[rwp-review id=”0″]
We got our hands on the gold edition of the new MacBook and I took it for a spin!
Yes, it only has one port and yes, it’s less powerful than its other siblings — but make no mistake, the new MacBook is a piece of art engineered to perfection!
Migrating
First thing I did was migrate content (which includes some photo and video editors) to see if it can handle the day to day tasks I normally throw at my Retina MacBook Pro (late 2013 edition).
The process took around 25 minutes to transfer around 145GB of data, apps and settings, after which the macbook rebooted and logged into my profile. Time to put that beauty to the test.
First impressions
HOLLY CRAP THAT THING IS LIGHT & THIN! That thing is 13.1mm thin and only weighs 907g.
The new MacBook follows the footsteps of the MacBook Air, with a solid aluminium body that is smaller, lighter and slimmer than the 11-inch MacBook Air.
The Butterfly Effect
The most noticeable change made in the new MacBook is its completely redesigned keyboard. A new keyboard that Apple stressed a lot on, and for a good reason.
Start pressing that first key, and you’ll be like … OHHHHHH!
Apple has completely redesigned the new MacBook’s keyboard and now uses a new Butterfly hinge rather than the scissor switch under the keys. The outcome? A keyboard with reduced amount of press pressure making it an enjoyable and far more accurate experience. While the pressure has been reduced, the size of the keys has been increased and the keyboard now stretches from edge to edge, with each key being backlit by an individual LED.
It’s kind of a weird feeling when you first start typing, it feels different , but few hours later you’ll get used to it and you’ll start typing at full speed.
The force is strong with this one (Too cliche?)
For a moment, I thought it actually clicked!
Another modification to the MacBook is its Force Touch trackpad, which is 112 mm wide, click-less and uses haptic feedback instead to emulates the feeling of a click. At 112 mm wide it may be the widest trackpad ever fitted to a laptop
The new trackpad has no moving parts; it’s accurate and responsive with the Force click (a click with continued press) feature allowing you to perform al lot of time-saving functions and shortcuts like renaming labels, previewing files, looking up definitions and a lot more. A sensor can detect pressure and activate the Force Click function. Force Click is limited to Apple-built apps for now but has an open API for developers to use, so expect more third party apps to use this feature in months to come.
You can set the click feedback strength in the trackpad control panel to Minimal, Medium or Strong.
All for one and one for all
Yes, i’m talking about the USB-C, the nightmare, the future. This is where the buying decision might hang in the balance. While it’s a great step forward to actually have one port that rules them all, we’re not there just yet, and especially when it is actually ONE port on the entire machine. The port is essentially used for charging, syncing, and everything in between, and will require you to buy Apple’s USB-C adapters. Even with the adapter, you’ll find yourself with running a bundle of cables and USB hub to accommodate more than one connection the same time.
At the moment, there aren’t a lot of cables and accessories for USB-C, but I don’t think this will take too long.
The new port now opens the possibility of charging the laptop with a third party chargers which weren’t possible with other Macs. All this, of course, means one thing: MagSafe is gone! Personally, this compromise killed one of my favorite features of MacBooks.
The Display
Opening the lid, you’ll immediately notice the bright and detailed 2304 x 1440 Retina display on the new MacBook. Similar to the displays in the MacBook Pro with Retina, the front glass is attached to the LCD giving 0 air gap and reducing thickness.
This new screen is also 30% more energy efficient than any other Retina display and delivers a comfortable viewing angels with a 16:10 aspect ratio. Colour accuracy is good with good contrast levels.
Usage & Performance
We got our hands on the base-level model which shipped with a 1.1GHz intel core M processor with Turbo Boost up to 2.4GHz.
Intel’s Core M processors is used in the new MacBook, the core M processors are extremely power efficient and don’t require any cooling fans which in turn allowed Apple to design such a thin machine.
As I jumped form a MacBook Pro, I could immediately feel the difference in performance, but that difference wasn’t as bad as I thought. The MacBook performed well in standard regular task and even handled photoshop editing well, but going beyond these tasks and diving into video editing, HD photo editing, major multitasking and processor hungry apps, proved to be a bit sluggish.
At one point, I had Evernote, email, Tweetbot, Safari with 6 tabs and a word document all open and I didn’t notice any lag. But, in few other times, I did notice some hiccups. But then again that is expected, at the end of the day the word “PRO” is missing from this series for a reason.
Other improvements and features
Sound: The new MacBook’s stereo speakers are probably one of the most surprising improvements made by Apple. THEY ARE LOUD! The new speaker grills located just above the keyboard deliver an awesome crisp sound.
Battery life: This laptop has a LOT of batteries which have been cut, shaped and laid on top of each other in order to fit inside the thin case, and the result?
The new MacBook has a great battery life. I kept a video streaming and on loop, the result was a solid 7 hours. In normal usage (browsing, emails, document editing and light tasks) I was able to get between 6 to 12 hours of usage.
The 1 let down
Too bad Apple couldn’t fit an HD camera into the new MacBook. Instead, the 480p FaceTime camera with 848 x 480 pixels of resolution just doesn’t do the job as it should.
Bottom Line
The new MacBook is ahead of its time and it’s hard not to fall in love. The new keyboard, touchpad, the lightness and retina display are pretty easy to get attached to.
The decision of whether the new MacBook is for you really depends on how you’d use it. If your are looking for something portable, light, can perform your regular internet browsing, emails, light office work, multimedia and don’t mind the price tag, then yes, this is the one. For tasks that rely on a powerful processor, then you’d better stick with the Pro series or even the Air series.
Will I buy it? Yes I would, the new MacBook can easily replace my MacBook Pro in how I use it at work and at home. I can easily live with the compromises.
Will probably come back with a more in-depth look at the MacBook after a month or so of usage and re-evalute it, by then, we should also see more third party implementations for Force Click and third part accessories as well for our beloved USB-C port.
The MacBook is available in the traditional Silver colour, Gold and Space Grey. Check out the buying options here.
