It might be all about the Apple Watch this evening, but the iPhone creators are taking their sweet time getting to it. That’s not an issue really, considering the wait consists of our very first look at Apple’s brand new laptop. Not an Air, not a Pro. it’s just Macbook now, and it looks stunning.
Falling somewhere in-between the Air and Pro models of old, the new Macbook packs a 12-inch retina display with a stunning 2304×1440 resolution, on an incredibly thin panel. In fact, that seems to have been Apple’s major goal with this brand new Macbook. It’s an unbelievable 24% thinner than the Air, coming in at only 13.3mm thick when closed. Just try think about that for a brief second, and imagine how all of that PC fits into something that small.
The thin design comes packed with the new Intel Broadwell M processors, which means it’s not going to feature a single fan. The processor Apple is using is 1.3GHz chip, which can hit Turbo speeds of 2.9GHz. With that comes a brand new force trackpad, which doesn’t click but instead feels for clicks, and a redesigned keyboard with shallower buttons and new switches.
And, as all the rumours suspected, the new Macbook will be the first to feature USB-C. If you’re unfamiliar, USB-C is a brand new type of connection that deals with flash drives, power supplies and video outputs. It’s an all-in-one, compact, reversible port that will probably become the norm in a few months time. It’s backwards compatible via adapters, so don’t fret too much about that.
The new Macbook starts at a rather reasonable (considering the Ultrabook competition) $1299, and lands on April 10th in the USA. Expect here a little later.
Last Updated: March 9, 2015
Thinus Swart
March 9, 2015 at 20:43
120 inch??? That’s… large
Ranting Raptor
March 9, 2015 at 21:20
Was gonna say the same lol
Alessandro Barbosa
March 9, 2015 at 21:22
Whooops, my bad. 12-inch, nothing more 🙂
Ranting Raptor
March 10, 2015 at 08:00
That’s what she said?
Gareth L (That eXCheez Guy)
March 9, 2015 at 20:44
Wait, one output? Am I reading that correctly?
Mossel
March 9, 2015 at 22:09
Yeah man I use like 4 usb ports at any given time. For a laptop at least 3…mouse, external hdd, 3g dongle.
Gareth L (That eXCheez Guy)
March 9, 2015 at 22:23
Apparently you can buy an adapter dongle thingy for $79 that has a HDMI, USB C and USB port. I really hope that they include one in the box, because otherwise that’s just ridiculous. Then again, it is Apple.
Xcalibersa
March 10, 2015 at 06:55
Soooooo. Its an Ipad with a keyboard.
konfab aka derp
March 10, 2015 at 08:26
“which doesn’t click but instead feels for clicks,”
So it detects taps.
Which is what normal laptop touchpads have been doing for years…
Ranting Raptor
March 10, 2015 at 09:29
Ok, before I moan let me just say this… Making a device that thin and claiming it will still be able to keep up with the air and pro models is amazing. It’s seriously impressive if you consider just how thin 13mm is.
BUT, and this is what I am really not happy about regarding Apple’s business model, the price of these things are crazy and you cannot easily upgrade or replace broken hardware on either the air or pro models. Just take the pro for example. A new HDD for a new age MacPro? R20K +. If you lose a RAM chip? Replace the mainboard as it’s embedded in to it. You cannot upgrade the RAM once bought either. The machine has to be built to spec. So it’s expensive and has no upgrade path.
Now let’s take a look at the Macbook. This new 13.3mm marvel (Seriously still impressed about how thin it is).
At that size, you simply cannot put in a standard HDD or SSD (Or a flash harddrive as it’s called in Apple’s devices). There is just not enough space. So the solution? NAND chips directly on the mainboard.
So this means that you have to order to spec even more now. The HDD will have to be ordered to spec because it can’t be replaced.
If anything blows on this device you are going to fork out a lot of cash to fix it.
Gareth Smith
March 10, 2015 at 13:48
They could have used mSATA, but then again they could have given the iPhone, iPad and iPod microSD.
Stupid, Greedy Apple.
Ranting Raptor
March 10, 2015 at 14:53
They do something like an mSATA on the MacPros but the connector is a slightly different style to standard SATA and so the standard connectors don’t fit. You have to specially order the drive. BLEGH
Spy Master Tokashi
March 10, 2015 at 14:32
And that is why I will never ever buy an apple product for myself. The fact that I cannot upgrade my laptop / MAC PC is just silly and it is such an unethical business model and the other reason is that I have to use iTunes, ewww.
Only time when I will buy an apple product is to make money out of the Apple fanboys via the market or for work.
Ranting Raptor
March 10, 2015 at 14:50
iTunes in itself is a great platform for getting music and stuff. I really do love the software side of Apple. Just think their hardware is mostly overpriced and too limited
Spy Master Tokashi
March 10, 2015 at 15:10
There are better software out there that can do the same and even more 😉
I do agree that there are really great apps out there for the Apple OS but it will not convince me to buy apple products if the hardware is so expensive…
Ranting Raptor
March 10, 2015 at 19:28
Yeah with you there. Company iPad is cool. But would never get my own. Would rather go windows or android