12-Inch MacBook Now Available in Apple Retail Stores via Personal Pickup

[aront]

This is a bad move, Tim C. If you allow personal pickup in store, the one or two dummies who might have actually considered buying this joke of a poor excuse for an Apple laptop, will probably notice the far superior Air sitting right next to it, for around the same price, and realize they were nearly taken for a fool.

Nice bean counter, profit margin joke of a laptop, Tim.

 

[Shirasaki]

Holy cow, I've never seen so much negativity about an Apple product before. The Apple MacBook is unequivocally better than the MacBook Air! Completely silent operation, Smaller footprint, lighter, much reduced bezel, anti-reflective coating, quicker typing/responsive keyboard in my opinion, WAY better viewing angles and 3.3X times as many pixels jammed into it's gorgeous IPS LCD panel. I'm so tired of hearing that the retina MacBook is underpowered! If the MacBook is underpowered then so are all of the MacBook Airs! The base 1.1Ghz is on par with a 2013 i5 MacBook Air, but the retina MacBook is pushing 3.3X times the pixels don't forget. Why does everyone think it is so underpowered? It's not! Gaming's not too bad either on the little beauty. Beats my old HD 4000 integrated graphics on my 2012 MacBook Pro that's for sure. The MacBook is not a proof of concept, it's a vision of the future of laptops only we get to enjoy those benefits now! Just wait until people start trying out the retina MacBook in Apple stores with El Capitan installed on them. The base model straight up flies with the El Capitan beta installed. The retina MacBook is an amazing feat of engineering and a potent, powerful, full fledged laptop with a beautiful display. Spec out a comparable MacBook Air and see what the price is for a 5 year old design and terrible TN display. The price shouldn't be an issue after that.

While so many customers say the defect points of this product, this comment simply stands out from the crowd.

 

[inhalexhale1]

$1299 MacBook: 1.1 GHz Core M, 8GB of RAM, Intel HD 5300

$1299 MacBook Pro: 2.7 GHz Core i5, 8GB of RAM, Intel Iris 6100

10x the processing power, 8x more ports, larger screen, killer battery life. I know which one I'd pick.

I would 100% go with the rMBP, but you did leave out storage. Which, to be fair, should be in a comparison.

128gb on the rMBP vs 256gb on the rMB.

 

[inhalexhale1]

This is a bad move, Tim C. If you allow personal pickup in store, the one or two dummies who might have actually considered buying this joke of a poor excuse for an Apple laptop, will probably notice the far superior Air sitting right next to it, for around the same price, and realize they were nearly taken for a fool.

Nice bean counter, profit margin joke of a laptop, Tim.

Not really sure a one port, bare bones, fancy laptop is a "bean counter" move. It's more of a statement product than something the masses can actually use.

 

[inhalexhale1]

I currently have the white unibody macbook from 2010, which was the newest macbook model until this new one. By today's standards my macbook is very underpowered, and probably won't last much longer. I've been wondering though, which macbook would be better? Like which would be able to play games, edit video, etc better? The obviously work fine for web browsing, but I guess my question is for me would buying this new macbook be much of an upgrade?

I think the better question is, why buy this laptop over the retina MacBook Pro, when they're so close in price.

 

[R3k]

$1299 MacBook: 1.1 GHz Core M, 8GB of RAM, Intel HD 5300

$1299 MacBook Pro: 2.7 GHz Core i5, 8GB of RAM, Intel Iris 6100

10x the processing power, 8x more ports, larger screen, killer battery life. I know which one I'd pick.

The Macbook Pro configuration you listed has only 128gb storage while the Macbook has 256gb.
To get the same storage you will have to add $200 bringing the total to $1499. Just sayin.

 

[aront]

Those still talking about the one port issue need to understand that people buying it are not using ports.
Cloud and wireless capabilities is the future and this MacBook is a just glimpse of it. They just need to lower the price a little like they did with the Air. That's all.

If that's the case, then a $200 Chromebook is the better choice, not an overpriced $1,200 Apple Chromebook equivalent.

 

[Pagemakers]

So technically it launched today!

 

[applepuree]

Hopefully future generations will have wireless charging and they come up with something to improves the utility of it.

Then they would have no ports!

 

[applepuree]

So technically it launched today!

We have had them in my store available for about a month. All standard configs all colours. So I am surprised at the article, and that you guys in the US don't have them in stock.

 

[Shirasaki]

Then they would have no ports!

And such product would be a complete "no" for me.

