Who actually is the 12" MacBook for?

[Saturn007]

This is a great thread! The 12" MacBook really appeals to me--lightweight, great screen, etc. I'm typing this right now on a 13.3" MacBook Air, which, when you scroll the page, flickers! Same thing happens on the 2017 version, too. In contrast, the Macs with the retina displays are as smooth as iPads! So, I do want to upgrade.

A couple of things holding me back, but maybe some of you can reassure me!

1. The size of the palm rest. Do any of you have larger hands and palms? How do you like the 12" MacBook, especially if you used a MacBook Pro before?

I like the tapered front of the Air and the MacBook, but the palm rest is smaller on the MB. OTOH, the MBP has that front rectangular edge which digs into one's hands!

2. Does the MacBook ever get too warm (or hot) to use comfortably in one's lap?

I've owned both an older MacBook Pro and a recent one that ran warm (or hot) enough to be uncomfortable. The fan noise was bothersome, too.

imagirlfriday, could the MacBook's overheating have happened because it was indexing your restored hard drive contents?

 

[imagirlfriday]

1. The size of the palm rest. Do any of you have larger hands and palms? How do you like the 12" MacBook, especially if you used a MacBook Pro before?

I'm a tall girl, so my hands are not tiny, but I'm guessing not really large either. My hands tend to kind of hover over the palm rest, does that make sense, it's not huge, so you definitely will hit the edge here and there. Can you get to a store and test it? Or even just make a template on a piece of paper and put it onto your current laptop and see where you land?

2. Does the MacBook ever get too warm (or hot) to use comfortably in one's lap?

I have not noticed it getting extremely hot, under heavy load and while charging it does get hot, but I haven't felt the need to stop using it so far.

imagirlfriday, could the MacBook's overheating have happened because it was indexing your restored hard drive contents?

You're a genius! That has to be it! I was wondering if there was something happening after I set it up and that makes a lot of sense. Thanks so much, for that info, will edit my post above accordingly.

 

[ErnstStavroBlohard]

Not sure about the 2017 i7, but it should be noted that the 2016 m7 ran slower than the 2016 m5 under sustained load.

The premium CPU lost? It doesn't make sense to me, but it's interesting all the same.

 

[madat42]

Basically, it's about the CPU overheating while running at peak speed. Once any chip reaches a certain temp limit it will throttle its speed back down to cool itself.

For last year's Sky Lake Core M chips, it looks like the m7 got to its peak in speed and temp limit rather quickly so it throttled back faster than the m5 did. The m5 kept a better balance of speed and heat.

Not sure what that means for the 2017 Kaby Lake MacBook. I picked up the new base model and it runs cool so far, but I haven't thrown anything big at it except streaming movies.

 

[HellasLEAF]

Gents, anyone here downgrade from a pro (2015 13.3 currently) to the 12 inch share their brief assessment after the fact?

Am THIS close to doing it personally for portability only (will be taking it around/school/work) as I feel my current pro to be just too weighty but don't want to come into regrets 6 months down the road.

THANKS

 

[profanum]

I went from a 2013 13" MacBook Pro Retina to a 2017 MacBook Retina (i7, 512GB, 16GB) and I don't regret it at all. My first MacBook was a 2011 13" Pro for work then I bought a 2011 Air for home use. I've always wanted an Air with the retina screen and the MacBook is basically that in my eyes now; super portable, great screen. I mainly use it for light things like having it be my couch computer but I can also run a Windows 10 VM in Fusion for some embedded development work using a J-Trace + Segger Embedded Studio without any trouble.

I really like the fanless design and that it is totally silent. My previous Pro would get a little noisy sometimes so the silence is a plus. I did think I might miss the power from the Pro but I haven't run into anything yet that feels slower.

If you value portability then I'd definitely get the MacBook; that was one of my main reasons. The Pro is definitely more powerful but the size and weight of the MacBook to me makes it perfect to just pick up and toss in a bag or move somewhere with it without a second thought. I also came to the conclusion that I'll never be using my laptop to do super intensive things like transcoding video, editing gigantic documents, etc since I have a desktop in the house that can do all that without a problem.

