We weren’t expecting too many surprises at the Mobile World Congress, but Apple has delivered. Our favourite Cupertino firm announced a new laptop model, the MacBook. A futuristic combination of the MacBook Air and MacBook Pro, the MacBook is incredibly thin and light, yet still boasts all-day battery life and a sharp Retina display. Let’s take a closer look at the new MacBook!
Design
Steve Jobs famously took the MacBook Air out of an envelope to announce it at Macworld in 2008, with the laptop measuring just 19mm thick. That improved to 17mm over the next few years, but the Air has nothing on the new MacBook. The new design measures just 13mm thick at its greatest point, 24% thinner than the Air, and weighs less than a kilogram.
In order to achieve these enviable dimensions, sacrifices were made. Specifically, Apple have eliminated almost all ports on the laptop, with only two remaining: a USB-C port which provides power, video and peripheral connections (via adapters) and a headphone jack. That makes for a dramatically thin case, but it does mean that you’ll need to use adapters to connect something as simple as a USB mouse or a monitor over HDMI.
The keyboard and touchpad have also seen considerable changes here. The keyboard has a 17% larger surface area, reaching from edge to edge, but keystroke depth has been reduced by 40%. A new butterfly mechanism replaces the previous scissor switches, and LED backlighting is now provided for each key individually. The touchpad now recognises the force with which you tap, unlocking a new gesture for looking up word definitions or seeing file previews.
The MacBook is available in three colours, matching that of recent iPhone and iPad models. These are Silver, Space Grey and Gold.
Hardware
The best inclusion from Apple’s MacBook Pro product lineup in the new MacBook is the 12-inch Retina display. The LED-backlit IPS screen used here comes in a 16:10 aspect ratio, with an unusual 2304 x 1440 resolution.
Internally, Apple have moved to a fanless design that necessitates a slower class of processors than we’ve seen on either the MacBook Air or MacBook Pro. This is the dual-core Intel Core M, which runs at 1.1 or 1.2GHz, with turbo clocks reaching 2.6GHz. This is backed with 8GB of DDR3 RAM and 256 or 512GB of solid stage PCIe storage. The integrated video card is the Intel HD 5300, with no option for a discrete graphics card.
All of this is powered by a unique ‘terraced, contoured’ battery which takes up the majority of the internal space and provides ‘all-day’ battery life. The MacBook is rated for 9 hours of wireless web browsing or 10 hours of iTunes movie playback.
Pricing and availability
The entry-level MacBook costs £1049, with a 1.1GHz dual-core processor and 256GB of storage costing £1049. The next tier has a 1.2GHz dual-core processor and 512GB of storage, and costs £1299. The MacBook will be available on April 10th, one month from today, with pre-orders likely to begin a couple of weeks before this.
What do you think of the new MacBook? Are you tempted by it, or would you prefer a Windows laptop or another Mac model? Are you still waiting for the rumoured iPad Pro, with a 12-inch display and a keyboard cover? Let us know in the comments below, or write to us on Twitter @mobilefun!
Spot on I would say there John…
Apple may be giving us a glimpse of how computers may look in the next few years and for design it is incredibly impressive, however for the specifications you are really paying for the size and lightness as it is just about powerful enough for standard use, but for anything more CPU / GPU hungry it will no doubt struggle even at this price range.
Also be interesting to see how the new touch pad and keyboard are received by everyone.
I would go for the new Dell xps 13. Much better specs, screen, price, overall size, etc…
This is nicely designed and impressive in terms of thickness but are you going to be bothered more by adapters or having 4mm thicker laptop.
I believe it is not worth it but for a change am impressed by what apple managed to build. (It has been a while…)