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12-Inch MacBook Now Available in Apple Retail Stores via Personal Pickup
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Walked into our local Apple Store and bought a Space Grey MacBook just the other day. It's currently headed to my brother in-law who will be using it for the duration of his time in law school.
The ultimate thinness and lightness is a good counterbalance to the huge law books he's going to carry around. The retina screen is much better suited to long reading / writing sessions than an Air's screen. He doesn't need to do any heavy processing on it. I think it's a great fit.
When he started undergrad 5 years ago we bought him a 13" (non-retina) MacBook Pro. It still had a spinning disk in it that really degraded over time. Also, the CPU fan seized up in it and he had to get it repaired.
With zero moving parts in the new MacBook I expect it to work perfectly for him for the next 3 years.
EDIT: Forgot to mention how excited he was to get a free pair of Beats headphones with it! He may have been more excited for those than for the actual computer!
The ultimate thinness and lightness is a good counterbalance to the huge law books he's going to carry around. The retina screen is much better suited to long reading / writing sessions than an Air's screen. He doesn't need to do any heavy processing on it. I think it's a great fit.
When he started undergrad 5 years ago we bought him a 13" (non-retina) MacBook Pro. It still had a spinning disk in it that really degraded over time. Also, the CPU fan seized up in it and he had to get it repaired.
With zero moving parts in the new MacBook I expect it to work perfectly for him for the next 3 years.
EDIT: Forgot to mention how excited he was to get a free pair of Beats headphones with it! He may have been more excited for those than for the actual computer!
My iPad cannot run VMs which is one of my main users on the MBr. I run 2-5 VMs at any given time using Vagrant + VMware Fusion and they run without any sluggishness. Also the UI lag is fixed in El Capitan DPs. The only thing my Air can do that this could not is plug in 2 USB devices without a hub... while this is lighter, has retina and can run the exact same software and VMs as the Air. I rarely ever plug in anything to my laptop except for power. On that rare occasion I plug something in it is usually Ethernet for supporting network hardware and I needed a dongle for that on the Air too.
I bought one but rarely use it. On occasion I need an Ethernet port and a dongle was needed for my Air too. Also once every few months I give a presentation and my Air also needed an HDMI dongle like the MBr for that.
So much hate for this thing. I don't even own one, but it's thin and beautiful with two holes in it to plug something in – definitely good qualities for something that you occasionally bring home on Friday nights. 
Whenever one criticizes the sad 12" Macbook, the entire Apple apologist argument is that it's main purpose is for light-weight, portable travel, very basic cloud/wifi use; and when cheaper, reasonable alternatives are given that fit that purpose, suddenly the argument changes to something completely different and more demanding. So, to answer your dilemma, as has been mentioned before, if those are the things you require, don't buy a Chromebook nor 12" Macbook, buy the Macbook Air, which is similar price as the 12" Macbook, but so much more. Your argument is pointless and you've just proven the point that the new 12" Macbook is pointless and nothing more than an overpriced profit margin grab.
Better yet, why didn't Tim just put a retina screen on the Air like everyone wanted? No, the new Macbook has much more potential to increase those profit margins.
And what's with your bogus comparison with all the Macbook upgrades you list? Once you add all the pricey dongles and all your "up to" spec talk, your priced up into the stratosphere for what is essentially a very basic Chromebook.
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You are delusional. Not to mention that you completely dodge the points made by myself and others who point out that the use the rMB is being put through is nothing like light. Again, can you run Virtual Machines on your Chromebook? Can you connect peripherals and run business critical software and applications? Video rendering capabilities or whatnot has nothing to do with how I determine the value of a computer because it has absolutely zero to do with how I use it to earn a (very comfortable) living.
The MacBook Air is completely outdated. It has a low resolution, 16:9 screen completely unsuitable for the modern web and work environment. It has an outdated trackpad that is significantly compromised compared to the Force touch version. In the 12" MacBook, I get a screen that is more functional than the much larger 13" Air, not to mention much nicer and more comfortable to work on all day, with a keyboard that I prefer. The processor of the Air is of ZERO advantage to me because my workflow has NO NEED for any processing that is sustained, and as such, it is a NEGATIVE not a positive. Having a silent, cool running laptop is something I've been waiting YEARS for.
I tried out the 13" rMBP in two iterations and sold them within a month. Really not that much faster than the 12" MP. 15" is another story.
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FTFY
Those are the reasons I bought it. Can't lift as much as the quad core 15" or the 13" with 16GB RAM, but it matches the Airs and 13" with 8GB of RAM for me. Just sprinkle on the portability+retina and it was my dream laptop.
Sounds like an advertisement when one reads between the lines.
Apples expertise at generating stories, dialog, talking points and the like, all to get attention and sell more units is simply legendary. They manipulate the media like highly skilled musicians play their instruments. It's an amazing testament to Apples non-stop planning and strategizing.
