AppleInsider Staff
Apple's new 12-inch MacBook features the same chassis as last year's debut model, but the company has brought a new color into the mix — rose gold — that brings it in line with the iPhone, iPad and Apple Watch product lineups.
The new rose gold MacBook is joined by the same colors as last year: space grey, silver, and gold. Like the 2015 model, the early 2016 MacBook features a single USB-C port on the left side for syncing and charging, while a 3.5-millimeter headphone jack and two small microphone inputs are located on the right side.
The ultrathin keyboard and Force Touch Trackpad also return for this year's model, as well as the gorgeous 12-inch Retina display. Also unchanged is the low-resolution 480p FaceTime camera, likely a limitation of the thinness of the device.
As with the other rose gold products in Apple's lineup, the new MacBook can look subdued in soft light, but the pinkish hue certainly stands out more in brighter environments.
Aside from the rose gold color option, the real changes for the 2016 MacBook are on the inside, in the form of Intel's latest ultra-low-power Skylake processors, as well as faster flash memory. Apple also upped the clock speed for the 8 gigabytes of RAM in this year's model, and it says battery life is improved by an hour.
Without any major, showstopping changes, and the same $1,299 starting price point, this year's MacBook seems unlikely to change the mind of anyone who formulated an opinion on last year's model. Tests have shown the new processor is 15 to 20 percent faster — Â a welcome improvement, but not likely enough to win over users who need more processing power.
Of course, power users are not who this notebook is intended for, and there is certainly a segment of the market who appreciates the minimalist design of the 12-inch MacBook. Those who are content with the concessions made to achieve such an impressive, ultra-thin design will find a lot to like in this svelte, gorgeous chassis.
AppleInsider will have much more on the early 2016 12-inch MacBook in our full review. For now, take a closer look at the new notebook in our gallery below.
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Charles Martin
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49 Comments
Single USB port is a deal breaker. Bring Thunderbolt 3, USB 3.1 Type C Generation 2 and SDXC with maximum speed (300 MB/s) read/write speed.
Fanless full OS X computer: check
Force Touch: check
Pencil: check
Battery: ?
Thanks to Intel Core M, Force Touch / Force Click and Apple Pencil we are one step closer to imagine a "tablet Mac". The fanless Retina MacBook may be even tought as its prototype. Tech is almost ready maybe except some powerful tablet-size battery that would support the full multitasking of OS X. Retina MacBook has a huge battery placed in a layered design.
Out of curiosity: How does it compare to a 12 inch iPad Pro? In context of the *iPad replacing PC* debate.
>:x
I am buying this machine, but a bit disappointed that Apple decided to make such a modest update instead of aggressively pushing this machine as the future of the mainstream Macbook. Still retains all the pain points of the 1st gen, including a ludicrously bad webcam and a starting price that's on the high side. With the Air, Apple aggressively dropped the price for the 2nd generation- not so here.
Still not interested. The iPad Pro offers superior functionality with a better camera, the ability to edit 4K video, the use of the pencil, superior battery life, the option of Apple Pay (though I use my iPhone for that one fairly exclusively), a wealth of apps not available for OSX, and the ability to use the machine as a portable external monitor.
I don't need a USB dongle for accessing a cellular network and better video/graphics performance. I have replaced my MacBook Air with the iPad Pro and do not feel the need to purchase an x86 powered machine again, ever.
While the macbook book comes with a USB-C port the Lightning port on the iPad Pro is capable of interfacing with the USB 3 interface at high speed.
I remained convinced that OLED panels are coming eventually to the iPhone/iPad line of machines and probably never to the MacBook lines.
The Skylake bump is nice with 20% better performance than the outgoing machine, but I suspect the A10X is going to bring greater improvements to the iPad line and much better graphics performance.
The only thing that may have made the MacBook a better machine would have been Thunderbolt, but that port isn't available.
I am really digging the 12.9" iPad Pro. Once Apple releases an OLED version, I will be immediately upgrading.