Apple looks to 'reinvent the notebook' with all-new 12" MacBook with Retina display

Posted:
in Current Mac Hardware edited March 2015
In a surprise announcement, Apple on Monday revealed an all-new MacBook, featuring an ultrathin design that makes it the thinnest and lightest notebook the company has ever made, with an all-new keyboard, a Force Touch trackpad, and just one port for both power and accessories.




The new MacBook weighs just two pounds, making it the lightest Mac the company has ever made. It's just 13.1 millimeters thin at its thickest point, making it 24 percent thinner than the previous MacBook Air.

It features an all-metal enclosure with integrated antennas, and a full-size edge-to-edge keyboard with an Apple-invented "butterfly mechanism" for keys. The 12-inch Retina display boasts over 3.3 million pixels and is just 3.3 millimeters thin, making it the thinnest display ever built into a Mac.

The trackpad has also been redesigned to fit the thinner chassis of the MacBook. Dubbed the "Force Touch trackpad," it features a glass multi-touch surface with four force sensors, as well as the Taptic Engine introduced with the Apple Watch for haptic feedback.




The new trackpad allows users to click anywhere, and the click sensation can be adjusted through software. The force sensors also sense a range of pressure from light clicks to deeper presses, enabling a new "Force Click" gesture.

The Force Click allows users to automatically pull up information such as calendar entries, maps, or definitions.

Featuring a unibody architecture, the MacBook lacks a cooling fan, making it the first fanless, completely silent MacBook in Apple's history. Phil Schiller, Apple's marketing chief, noted that the logic board is 67 percent smaller than the board found in the previous generation MacBook Air.




It features an Intel Core M "Broadwell" processor, running at up to 1.3-gigahertz and sipping just five watts of power, along with 802.11 ac Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 4.0 connectivity. The new MacBook also features unique sheet-style batteries that offer a full day's worth of battery life, advertised at 9 hours of usual usage.

Doing away with the MagSafe connector, the MacBook sports just one connector for USB, DisplayPort, VGA, and power. It uses the open USB-C standard, and the reversible cable is one-third the size of a standard USB cable.

Apple will begin shipping the MacBook on April 10 at a base price of $1,299, with an optional spec bump that brings it to $1,599. It comes in traditional silver as well as space gray and gold.
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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 169
    tallest skiltallest skil Posts: 43,388member

    I can’t wait to see a side by side with the 12” PowerBook.

     

    They’re trying to get rid of right-clicking with Force Click. I really don’t know how that’ll work; this will be the most error prone implementation of something they’ll release.

  • Reply 2 of 169
    conrailconrail Posts: 489member
    So the Ipad Pro turns out to be a retina macbook "air".
  • Reply 3 of 169
    mac_128mac_128 Posts: 3,454member

    One port. Long live the dongle!

  • Reply 4 of 169
    scotty321scotty321 Posts: 313member
    Apple has literally gone insane. True video editing professionals & graphic design professionals & professional programmers need a LARGER SCREEN, such as the now-discontinued 17" MacBook Pro. But instead, they keep making things smaller. There was once a time when professionals could actually be MOBILE PROFESSIONALS with Apple's laptops. Not anymore. I sure miss the Steve Jobs days.
  • Reply 5 of 169
    solipsismysolipsismy Posts: 5,099member
    1) So many wonderful changes.

    2) If Apple is supporting USB 3.1 Type-C on the new MacBook they might on future iDevices. Remember that Apple had to make their own because everything else was too limiting, but the Type-C connector is more inline with other standard connectors Apple has adopted after dropping their in-house design. (e.g.: USB signaling replacing FW, DP/DVI replacing ADC, Ethernet replacing AppleTalk).

    conrail wrote: »
    So the Ipad Pro turns out to be a retina macbook "air".

    The iPad and Mac were never going to merge like the flawed MS Surface.
  • Reply 6 of 169
    tallest skiltallest skil Posts: 43,388member
    Originally Posted by SolipsismY View Post

    The iPad and Mac were never going to merge like the flawed MS Surface.

     

    Still, I’m waiting for a 12-13” iPad to buy a new one.

     

    Originally Posted by scotty321 View Post

    Apple has literally gone insane. True video editing professionals & graphic design professionals & professional programmers need a LARGER SCREEN, 



    Did you ever stop to think that maybe because the product is called MacBook (not even MacBook Air) that it’s NOT FOR PROFESSIONALS. Apple has a product for professionals. IT’S CALLED THE MACBOOK PRO.

     

    I’m surprised you’re not whining about the fact that it only has one port on it.

     

    ?Also, Huddler, why does this need to exist?

