was designed with the same twisted mindset that has caused every iPhone to be thinner than the previous model, the bassackwards idea that function should follow form. One I/O port that doubles as a charging port? Utter stupidity. It's also a testament that Tim Cook is clueless about what makes a good computer or his inability to saying no to Jony Ive or both.
Ever since Jony Ive was given more power, the operating systems have become uglier and buggier and every time I use iTunes 12 I want to scream.
More and more soldered RAM, not a single model with expansion slots, lobotomized Mac minis and now this atrocity. Apple needs to get rid of Ive before he does any more damage.
AlmostGotTheBestUsername - Wednesday, March 25, 2015 - link
I was whining about hipsters before it was cool.melgross - Thursday, March 12, 2015 - link
Maybe you aren't either.Cygni - Thursday, March 12, 2015 - link
Hipster jokes in 2015, how edgy and fresh.AndrewJacksonZA - Friday, March 13, 2015 - link
Yeah, they're now mainstream.Michael Bay - Friday, March 13, 2015 - link
>jokesGotThumbs - Thursday, March 12, 2015 - link
Question: Does anyone see this Apples version of a high end ChromeBook like device? It has less connections, a significant reduction in processing power (move from I5/i7 to Core M) and relies more on cloud based storage?Other than the obvious OS differences, compare this to the specs in the new Pixel.
http://www.anandtech.com/show/9074/google-launches...
.
ciparis - Thursday, March 12, 2015 - link
I don't think anyone at Apple has ever given the slightest s*$@ what a Chromebook is or does.lilo777 - Thursday, March 12, 2015 - link
I don't think your comment has any relevance to the post you replied to. Whether Apple does or does not give a s*$@ about Chromebook (which apparently is handily beating Apple hardware in educational institutions) does not make this MB less similar to Chromebook.darwinosx - Thursday, March 12, 2015 - link
I don't know the numbers but you can buy chrome books for a few hundred dollars so gee what shock they are buying them over Macs or PCsmelgross - Thursday, March 12, 2015 - link
The newest Chromebooks costs $999. That's way overpriced for what a Chromebook offers.darwinosx - Thursday, March 12, 2015 - link
Nor should they.orthorim - Friday, March 13, 2015 - link
+1I actually think Apple has thought about the Chromebook. For about 3 seconds, then they decided it's stupid and haven't thought about it since...
puggsly - Thursday, March 12, 2015 - link
Isn't that a bit like saying except for the OS, compare the specs to an iPad?Deelron - Thursday, March 12, 2015 - link
They're similar, although I really do see it as the author put it, a iPad fusion with a Mac Book.Also the philosophies outside the basics (lightweight, good screen, portable) are very different (the biggest to me is the MacBook actually has significant local storage).
Ammaross - Thursday, March 12, 2015 - link
Yep. A HEAVY dose of "iPad this and iPad that" comparisons, but yet, still NOT a touchscreen, thus bearing no applicable crossovers. It's a laptop, not a tablet. It's almost as misguided as some of the comments I've seen saying this would be a great gaming laptop for them to replace their existing MacBook with... (excepting the weak GPU, no ability to plug in power AND a mouse, lack of OSX games, or if you're just going to Bootcamp Windows anyway....well, those of us who think about such things are obviously not the "target demographic").mkozakewich - Saturday, March 14, 2015 - link
Well, I'm not sure what the latency is like on Bluetooth these days, but you could totally have a mouse with it.darwinosx - Thursday, March 12, 2015 - link
No. Because it has a full os that runs any app any other Mac does. Pretty obvious.modulusshift - Friday, March 13, 2015 - link
I mean, aside from this actually having a good amount of SSD storage? Yeah, I guess.orthorim - Friday, March 13, 2015 - link
It has about as much to do with the Chromebook that it does with any other laptop. It has a screen, a processor, and a keyboard.This is way lighter - the lightest laptop ever to have a HD display, for sure. Compare it to the Samsung notebook with Core M or any other Core M machine. Not because the processor is so important - but the Core M allows manufacturers to make a very thin, fanless design that doesn't need a huge battery. So given these capabilities, different manufacturers came up with different solutions.
Apple invented a new kind of battery for this MacBook. They also put their expertise in manufacturing into it in a way that it's going to be impossible to copy.
Makes absolutely no sense to compare it to a Core i5 device; and I didn't see any "cloud storage is where it's at" thing about the MacBook either. It's got 512GB flash?!
eanazag - Friday, March 13, 2015 - link
I think this is a precursor to a new device type for the MacBook Air. I don't think Apple is going to abandon a market brand name that has been very successful. This MacBook clearly out does the Air in its Air-ness. That only leaves Apple to stop selling the Air or change the product materially.16x10 displays; good move. I think the price is too high when considering all their products, so it leaves me thinking more so that we will see a new Air and device to fill in the $800-$899 price range.
mkozakewich - Saturday, March 14, 2015 - link
Core M is hardly significantly less powerful. Also, an iPad is closer to a chromebook. This runs OS X.RiotSloth - Monday, March 16, 2015 - link
But it's not crippled like a chrome book. You can run any OSX software on it and you can save stuff to its reasonably large hard drive. Two reasons why I want one and can't use the chromebook.mark3785 - Friday, March 20, 2015 - link
No, just as an overpriced, underpowered addition to Apple's already confused line of laptops. Chromebooks are just a modern, more powerful version of yesteryear's dumb terminals, running yet another flavor of Linux, an OS more fragmented than Android.Remingtonh - Monday, April 20, 2015 - link
The Pixel is almost 70% heavier than the new MacBook!Speedfriend - Thursday, March 12, 2015 - link
"but, in this age of totally ubiquitous photos, a good screen is also essential."a good touchscreen is essential. Once you have used a touchscreen laptop, you an never go back.
Mac OS being non-touchscreen is so archaic, it is so natural to use your finger on the screen as you are looking at it to flick through photos or quickly zoom.
aahjnnot - Thursday, March 12, 2015 - link
I'm not really sure about the importance of touch. I and all of my colleagues have touchscreen ultrabooks. Of that group of maybe 10 people, only one uses touch regularly. The rest of us prefer to use our touchpads - you get less arm-ache, a cleaner screen and you don't look like a prat in meetings as you wave your arm randomly in front of you.Of course, 10 colleagues are not a statistically valid sample. But it's a useful indication.
Darkknight512 - Thursday, March 12, 2015 - link
I tend to use my touchscreen for scrolling. I put my hand in the bottom right hand corner with 4 fingers behind the screen and scroll with my thumb. It is a lot more natural to scroll using the method instead of using the touchpad or keyboard. This alone is enough for me to only buy laptops with touchscreens now.easp - Thursday, March 12, 2015 - link
Perhaps, but a good (ie Apple) trackpad feels quite natural to me, more natural than trying to manipulate the screen directly.Speedfriend - Thursday, March 12, 2015 - link
"you don't look like a prat in meetings as you wave your arm randomly in front of you."So noone you know uses an iPad at work either? Try sitting with a laptop actually on your lap surfing the web and see how much better a ouchscreen is than a touchpad.
aahjnnot - Thursday, March 12, 2015 - link
No-one I know perches their iPad at 30 degrees to vertical and places it at arm's length in front of them on the Board Room table ;-)The difference is posture. You tend to hold a tablet like a book, but, in a business environment, laptops tend to be placed on a table. I can see that a touchscreen laptop might be more practical when you're curled up on the sofa, but, personally, I prefer to grab my phone in that situation.
Ktracho - Thursday, March 12, 2015 - link
I don't think this laptop is aimed at the business market, but rather at the general consumer market, who would tend to use touch more extensively if given a choice, I suspect.mkozakewich - Saturday, March 14, 2015 - link
Most people use it for scrolling. You're far more likely to see someone "holding" their laptop by the base of the screen, using small swipes of their thumb to scroll a webpage or whatever.FITCamaro - Thursday, March 12, 2015 - link
The touchpad on a Mac though supports all those actions. I'm not an Apple fan. Far from. But gestures built into the OS and executed through the touchpad are flawless.Scannall - Thursday, March 12, 2015 - link
Perhaps for you. But personally I can't stand touchscreens for either laptops or desktops. Especially desktops. I'm much faster and more accurate with a good trackpad or mouse. Plus, no smudges all over the screen.name99 - Thursday, March 12, 2015 - link
A good touchscreen is essential IF YOUR TRACKPAD DRIVERS ARE CRAP (as they are for every OS that's not OSX).There, I fixed that for you.
Wizzdo - Thursday, March 12, 2015 - link
Apple missed a huge opportunity for a really great product by not including a touch screen and allowing the screen to pivot all the way around so that it could be used on the lap like an iPad. One wonders if they made this dubious decision by choice to avoid negatively impacting iPad sales. It's hard to imagine it would have been a technical hurdle. Perhaps OS X just doesn't work well enough (yet) on a touch screen. I would have ordered one today if that feature were in-place but no deal.darwinosx - Thursday, March 12, 2015 - link
Then explain why nobody is buying PCs with those "features"darwinosx - Thursday, March 12, 2015 - link
Ah hah. Thats why nobody is buying touchscreen laptops because they are so great.darwinosx - Thursday, March 12, 2015 - link
Also a Trackpad is far better and more useful than a touchscreen. PC users don't know this because PC trackpads suck.Cygni - Thursday, March 12, 2015 - link
I'm pretty sure this is a joke post. I've never used the touchscreen on the windows laptop i use for work and I don't know anyone that does.DaveLG - Thursday, March 12, 2015 - link
Many,perhaps most, of the people that say this is an awful machine are not, as you said, the target market for it. Some of these people would never buy an Apple product.The one port issue is bogus. Get a dongle if you are paranoid but the vast majority (95%) people will never need more than one connection at a time. Wireless printers are the norm. Wireless DSLR cameras are getting common. Wireless HDD connections are possible and of course the cloud is wireless.