Making it seem innocent and not self serving is something Apple does easily.
Jobs may be gone, but his imprint is etched in stone.
Apples expertise at generating stories, dialog, talking points and the like, all to get attention and sell more units is simply legendary. They manipulate the media like highly skilled musicians play their instruments. It's an amazing testament to Apples non-stop planning and strategizing.
Making it seem innocent and not self serving is something Apple does easily.
Jobs may be gone, but his imprint is etched in stone.
It's an underpowered (I've read iPad level performance) laptop with a single port that requires a dongle. How is it more appealing to the masses versus a MacBook Pro?
You have no point to make you are just putting words together and hoping they make sense. As for what I wrote, my last sentence was actually that they "But it has one failing and that's that they could have put another USB-C on the opposite side."
What the Feck are you talking about. A chromebook can't run anything actually useful. This can and you keep banging on about it being underpowered and overpriced? for who? You? I've already said it handles HD and 3D. That's not bad in my book.
You are arbitrarily tarring everyone with the same brush. Of course someone may have a NEED of this over something else. Please name this mythical Laptop you speak off that is this light, has a screen of this res... OH AND RUNS OSX. Lets here it and I'll go out and get it right now.
Again... "Effectively" - What do you do that makes this such a issue? I've told you i do very high end stuff and I have zero problems swapping files via WiFi. The only issue I have is it could have had 2 USB-Cs but yet to actually hit that wall. Been fine with the one so far.
As for price. That's entirely up to you. I think it's cheap. Partly as it's a tax write off anyway. but mainly as after 3 years I can actually sell it for a proper amount of money. As they are very well built and unlike EVERY PC laptop I've had, held it's value and Pretty much remained as new.
This has been, by far, the best Apple laptop ever for me, and I've owned 7 different ones over the years beginning with one of the original white MacBooks, then several Airs and a 13" Pro. But, for me, this little 12" is perfect! The screen and the keyboard are its two best features, (well the size is good also but that's a given.) The single USB-C port has not proven to be any kind of issue. It gets such great battery time that I never need it plugged in to power when using it for something else. And, really, I rarely plug anything else in accept for my Amazon-bought USB-C to Ethernet connector when setting up some routers for customers and I have a Sandisk USB-C/USB3 stick for the occasional file transfer. Otherwise I use wireless for most anything that involves large data transfers or backups (Dropbox and Time Capsule mostly)
I run latest DEV build of OSX El Cap, Parallels 10 with Win7, Win10, Ubuntu, and, for fun, ChromeOS. Office2016 preview, Scivener and Storyist. All run incredibly well and speedy. No issues (other than Scrivener not always liking new DEV builds.) For my job I use MS Remote Desktop app, and LogMeIn Technician frequently without issue as well.
Again, an AMAZING laptop for those that understand its limitations and can live with that. I highly highly highly recommend picking one up if you can!
I run latest DEV build of OSX El Cap, Parallels 10 with Win7, Win10, Ubuntu, and, for fun, ChromeOS. Office2016 preview, Scivener and Storyist. All run incredibly well and speedy. No issues (other than Scrivener not always liking new DEV builds.) For my job I use MS Remote Desktop app, and LogMeIn Technician frequently without issue as well.
Again, an AMAZING laptop for those that understand its limitations and can live with that. I highly highly highly recommend picking one up if you can!
I think we can all agree on one thing here. A First for the internet!!! And that's that ARONT really doesn't know what he is talking about at all.
This is completely false. Performance of the rMB is excellent. You can't go by geekbench results on a cpu that throttles down for thermal efficiency. The Macbook only suffers in sustained cpu intensive operations such as video encoding, or compiling code. The problem is most people actually think cpu speed = system performance. It doesn't, unless you're editing and transcoding video for a living... or if you're a programmer.
I have owned 2 Macbook Air and 3 Macbook Pros (including a 2013 rMBP). At present I have a 5k Retina iMac maxed out and the new Macbook with the top shelf 1.3 proc. I use the iMac for heavy lifting at home, but I use my Macbook on and off all day at work and on my couch. I notice absolutely no difference in performance between the 2 machines whatsoever. I find the Macbook to be noticeably faster than my rMBP was in general use. Mainly because of uber fast pci-e ssd and Apples new custom SSD controller that uses ssd optimized NVME instead of the ancient AHCI. My Macbook boots faster than my brand new (also ssd) iMac, as smokes the rMBP it replaced.
As I work from the couch remotely (IT Engineer) I have 6 desktops going, running Safari, Mail, Outlook 2016, Adium, iMessage, iTunes, Lync, VPN into work, with MS RDP session going to my work desktop.... and I don't even experience a hint of lag or performance dip. I also regularly have Parallels running with a Windows 10 vm, also not an issue, though this will tax the battery a lot more than usual. Speaking of battery, 8-9 times out of 10 I go all day on a single charge. I could go on and on here, photoshop, illustrator... I use all these and they all work fantastic on the Macbook, but really for those sort of things I prefer the 27" 5k display.... its a matter of realestate not performance.
