Best Buy Pulls 12-Inch MacBook, Fueling Hopes for April Refresh

[Cartossin]

Actually it is. The rMB is pretty much the natural progression Apple would take to replace the MBA. Smaller, lighter, retina display. It's pretty much same progression as the cMBP -> rMBP. The only difference is that Apple didn't call the 12" rMB a MacBook Air. Removing the Air moniker for a MBA replacement makes since anyway, since the MBA basically took over the spot of the lineup that the old "MacBook" fulfilled.

Expecting a Retina MBA now is like if back in 2012 Apple released the rMBP as "MacBook Plus" instead of "MacBook Pro with Retina Display" then still expecting a Retina cMBP.

I would agree except that apple's products tend to be built around intel's processor classes.

Macbook, MBA, MBP13 use 5watt 15watt and ~30watt cpus respectively. I think apple will continue to have machines in each of these categories as long as intel keeps making chips in them.

 

[Mac 128]

No hole for it either. But we're not talking about the current model.

True, but I don't really see them completely re-inventing it only a year after they introduced it, and that's what it would take to keep it as thin as it is, and create more room to add even one additional USB-C port.

The most economically logical move would be to replace the 3.5mm headphone jack with a data port, which is most likely to be Lightning in the event that Apple removes the headphone jack from the iPhone as rumored which can pull double duty as a charging port, headphone port, and 2nd data port, leaving the USB-C free for standard peripherals.

 

[NazgulRR]

What time do stores open in Australia? If we are getting a silent refresh on Tuesday, the land down under should be the first one with a press release, no?

 

[manu chao]

Not sure why the price gets so much flak. It comes standard with a Retina Display, keyboard, force touch trackpad, 8GB RAM, and 256GB Storage.

The 11"MBA with 8 GB RAM and 256 GB of storage costs $1199
The 12" MB with 8 GB RAM and 256 GB of storage costs $1299
The 13" MBA with 8 GB RAM and 256 GB of storage costs $1299

Given that the 12" MB comes with a retina display, I wouldn't call expensive at all compared to the MBA.

 

[69Mustang]

Core M is more than fast enough for 90%+ of the people I know who use computers.....
And I work in the Computer Science Field.

My quote was a reference to my personal preferences. What I like is probably irrelevant to the 90+% of the people you know who use computers. Just like their preferences are irrelevant to me.
It's cool though cuz my original quote didn't specify that I was talking about myself.

 

[Nismo73]

I see that if you order any stock model of iMac, Macbook Pro, Air, it delivers Wednesday. The Macbook would deliver Thursday.

 

[meboy]

i start to suspect that people forget this laptop weighs 2lb and it's half an inch thick.. how could you possibly fit more power into it??
it's an ultra portable with a full desktop OS, you must compromise somewhere!

See the 1.85lb, 0.5" thick, core i5, 7.5 hour average, 13.3", 100% srgb notebook 9.

 

[moxxham]

What time do stores open in Australia? If we are getting a silent refresh on Tuesday, the land down under should be the first one with a press release, no?

My local Apple Store in Sydney will be open at 9am; so pretty much now. I'm really holding out to get the updated one, I hope it's released this week!

 

[meboy]

When will people realize that the new 12" MB IS the retina MacBook Air?

No. It's the revival of the original Macbook. There will be 3 tiers still.

 

[KPOM]

See the 1.85lb, 0.5" thick, core i5, 7.5 hour average, 13.3", 100% srgb notebook 9.

The screen on the Notebook 9 is only 1920x1080. The MacBook has 60% more pixels to drive. Hence the battery in the MacBook is 33% larger than the Notebook 9's.
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No. It's the revival of the original Macbook. There will be 3 tiers still.

The original MacBook was the entry level. Now that's the Air. However, the Air started out as the premium-priced model that eventually displaced the original MacBook. Many people expect that eventually the new MacBook will displace the MacBook Air eventually.
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What time do stores open in Australia? If we are getting a silent refresh on Tuesday, the land down under should be the first one with a press release, no?

