12-Inch Retina MacBook Receives Mixed Reviews From Early Adopters

[blahblah100]

After briefly using one the other day, I really feel like the biggest compromise is the keyboard and let me explain why. Most people who buy a machine like this don't need the fastest machine out there, or many ports—but the primary benefit of buying something like this over an iPad Air 2 is having a built-in keyboard for sitting down to get work done, in addition advanced multitasking and professional apps. Having gone from the old keyboard to the chiclet keyboard back around 2009, that transition was different but not this severe. I'm usually not sensitive to differences in keyboards like some people are, but this keyboard just feels weird. Maybe with a lot of time I could get used to it, but I feel like something like this would be much better matched with an iPad Pro Smart Cover. It would be there if you need it, and provide a faster typing experience than a touch keyboard, but it shouldn't be used full-time on a Mac. Or maybe I'm completely wrong, and this thing is supposed to be used like a tablet that just happens to not have a touch screen that comes in a laptop form factor. I don't know. I really like the idea of it, but it's going to be a few years until it matures. I think what I really need instead is an iPad Pro that has a keyboard Smart Cover and pressure sensitive drawing stylus paired with some more professional apps for photo editing and drawing.

So a Surface Pro that runs OS X?

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There's not an 11 inch Pro, and the idea that they can power a retina screen on the rMB with a smaller battery than the current Air but couldn't do so on a new Air is very silly.

You are not factoring in the difference in processor speeds and their corresponding power requirements.

 

[Santabean2000]

`After 229 posts (as of right now) it's pretty clear. 96% of the people posting comments on this thread despise (or are disappointed with) this new laptop. A few others say they like it.

The only thing really wrong with it is that isn't worth the price their asking.
How many people would be moaning if the list price was $299?

However I'm certain the price. Will come down over time.

Exactly. It is called a MacBook after all, traditionally the base/cheapest notebook they make.

New + Pretty = Expensive
Milk the early adopters, then make it affordable and more compelling to everyone else.

 

[burgman]

I really like mine.

Me too, I wonder how many times the same people will post why the rMP sucks and then explain why all over again, in different threads? Must be very difficult for them to just not like a product and move on. Dinner conversations with them must be tedious

 

[alphaod]

Personally, I love the new MacBook. I tried many different ultraportables to supplement my MacBook Pro trying both the 11" and the 13" MacBook Air, tried the new Dell XPS 13 among other computers, but I did not find a great complement that really differentiated the experience and usage until I got the new MacBook. Thin and light are obvious, but the lack of ports, I thought would be an issue, but turns out as a portable computer, it does not bother me much at all. I have already adapted by usage on the computer. I know many folks don't like the new keyboard, but I'm a heavy typer and my usual desktop keyboard is an IBM Model M buckling spring set and this MacBook keyboard when hit with the right amount of force, resounds with that old style feedback that I wholeheartedly have been missing on a portable machine. The new "Force Touch" trackpad is amazingly to use and I love it; I did not know what to expect, but it feels like a traditional trackpad, but just improved. The lack of fans is never an issue for the work I do on this computer. It runs some heavy apps alright (like Photoshop), but as long as you don't plan on doing heavy work on it, it works great.

Overall, I love this computer.

I hope that I'm wrong and there was a technical reason for the removal of the glowing logo.

If you look at the introductions to the new MacBook, they show the display parts being broken down and on the very back is some sort of backing that blocks light. So if Apple wanted to light up the logo, they would need an additional LED.

I find a lot of folks don't realize that the Apple logo is lit up by the panel backlight.

I suspect when making the display panel thinner, one of the changes is an opaque backing that does not permit Apple to light up the logo.

 

[JKNorth]

People just aren't giving it enough time, or it was never going to be the right fit for them.

I've had the MacBook since last week, and at first I thought it was too wobbly on my lap and the keystrokes being so short was uncomfortable.

But I gave it some time and actually just used the thing. I didn't run Geekbench scores, or try the most taxing thing I could think of. I just used it. And you know what? It suits me great. I got used to the keyboard and just learned different ways to position the thing so it doesn't wobble. And I'm not talking drastic changes, just minor adjustments coming from a rMBP.

I'm not saying it's for everyone. I wouldn't recommend it as a primary computer. I have a new Mac Pro on my desk for big heavy computing. The MacBook is for mobile. I write books on my laptop, which requires a word processor, a web browser for research, iTunes for some inspiring music, and a real full sized keyboard. The MacBook is perfect for that. I've had zero UI lag issues. For these tasks it is just about as fast as the rMBP for me.