 

[ErnstStavroBlohard]

I downsized from a 15" to a 12" and my only regret is that I didn't do it sooner. My spine thanks me.

 

[dmk1974]

Gents, anyone here downgrade from a pro (2015 13.3 currently) to the 12 inch share their brief assessment after the fact?

Am THIS close to doing it personally for portability only (will be taking it around/school/work) as I feel my current pro to be just too weighty but don't want to come into regrets 6 months down the road.

THANKS

I'll let you know next week. I have a 2015 13" 8/128 MBP but just ordered a 2016 12" 8/512 MB which should arrive by Tuesday.

 

[lowkey]

Gents, anyone here downgrade from a pro (2015 13.3 currently) to the 12 inch share their brief assessment after the fact?

Am THIS close to doing it personally for portability only (will be taking it around/school/work) as I feel my current pro to be just too weighty but don't want to come into regrets 6 months down the road.

THANKS

I downgraded from my late 2013 2.3Ghz i7 15" MBP to a base model 1.1Ghz 2015 rMB for work. The main reason was portability. I really got sick of lugging around the 15" each day. For what i do at work it was completely fine. In Design, Outlook, occasional light photoshop, XL, Word, Safari. You would really be hard pressed to notice any difference in CPU speed at all. I took a hit with screen size. It wasn't too bad though.

 

[xqtr]

Gents, anyone here downgrade from a pro (2015 13.3 currently) to the 12 inch share their brief assessment after the fact?

Am THIS close to doing it personally for portability only (will be taking it around/school/work) as I feel my current pro to be just too weighty but don't want to come into regrets 6 months down the road.

THANKS

I went from a 2015 13 MBP to a 2017 12 MB. I love the fanless design (silent). I use it for school (currently in a doctoral program) and it runs all of the apps I need with zero issues. This includes Photoshop, heavy duty data analysis (SPSS, R, etc), and everything in between.

 

[gpat]

Reading the last few posts it's truly nice to see people understanding that the 12" MacBook is at its best as a second notebook used primarily for travel.

It's the weekend convertible of computers. It's a Porsche.

I own a 12" rMB, and I would compare it to a Mazda Miata at best....

 

[iPodClassic1]

I use it for Photoshop, Office 365, Citrix, Safari internet browsing, WhatsApp, etc.....

Do you use the whatsapp app or the website?

 

[ZapNZs]

Gents, anyone here downgrade from a pro (2015 13.3 currently) to the 12 inch share their brief assessment after the fact?

Am THIS close to doing it personally for portability only (will be taking it around/school/work) as I feel my current pro to be just too weighty but don't want to come into regrets 6 months down the road.

THANKS

The base model 2017 rMB is capable of doing for me what my 2016 nTB was - this includes running Windows 10 and 7 as a VM, and using various forms of statistical and visualization software. The nTB is gone. I'm also contemplating selling my Surface Pro. I have a 2014 MBPr 15-inch I use as a workstation connected to a stupid amount of external devices - the rMB could never work as my only machine, but the 13-inch MBP could not do this either.

Going into this, I knew I did not need high-speed external SSDs for this computer, that I would not be using any accessories with it, and that my backups and data transfers would be done wirelessly. Subsequently, it was a good match for my needs as my ultra portable system. If I was going to use this system for high-speed external SSDs, UHD+ external displays, or tons of accessories, then I would have kept the nTB given it has Thunderbolt 3 and USB 3.1 gen 2, where as the rMB only has legacy USB 3.1 gen 1.

Overall, I am very pleased and have no regrets. I am absolutely thrilled by the refinement of the keyboard, the quality of the fit and finish, and the CPU performance despite not having a fan. IMO the 2017 rMB is a completely different animal than the two that came before it, and IMO its generational improvements seen with the current version makes this platform a more practical sole machine. YMMV.