Unless it's coming to Australia a day later.

 

[malexandria]

I would get a refurbed Macbook before I got another $1k iPad

 

[Glassed Silver]

The current MacBook doesn't meet my needs either, but why must you characterize those with different requirements as "gullible"? Couldn't it be that the "fashionistas" know exactly what they want and are willing to pay to get it? Differing priorities doesn't make one gullible.

How about ignoring a product where you get screwed hard and putting pressure on Apple to deliver something better at that price or lower said price?

Or do you buy anything you may want at any price?

I'm not sure what you mean. The display is top notch, the battery is very good, and the keyboard is a brand new design.

If you think that's all a computer has to deliver then I guess the spec discussion is fruitless.

Glassed Silver:mac

 

[Mattsasa]

As someone using a "new Macbook" right now to reply to this message? The power usage is pretty irrelevant for most people. What matters is the end result. For this new Macbook, the 4.5 watt power draw simply means Apple was able to get rid of any cooling fans inside. Yes, a nice "plus" -- but not worth the downside of the performance trade-off.

(Battery life is still more than adequately good on a machine like a Macbook Air with a CPU using a lot more power.)

Determining what's "fast enough" for people is a big gray area. I sure won't declare this machine's performance "fast enough for 90% of the people I know who use computers"!

Truth is? A lot of things impact its performance negatively, and it's not always what you'd think of immediately. Have you tried using one of these with FileVault drive encryption enabled, for example? I did, and found I could really feel it dragging on the system. Boot up times were lengthy and disk performance just generally lagged.

It was definitely under-powered when I wanted to use VMWare Fusion to run a Windows 7 desktop on top of OS X. (I hit the thermal "warning" on multiple occasions while working in the Win 7 VM, where the whole machine had to throttle down to sluggish speeds to cool off enough to continue safely.)

Sure, it'll run Microsoft Outlook reasonably well, or your pick of popular web browser. But so would a lot of older hardware that's long since been out of production. This is a computer released in 2015! Word 2016 has some LONG pauses trying to open RTF documents made in previous versions of Word or other applications. I blame that mostly on poor coding in Word, but it's made more painful on this new Macbook.

You are right it is the end result that matters. And the result of 4.5W is that the computer is more portable. You are right it is a huge gray area, and I don't know how to measure or prove it to you. Except say my opinion, that for more people the performance lost in core M is unnoticeable, but the increased portability is drastically noticed.

Now I know there are a whole bunch of you reading this post right now getting furious, because you don't care about how thin your notebook is, but you want a more powerful machine.

And you are right battery life on the macbook air is greater because, the macbook air is thicker, and has a much lower quality display that consumes less power. But don't get me wrong, I prefer the MBA to the rMB.

True, but I don't really see them completely re-inventing it only a year after they introduced it, and that's what it would take to keep it as thin as it is, and create more room to add even one additional USB-C port.

The most economically logical move would be to replace the 3.5mm headphone jack with a data port, which is most likely to be Lightning in the event that Apple removes the headphone jack from the iPhone as rumored which can pull double duty as a charging port, headphone port, and 2nd data port, leaving the USB-C free for standard peripherals.

This person is correct, the 12" rMB refresh has 0% chance of getting a 2nd usb-c port.

If a 14" rMB exists, which there is no evidence of, it may include a 2nd usb-c port.

No. It's the revival of the original Macbook. There will be 3 tiers still.

I hope there will still be 3 tiers.

 

[macbook123]

Personally want a Retina MBA refresh. 2 or 3 Thunderbolt 3 ports (USBc) + SD-Card + lighter and possibly 14" with thinner bezels. And kill the 11" MBA. No need for it and lower price of MB to make it entry model.

+1M. Why they never just replaced the horrible screen in the 13.3" Air with a 14" IPS display (getting rid of just a little bit of those giant ugly bezels) is beyond me. It would have been the powerful light and thin laptop we all want, and weigh less than 0.5 pounds more than the Macbook. I'll never understand.