Also use a laptop for PowerPoint presentations. And yes, for that I'll have to use a dongle. But you know what? Since VGA is still the universal standard for projectors, I had to use a dongle with the rMBP too. Other than that, I don't need any ports, let alone many ports. Again, that's what the new Mac Pro is for.

People who thought the MacBook would be more powerful than a MBA or in any way like a MBP weren't thinking straight. Anyone who thought that a lack of ports would be a problem but got one anyway are just making bad decisions.

No one laptop can be all things to all people. I don't want the added bulk of a MBP, I don't need the power of a MBP, and I want a better screen than a MBA. I for one am perfectly happy with my MacBook. It looks great, really easy to carry around, and it easily performs all the tasks I need it to. And as far as the price, that's not really a factor for me. It's on the high end maybe, but it matches what I want in a laptop.

 

[jasjb]

• I could not work out how to use two laptops
• I couldn't find an adaptor cable

These are the two main reasons in this article for returning the 12"

Neither are solid reasons for dismissing the laptop entirely, and should of been considered before jumping in. Although the availability of much needed cables is somewhat of an issue for the impatient.

12" has it's place.

It's not overpriced... try building a similarly spec'd Air. Not much of a saving.

 

[pacalis]

Apple needs to briefly stop thinking differently and listen to it's customers.

It seems clear that the reason we don't have a rMBA, is because this thing would be stillborn if they just replaced one, commodity component on the MBA.

A rMBA would be the model T of computing hardware, but instead we get this USB-c will be the next big thing BS. So I'll keep my upgrade money another year and keep my fingers crossed that the operations guy at the helm can get a few million displays on order and put them in a MBA.

 

[wizard]

People are already calling this a "netbook," which it isn't. Can you imagine if they used an Atom?

It isn't that much more powerful than the new Atoms nor is it that much more powerful than the iPad Air2. It is in fact very netbook like. It certainly has overcome some of the limitations of a Netbook but it is still a very low performance machine relative to te rest of the Boradwell line up.

Skylake will bring a massive improvement in the CPU and GPU. I think by Rev 2 or 3 of this the MacBook is mainstream and at the $999 or $1099 price point.

Well we hope! If Intel delivers on promises we should see some interesting hardware by mid year.

As far as mainstream I'm not sure that is Apples goals. It really doesn't hurt Apple to have three product lines going into the future. A fan less MB to serve people with low performance needs, mid range performance MBA and higher performance MBPs. In getting there I can see Apple refining the line up as the production costs on the MB go down. Here I'm thinking the MB remains as the 12" sized laptop, MBA becomes a 14" sized laptop and we keep two pros at 13 & 16 inches. Or maybe the pros at 14 & 16". I see a 16" machine as a compromise for those that need a bigger screen, the idea being to stuff as much screen as is possible into a design not much larger tan the current 15" MBP.

 

[newellj]

People just aren't giving it enough time, or it was never going to be the right fit for them.

The only small correction I'd suggest to your otherwise great post is that some people aren't giving it ANY time - but that hasn't stopped them from having very strong opinions.

 

[gugy]

I like the rMB but what is really holding me back is the price and the fact I can't use it with an Apple TB display. Too bad. I love the size, screen and weight.
The good thing is these technologies will come to the MBP sooner than later and that should make it amazing as long as they keep the ports the current ones have.

 

[justin216]

I love my SG rMB, it replaced my iPad Air 2 in my workflow. Yes, it was more expensive than the iPad Air 2 model I had, but I got access to much more advanced work/productivity apps and a whole lot more storage.

I suppose part of the easy adjustment was I had very tempered/low expectations -- I basically expected far less performance than I'm receiving. Runs XCode well enough, and even a single W8.1 VM at a time. I'm not planning to do any really heavy lifting per-se, but being able to do most of my lighter-medium work and casual couch/bed use make it an excellent product for me.

Another generation out, maybe another USB-C port added somewhere (or including the adapter), slice $100-200 off, and I think it'll be a much more palatable machine for more folks. Still, I'll enjoy my current generation machine until then. I upgrade my machines pretty much every generation anyway

 

[wizard]

awesome but 12" = TOO small -

my 15" retina only has 22 days left on apple care - ... I want an update 15" but no word in three years. - perhaps a WWDC . - or do I just buy it again.