This will kill the Air because of the retina display.
kyuu - Thursday, March 12, 2015 - link
What's bogus is the idea that shaving a tiny amount of thickness off is worth nixing all connectivity options. There are already Windows devices with comparable thickness and weight, but that have actual ports. And they're cheaper. Unless you're married to OSX, there's really no reason to even look at the MacBook.aahjnnot - Thursday, March 12, 2015 - link
Bogus to you. I'm happy to lose a port that I never use if it makes my laptop thinner and lighter. I'm happy to pay more for a device that matches what I use it for.I predict that this will fly off the shelves and become the single most popular laptop that Apple sells. The market for thin, light and sexy is very, very large.
Murloc - Thursday, March 12, 2015 - link
I understand light, that's my primary concern too, but how does it being even thinner than the past help you in any way?If it was a bit thicker, it would fit the same way into any slim bag.
Joe_H - Thursday, March 12, 2015 - link
Being an blind Apple sheep is what you're happy about.darwinosx - Thursday, March 12, 2015 - link
Joe_H does your mommy know your on her computer in the basement again?Ktracho - Thursday, March 12, 2015 - link
Adding one extra USB port would not make it thicker or heavier, and would make it more convenient/usable for a lot of people, even if it would not be useful to you.SirKnobsworth - Thursday, March 12, 2015 - link
"Adding one extra USB port would not make it thicker or heavier, and would make it more convenient/usable for a lot of people, even if it would not be useful to you."Difficult to say - the chassis tapirs very quickly. It looks like a second USB port would have fit, particularly next to the headphone jack but I haven't actually measured it. Agreed that it would make the device a lot more useful though.
Dorek - Tuesday, March 17, 2015 - link
"I predict that this will fly off the shelves and become the single most popular laptop that Apple sells."That's hilarious.
FlushedBubblyJock - Wednesday, April 8, 2015 - link
People, apparently appleheads are not people, complain when only 3 usb ports are present and not 4.I guess it's a whole different sheep.
darwinosx - Thursday, March 12, 2015 - link
Yeah but the windows devices are cheap junk and worst of all they run windows.Jeff Bellin - Thursday, March 12, 2015 - link
Amen to that, kyuu ^. There are absolutely limits to how thin and how light a laptop can be and still be superior to heavier, thicker ones. I believe Apple, in the Macbook, has found, and surpassed those limits. First, thick/thin-ness: once you've gotten thin enough to be quite compact to store in a bag or briefcase and to pick up and carry, further thinness will not produce incremental benefits unless you are disabled and can barely carry, say, a light, thin book. We can agree that's a niche audience, not Apple's target. Otherwise, the thickness itself - independent of weight - and they absolutely can be - the only tangible result of any further thinness (than about 0.6" IMHO) is, as we can see, an inability to fit ports in to enable very useful connectivity - even to people who don't realize how useful it can be, if only rarely. Point is, no benefit to getting thinner, definite downside, for many. Now let's go to weight. I personally cannot think of a use case where a weight below about 2.5-2.75 lbs becomes a game changer. Again, except in the case of someone disabled with difficulty gripping and carrying a 2.5 lb very thin book-like device, the added weight reduction - from, say, 2.6lbs (where increasing numbers of Ultrabooks are, and more are headed) does not appear to produce any tangible, measurable benefits, but there are definite downsides to lowering the weight - to 2 lbs, and below, particularly in a form factor as small as 12", further particularly where the base of the laptop, with the keyboard, are also extremely thin. The problem with laptops that are so light and thin is that you can't use them comfortably or efficiently - uh, er, in your lap! The same often applies to thin, bouncy tray tables on planes and trains.Here's a real-life example: I've been a laptop fanatic since they were invented (handle on Notebook Review and Tablet PC Review is "Lovelaptops!") and for the past 7 years have chased the lightest, thinnest ultraportable, then ultrabook available, with the most powerful specs and greatest versatility, best screen, etc. In 2011 I discovered what I thought was the holy grail. It was the now legendary - if you're in the right crowd - Sony Z, a.k.a. the Z1, first in the series of 3 from 2010-2013. It had a 13" screen, Raid0 SSDs up to 512GB (in 2010, recall), nVidia d-GPU, every port you could imagine, WWAN,2 SD slots, ExpressCard slot, Ethernet, 4USB, VGA, a blu ray burner (which could be yanked out and replaced with any 2.5" HDD or SSD), backlit full travel chiclet keyboard, user replaceable RAM, battery, wifi and WWAN cards, even the semi-proprietary SSDs could be expanded FHD 95% Adobe RGB color gamut (perhaps irrelevant here, but point is this was a far better laptop than the Macbook, most ultrabooks and the MacBook Air of 2012-2015. It weighed 3.06 lbs and was 0.75" at its thickest. It was also $2,500 - $3,500 and sold like hotcakes because, well, it was that good, that revolutionary, particularly for its power+versatility/size+ weight ratios. The machine was a thing of beauty (all aluminum one piece keyboard deck, magnesium/carbon fiber lid). I was salivating for it, waited until they went on sale. I took it home, set it up and proceeded to use it at my desk, and I was in heaven.
Then I started testing it out on my lap. :( :( :( Grrrrrrrr! The darn thing just kept bouncing in my lap no matter how lightly I tried to press the keys. Even with a 13" form factor, I just couldn't find a place to balance it on my legs. The screen would wobble with every key press. (I kept it and loved it and still use it, but never on my lap and rarely even traveled with it because of the bad balance on airplane tray tables.) If this sounds familiar at all, you may have or once had a Microsoft Surface Pro, especially the SP3, as the first two were non-starters on your lap. But the SP3 has a larger footprint, better weight distribution between keyboard and screen parts and the "magical" infinitely adjustable kickstand. Still, it proved to be virtually unusable on your lap. Guess what? It weighs about 2 lbs has a 12" screen and the keyboard is incredibly thin and light - very similar in form and weight distribution to the new Macbook. It too only manages one USB port, but that's in addition to a (Apple copy) magsafe type power port and a mini display port. For any kind of professional or business person, this would be the absolute minimum amount of connectivity.
Sorry for writing such a long tale to make a simple but incredibly relevant - IMHO - point that illustrates the folly of continuing to make laptops thinner and lighter. Tablets and phones? Pretty much no problem, though gripping a really thin phone can be annoying, subject to being dropped more easily. If you truly can get used to the highly unconventional keyboard and track pad, and you just adore OSX and hate Windows. One of the worst things about Apple coming out with the Macbook at this time is that it probably signals the end of development of more features on the MBA, particularly putting a decent screen on it. So you may think the with the MacBook Apple has created a paradise for those seeking powerful computers that are thin and light as a feather, but I beg to differ. I feel that Apple has permanently relegated the MBA to second class status (or it would surely cannibalize sales of the Mac Books) which means that professionals have one and only one technically Ultraportable laptop and that is the suitable for working professionals and business people, and it weighs in at 3.6 lbs and 0.71 height/thickness. I am not an OSX fan but even if I was, now would be the time I would give Windows 10 a try and look into all those sleek, sexy Ultrabooks made by Lenovo, Asus, even Acer, Dell and HP, averaging about 2.7 lbs and 0.6 - or I'd lug around a 3.6 lb rMBP 13 for the same performance, feature set and screen caliber of all those Windows Ultrabooks but at a higher price, 0.5-0.8 lbs heavier, pretty rotten experience running Windows with lack of driver support proudly bragged about by the manufacturer. Take heart though: it's not really ugly!
modulusshift - Friday, March 13, 2015 - link
The MacBook isn't top heavy. Most of the weight will be contained in the batteries at the bottom, easily the densest part of the computer. It's not going to bounce that badly, else they wouldn't have let it out of testing.Besides, the reason the SP3 bounces so much is because the keyboard is literally suspended above the surface the computer is resting on.
mkozakewich - Saturday, March 14, 2015 - link
As a Surface Pro user, I can vouch that I rarely need the USB port, except for storage. It would get really annoying if the charger doesn't also contain a USB port or two, but I think that's already far-fetched. I can't stand devices that I can't charge while something is plugged in.Speedfriend - Thursday, March 12, 2015 - link
"Wireless DSLR cameras are getting common." - in Canon's current rnage, only 5 of 15 camera models have WiFi, and 95% of the installed base wouldn't have WiFi.If this was a Microsoft product, you would be on here telling us how they didn't understand the market.
easp - Thursday, March 12, 2015 - link
1. Wifi SD cards aren't all that expensive.2. It is a perfectly legitimate product strategy to target a subset of the market, such as those who are happy to be closer to the bleeding edge.
3. You can plug a camera into this thing if you need to.
Calista - Thursday, March 12, 2015 - link
What people are trying to say is - in a nutshell - that Apple's decision to only include 1 single USB port can't be excused because of technical reasons. The space to include a second *full-sized* USB port exist as proven by other manufacturers with thinner products offering a better port selection. Instead they have deliberately crippled the product. Microsoft was called out on the stupid music sharing feature of the original Zune, why should we not call out Apple when they make similar decisions?coolhardware - Thursday, March 12, 2015 - link
^This is a nice summary of the issue.I keep buying Dells because I can actually upgrade them (easily) and they include as much as they reasonably can. Some examples:
+on the M6700 you can do (4) SATA drives)
+on their new XPS 13 they have room for (2) USB ports, mini-displayport, headphone jack, SD card reader, etc.