 

[Mikel30]

+1M. Why they never just replaced the horrible screen in the 13.3" Air with a 14" IPS display (getting rid of just a little bit of those giant ugly bezels) is beyond me. It would have been the powerful light and thin laptop we all want, and weigh less than 0.5 pounds more than the Macbook. I'll never understand.

Because then people would complain that Apple is just giving us re-hashed designs and iterative updates, and that they can't innovate anymore. Can't win.

 

[Mr Fide]

In Rose Gold please ... I used to say about six months ago. Now I don't know. That's fashion I guess.

 

[jeffreyg]

Absolutely awesome computer. One of my favourite models.

Me too. Every time I'm in the Apple store I pick one up and lovingly marvel at it's amazing sleek tininess. It's like a beautiful delicate little butterfly. Seemed to benchmark pretty similar to my current 2012 11 MBA (and yes, I know there is also the throttling aspect of that "M" processor), so I held off. But if they give it's specs a nudge, I'll be unable to resist it any longer.

 

[KPOM]

How about ignoring a product where you get screwed hard and putting pressure on Apple to deliver something better at that price or lower said price?

Or do you buy anything you may want at any price?


If you think that's all a computer has to deliver then I guess the spec discussion is fruitless.

Glassed Silver:mac

We've established that Intel charges the same amount for the Core M as the Core i5/i7. There is nothing low-rent about the rest of the specs. The SSD controller was one of the first to use NVMe. The RAM and the key chipsets are all modern. The quality of the materials is up to Apple's standards.

 

[Lobwedgephil]

9.7 iPad Pro's gone too, Best Buy could be having website issues or something else going on.

 

[Dr.Chroma]

Better processor, battery life, keyboard (doubtful), addition of one more USB-C port... Of course none of these are going to happen, but a man can dream

Let me guess.....You want to axe the butterfly keyboard style? Lucky guess?

 

[jeffreyg]

Of course it's not going to have an "old style" UBS port.. As Type-A port is physically larger that the side of rMB.



That's funny, as I have been using my rMB for work every day for nearly a year now. I guess my work must not be "proper". Do share what it is you don that you consider "proper work" - rendering Star Wars special effects in 4K?

I'm always amused by the grandiose ideas commenters on here have about their "professional" needs for their "proper" work. I work in advertising doing IT, production, some design and even the occasional short iMovie or sound edit. And when I'm out of the office, or at home, I do it all on my trusty maxed-out 2012 11 MBA. I've run complete event AV setups on it, including video switching. It's about working smarter, not having a super computer at hand 24/7. I'm not suggesting a tiny MBA or MacBook is a full-time solution for a "professional" workflow. But for quite a lot of it, they're actually very capable. But I'm someone who values compactness above a lot of other factors, and I'm prepared to forgo some grunt for it. I just bought an iPhone SE, and ******* love it.

 

[Four oF NINE]

Great laptop for who are limited in budget and don't care about specs.
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Maybe they will refresh it to 2999.

Great notebook for someone that wants an ultra-light secondary portable.

 

[pat500000]

Great notebook for someone that wants an ultra-light secondary portable.

That too.

 

[jhudgins]

Instead of using a crappy mobile M processor, I wish Apple would figure out a better fan-less cooling system (liquid cooling perhaps?) that doesn't require a sacrifice in power.

 

[zhenya]

+1M. Why they never just replaced the horrible screen in the 13.3" Air with a 14" IPS display (getting rid of just a little bit of those giant ugly bezels) is beyond me. It would have been the powerful light and thin laptop we all want, and weigh less than 0.5 pounds more than the Macbook. I'll never understand.

Because they've offered exactly that for years in the 13" MBP. Half a pound heavier than the Air in an overall smaller footprint. That's what happens when you add a Retina display and the necessary battery to power it. The fact that you never noticed this tells me how serious you are about actually buying such a computer.