An informed consumer is a wonderful thing. In that regard you need to bone up on SkyLake and understand why you should wait for that processor to arrive. Many of us are hoping for the new machines to drop in late summer.

As for Apple Care don't plan your purchases around the coming expiration date. Machines don't die one day after the warranty expires for the most part. Keep the funds available to act as your insurance policy. In the end you can run that Mac for a long time with the warranty expired.

The thing is this, you won't see a machine with a dramatically improved architecture until after SkyLake ships. There is the possibility of a Broadwell bump but I'd hardly get excited about that. A decent SkyLake based MBP should come with all sorts of new tasty goodies such as DDR 4 RAM, a new GPU chip, another incremental improvement to the SSD subsystem, a enhanced Intel SoC and whatever else Apple dreams up.

 

[KPOM]

It isn't that much more powerful than the new Atoms nor is it that much more powerful than the iPad Air2. It is in fact very netbook like. It certainly has overcome some of the limitations of a Netbook but it is still a very low performance machine relative to te rest of the Boradwell line up.


As far as mainstream I'm not sure that is Apples goals. It really doesn't hurt Apple to have three product lines going into the future. A fan less MB to serve people with low performance needs, mid range performance MBA and higher performance MBPs.

The Atom in the Surface 3 has about 80% of the processing power of the base Core M, despite having 4 cores, so single core performance is significantly worse. The fastest Core M is about the same as the base MacBook Air processor. The main difference is that it can't sustain top performance for very long because there is no fan in it. The comparisons to the A8X or Samsung's new mobile chip aren't really fair since they are complete different architectures and OS X and related software were written for Intel.

I think by calling it a "MacBook" Apple eventually does want to make it mainstream. They'll keep the MacBook Air around until the MacBook is ready to go mainstream. At some point the Pro chips will have similar energy consumption as today's Air chips, so Apple can position the MacBook as the mainstream model and the Pro as the higher end model.

 

[wedouglas]

Two problems I have with it:

1. The biggest issue is that the resolution and scaling options suck because they went with a 12" screen. 1080p on 13" is a perfect combo for native usage. You get a sharp display that's usable at native resolution and you get the benefit of a large workspace. You could even do 4K and scale it to 2K in order to maintain the workspace size benefit while making it usable.

The native resolution on 12" is getting pretty small. That forces you to use scaling, which IMO, defeats half the benefits of the higher resolution display. You lose significant amount of workspace and merely gain some sharper images. The scaling isn't even linear either.

2. Chassis is too small. Feels cramped. I think they should have went with a 13" screen in a 12" chassis, or even better, a 15" display in a 13" chassis.

12" display in an 11" chassis? Why? Because you don't want to shrink the bezels?

 

[SvK]

When a product is expensive and has some weight, it makes me feel like I bought something substantial.
If it's big bucks but crosses over the threshold to "lightness", I feel ripped off. Naturally this is completely psychological. But nevertheless it's there.

eg: I remember owning the 4s, with the gorgeous glass backing. It weighed a ton, but it felt like an important product. Like a piece of jewelry. Well crafted. It's "heaviness" reinforced my sense that this was pure quality. I remember switching to the iPhone 5 , which was much lighter and instantly thinking it was "cheap".

I think this computer is far to light.
my 2 cents.

 

[Statusnone88]

An informed consumer is a wonderful thing. In that regard you need to bone up on SkyLake and understand why you should wait for that processor to arrive. Many of us are hoping for the new machines to drop in late summer.

As for Apple Care don't plan your purchases around the coming expiration date. Machines don't die one day after the warranty expires for the most part. Keep the funds available to act as your insurance policy. In the end you can run that Mac for a long time with the warranty expired.

The thing is this, you won't see a machine with a dramatically improved architecture until after SkyLake ships. There is the possibility of a Broadwell bump but I'd hardly get excited about that. A decent SkyLake based MBP should come with all sorts of new tasty goodies such as DDR 4 RAM, a new GPU chip, another incremental improvement to the SSD subsystem, a enhanced Intel SoC and whatever else Apple dreams up.

Knowing Apple, they'll put SkyLake chips in when they become available, but they'll wait for the RAM upgrade and the GPU upgrade until 1-many years later. Why do you think they're on track to be the first trillion dollar company? If they made a blow out rMBP that could last 10 years in the first shot out of the gate, people wouldn't see a reason to upgrade. They bank on the people who have money to spend and need to be on the bleeding edge of technology.