     

    Why not just do some JavaScript magic and have the page automatically add the new content at the bottom? It’s 2015. Screw the jargon of “Web 2.0”, “Web 3.0”, whatever; just bring on the new crap.

  • Reply 7 of 169
    mac_128mac_128 Posts: 3,454member

    GOLD!!

  • Reply 8 of 169
    mac_128mac_128 Posts: 3,454member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Tallest Skil View Post

    Did you ever stop to think that maybe because the product is called MacBook (not even MacBook Air) that it’s NOT FOR PROFESSIONALS.


    Exactly. This is the consumer MacBook. That's why it comes in three colors (ugh). One port is absolutely ridiculous for professionals. For consumers, it's not so bad if they lose their dongles, since it's pretty much being used as a more versatile iPad anyway. But for plugging it into a desktop work station, what a dream. One plug does it all.

  • Reply 9 of 169
    [SIZE=5]YES[/SIZE][SIZE=6]YES[/SIZE][SIZE=7]YES[/SIZE]
  • Reply 10 of 169
    maestro64maestro64 Posts: 5,043member
    conrail wrote: »
    So the Ipad Pro turns out to be a retina macbook "air".

    yep exactly what I thought too, when are these analysis going to give up and realize they can not out guess what Apple is going to do. This is going to be a surface III killer, MS was trying to fill in the gap between laptop and table or so they thought and now you can use a real laptop which is small enough.
  • Reply 11 of 169
    tallest skiltallest skil Posts: 43,388member

    WAIT WHAT? THE AIR STILL EXISTS?

  • Reply 12 of 169
    mac_128mac_128 Posts: 3,454member
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Tallest Skil View Post

     

    WAIT WHAT? THE AIR STILL EXISTS?




    They have to get rid of current inventory. Plus, what other Mac sells for less than $1000?

  • Reply 13 of 169
    WAIT WHAT? THE AIR STILL EXISTS?

    Why not? Lol.
  • Reply 14 of 169
    tallest skiltallest skil Posts: 43,388member
    Originally Posted by Mac_128 View Post

    They have to get rid of current inventory. Plus, what other Mac sells for less than $1000?

     

    Yeah, but they updated it. And what’s wrong with “On sale until we don’t have any more.”? 

  • Reply 15 of 169
    solipsismysolipsismy Posts: 5,099member
    ?Also, Huddler, why does this need to exist?
    <img alt="" class="lightbox-enabled" data-id="56333" data-type="61" src="http://forums.appleinsider.com/content/type/61/id/56333/width/500/height/1000/flags/LL" style="; width: 334px; height: 81px">


    Why not just do some JavaScript magic and have the page <span style="line-height:18.200000762939453px;">automatically add the new content at the bottom? It</span>
    ’s 2015. Screw the jargon of “Web 2.0”, “Web 3.0”, whatever; just bring on the new crap.

    I like it.
  • Reply 16 of 169
    noelosnoelos Posts: 127member

    Er ... updates to 13" but not 15"? Please tell me this doesn't mean it's being discontinued. Death of 17" was bad enough!

  • Reply 17 of 169
    tzterritzterri Posts: 112member
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by scotty321 View Post



    Apple has literally gone insane. True video editing professionals & graphic design professionals & professional programmers need a LARGER SCREEN, such as the now-discontinued 17" MacBook Pro. But instead, they keep making things smaller. There was once a time when professionals could actually be MOBILE PROFESSIONALS with Apple's laptops. Not anymore. I sure miss the Steve Jobs days.



    I could not agree more. I need a 17" Macbook Pro with lots of ports.

  • Reply 18 of 169
    sflocalsflocal Posts: 6,132member
    scotty321 wrote: »
    Apple has literally gone insane. True video editing professionals & graphic design professionals & professional programmers need a LARGER SCREEN, such as the now-discontinued 17" MacBook Pro. But instead, they keep making things smaller. There was once a time when professionals could actually be MOBILE PROFESSIONALS with Apple's laptops. Not anymore. I sure miss the Steve Jobs days.

    Your whining is what's insane. Was the MBA EVER a machine meant for a professional? No. That's what the MacBook Pros are for.

    So go take your "but...but...but..." nonsense elsewhere.
  • Reply 19 of 169

    The processors that the 15" MBP use have not been updated by Intel yet.

     

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by noelos View Post

     

    Er ... updates to 13" but not 15"? Please tell me this doesn't mean it's being discontinued. Death of 17" was bad enough!


  • Reply 20 of 169
    isteelersisteelers Posts: 738member
    Impressive. Most impressive.
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