++you can choose a 1920x1080 display for longer battery life, or you can choose the ultra high res if you want more pixels
++the SSD is easily accessible and is upgradeable (i.e. buy the 128GB model and upgrade to 512GB, or 1TB [once they are available in m.2 format])
Choices = good
Joe_H - Thursday, March 12, 2015 - link
"The one port issue is bogus. Get a dongle if you are paranoid but the vast majority (95%) people will never need more than one connection at a time."It's not bogus fanboy. That one port is also used as the charging port, so you can't use it at all while charging. Apple fanboys come up with the most laughable and delusional excuses.
"This will kill the Air because of the retina display."
It will also be significantly worse than the Air in every way except the screen. Apple sheep will buy it because they're stupid.
easp - Thursday, March 12, 2015 - link
Consider that your failure to understand and accept other people's priorities says more about your own intelligence than theirs. I kid, I kid, if you could do that, you wouldn't be making such a fool of yourself.This laptop should have many hours of battery life and charge in an hour or two. So, plugging in a peripheral directly into the USB port needn't be a major disruption, unless its a long term thing.
Of course, this could all be addressed if the charger has a second (or third) USB port.
darwinosx - Thursday, March 12, 2015 - link
Joe-H your mommy is stupid.osxandwindows - Wednesday, September 9, 2015 - link
You can plug any thing in when its chargingGo reed about usb type c
FITCamaro - Thursday, March 12, 2015 - link
Maybe in your circles all those things are common, but most people don't have DSLR cameras, wireless hard drives, etc. Maybe a wireless printer since those are cheap. But USB keys are still a normal, heavily used thing. Now you're saying you have to plug in an extra device that they don't give you for $1300 in order to use anything that plugs in. If nothing else, how about to charge your phone? I often times plug in my phone to my laptop on the table to charge it so I don't have to plug the phone into the wall. Especially at work. Where Mac's belief that you don't need more than 2 USB ports is insanely limiting.mavere - Thursday, March 12, 2015 - link
The one port issue is bogus because in the near term (months or likely even years), multiple Type-C ports are almost as useless as a single Type-C port. You'd need accessories and adaptors anyway!I'm much much more annoyed about the removal of magsafe than I am about the port count.
Joe_H - Thursday, March 12, 2015 - link
Typical response from an obvious Apple fanboy. With all due respect, your post is nonsense. Apple is asking a whopping $1300 to $1600 for a laptop that is significantly worse in every respect when compared to the Air, the screen being the lone exception. Performance is significantly worse, especially while trying to drive a 2K screen. The keyboard is worse. The battery life is worse. It has one port, and that port is used for charging, which means you can't even use it while charging.This new Macbook is nothing more than a hideously overpriced netbook. Apple sheep have more money than sense, but a fool and his money are soon parted.
"Many people scarcely plug anything into their laptops"
Complete BS!
"Weight and size are everything"
Again, complete BS! I don't remember anyone running around screaming about how the Air was just so darn heavy and thick.
easp - Thursday, March 12, 2015 - link
Some advice: Don't take people's decisions to buy Apple products so personally.If you need something to rage about, there are so many things more worthy, like sportsball teams, or reality shows, or deodorant scents.
darwinosx - Thursday, March 12, 2015 - link
Silly boy, read the article you are commenting on.easp - Thursday, March 12, 2015 - link
This reminds me of the original MacBook Air in many ways. The original Air had far fewer ports than typical laptops, no optical drive, no user swappable battery, a slower CPU than any existing Macs (and perhaps any Intel mac, ever), a premium price, and was also the lightest, thinnest laptop most people had ever seen.Many critics panned it, but it was clearly the machine if you favored portability over performance, and the performance was adequate for some web browsing, writing email, etc.
The original Air was compromised by the silicon available at the time, the next major revision had better CPUs and graphics capabilities to choose from. Performance was more than adequate and battery life was amazing. Before long, the entire Apple notebook line looked like the original air. Unibody construction came first, then the non-user serviceable battery, the rMBP eliminated the optical drive, and legacy ports. The PC notebook market is moving in the same direction (though more slowly)
The design elements of this MacBook are going to become common in future MacBook Air's and Pros in the next few years.
lilo777 - Thursday, March 12, 2015 - link
You may ride the "portability" backwagon only for so long. Even though given out of the context the weight reduction for this MB looks significant if you take into account the average weight of the bag/backpack it goes in all of a sudden this weight reduction becomes fairly insignificant. And the thickness reduction is even more so. Also, you seem to be abusing the argument that people considering the design of this BA to have too much compromises are simply not a target crowd. Discussions like this at least in part serve the purpose of figuring out what the target crowd is. With your line of arguing it would be OK for a company to release a totally useless device because, you know, it's just that all 100% of people are not the target crowd - but the device is fine.Calista - Thursday, March 12, 2015 - link
Many people flocked to the MBA because it was the first really portable Apple laptop. And because it was a well executed build of course. But in regard to true portability they were far behind already existing laptops.coolhardware - Thursday, March 12, 2015 - link
What are your thoughts on the new Dell XPS 13? It is smaller than your 13" Air but has a larger screen that the new MacBook. Is it a good fit for your usage scenario or do you need the 0.6 lbs less? I am not being sarcastic, how do you view the two machines?Personally, like this article mentions, I wish Apple had included a USB-C connector on each side of the machine (like Google did with the new Pixel).
However, I remember when the iPad came out and I thought "Only one port?! That'll never work!" Obviously I was wrong. We will see how it goes this time around, though it is very nice to see an industry standard port this time instead of an Apple proprietary connector (30-pin connector, lightning, magsafe, etc.)
dsraa - Friday, March 13, 2015 - link
Why does apple continue to make things smaller while reducing functionality, and then gets praised for its 'amazing design'??Seriously, why won't they make a laptop with a touch screen? And why for god's sake would they reduce the number of ports to 1, and force people to buy an adapter to plug anything else in other than the charger?
This is a terrible design flaw. Who gives a sh*t if its 2mm thinner and .4 lbs lighter? Are we all such weaklings that we would trade functionality over a difference of a couple millimeters and less than half a pound less?
They should have kept last year's design and added a touch-screen, or added the USB type C port, and kept the other ports as well.
BittenRottenApple - Friday, March 13, 2015 - link
WTF are you talking about? Who cares about price, weight and size, when this product is crippled by a hopelessly defective design? You can't hook up a power adapter and external storage at the same time. You can't hook up an external display and external storage. Hell, you can't even plug in a thumb drive!This product is the most asinine piece of shít Apple has produced, and that includes the (thankfully) short-lived Shuffle that could only be controlled by a gimped Morse code.
Jony Ive is a pompous hack who should be fired before he further ruins a once-promising brand.
osxandwindows - Wednesday, September 9, 2015 - link
Yes you canDorek - Tuesday, March 17, 2015 - link
"Many people scarcely plug anything into their laptops"I think there are a lot of people out there who would like to be able to plug a USB drive in to their laptop while they're charging it. USB drives are extremely common.
uhuznaa - Thursday, March 12, 2015 - link
Hmm, it's very easy to underestimate how diminutive this thing is. It almost seems JUST thick enough to have the 3.5mm headphone jack fit in the side of the body.As a "laptop" it's certainly crippled, both in terms of CPU power and ports. As a highly mobile, minimal OS X machine it's interesting though.
As soon as you will be able to buy monitors with builtin USB Type C support (acting as a charger and USB-hub at the same time) this should be very nice to handle (just plug in one cable for everything when you're at your desk).
And I bet USB keydrives with one Type A and one Type C plug on opposite ends will start to sell really well very soon...
Murloc - Thursday, March 12, 2015 - link
the problem is when you talk in into a random room and have to do a presentation and all there is HDMI at best, VGA if you're unlucky, or when you have to give stuff to a friend on his years old USB keydrive.Guspaz - Thursday, March 12, 2015 - link
Apple's multiport adapter isn't cheap or small, but USB-C is just electrical DisplayPort, so adapters should be cheap. The one caveat is that it doesn't support dual-mode DisplayPort (DP++) but that just means you need active instead of passive adapters (they still don't require external power), and if you look at Monoprice then that just means going from a $7 adapter to a $15 adapter.What I'm trying to say is that, given a USB-C to MiniDP or DP adapter, all your existing active DP adapters should work (passive ones won't). And before long, Monoprice is sure to start pumping out cheap USB-C to HDMI/DVI/VGA adapters.
darwinosx - Thursday, March 12, 2015 - link
I have to have adapters for this for work laptops. I'm issued both a full size MacBook Pro and an HP workstation laptop. The HP laptop only does display port so I need a dongle for HDMI and VGA.3DoubleD - Thursday, March 12, 2015 - link
It is certainly ballsy of Apple to try to sell this iPad-meets-netbook for $1299. Undoubtedly vast hordes of Apple customers will buy this, but the question is whether this is the future. It certainly follows the Apple business plan as this new Macbook is undoubtedly has very high profitability.Anand called it years ago, the iPad and Air would eventually merge. This is it folks. So I guess we should be keeping in mind when comparing this to serious laptops. Don't look at the new MacBook for your next business laptop, but if you want an iPad with a keyboard, Apple's got the perfect product for you.