Exactly why I ditched the iPhone and went with Samsung. The specs just obliterate the iPhone 6.
It seems more short-sighted to declare what everyone else's computing needs are or should be. It also seems short-sighted to not see that for some users "thin and light" and can run MS Office are the only things that matter.
I don't see the point of the iPod Touch, but I'm not going to judge anyone who decides to buy one.
I am so lucky there wasn't a button to buy one while they did the presentation. I was completely seduced by gadget lust, AND I was in the market for a Mac laptop. Luckily I was able to calm down and look at it objectively and ended up with the new 13" rMBP.
I still touch them when I go into the store though... it just wasn't meant to be.
Yet.
I still touch them when I go into the store though... it just wasn't meant to be.
Yet.
Hmm completely missing the point here. The ARM Chips cannot run OSX. Desktop class chips can't directly be compared to ARM. But either way why is underpowered. what are you doing with it? Sure it's underpowered compared to a workstation.... but it's not one is it.
That said It's as fast as a 2010 Mac pro 4 Core. And thats still pretty fast.
I've not needed a dongle yet for it and Wireless is of course the way forward of the most part. But given you sell a dock ( some sticky plastic strips ) you'd think you'd be into that...
Performance sucks. That's not Geekbench, that's my own experience with it.
It's not a lifestyle choice, it's a slow laptop.
FFS you had ONE JOB Apple, put a retina display in the Air. But NOOOOOOOOO, the head bean counter needed to maximize profits by creating an unnecessary new product line, when instead the Air could have slowly transitioned into the form factor of the MacBook over a couple years time, WITHOUT compromising functionality or performance.
Instead of having two simple choices: A powerful, heavier retina laptop or a lighter, less powerful retina laptop, we have a Pro machine, an underpowered lightweight laptop with no ports, and a quality laptop with a display out of 2010 destined for discontinuation.
Wow, that was some heavy apologetic. I've never seen anything quite like it. You just slammed the Macbook Air and MB Pro that everybody loves, just to try to win an argument for the new overpriced Macbook toy computer that nearly everyone hates.
And here we all thought the Macbook Pro and Air were, thin, lightweight, cool running, silent, powerful laptops, but you say no. Only now, after all these years, has that role been filled by the mighty mouse Tim Cook inspired, mobile processor new Macbook. I guess we never realized that the MB Pro and Air were such heavy, cumbersome, worthless, good for nothing schleps. Thanks for setting us straight. Sorry to hear that the MB Pro is too heavy for you. Maybe Apple should discontinue all Macs and just offer the new Macbook with it's mobile processor and single port?
Sounds like you need a physical desk and a pro computer, so you can concentrate on work, rather than driving around and doing your work behind the wheel of a car or toting around at Starbucks. Is the MB Pro really that heavy, especially considering your supposed requirements? LOL!
BTW... as far as "power" goes I had one of these sitting right next to my fully maxed out 15" MBP for a day. I did a lot of testing of launch times and overall responsiveness of the OS for browsing and writing text documents and couldn't really tell the difference between the two machines.
I think a lot of people are seeing "1.1GHz" and just thinking it's going to be crazy slow... but they're forgetting about the 2.7GHz turbo boost that is perfect for normal desktop usage patterns.
Now, I'm a "power" user who can max out both my MBP and my Mac Pro with compiling and photo editing so I know what powerful machines can be used for... but there are MANY people (like my brother-in-law law student I bought the MacBook for) that simply don't need all of that and would rather have a thinner, lighter machine with a beautiful screen....
I think a lot of people are seeing "1.1GHz" and just thinking it's going to be crazy slow... but they're forgetting about the 2.7GHz turbo boost that is perfect for normal desktop usage patterns.
Now, I'm a "power" user who can max out both my MBP and my Mac Pro with compiling and photo editing so I know what powerful machines can be used for... but there are MANY people (like my brother-in-law law student I bought the MacBook for) that simply don't need all of that and would rather have a thinner, lighter machine with a beautiful screen....
The subject of this thread is an apt demonstration of planned obsolescence.
What prevented the newly released 12 inch Macbook from operating at a satisfactory speed?
Today's 12 inch Macbook is a repeat of the first Macbook Air, brought up in the post to which I quoted and responded.
The entire thing was planned around a fanless CPU. That put hard limits on the thermal output (and thus, sustained GHz) of the CPU.
This is the first Mac laptop with ZERO moving parts. Not one single fan, HD, CDROM drive, etc. It also has less ports that can fail. Overall, this should be a rock solid machine for many years to come.