Remember those old plastic MacBook’s commonly found with school children or those on a budget? Well, there’s a new one and it’s nothing like it’s previous versions. The new Macbook comes in three colours: Gold, Space Grey and Silver. It’s also the lightest Mac ever made, weighing in at just 920 grams. The MacBook is 13.1mm thin, 24% thiner than the MacBook Air, and features a newly designed keyboard which is 34% thinner than other versions. It also features a new Force Touch trackpad which has built-in force sensors that allow you to click anywhere and haptic feedback that provides a responsive and uniform feel.
The new MacBook features a 12-inch Retina display with a 16:10 aspect ratio. Measuring in at just 0.88 mm thin, it’s actually the thinest display ever made on a Mac. It has a resolution of 2304 x 1440. There are no fans in the metal body, thanks to a low-power Intel Core M processor. It’s quite a small processor as well. So small in fact, Apple have been able to reduce the size of the logic board by 67%. Apple claims an all-day battery life – at 9 hours.
In true Apple style, they’re changing up the connectors again – providing only a single USB-C type connector. This will provide your charging, your inputs and your outputs, all in a single connector. Apple will only provide you a charging cable in the box. Want to charge and use a USB drive at the same time or plug in an external TV? You’ll need an adaptor for that.
There’s no full size USB port, no Thunderbolt, no MagSafe charging port. Just one, single port for everything. In my opinion, this is silly – Apple have had to cut back on the necessities just to make the computer as thin as possible – sure, you may only use a USB drive once or twice a week or you may only plug your computer into a computer or projector once a month but you’ll now need to purchase yet another accessory just to have the luxury of doing so.
The new MacBook starts at $1,799 AUD for the 256GB version and $2,199 AUD for the 512GB version. It begins shipping on the 10th of April.