Novacius - Thursday, March 12, 2015 - link
It's even worse in Europe. It costs at least 1449€ here, other variants cost 1799€. I know that the Euro is very weak at the moment, but that's just ridiculous.fiish - Friday, March 13, 2015 - link
You can thank differences in price advertising for that. The European prices have to include the relevant country's VAT, whereas you need to add applicable sales taxes to the US price.The baseline configuration costs £1050 in the UK, which is about USD1590 at today's exchange rate. Take out the 20% VAT and the price is £875, which at USD1320 is virtually the same as the advertised US price of USD1299 if you allow for some forex drift.
uhuznaa - Thursday, March 12, 2015 - link
I'm pretty sure that it will also sell great as a business "laptop". As long as your business doesn't require juggling with lots of USB-periphery but requires a lot of carrying the thing around. And yes, the price just mirrors Apple's expectation of the demand. I wouldn't be surprised if they're right with expecting huge demand. It's a sexy machine.Guspaz - Thursday, March 12, 2015 - link
Business use with laptops (at least around our office) normally involves plugging your notebook in to power, wired ethernet, display, and optionally a mouse/keyboard. Laptops are portable when people go to meetings, but then get turned into desktops when they get back to their desks.There is nothing about the new macbook that prevents this... In fact, it enables it. The single USB-C port serves as a docking solution. You only get a single port, but that's also only one port to plug in to "dock" the notebook. To the Apple multiport adapter, you have connected your power, your monitor, and a USB 3 hub with your keyboard, mouse, and a USB 3 ethernet adapter.
Is that a bit of an octopus connection? Sure, but all that stuff is plugged in at your desk, not carried around, and it means that you get back to your desk and only have to plug in a single cable with all that stuff. It's what Thunderbolt promised, but without having to pay a small fortune for a thunderbolt dock.
snajk138 - Thursday, March 12, 2015 - link
Almost like a docking station, right? Like all business laptops have had for decades?Guspaz - Thursday, March 12, 2015 - link
Except business laptop docking ports have all been proprietary (read: expensive), and tied to specific laptop models, and may be discontinued if you need to replace them. I had a Toshiba laptop with a docking port on the bottom, and by the time I started thinking about buying it, it had been discontinued (and was stupid expensive even before it was). USB-C docking stations, or even just a homebrew solution as I described, are standardized, cheap (because anybody can make one on the cheap) and should work with any notebook that has a USB-C port with video.pmthokku - Thursday, April 9, 2015 - link
And what if apple deliberately forces you to use original connectors like they did for ipad : http://www.cultofmac.com/246236/ios-7-killed-off-u...GotThumbs - Thursday, March 12, 2015 - link
"sell great as a business "laptop". "A very expensive one at that.
Depending on what one actually does at work, how will this handle spreadsheets or anything that requires some computing power?
Dropping the i5/i7 process for a less capable one makes me think this is now approaching an Apple version of Google's chrome books. Sure you can install programs on Apple devices, but with Citrix Receiver, your company can have all the programs you need for your work available to use in any Chrome book.
Any business will look at costs and other than sexy looks, what are you getting for your money that you can't get from a Lenovo PC or Chromebook?
I do see apple selling these, but I don't think anyone can truly justify the higher costs if questioned on their choice.
We shall see.
Joe_H - Thursday, March 12, 2015 - link
LOL! Businesses won't buy this hunk of crap, with one port, crippled performance, worse battery life, and a worse keyboard.Stuka87 - Thursday, March 12, 2015 - link
Actually, I see this selling very well as an executive laptop, or a laptop managers take to their meetings (Which they are seemingly in all day long).The poster up above didn't mean it as a work station. He meant it as a machine people take to meetings and on business trips. The performance and battery life are fine for this job.
ExarKun333 - Thursday, March 12, 2015 - link
Ryan - Great initial hands-on description! Question for you, do we know the trade-offs (besides potentially the QHD resolution you referenced) using USB-C vs. a DP/mDP port? Will input lag be much worse vs using a direct DP port? I like the idea of migrating to a single connector for power/peripherals, but I wonder if the USB-C + mDP might have been a better option for more power-users that rely on external displays.uhuznaa - Thursday, March 12, 2015 - link
I don't see why you'd get any input lag just because the signal travels along a different kind of cable and connector. But of course power-users always will be more happy with a device with more and more diverse ports. The MacBook Pro Retina costs exactly the same, has a more powerful CPU, longer battery life and more ports... But it's also larger, thicker and heavier.Michael Bay - Thursday, March 12, 2015 - link
And behind connectors on both ends are controllers with their own latency.Especially in case of one-fits-all solution like type C here, lag WILL happen.
ExarKun333 - Thursday, March 12, 2015 - link
That is exactly what I was getting at. A mDP port is just that, small/compact video connection with more added lag. This will have controllers and adapter in the chain and likely could be problematic. For sure this is better than USB 2.0 and 3.0, but those had a LOT of lag for any display usage.ExarKun333 - Thursday, March 12, 2015 - link
Should be 'no more added lag' in regards to mDP :)uhuznaa - Thursday, March 12, 2015 - link
With USB Type C the DisplayPort signal goes right over some of the lanes. There's just a different kind of cable and connectors involved. This is totally different than transporting display content over USB (the protocol).Guspaz - Thursday, March 12, 2015 - link
USB-C does displayport electrically. It has no more lag than "native" displayport because it effectively *IS* native displayport.Ryan Smith - Thursday, March 12, 2015 - link
This is the correct answer.When using DP over Type-C, it's full, raw DP. There's no TB-like encapsulation going on, just a simple mux allocating some lanes to DP. So there isn't any kind of processing going on that would introduce lag.
ExarKun333 - Thursday, March 12, 2015 - link
That's great! Thanks for the confirmation. I had a little trouble locating something definitive on that. If that is the case, the only limiting factor here is the # of ports, which can be solved for with the available adapter. Very cool. Still, 2 would be nice (use one while charging). :)kirsch - Thursday, March 12, 2015 - link
"I suspect that Apple has it setup to use 2 lanes, which would allow a maximum of 2560x1440 (WQHD)"According to Apple (http://www.apple.com/macbook/specs/):
"Dual display and video mirroring: Simultaneously supports full native resolution on the built-in display and up to 3840 by 2160 pixels on an external display, both at millions of colors"
I remember reading this was at 60Hz too!
Murloc - Thursday, March 12, 2015 - link
at this point input lag is really negligible I think.This is not for FPS gaming.
protomech - Thursday, March 12, 2015 - link
I would be surprised if there was any noticeable input latency. A DP dongle is not a USB-powered DP adapter, it's more or less a direct passthrough of the displayport stream.Ian Cutress - Thursday, March 12, 2015 - link
Despite the name change, from Air to just plain Macbook, I can envisage people buying this as a MBA upgrade and then being a little disappointed in battery life, performance and usability. I feel the single USB Type-C port for charging and use is a simplification - a lot of more professional MBA users will want to charge and use a mouse, and carrying extra adapters negates the portability aspect more than usual.The ideal user for Apple is someone coming more from an iPad foundational base, rather than someone looking to upgrade their 2-3 year old MBA. I wonder what will happen to that Air naming philosophy, as it already implies it to be the lightest models that Apple makes. If they refresh the air for something Broadwell-U with cTDP down, it won't be the thinnest and lightest any more. It makes Apple's target audiences a little fuzzy.
On the plus side, when we take Lenovo who moved to Core-M for Y3P over Y2P, so if Apple makes the jump at the same time, there is less loss/competition in that aspect. Though that 480p camera rings some alarm bells - perhaps going after super super thin just isn't worth it. Make it 16mm and add in some more battery capacity perhaps.
uhuznaa - Thursday, March 12, 2015 - link
I have NEVER seen a Macbook user using a mouse. While I agree that there are reasons to want more than one port, the mouse certainly isn't one of them. And of course the current Apple mouse included with all iMacs even doesn't need a cable (it works via BT).Michael Bay - Thursday, March 12, 2015 - link
Then you`ve never seeen a professional MB user.Oh wait.
bji - Thursday, March 12, 2015 - link
You are such a troll.Michael Bay - Thursday, March 12, 2015 - link
You haven`t seen the trolls yet.Guspaz - Thursday, March 12, 2015 - link
I've used my desktop mouse on my macbook sometimes, particularly when I want to do some gaming on the go... But generally, a mouse (at least a normal USB mouse) is less efficient to use than the touchpad, because you give up the gestures and precise scrolling.I'm primarily a PC user. 90% of my use is on my desktop running Windows 8.1, where I use a normal mouse exclusively. But when I'm on my macbook air, the trackpad is generally better for what I use the macbook for.
It also helps that the trackpad on macs is far better than any other laptop I've used: it's my first Apple laptop, and the trackpad is enormously better than that on my previous Toshiba, Dell, or Compal notebooks... or anybody else's notebook that I've used in the past.
Laxaa - Thursday, March 12, 2015 - link
I wonder why they didn't just announce this as a new entry in the Air line(or why they didn't just give the Air a retina display)It also seems to dicard everything the original MacBook line stood for, beeing a cheaper alternative to the Pro and Air.
aahjnnot - Thursday, March 12, 2015 - link
Why would this be unsuitable for someone seeking to upgrade a 2-3 year old Air? If they have an Air, they're almost certainly not a power user. This machine provides a very handy upgrade where it matters - screen and portability - and compromises on the secondary things - CPU, connectivity and battery life.Joe_H - Thursday, March 12, 2015 - link
Again, because it's severely compromised in every single way when compared to an Air. The only exception is screen resolution, and the weak Core M processor is going to struggle to run that screen with anything other than web browsing or Facebook crap."This machine provides a very handy upgrade where it matters - screen and portability - and compromises on the secondary things - CPU, connectivity and battery life."
LOL! This post sums up Apple fans perfectly. They consider CPU, GPU, performance, connectivity and battery life to be secondary to the way something looks.
aahjnnot - Thursday, March 12, 2015 - link
Shock news! Internet troll demonstrates marked inability to empathise person who doesn't share his priorities.I'm no Apple fan. I own one Apple product, a 4 year old Air which almost always runs Ubuntu. I bought it because at the time it was cheaper and lighter than any Windows Ultrabook. This new Macbook is the first Apple product that I've seen since 2011 that has me contemplating opening my wallet. Given the way that I use a laptop, it's a clear and very significant upgrade from what I currently own.