I love my Apple products. But they truly know how to work every dollar out of us. And this new rMB is no exception. It's a gorgeous computer that I've enjoyed immensely over the past week or so, but not even close to being worth $1299. Not for someone like me, that lacks an unlimited supply of funds.

 

[heeloliver]

just like the original macbook air: it kinda sucked. give it like 3 years and then we'll be talking. but for now, it'll be a novelty, a vision of the future that's just not quite there yet.

 

[wallysb01]

When a product is expensive and has some weight, it makes me feel like I bought something substantial.

This made me think of Christmas as a kid. What were the presents I was most excited to open? THE BIG HEAVY ONES!

I don’t get this obsession with thin and light laptops. The current rMBP is plenty thin and light. I still use the now older style 15” MBP (2011) and you’ll never catch me complaining about its size (well except for on airplanes, its a little too big to fig comfortably in those cramped seats, but just going to the 13” fixes that problem, it doesn’t need to be 6 mm thick or what-freaken-ever. Plus I have an iPad).

But hey, to each their own. And its not like Apple doesn’t still sell the rMBP, so I got no complaints. Apple can make what ever they want; they don’t have to make products for me and only for me (like I also would never use an iWatch). So long as they still make the stuff I need, and these things that seem like unnecessary junk to me don’t replace the stuff I actually like, so what?

Well that POS nMP replaced the old style MP I could actually use, so there is that. Hopefully the rMB doesn’t replace the rMBP. Then I can assure you I’d never buy a computer from Apple again. I don’t expect that to happen though. This will replace the Air.

 

[kustardking]

Segments? More like fragments... especially lately.

It's like they keep avoiding the sweet spot at all costs.... $$$
Look what they did to the Mac Mini '14.

Sweet spot for who? And, yes, the Mac Mini looks newly hobbled, but do many people really care? It's all abstract criticism unless you actually use it. And in any case if you're a casual tinkerer then Apple is NOT for you (and hasn't been for a while).

This macbook is great for me. I consider myself a power user, but I do not need more than the single port it offers, and the lightness, screen and scale are fantastic. It is a computer for MEDIUM DUTY, wireless use. If you have lots of stuff hanging off your laptop, why would you even consider this? You might be mad that it got the retina display. However, Apple does offer good options for complicated, device encumbered workflows with a retina screen: rMBP. I have one of those, but it never has more than one thing attached to it. Either power or an iPhone. My Mac Pro has all kinds of garbage (all back ports plus TB/PCIE expansion plus USB hubs), but when I travel I don't need any of that, so I'm "downsizing".

I am certainly not alone. It is to be seen whether we are so few in number that another USB port appears in the future. My guess is that the Air line will disappear and be replaced with a more port oriented version of this new Macbook, so we'd be back down to 4 base models (Macbook 12, Macbook OTHER, rMBP 13, rMBP 15). Of course they wouldn't need to be called rMBP anymore, just MBP since everything would be r.

 

[wizard]

i cannot believe people bought this product and returned it because they couldn't get on without the typical legacy pc options like USB etc.

Sometimes you need to see for yourself. Personally I knew right off the bat that this wasn't the machine for me, the lack of ports being one of a few factors.

this product is an amazing achievement, i like it and i don't even own one. but based on the reviews it sounds excellent to me. it also surprises me that people bought one of these to do heavy work on it, like video editing, photoshop etc. bizarre.

I don't think a lot of people realize just how important CPU performance is. I have one of the new 13" MBPs and love it but even that machine could use a performance boost. I still get beach balling for example but I have to believe that is a Mac OS bug.

clearly, this product combines the efficiency of a tablet, with the prowess of a full OS / Desktop experience.

nothing wrong with that as long as people understand that there is a huge performance compromise here. In that regard I don't think the people posting these negative reports grasped just how important CPU performance is these days.

iPad sucks now, it was great at first when it had a place where it did things better than laptops and phones. NOW that has changed. Phones are better, bigger, and closer to small tablets. and Macs are Thinner, Lighter and lasting longer than ever. where does the iPad come in?

Good question! I think of my iPad as a newspaper replacement and to an extent a magazine replacement. It is also a communications device. Frankly it is far more useful or desirable to carry an iPad to places you might have carried a newspaper in the past. Need to catch up on things when lunch break pops up, you grab an iPad and run across the street to the deli/restaurant/BBQ or whatever.

its true colours that were always known to us really show now - its a large iPod touch. probably apple will fix this quite soon, maybe even in WWDC. its biggest problem is software, its too much of an infant.

