On April 10, Apple will put its newest product line up for pre-order, but it’s also making a significant change to one of its oldest, longest-running product families. Funny how that works.
The new MacBook is minimalist to the extreme. It’s the Mac boiled down and condensed until removing anything else would make it not a Mac anymore. It’s the first Mac since that very first MacBook Air to depart from existing conventions to a degree that leaves people surprised and upset.
We’ve been living with the new MacBook for a little over a week now, which is about as much time as you need to take in all the new stuff it adds: the Retina display, the Force Touch trackpad, the new, super-shallow keyboard, the Core M processor and its accompanying GPU. It’s also enough time to notice all of the things it subtracts: size, weight, fans, performance, battery life, and most notably, ports.
Most products are defined by the features they offer. Compared to other laptops, the MacBook is defined by the features it doesn’t have.
Table of Contents
- Design: MacBook meets iPad
- Life with one port
- Other omissions
- Technical details: “USB 3.1 Gen 1” and USB Type-C
- The display: “Looks like 1280×800”
- The short version
- The long version
- Keyboard and trackpad: Different, divisive
- The short version
- The long version
- Internals and performance: Somewhere between a 2011 and 2012 MacBook Air
- The short version
- The long version
- Battery life
- Miscellany
- Speakers and webcam
- Can it Windows?
- Pricing and the competition
- Conclusions: A vision for a future that isn’t quite here
- The good
- The bad
- The ugly
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