And, yeah, I care how things look. My wife looks beautiful. So does my house. And my dog. Do you live in a hovel with a slapper and mange-ridden mutt? Good luck with that!
Michael Bay - Friday, March 13, 2015 - link
Shock news, no one has any obligation to empathise with you and consider your priorities, or take any heed of your "no apple fan" excuses.OrphanageExplosion - Thursday, March 12, 2015 - link
The Asus UX305 is thinner than the MacBook, has a 720p camera and proper USB and SD card ports. A bigger footprint for a 13.3-inch machine of course, but I do wonder to what extent the thinness has an impact on the parts that can be used:http://store.asus.com/us/item/201502AM130000188
Flunk - Thursday, March 12, 2015 - link
You you sure this is aimed at iPad users? It doesn't share any of the same software.Also, if Apple was planning to keep a device the size of the current MacBook Air wouldn't they have renamed the MacBook Air MacBook and introduced this new device as the new MacBook Air, right?
3ricss - Thursday, March 12, 2015 - link
"Also, if Apple was planning to keep a device the size of the current MacBook Air wouldn't they have renamed the MacBook Air MacBook and introduced this new device as the new MacBook Air, right?"- And that logic right there is why this device is so confusing. What I get from this is that Apple didn't have the cojones to change up their MacBook Air design and decided to just introduce this as the new MacBook. When it is pretty obvious this fits the ultrabook "Air" mantra. Definitely a difference of vision between two apples.
zainichia - Thursday, March 12, 2015 - link
Hi Ryan,Great article! Really love the overall perspective you've shared (iPad meets mac) and the detailed info on certain issues (USB Type C). Classic anandtech stuff :) I've just a few questions:
(1) In Apple's "Tech Specs" page for the new Macbook, they mention that it can "Simultaneously supports full native resolution on the built-in display and up to 3840 by 2160 pixels on an external display"; just wondering if you have any thoughts on that?
(2) What do you think on the choice of Core M in Mac? Many people have slammed it, referencing poor performance from Lenovo's Yoga 3. However, I just read a review of the Asus Zenbook UX305 (which also uses a Core M processor), and it's performance is apparently significantly better than the Yoga 3. So perhaps Apple's implementation could be (just barely) 'good enough' for a Macbook? Note also that Apple says that the Core M in the Macbook "only consumers 5W of power" - not 4.5W, but 5W. Would love to hear your take on this :)
Thanks for this article, was a great read - and educational as well
Ryan Smith - Thursday, March 12, 2015 - link
1) Apple doesn't specify the refresh rate. In this case I'm not convinced that's 4Kp60 (you could do 4Kp30 with just 2 lanes) but we'll see.2) We have a Core-M review going up tomorrow in fact. Core-M is not going to match BDW/HSW-U at times, but it's not a slouch. Whether it's fast enough for OS X though I think is still up in the air.
And 5W is Apple rounding, I suspect. The CPUs they're using don't offer 5W cTDP states.
Kevin G - Thursday, March 12, 2015 - link
With four DP lanes active, the USB connection off of a Type-C connector reverts to USB 2.0 speeds. 4Kp60 is possible in this configurationzainichia - Friday, March 13, 2015 - link
Just read the yoga 3 pro review, thanks! Seems like many people may have to wait for the next gen core M :) Although I might be wrong, and it may be plenty fast for most users.About the 5W: any chance apple may have had some work done with intel, and customized it?
Thanks ryan, can't wait for your full review of this macbook!
Daniel Egger - Thursday, March 12, 2015 - link
I totally do not get the point of the 3.5mm jack, that thing is plain useless and should have become another USB port instead. If they really want analog audio on that device why not make it 2.5mm put it next to the second USB port? Also it really sucks that they announce DisplayPort capability but do not offer an adapter which actually provides DP -- after all most of the current users of an external display will either have a DP display or the necessary adapters.Also at the asking price they might as well include the 50 cent article USB C type -> USB, DP, USB C type power for free.
But damn, that thing is hot... if I only had a usecase for that...
dj_aris - Thursday, March 12, 2015 - link
Wait, so 2304x1440 means that we get real estate of 1152x720 in default seting? Isn't that too low for 12"? And if we'd like more space, like 1440x900 then the poor Core M must render everything at 2880x1440 and then donwscale it? Unibody designs aren't the best in heat dissipation...Also, given that Thunderbolt 3 will be much smaller and will probably find it's way in the MacBook, maybe the 2nd gen MacBook is the one to get (as usual in new product categories).
ciparis - Thursday, March 12, 2015 - link
Just like current retina Macs you also get a scale slider, so if you want more space you can have it.Zak - Thursday, March 12, 2015 - link
I don't like it but as long as Apple offers this product along Macbook Air and Macbook Pro I don't care. Different target market. I just want retina display for the next Air.Michael Bay - Thursday, March 12, 2015 - link
This keyboard is disgusting.bji - Thursday, March 12, 2015 - link
More trolling from Michael "no life" Bay.Michael Bay - Thursday, March 12, 2015 - link
Keep crying.bernstein - Thursday, March 12, 2015 - link
While i am absolutely sold on this MacBook future, i will skip this years edition, cause:- i want exactly the same machine/design with a 17" panel (or at least 15")
- no 16gb ram option...
- not able to drive my 4K display... (skylake, i know)
- i really hate adapters, so :
- where is a usb-c to mini-displayport, usb-b & power splitter cable (or a 4K 48" screen with a usb-c port taking usb3 & displayport & supplying power, providing a hub with usb-c/a ports)
- where is a usb-c to micro-usb cable
- where is a usb-c to mini-usb cable
- where is a usb-c to lightning cable
Zak - Thursday, March 12, 2015 - link
You want a completely different machine. This is not even close to what you want.bernstein - Thursday, March 12, 2015 - link
i want exactly the same machine (thin, light, fanless, retina), just bigger and with more ram so i can run multiple apps at the same time (obviously i'd want a faster fanless cpu but that just doesn't exist yet)ciparis - Thursday, March 12, 2015 - link
The current Core M supports a maximum of 8GB. I imagine the next tic from Intel will change that.ingwe - Thursday, March 12, 2015 - link
It can run a 4K display according to other posters here who are quoting Apple specs.Guspaz - Thursday, March 12, 2015 - link
- Apple will probably never again produce a 17" notebook- 16GB is a chipset impossibility: maybe the next one
- The new macbook can drive a 4K external display already
- Various adapters are already available from Apple, Google, Belkin, etc. Monoprice is sure to follow.
jeffkibuule - Thursday, March 12, 2015 - link
Google is making a few of those.Wyvek - Thursday, March 12, 2015 - link
So this is just like Surface Pro 3 with similar battery life and screen resolution?Just more expensive, without touch screen, with much slower CPU?
OK.
Wyvek - Thursday, March 12, 2015 - link
I forgot to mention its also thicker.Michael Bay - Thursday, March 12, 2015 - link
Add useless OS too, then.Wyvek - Thursday, March 12, 2015 - link
... and heaviersnajk138 - Thursday, March 12, 2015 - link
...with less ports.Speedfriend - Thursday, March 12, 2015 - link
And wait until the Surface Pro 4 is announced shortly, 2mm thinner and 200g lighter, though also running a Core-M. That will be the ultimate coimputer, not this useless piece (of nice looking) junk.3ricss - Thursday, March 12, 2015 - link
But it's gold.jeffkibuule - Thursday, March 12, 2015 - link
I'm not sure I actually want Core-M since you are taking a clear hit in performance.Speedfriend - Friday, March 13, 2015 - link
On Geek bench 64bitCore-M 5y71 single 2800 multi 4850
i3 4040Y 1662 3446
i3 4200U 2461 4713
So core-M offers much better than i3 and slightly better than i5 Surface 3, but obviusly well behind i7 surface 3. MS shoould release the surface 4 and keep the surface 3 in production too.
maxijazz - Friday, March 13, 2015 - link
Finally one figured out the MB is Apple's answer to SP.Thx.
Max
Guspaz - Thursday, March 12, 2015 - link
The Macbook, when compared to the comparable Surface Pro 3 (which means 256GB of storage, 8GB of RAM, with the keyboard attached) is a little thinner, a lot lighter, and a hundred bucks cheaper.No touchscreen and slower CPU is true, but then, the macbook is also half a pound lighter than the surface with keyboard, and not everybody wants a touchscreen. It's a tradeoff.
uhuznaa - Thursday, March 12, 2015 - link
Also, I just can't get on with the Surface as a laptop. It's fine if you want a (rather bulky) tablet with a keyboard option, but if you have to use it in all kinds of settings it's actually a nasty combination: The keyboards and trackpads aren't especially good and it's a really flappy setup. The surface is not a bad machine, but if you want something you can just open and use on your lap or in an airplane or on the couch or standing up this MacBook seems just suited better to the job.And again, for a "real" laptop that thing is TINY. And lightweight. And pretty. I'm curious about the keyboard though. Shallow key travel isn't good, but steel domes instead of rubber domes sounds good. I very well remember how I was suspicious about the flat keys of my (late 2008) MacBook at first, but after more than 6 years with it now it's still one of the best keyboards I've ever used in a laptop and I use it 10 hours a day. And I type a lot.
deasys - Thursday, March 12, 2015 - link
No, it's not like a Surface Pro 3. The MacBook has higher screen resolution and an SP3 equipped with the Type Cover and with the same storage capacity (256 GB) is just about the same thickness and weight as the MacBook but costs $130 *more* than the MacBook.kirsch - Thursday, March 12, 2015 - link
The USB Type-C connector is going to be a blessing in the short run:1. Finally! Affordable charging options for Mac portables.