 

[Shirasaki]

If that's the case, then a $200 Chromebook is the better choice, not an overpriced $1,200 Apple Chromebook equivalent.

And Chromebook cannot run anything outside their chrome. All apps are running in the cloud.

 

[UltimaKilo]

Everyone knows the Macbook is overpriced, underpowered and just a preview of what will be available in a few years. In fact, Cannonlake might finally allow and i5 or i7 type processor to be placed in the machine, effectively killing the Macbook Air. For now, you can still purchase a Macbook Air/Pro, which are excellent machines!

 

[aront]

Notice the PR apologists working over time to try and silence any logical, informative advice against buying this joke of a TC money grab laptop?

Basically, they're posting: "Don't say anything negative about it. If people are dumb enough to buy it, let them buy it. You're interfering with our fleecing of naive buyers."

Notice, per PR guidelines, the last sentence or statement in an apologist post is always some random praise or compliment of Apple? Seriously, it's so obvious.

 

[Uncle_Barry]

It's available now?! Uh oh... time for analysts to assume it's due to weak sales and crash the stock another $15!!!

 

[subjonas]

$1299 MacBook: 1.1 GHz Core M, 8GB of RAM, Intel HD 5300

$1299 MacBook Pro: 2.7 GHz Core i5, 8GB of RAM, Intel Iris 6100

10x the processing power, 8x more ports, larger screen, killer battery life. I know which one I'd pick.

Did you purposely leave out that the MBP has half the storage of the rMB to make your point deceptively stronger? It's a pretty relevant detail.

Those still talking about the one port issue need to understand that people buying it are not using ports.
Cloud and wireless capabilities is the future and this MacBook is a just glimpse of it. They just need to lower the price a little like they did with the Air. That's all.

Yep.
People here, and in general, have the hardest time imagining needs and preferences outside of their own. Everyone thinks they are the true voice of reason. What happens though is we give no importance to factors that we don't see as benefits while giving more weight to the factors that we do see as benefits. We are skewed. And I see it all over this forum. It's expected. I do it too.
But in my opinion, it's not hard to imagine that there are people in the world who want something as portable as possible, who don't use external monitors or drives, who don't use peripherals, who use email, web surf, create docs, manage modest music and photos libraries, who store what little data they have mostly in the cloud, who like having a retina screen, who don't mind spending extra to have the newest device with a couple new features... and the rMB is the best product for them, more so than any other MacBook.
And more than an iPad as well. Just because it can't be used for photo/video editing or gaming doesn't mean it's on the same functionality level as an iPad. There's a pretty huge gap there, which this fills simply because it's OS X if for no other reason. In my opinion it would be difficult for most modern people to get by with only an iPad in place of a computer. My bet is MANY people could function satisfactorily with a rMB.
Yes it's priced too high for most, but that is an unsurprising move for Apple, and likely won't continue long.
And please don't compare this to netbooks. You couldn't even check email on a netbook.

By the way, I don't have or want a rMB.

 

[JDHiro]

The MacBook is an awesome tech demo. Personally, I really like the haptic trackpad (picked up a 15" rMBP with it) and the new keyboard. The battery design is innovative, the overall design feels fresher than the Air, \USB-C connector is clearly the future (especially when it gets Thunderbolt 3 support), and I appreciate the drive towards wireless everything (which is why I'm shocked they even kept a headphone port on the laptop).

But I had one of these for a few days and, damn, they are slow. Installing Xcode took 4 hours, and 12" is just too small for any of my work.

I'm keeping my fingers crossed for a 16" rMBP with Skylake, tapered design, new keyboard, dedicated Bluetooth chip (so that I can actually use AptX headphones and a mouse at the same time), and 4x USB-C/TB3 connectors.

 

[aront]

And Chromebook cannot run anything outside their chrome. All apps are running in the cloud.

So what? The argument of the person I replied to was that the future is cloud and wireless. If his argument is cloud and wireless, and Chrome apps run in the cloud, then Chrome is sufficient.

 

[Shirasaki]

So what? The argument of the person I replied to was that the future is cloud and wireless. If his argument is cloud and wireless, and Chrome apps run in the cloud, then Chrome is sufficient.

Oh, sorry. I am sure I miss something.

 

[Sinfonist]

I currently have the white unibody macbook from 2010, which was the newest macbook model until this new one. By today's standards my macbook is very underpowered, and probably won't last much longer. I've been wondering though, which macbook would be better? Like which would be able to play games, edit video, etc better? The obviously work fine for web browsing, but I guess my question is for me would buying this new macbook be much of an upgrade?