Baloney. IPad has plenty of software. Frankly iPads size makes it far more useful than the smaller devices Apple ships.

this MacBook however, solves half of this problem. its an excellent compromise between both worlds - portability, and true desktop class computing (software wise). Clearly people didn't get that, or simply - they thought they would try to use it to be something more. in the years to come, it will probably be on par with the MacBook Air. which will leave a new problem - how does the air differentiate from this? it might be Power under the hood.

no it won't. As long as higher performance in an Intel line up requires a fan the MB will always be bottom end performance.

but last thing i wanted to say - about the iPad -

if apple create a version of iOS tailored for that screen size, and bring in more gesture technology that fits with the tablet size, and keep ramping up the hardware.. then it can have a place again. I still use an iPad 2. I want a new iPad that is actually better tablet, not simply improvements.

"I want a new iPad that is actually better tablet, not simply improvements. "

You do realize how silly that statement is. To make a better iPad they make improvements to it. Interestingly what is see need on the iPad is more openness - MiFi is a massive weight around the neck of the iPad.

iPad is desperately in need of reinvigoration. i believe it can happen if they;

create iOS to be a true multi tasking OS, make much better use of the real estate of that display instead of these over sized large icons.

iOS already multitasks! I'm not sure why people don't grasp this. As for the icons iPad is just about perfect for me so I really don't know what you are talking about here. I spend most of my time in apps anyways so why even worry about iOS icons.

Why not take some notes from what has been done with mac? Make the "Home Screen" the "LaunchPad" that it is on mac. let that be the way of browsing the apps. but why not make it go away and make a whole new use for that screen? More RAM will be needed amongst other things.. come on apple.. step up on that ram.

I'm with you 100% with respect to RAM.

Hardware wise..

apple.. stop obsessing over thinness now. put back more battery, and add some more ports.. Maybe USB-C on iPad would be good. it might help popularise that technology as well.

I'm with you on USB-C if Apple opens up the OS so that devil pets can skip the MiFi program if desired. As for the battery, it has plants of battery on time now.

create some decent in-house accessory that can turn this tablet into a decent laptop.. make a keyboard with extra battery.

lets not be lazy about iOS.

Lazy? Are you a developer? If you where you would realize what a whirlwind it has been the last couple of years. IOS has been undergoing rapid development, Apple has not been lazy one bit here!!!!

 

[subjonas]

Any previous mac hardware could have had its cost justified since it added a new configuration, killer feature (retina screen), better battery life, fastest SSD, etc. Sure, there were always cheaper options. But pound for pound macbooks were always best in class and had their cost justified at the end of the day.

This is the first time a laptop is released with a processor that's as powerful as the ones 5 years ago. It had all its ports removed. It weighs 1 pound lighter than a perfectly good MBA, which is already very light for those who care. In short, it adds nothing and costs $1500. I still have no idea why you'd get this fashion accessory when you could get a real, powerful laptop with the retina 13" MBP.

All we wanted was a Macbook Air with Retina display. Apple over-designed this one.

I think the price is playing a major factor compared to what you can buy a MacBook Pro for as compared to performance.

This is what I think the thought process in developing this laptop was, and why it (including the price) makes sense to me:

They could have taken a 256GB 13" MBA and added a retina screen. But that retina screen would have bumped up the price and bumped down the battery life and you'd have ended up with the same price but bigger/heavier rMB with faster performance and more ports. (Note that the rMB starts with 256GB configuration; the MBA and 13" MBP start with 128GB. So the 256 GB 13” MBA is actually only $100 cheaper than the rMB—something that critics seem to not realize.)
This may be what some people want, but the thing is, that price/performance/portability configuration would have been very similar to the 13" MBP. And at the same price, the 13” MBP would have had much more of an advantage over the new retina MBA since it would have had a much more powerful processor but only slightly less portability (MBA 1.6 ghz at 3 lbs., MBP 2.7 ghz at 3.5 lbs.). The new retina MBA would have had too little reason for existing. They couldn't just drop the price obviously, so in order to make it offer something truly different than the MBP line, they had to go all in with portability. But of course that would require a sacrifice in another area: either higher price or lower performance. It was already too expensive, so the sacrifice had to come from performance. And to get a truly special level of portability, they had to go extreme and use a mobile fanless processor, and also take out ports. As long as they could get enough power out of it to easily handle basic consumer tasks, they felt they had a worthwhile product.