2. Apple's $79 dongle is obscenely overpriced (should come in the box). But third parties should be able to release alternatives at normal prices.
I have a non-retina MacBook Pro that I plug in to Ethernet, power, Display Port every time I get to my desk. The prospect of plugging one single cable and leave the dongle/dock at my desk is very attractive to me. Seems like a little thing, but multiply by several times a day.
dmunsie - Thursday, March 12, 2015 - link
"Apple's $79 dongle is obscenely overpriced (should come in the box). But third parties should be able to release alternatives at normal prices."I was thinking the same thing, but I suspect that the dongle is more than just some passive components and some ports. For one, the USB-C connector it provides has to be a fully capable connector as well. Another weird bit is that the Apple adapters only support up to 1080p for the VGA and HDMI connections while the MacBook itself supports up to 3840 by 2160 pixels (according to the Tech Specs page for the MacBook on apple.com).
I have a suspicion that when these adapters are available, we are going to find out that they are more like the Lightning->HDMI adapters that Apple makes for the iPad and iPhones. Those adapters basically accept an encoded h.264 (possibly h.265 by now on the newer devices) stream and then decode on the adapter side before sending it out over HDMI. I wouldn't be shocked to find out that these operate similarly.
As for the other USB 3.1 port, that implies to me that even if they aren't encoding the video, they still have to embed an USB 3.1 hub inside this connector. There are two upstream USB 3.1 ports (the normal Type-A port and the Type-C port). This means there has to be a hub. And I would guess that adding a USB 3.1 hub chip to the design pushes up the price a little bit.
The question I have, if this is how they did it, is why would they go down the route of using encoded video? Does it simplify the adapter in any way? Does it mean that they aren't using the alt pins, which would make them available for use by another upstream USB-C device? Are they planning on using these adapters for other product lines (i.e, future iOS devices)?
Definitely curious to see more details when these come out next month.
JonHK - Thursday, March 12, 2015 - link
As a pretty happy MB Pro user I was quietly hoping I could justify a use case for this new MacBook for travel etc. But no, not even close. This is largely due to the extremely compromised port choice and the very high price for what it is. I now really have my doubts as to how well this will sell given that it is, as Ryan says, MBA meets ipad. If it was much cheaper then that is a customer demographic that might work, but not at this price.At this price you would owe it to yourself to look at the Dell XPS 13 - which I have despite being a MB Pro user. This is not a comparison that works well for Apple, to be frank. For anyone who is a remotely serious computer user (presumably most AT readers), then I honestly think Apple has misjudged the new MB. For those that are not "serious" users, they will be hard pushed to justify the MB versus an iPad or the current MBA.
BillBear - Thursday, March 12, 2015 - link
>In scaling down from the MacBook Air, Apple has also scaled down the number of port on the MacBook. What you’ll find is a single data & power port in the form of a new USB Type-C port on the left side, and on the right side is a 3.5mm headphone jack. The Air was already light on ports, but there has never been a Mac like this before.I would point out that the original 2008 Macbook Air only had one USB port.
In fact, it wasn't until the third hardware update (Late 2010) that the Air got a second USB port.
SirKronan - Thursday, March 12, 2015 - link
PLEASE stop comparing it to a tablet. It doesn't have a touchscreen. It doesn't compare to a tablet. I don't care if it "looks" tablety. If it doesn't WORK tablety it's not like a tablet.Good first impression feedback though. I think the most exciting thing is the type C connector.
(yes, I know "tablety" is not a word.)
Joe_H - Thursday, March 12, 2015 - link
It's performance, keyboard, and lack of ports is very tablet-y.solipsism - Thursday, March 12, 2015 - link
1) This design is brilliant, but since I need/prefer a more robust machine I'll have to wait for the MBP to get most of these updates. The 13" MBP got some, but not the 15". If it did I may have already updated mine.2) So why introduce this as a MacBook and not a 12" MacBook Air. Apple has left old tech in category before; you can still buy the non-Retina MacBook Pro from their store. I wonder if the MacBook Air will be re-jiggered in a year or two to be an ARM-based system with their S-series chips. Apple could pounce not hat $700-800 "PC" range with an ARM-based 12" MacBook Air using the same design as the 12" MacBook. Even their Mac App Store is setup for this, providing they introduce a way for developers to use fat binaries (which they've done in the past).
3) I think the reason the lid didn't get the cutout for the plastic insert for the glowing Apple logo is the same reason the camera was reduced to 480p. Not enough room right now, but frankly, I can't see how either of those are deal breakers, especially the glowing Apple logo which really was simply advertising for Apple.
4) I don't mind there only being one port on each side of the device but I do wish it would have been 2x USB-C* ports. That means replacing the 3.5mm jack with USB-C. Basically an internal hub in the device so that you can even charge your MacBook from either side. There might not be too many adapters now, but USB-C is too versatile to not catch on. I expect Monoprice to have USB-C-to-3.5mm-jack in the 'dollar plus change' range soon enough.
5) The beauty of going with USB-C for charging is we should now be able to use any cable, PSU, and even our vehicle's 12V port for charging. Sure, MagSafe was useful, but I don't think its utility outfights the universal utility and cost savings USB-C will offer us in the future. I think this an indication of positive changes for the future of the entire notebook industry
* Yes, I know it's USB Type-C but it's easier to type USB-C, and I don't think there is any confusion when I do that.
Joe_H - Thursday, March 12, 2015 - link
That's fine. Nobody has a problem with the port being USB Type-C. The problem is with there only being one port, and that one port is also used for charging.mconwell - Thursday, March 12, 2015 - link
No Kickstand = No SaleJust kidding, but too many limitations to lure me to this device.
Aikouka - Thursday, March 12, 2015 - link
In regard to the port situation, I've been wondering if part of the issue is due to complexity. A port that can handle every task sounds great in theory, but somewhat of a nightmare electrically. Just imagine how much more complex the solution would have to be to handle ports on opposite sides of the laptop, or even the same side, and keep in mind how small the board is.Now, Apple could've decided to use a data-only USB Type-C port, but I wonder what would happen if you plugged the power cable into the wrong one? Also, it would simply cause confusion in people that don't really know any better.
Guspaz - Thursday, March 12, 2015 - link
The Chromebook Pixel has two USB Type-C ports, and both can be used for the same things (charging/data/video).If you did have a notebook with multiple Type-C ports that didn't support charging on all the ports, then nothing bad would happen: power levels are negotiated between the devices. When you plug the USB-C power cord into a Macbook or Chrome Pixel, no power is going to flow until the laptop and the power brick have a little chat and negotiate the power situation.
Aikouka - Saturday, March 14, 2015 - link
Ah, okay. Thanks for the information!Stuka87 - Thursday, March 12, 2015 - link
"...but I think it’s also very telling that this is the first Mac to come in various colors like iOS devices, silver, grey, and gold..."Rest in peace CRT iMac, you have been forgotten it seems :(
CharonPDX - Thursday, March 12, 2015 - link
A couple notes, and a couple minor complaints about the article.As others have noted: This laptop most certainly isn't for everyone - but there *ARE* people it is right for. I tend to alternate between having my desktop be powerful, and my laptop being powerful. When it's turn for my desktop to be powerful, I go for the smallest/lightest "non-netbook" laptop I can. In the past, this has been a PowerBook Duo, a Sony PictureBook, a 12" PowerBook G4. I went a while with an iPad as my "laptop" as well. While my current laptop is my "high-end" one and my desktop is aging, once I replace my desktop, my NEXT laptop will be the "think and light" variety - and the new MacBook is a PERFECT fit for that. So, no, this isn't for me *NOW*, but in 1-2 years, it will be.
The *ONLY* niggle I have with this is the single USB Type-C port. The updated ChromeBook Pixel does it right: One USB Type-C on each side. This allows for charging plus a single peripheral at the same time, while also allowing "ambidextrous" connection of power and/or display! *THAT* is the killer use of USB-C as charging: allowing more flexible charging! I would even give up the headphone port for a USB-C on the other side (heck, I was surprised to see it after the talking-up of Bluetooth for audio.)
Then the two article complaints: It is most definitely *NOT* Apple's first multi-color portable - the spiritual predecessor to it, the original iBook, likewise came in multiple colors. (And it also was light on ports, having only one USB, plus an Ethernet and a modem.)
Likewise, this isn't Apple's first "nearly no input/output", either. The previously-mentioned Clamshell iBook had only a single USB port (although it also had Ethernet and a modem,) while the PowerBook Duo had just one single serial port! (And an optional modem.) The PowerBook Duo had a dock port to allow for connection to more devices, but USB Type C can duplicate that functionality. The iBook clamshell was even more limited - its only interface was slow USB 1.1, it's default networking was AirPort (WiFi -b,) with Ethernet of the 10/100 variety.