You're not the target market for this laptop. Go for the Macbook Pro or Macbook Air depending on how you value weight, battery life and size.

 

[aront]

Not really sure a one port, bare bones, fancy laptop is a "bean counter" move. It's more of a statement product than something the masses can actually use.

It is a bean counter, money grab move when you charge $1300 for a one port, bare bones, slow, completely non-upgradeable, non-repairable, not-so-fancy laptop.

 

[bowersan]

I bought a space grey MacBook on day 1. I bought the top of the line model- the 1.3 Ghz with 500 gig. I've been using it now for 4 months. So I think I can give a proper review. I upgraded from a unibody MacBook (the one that became the MacBook Pro).

• I travel quite often for what I do (carrying my laptop around everyday, often work on airplanes) so the size and weight is perfect.
• I don't need much for what I do- the Office suite of products, teleconference capability, photos and music. I've never edited a video on my computer and I don't see myself doing so. Is the computer slow? When I first started using it with Yosemite, it wasn't amazing. I was somewhat disappointed with the speed. Since I signed up to the El Capitan beta, the computer works much faster in El Capitan. For most tasks, there's no lag whatsoever. Sorting albums in Photos causes lag. Other than that I haven't had any issues. Movies play at 1080p with no lag.
• The computer is beautiful.
  
• The keyboard you get so used to that going back to the other (normal) keyboard is an adjustment. I'm typing faster than I was on my old Macs.
• The trackpad is excellent- I don't notice at all that it is non-mechanical.
• The screen is excellent quality. When I look at non-retina screens, I can't believe I didn't notice how low quality they were.
• The one port thing is annoying, but you get by. I mean, I live with it- but I'm often in a situation deciding whether to charge my laptop or my phone. And if my phone is dying, charging it usually kills my laptop too quickly. They should have made this with two ports.
• USB-C is also somewhat annoying. You have a new cable to carry (USB-C) which doesn't (yet?) plug into the iPhone, which means you're carrying two cables and two chargers at all times. And since the iPhone constantly needs to be charged, you now have to carry the small iPhone square power converter and hope for two available plugs.
• The computer's power converter is tiny, which is great.
• The FaceTime camera is bad. For a computer that's this expensive, its silly that it doesn't have a FaceTime HD camera.

Would I recommend you buy this now? Sorta. Depends who you are. If you are not a power user who doesn't do Photoshop or edit movies, once you upgrade to El Capitan you'll be happy with this computer. Yes, the one port is annoying, but you just bring the square plug for your iPhone with you. It's not that much more to carry. Does the HD cam thing bother me? Yes, but its not a deal breaker.

Recommendation: Wait a year and buy the version with two ports and a HD camera. It's an excellent computer otherwise, aside from what every power user will say. Aside from its faults, I do really enjoy this computer.

 

[sledgehammer89]

Other Notebooks or MacBooks are now too heavy and bulky. It's fast enough for my use case and I've 4x USB/SD Slot when connected to my monitor. I do more texting and sorting pictures and videos than doing 4K renderings all the time. Display is fantastic!

 

[entropys]

Well, great for you that you are not buying it... Guess that's why they were back ordered for 4 months.

I would say it was back ordered for so long as Apple knew it wouldn't be a big seller and the production run is very small. I doubt back orders reflect popularity, and the recent catchup is that even the number of back orders is getting smaller and smaller. This product needs skylake CPUs, as well as a second port - they can drop the headphone port.

 

[franzkfk]

"Oh just use a USB-C hub!" = another box to carry about. Somewhat defeating the purpose of a 1kg machine."

Hm, so let's say that we have MacBook Pro with all those great ports and on the other hand we've got MacBook Retina with the original adapter from Apple (small and light). But we're missing something, don't we? CABLES. You'll have to carry HDMI,ThunderBolt (adapter), USB cables as well. So how this somewhat doesn't defeating the purpose of the portable computer? And don't tell me that you are counting on people that they will have spare cables. The new MacBook is ultra portable computer for some tasks. I've read many reviews and it seems that new MacBook is powerful than you think. If you are a graphic designer or any other person who needs heavier computing you'll probably buy MacBook Pro ( but I've read that some people even use it for some graphic designing without any problem ) and for us others there is a great ultra portable, light and thin MacBook By the way I have never used an SD card slot for transffering photos from my EOS camera.