So the laptop, the price, and target buyer—it all makes sense to me.
It’s not for pros. It’s not for prosumers. It’s not for gamers. It’s not even for consumer tech enthusiasts (people on MacRumors), as they tend to care about processing power even if they don’t do anything with it. It’s for non-techie people who check email/facebook, web browse, chat, edit docs, stream music and movies, use itunes, take pictures here and there, and don’t have or move around hundreds of gigabytes of files. Those people do exist, and some of them will pay that premium for extreme portability. And it will be fast enough for them, and they won’t miss the ports. If that’s not you, this product simply isn’t meant for you. I know it’s not meant for me.
Which leads me to think that with this move, Apple is essentially splitting the MBA market, pushing some people down to the rMB and some of them up to the 13” MBP. And who knows, they may also keep around the MBA (non-retina) line, as a low cost option.

If anything, I see the new keyboard being the real potential deal-breaker, even for basic consumers who ARE the target buyer for the rMB, since it seems like some people are simply unable to get used to the keys.

 

[wallysb01]

I don't think a lot of people realize just how important CPU performance is. I have one of the new 13" MBPs and love it but even that machine could use a performance boost. I still get beach balling for example but I have to believe that is a Mac OS bug.

That’s usually a RAM issue. The OS is busy writing/fetching stuff on disk that should otherwise be going to/from RAM. Do you have 4GB of RAM by chance?

Baloney. IPad has plenty of software. Frankly iPads size makes it far more useful than the smaller devices Apple ships.

iOS already multitasks! I'm not sure why people don't grasp this. As for the icons iPad is just about perfect for me so I really don't know what you are talking about here. I spend most of my time in apps anyways so why even worry about iOS icons.

Sure it does. But I think what this guy wants is the ability to use excel on one half of the screen and safari on the other half.

 

[wizard]

I don't understand why people are moaning about this laptop's lack of ports. The iPad has only one port.

this is so simple to understand I don't know why people keep mentioning it. Most of us do not use our iPads like our MBP or MBA. Usage is profoundly different in many cases.

The single port may be OK for a limited number of users but the reality is most users need more than one port. With no break out capability at the charger the MB is basically useless for many as shipped.

If you need to plug in lots of things, get a 13" MacBook Pro. It's so thin that people on here predicted Apple would ditch the "Air" and "Pro" names and just have one lineup.

The last thing Apple needs is one line up. I can see rational line ups of three different models or product lines. The idea is that you need different products to address different needs. The MB does address a need, don't get me wrong there, it is just that the design could have covered the needs of a lot more users with just one more USB-C port.

I think many people overreact when someone says a device is crap for their needs. We can see such reactions in this thread right now. Frankly if a reaction to a device is so bad people return it then it is crap for their needs - end of discussion. People should not try to project their needs upon people that have already purchased and returned the machine because obviously the device was evaluated to not be worth it.

In other words it is silly to argue with someone that has already tried a device out and rejected it.

 

[LittleLuth]

Couple thoughts to share...

First, let's get something cleared up for those who say the rMB is way overpriced. Put 8GB of RAM and a 256GB SSD in the 11" MBA, and it is $1199, in the 13" MBA it is $1299. Put that in the rMBP 13" and it is $1499. Okay, I hear people that the processors are slower and that there is only 1 port, but to echo others - people ought to know that BEFORE they buy it. Also, unlike the MBAs, and sorry to be Cap'n Obvious but you don't get a retina display. I'm typing this on an MBA '13 (which I love) but it is my travel machine and honestly having a retina iMac and rMBP '15 at home, it is friggin' hard to look at this sh**** display. Yes, it would have been great to just get a retina display in essentially the same machine, but as usual gave us something we didn't quite expect. Yes, if you were hoping for a small, light power user machine you didn't get what you wanted, but frankly that's because you already got that - it's called the rMBP '13" (which my wife has and I can confirm is a wonderful machine). You even got a new ForceTouch trackpad and processor upgrades - yippee - be happy. I can hardly notice the difference carrying my wife's machine around and my MBA 13". I'm ordering one because I anticipate no longer carrying my iPad Air 2 with me on business trips - which I do now - mainly so I can watch video on a better display than what was available on my Dell Monochrome laptop display circa 1993....

 

[bbydon]

Here is my opinion on why I don't wanna buy this Macbook:



3) There is no glowing Apple logo at the back. A deal-breaker for me

How often would you ever see that .... or even need to care about it. Granted its a neat element when looking at other peoples machines but.... a deal breaker?