Calista - Thursday, March 12, 2015 - link
Maybe my memory is slipping, it was so many years ago, but did not the PB Duo also have an external SCSI-port?Stuka87 - Thursday, March 12, 2015 - link
None of the Duos did, they had the docking port. The dock then had SCSI, among other ports.Sushisamurai - Thursday, March 12, 2015 - link
What an amazing design... too bad I'm not the target market for this device, I'm certainly envious of its aesthetics. I'm definitely looking forward to a more in-depth review of this machine. I may just consider it if the core-M doesn't drag performance wise.For those who are against this laptop, chances are you were not the target market. Yes, I was a bit dismayed myself when they released a new, hot looking laptop with it's current specs. I'm sure we'll have better and aesthetically similar laptops coming out in september. However:
1) I use to teach/tutor lectures for medical students to help prep for their US licensing exams. Yes, I can see that there would be a port issue connecting whatever display/lecture devices you may potentially present in, in a business perspective or teaching perspective. Some work-arounds would be the lowered apple TV price ($69 was it? I could just attach the HDMI cable or DVI-HDMI adapter, and stream to the apple TV) and or the USB-C adapter. Honestly, I don't think it's that much of an issue -> I would always broadcast a Ad-hoc/FTP server from my laptop prior to the lecture and during my 10 minute break so all my students were able to access my lecture materials and pictures/resources used during the lecture if they didn't download it ahead of time - transferring files this way was pretty simple - my students would use their phones/laptops to download my files off my computer, making USB drives pointless. The only thing i'd miss in this new macbook would be my wireless laser pointer/presenter or wireless mouse (i'd use a miniature mouse in my hand to control my presentation as I walk around) as I would charge my laptop while I present.
2) I'm pretty sure the Core-M would render gaming unfeasible on this laptop and although having a mouse at times increases productivity on OS X, i'm pretty sure your focus would be on performance and not mobility when it comes to the new macbook. Therefore, i'm pretty certain you'd choose at least an MBA, or rMBP.
3) I would probably use this around my house for light browsing / watching videos when my iPad isn't sufficient... I'd rather take my "real" laptop if I was out and a tablet wasn't sufficient. Even on vacations my iPad isn't really sufficient (I usually broadcast my own ethernet ad-hoc in the hotel room so my family can all use the hotel internet wirelessly in our room and not be restricted to the lobby). I could see this being a great use case for students though.
Calista - Thursday, March 12, 2015 - link
I could very well be a potential consumer, especially since I have been using sub-3lbs machines since years before the original MBA was even a thought in the back of the head of Mr Jobs and Ive. Still I just don't feel tempted by the new Macbook despite all its pros. Performance wise it's more than enough. The display is really nice. Storage and RAM is sufficient. But the idea of always having to carry an adapter with me to use any of the 50 billion USB devices already in existence rub me the wrong way. I'm all for USB type C, it's an impressive evolutionary step. But just adding a single port and completely excluding a type A connector..? I'm sorry, but that's just Apple acting as a bully. And I don't like bullies.uhuznaa - Thursday, March 12, 2015 - link
USB type A just wouldn't fit in there. Really, there's no room for it. I know that most people have never seen an USB type C socket and so can't really judge what they see here, but please look at the right side of that device (with the 3.5mm headphone jack) and compare what you see with an USB type A port. That headphone jack JUST fits into the side. There is NO way an USB type A port would fit in that case.And, of course: You will run into the adapter trap sooner or later anyway. You'll see more and more USB type C ports and plugs everywhere this year and next year and this will clash with type A/C ports and devices. You will need an adapter. Period.
And this time you'll not need to buy it from Apple. There will be adapters and cables and hubs and chargers in all combinations on offer everywhere.
I would really love an USB keydrive that has an USB type A plug on one side and an USB type C plug on the other side. Because this is something people will start to lust after very soon...
tipoo - Thursday, March 12, 2015 - link
They key wobble did bug me on my 15" rMBP, but the last thing I want is *shorter* key travel. It's already at what I'd consider the bare minimum.uhuznaa - Thursday, March 12, 2015 - link
I totally agree, but that keyboard working onto steel domes (for switches) instead of rubber domes gives me some hope that it will be precise and defined enough to make up for the shorter travel.I mean, I have an IBM type M keyboard (that currently hangs off of an Asus EeePC I use as an experimental home cloud server) and this thing has plenty of travel, but what makes it so outstanding isn't the travel, but the hard and precise definition of its steel spring switches. And this keyboard alone weights about four times as much as this Macbook...
Kevin G - Thursday, March 12, 2015 - link
" Put in other words, while 10Gbps USB requires Type-C, Type-C does not require 10Gbps USB."This is actually incorrect. USB 3.1's 10 Gbit speed can be accomplished via Type A connectors. See: http://www.anandtech.com/show/8982/asrock-to-intro...
ladooee - Thursday, March 12, 2015 - link
A couple things you missed on the Apple Tech Specs page. The page lists "up to 3840 by 2160 pixels on an external display" as the max resolution. As well as confirms no external USB controller: "USB 3.1 Gen 1 (up to 5 Gbps)"alanh - Thursday, March 12, 2015 - link
They should have dropped the headphone jack in favor of a second USB-C connector on the right, then sell a USB to 1/8" Headphone/TOSLINK dongle. Bluetooth headphones are increasingly common...uhuznaa - Thursday, March 12, 2015 - link
I'm pretty sure that there was more than one meeting Apple needed to decide on this... But deciding in favor of the headphone jack was probably a wise thing. A lot of people who will buy this device will already own an iPhone or an iPad and will use Apple headsets. Offering those people a straight way to plug it in is crucial. There would be more people being pissed off by having to buy another headset than people who are pissed off by having to buy an adapter or have to unplug the charger to attach some other thingy.All in all, there are about a billion guys and girls who already have bought an iPhone/iPad and those who do NOT want an adapter or do NOT want to unplug the charger to attach $something are probably much fewer. I doubt very much that Apple decided this on a whim.
Jeff Bellin - Friday, March 13, 2015 - link
I'm sorry, but I find your rationale to be quite a stretch - and/or an incredible insult to the sophistication of the majority of Apple product owners. (I do not mean to impugn your own intelligence or insult you for expressing your theory; I just happen to disagree with it strongly.) Owning a crappy set of Apple earbuds and needing to buy an adapter or a set of Bluetooth headphones (which are growing enormously in popularity and are amazingly convenient and liberating) strikes me as a rather lame reason to deliver a computer at this price point that cannot be operating on AC power and have any accessory connected at the same time - without using a much, much more unwieldy and costly dongle. Someone early referred to Apple as a "bully" for forcing people to change their habits radically simply because Apple wanted to make a computer that disappears from sight when turned on its side strikes me as the height of arrogance. I think it's very likely that many customers own USBA-driven equipment that is far more expensive and integral to their work routines than is a crappy set of Apple headphones rendered useless and be forced to rely far more heavily on cloud storage when there are so many more people, IMO (haven't seen a study and, apparently, neither has Apple - the Jobs philosophy was "we don't need or want to see market research; people don't know what they need, we know what they need!"), who have not yet embraced the cloud for storing their personal data when a shocking, major hacking event is reported almost weekly. But hey, Apple knows best and, though it's implicit in a free market economy that people can buy whatever computer they choose to, the company has spent years locking people into an "ecosystem" in which they have no doubt invested thousands of dollars (iPhone, iPad, Mac, apps, even USB driven accessories) and literally cannot purchase a Windows computer without rendering all these "Apple slaves" in a position of either purchasing a dubiously desirable computer or giving up the benefits of the proprietary, interoperative assets.Apple headphones? Really?
uhuznaa - Monday, March 16, 2015 - link
Yes, Apple headphones, with an integrated microphone and remote control that are included with every iPhone and which you also can use to make phone calls from your Mac via an iPhone since Yosemite. What's so hard to understand about that?As so often lots of strong words full of derision are a poor replacement for understanding what's going on.
pml63 - Thursday, March 12, 2015 - link
2015 Dell XPS 13 this coming from a long time Mac user is the best of the best. Sorry Apple, I already own an iPad Air 2 with a Brydge keyboard.solipsism - Thursday, March 12, 2015 - link
I need a decent Win notebook for work that has to be highly portable so it can fit in a large-ish tool box. I had been thinking of the 13" Dell XPS 13". It's beautiful, but expensive. With the 12" MacBook being only $300 more, with a better screen and a lot more nice features, not to mention being able to be charged my work van's USB port every time I'm driving without having to turn on a power inverter, as well as the resale value of Macs over Dells, I'm heavily leaning toward the MB.Jeff Bellin - Friday, March 13, 2015 - link
Just curious, but have you seen the two screen choices for the new Dell XPS 13? Most reviewers have rated them as the most beautiful, color rich, highly accurate, very bright (400 nits!) screens on any laptop (which would include the rMBP 13), and they offer the option of touch or non-touch, matte or glossy, FHD or QHD+ (much higher resolution than any Retina). When you say that the Macbook has "a lot more nice features" than the Dell, I wonder if you can name them. I do agree with you that the ability to charge your laptop in your car can be quite convenient and I hadn't even thought of that possibility given the USB charging port. Still, if you are not stuck on OSX or have a reason that you must have the ability to charge your laptop in your car and just can't deal with inverters, I think you'll find the Dell offers far more features and benefits for the money and has much more powerful hardware that delivers equivalent battery life.PS: I am not a Dell fan and have reasons for not considering the new XPS 13 for my next purchase, but it's far closer to being a candidate than the new Macbook.
solipsism - Friday, March 13, 2015 - link
1) I thought they did a great job of detailing the new MacBook and features that are new to any notebook so I don't think I need to rehash it here when it's all stated in this article.2) A touch option on a notebook I guess appeals to some, but to me. I buy a keyboard and mouse because I don't want to touch the display. Besides, a desktop OS is not right for touching, and adding some UI elements to make it look that way isn't what I call solution.
3) Matte v glossy? Please! I don't want the washed out look of matte.
4) It's funny how I kept hearing that Apple's Retinas display were pointless up until other vendors finally them and then surpassed them and now I hear how Apple's Retina resolutions aren't good enough. '3438 ÷ 1/n = ' is good indicator of where most people can't discern any more pixels. What Apple is offering in their MacBook along with an IPS panel is great.
