The damn-the-past MacBook design from
Think of the newest Apple laptop as the MacBook Air 2. It's just as jarring as the original MacBook Air introduced by Steve Jobs back in 2008. At that time, reviewers whined about the lack of ports (yes, that's a deal-breaker for some) and generally panned the design as too spartan. Fast forward to 2015: we're hearing the same doubts and criticism leveled at the 12-inch MacBook.
I'll admit that I chimed in with some skepticism about the 12-inch MacBook initially too. But after using it constantly for the last few weeks, I can say that it's Apple's best light laptop yet. It's not only knife-edge thin (0.52-inches) and spin-on-the-end-of-your-finger light (2 pounds) but it isn't slow, doesn't get hot, and has decent battery life. Oh, and it looks great. In fact, with the lid closed it looks like a 12-inch iPad.
Apple has also managed to attach an amazing 2,304x1,440 Retina display (albeit, non-touch). I don't say "amazing" lightly because while there are plenty of ultra-thin laptop displays out there (e.g.,
Keyboard: But I want to focus on the keyboard in this brief review because (to me) it's the best part of the MacBook. The keys are 17 percent larger and 40 percent thinner than a typical laptop. On paper, the thinness of the keys sounds like a recipe for disaster, i.e., virtually no travel (travel is defined as how far you need to press the key to register a keystroke). But I've found it to be one of the best keyboards I've ever used. I type more accurately (because of the larger keys) and the lack of travel doesn't result in a "hard" typing experience (which some critics have equated with typing on glass). Granted, it's not as soft as the keys on the Dell XPS 13 (2015 model) or HP EliteBook Folio 1020 (both ultra-thin designs that I also use). But it's more than just tolerable. It's enjoyable. And I have no problem typing on the keyboard all day.
That's really, really hard to pull off. A super-thin keyboard that is usable is sort of the Holy Grail of precariously-thin laptop designs.
Portability: I'm on the road locally a lot. So to have a laptop as light and thin as the MacBook makes a big difference: something that's really easy to grab and toss in my bag -- and which doesn't add any noticeable weight. And, believe me, this thing is about as light as a laptop gets without being a tablet. As I said above, it does this without sacrificing speed or battery life. No, it's not the fastest ultra-portable on the planet and doesn't have the longest battery life. But I haven't run into any performance bottlenecks yet (I'm not a gamer and don't watch a lot of video). And with moderate use during local travel (roughly the equivalent of eight hours of constant use), I recharge, on average, once every two days.
So, if you're looking for an impossibly thin-and-light laptop that sacrifices remarkably little in the speed and battery-life departments and has a great keyboard to boot, look no further. Configuration as reviewed: 1.1GHz