5) Power inverters are pieces of shit. Getting one in right means having drill a hole though the firewall, hooking up to the main line, installing an additional battery for it to run off of, making sure that battery is deep cycle, adding an inline fuse, and making sure it's good enough that it won't have to be manually turned off and then back on because it clicks off from the main power surge. I just bought a new vehicle and was going to pay a professional to do it right because I can't be bothered. With the new MacBook I save all that trouble... assuming that's the only thing I need to have plugged in.
6) On Amazon the Dell is $300 more than the MacBook for that display, weighs about 30% more than the MacBook, and gets worse battery life. If anything is a good buy based on specs to price it would seem the Asus ZenBook UX305 with a QHD display would be the way to go.
SirPerro - Friday, March 13, 2015 - link
Dude. This is a complete ripoff compared with an xps 13, which is much much powerful overall, better screen, better screen ratio, better battery life, even touch screen if you want (I dont)This Macbook is just an insult to intelligence at this price
ayejay_nz - Thursday, March 12, 2015 - link
They should really include the USB-C Digital AV Multiport Adapter in the box.Red Dawn - Thursday, March 12, 2015 - link
Not my opinion of the MacBook, just a funny Youtube vid circulating. Even Apply Fans should find this funnyhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KHZ8ek-6ccc#t=73
dragonsqrrl - Thursday, March 12, 2015 - link
"Apple can’t get the MagSafe port small enough to use on the MacBook, and there’s only room for one port of any kind on each side of the laptop"There has to be room for additional connectivity, the thickness is maintained for most of the left and right sides of the body. I would think at least an additional USB port on the right side, and perhaps a dedicated display out on the left. But I think the size of the motherboard is actually more of a problem in this regard than the dimensions of the body.
Regular use of any sort of wired peripheral just isn't practical with this laptop. This has to be Apple's ultimate example of form over function thus far, and that's saying A LOT.
tuxRoller - Thursday, March 12, 2015 - link
Wow, force click.They've reinvented the right click!
kellydavid - Thursday, March 12, 2015 - link
Ryan,When you get some REAL hands-on time (in April), can you please trying running Windows 8(.1) or similar in VMWare Fusion or Parallels Desktop 10 on the new MacBook? I'd really like to know if the new MacBook (e.g. the 1.2Ghz CPU model) has enough CPU and GPU grunt to run Windows reasonably well. (Speaking as a Mac user who also needs to run Windows stuff sometimes). Thanks...
kellydavid - Thursday, March 12, 2015 - link
...sorry, I should have said "I'd really like to know if the new MacBook (e.g. the 1.2Ghz CPU model) has enough CPU and GPU grunt to run VIRTUALISED Windows reasonably well"...orthorim - Friday, March 13, 2015 - link
This laptop is just applied technology. It's physics, transformed into a piece of art thanks to Apple's manufacturing and design expertise.As there were:
- USB type C allows them to get rid of all other ports. Other companies hold on to the other ports - they'd never think to do this - they will do what they've always done. If it wasn't for Apple we'd still have RS232 ports (remember those?). Not for any good reason, just because it's always been there, and there'll be two people who complain when it's gone.
- Core M allows for a fanless and thin design so they did that
- New battery tech to solve the problem of how to fill all the gaps that can be filled with battery.
- Retina display because you can't go back it's so much better.
- Unibody design and Apple magic sauce as well as the best designer in the world to make it look like that.
The end goal is to have a computer appliance rather than a big complicated beast of a machine. It's also about optimizing away all those things people hardly ever use. In almost all laptops I had, I've never used any of the ports. Only exception: USB. And this has that.
Sure it's more clumsy to have a USB-C type adapter to connect your DVI or HDMI monitor - but it's also something that only maybe 5% of users ever do. So it's worth the trade-off. For 95% of users not having a separate DVI port is an improvement. Apple of course has much more precise numbers that the ones I just made up...
Michael Bay - Friday, March 13, 2015 - link
Those Apple drugs must be really something if you can throw up like this.BittenRottenApple - Friday, March 13, 2015 - link
Great hands-on report, as usual.The new MacBook is a testament to Apple's collapsing technical acumen. They eliminate all ports except for one outdated USB port? This craven stupidity should send the last adherents running. But running to what? Windows isn't even a viable option anymore.
It's a sad day for people who need real computers. Jony Ive is a pompous, clueless hack who should be fired for introducing crippling regressions to a brand that could be as great as its reputation.
Look at this POS: One USB port, which will require an adapter to do anything. So if you're going to require an adapter anyway, why not make that one port a modern one: Thunderbolt. Thunderbolt can carry USB, video, Ethernet, external storage... ALL AT ONCE. And it can be daisy-chained, which is hugely important when the computer has ONLY ONE PORT. So WTF is Apple doing making its sole port USB?
We can only hope that consumers send this piece of clueless garbage to oblivion, as they did the idiotic iPod Shuffle that could only be controlled with Morse code over a proprietary headphone wire.
BittenRottenApple - Friday, March 13, 2015 - link
Please excuse the double post, thanks.deasys - Friday, March 13, 2015 - link
So, wait…you don't like it?(You know, Apple makes computers with uncollapsed technical acumen too.)
brentrockwood - Friday, March 13, 2015 - link
The Apple product page states that the DisplayPort over USB Type-C supports 3840x2160 simultaneous display.JG75 - Saturday, March 14, 2015 - link
As a very satisfied user of a late 2010 13 MBA, I was also disappointed about the lack of magsafe. But wouldn´t it be possible to make an adapter with a (possibly slightly protruding) usb-c plug to some magnetic connection?wyewye - Saturday, March 14, 2015 - link
Where is the "Hands-on" part?You just regurgitated the specs released by Apple. Pathetic.
ct1211 - Thursday, March 19, 2015 - link
Alas, if you want to play ball with Apple, there are media blackouts on full hands on reviews until the things start shipping. If you're waiting for a performance revolution review, it ain't coming. This is a $1,500 statement piece with the performance of a $200.00 netbook in a slick ass package. Its for the "be seen" crowd. Order the Pink one, you'll be the toast of Starbucks!Jazz1 - Sunday, April 12, 2015 - link
It is more than the sum of its parts. Probably a little overpriced. But not so for the world of Apple. I've owned a Dell netbook, and this is way better than that was chugging along on an Atom CPU and dealing with a creaky plastic case. I'm no hipster. I'm just someone that likes the form and function of this laptop.The build and size of this laptop is impressive. Is it worth the money, maybe not for some. But in the Apple universe this is a ground breaking device.
Zhongrui - Thursday, March 19, 2015 - link
Apple should replace the phone jack with another USB 3.1-C port, so it can be charged from either side. Or one is for charging while another to input/output.Mangosteen - Friday, March 20, 2015 - link
Here's to hoping that Anandtech compares the performance of the crappy Core M to an A8 to see how well it compares to an iPad.kart - Monday, March 23, 2015 - link
I wonder if 4k 60FPS videos will play smoothly on this machine, on VLC, MPlayerX, or whatever other video player I choose to use. If I'm paying $1700 for a laptop, I certainly expect it to handle any 4k video file I throw at it, no matter the codec (H.264, HEVC, VP9, or any other codec that's popular for 4k).This means that we can't rely on hardware acceleration, which is probably not supported for VP9, and not even for HEVC until Apple makes the necessary API available (thanks Ryan for pointing this out). Even after Apple makes the API available, it may take a while for VLC and MPlayerX to start supporting it.
The only thing that works reliably today (I'm in the market for a laptop) is software decoding, and I wonder if the CPU is powerful enough to handle that, given its 4.5W TDP. For comparison, my Retina Macbook Pro (13 inches, 2012 model), takes 40-60% CPU playing 4k video in VLC.
UtilityMax - Tuesday, May 12, 2015 - link
Why play 4k video on a device that doesn't have that resolution?Haravikk - Wednesday, March 25, 2015 - link
Personally I'd have preferred a second type-C port in place of the headphone jack; there are loads of good Bluetooth headsets out right now, and with support for modern Bluetooth the power requirements aren't especially high, meanwhile the ability to plug in separate power and data devices would be much more valuable IMO.Some people have pointed out that Apple may be concerned about compatibility with their Beats range, but they could have bundled a compact type-C to headphone jack adaptor if it was such a big concern.
Most interesting to me though is the lack of Thunderbolt; I know it's a bit bigger, but it implies that Apple is shying away from it for ultra-portables, though I'm a little disappointed by that. That said, I'm hoping the capabilities of USB 3.1 might push Intel to work harder at Thunderbolt, as a smaller port able to handle more power (in both directions) would be nice to see, as the number of Thunderbolt devices requiring external power is one of its many flaws right now.
Brakken - Thursday, April 2, 2015 - link
All documents and files are in the cloud - transferable by AirDrop.Using a bigger screen via AppleTV with AirPlay.
Top mobility x functionality with OSX rather than iOS.
Perfect (for me!) screen ratio and size.
Can't wait to get one!
Apple_iPhone_Service - Thursday, April 30, 2015 - link
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opp to forum road,behind A2B, 08041521112
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jayanagar 4th block
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08041521113
jayanagar 9th block
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08041521110/
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08041521119
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08041521116
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08041573366 / 9611269682
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JTGibson - Sunday, June 21, 2015 - link
Someone reassure me, please, that Apple is hard at work creating new stand-alone accessories based on the new butterfly mechanism for a new color-optional set of keyboards, both wired and bluetooth.... And that Apple is also working on a color-optional stand-alone version of the new Force Touch trackpad.... I'd very much like a space gray butterfly mech aluminum keyboard with number pad, and a space gray force touch trackpad to go with it, for my iMac.