 

[madat42]

I used Apple's generous return policy and went through a few MacBook (Air/Pro) iterations to settle on the base MacBook. It's easy to think that you want the biggest/fastest but after also putting the 15", 13", and Air through a week of regular use - the base MacBook just did it all in terms of speed, cost, quality, and weight. I love it. I don't think I'll ever buy another laptop over 2 pounds again.

 

[Dave245]

Now that there is a 16GB option for the MacBook does that appeal to anyone more now than when there was just 8GB? specs have certainly improved.

 

[EugW]

Now that there is a 16GB option for the MacBook does that appeal to anyone more now than when there was just 8GB? specs have certainly improved.

I bought the 16 GB with base m3 and 256 GB RAM. This, along with the new keyboard and uber-portability make it a very, very attractive machine, aside from the lack of a second USB port.

 

[AFEPPL]

I'd question given the current MacBook range why anyone would consider the MBA these days. MB is more powerful and portable MBP is larger and more powerful... the MBA is erm... just cheaper. I'd certainly take a MB over the MBA every day of the week.

 

[EugW]

I'd question given the current MacBook range why anyone would consider the MBA these days. MB is more powerful and portable MBP is larger and more powerful... the MBA is erm... just cheaper. I'd certainly take a MB over the MBA every day of the week.

I too chose the MB over the MBA, but the MBA is cheaper and faster than the MB, and it also has more ports. Also, before 2017, the MBA also had a better keyboard. It also has an arguably better TouchPad.

The main problem with the MBA IMO is the lower quality screen and the weight. Apple crippled the MBA with the last update too since it didn't get Kaby Lake CPUs.

 

[madat42]

I'd question given the current MacBook range why anyone would consider the MBA these days. MB is more powerful and portable MBP is larger and more powerful... the MBA is erm... just cheaper. I'd certainly take a MB over the MBA every day of the week.

Apple will keep selling it as long as folks keep buying it (and even the other way around). It's still powerful, cheaper and has extra ports. Nothing wrong with that.

 

[AFEPPL]

I too chose the MB over the MBA, but the MBA is cheaper and faster, and it also has more ports. Also, before 2017, the MBA also had a better keyboard. It also has an arguably better TouchPad.

It's not faster, look at the benchmarks. Every MB processor is faster than the equivalent MBA unit - from bottom of the range to the top. It has more legacy ports true, but with cloud and wifi most users won't need them. USB-C is the future and a small dock device gives you all the old legacy ports.

 

[EugW]

It's not faster, look at the benchmarks. Every MB processor is faster than the equivalent MBA unit - from bottom if he range to the top. It has more legacy ports, but with cloud and wifi most users won't need them. USB-C is the future and a small dock device gives you all the old legacy ports.

The MB is fast until it isn't. The MB will throttle under heavy load quite quickly.

And the one thing I hate about the MacBook is that it only has one USB port. I just ordered a dock, but in general, docks suck. And to make things worse, the vast majority of docks out there don't allow you to charge reliably through the dock even if the dock does have USB C.

I like my MacBook a lot, but it has a lot of compromises, some put there unnecessarily (like the single USB port) just for market segmentation reasons.

 

[AFEPPL]

But that's apple for you... the MBA is more even compromised. Range means choice, but MBA is just the cheap option.

 

[EugW]

But that's apple for you... the MBA is more even compromised. Range means choice, but MBA is just the cheap option.

As mentioned, cheaper but with more ports and also potentially faster, but at the expense of increased weight and no Retina screen.

It's not for you and me, but the MBA is popular for a lot of students with low budgets.

 

[AFEPPL]

Yep, but you could say that about all technology items. Question you have to ask is even at $999 or 850 why would you? Lots of great devices out there for that price. At 450 the MBA would be reasonable even with apple tax given the specs and screen.

 

[ZapNZs]

It's not faster, look at the benchmarks. Every MB processor is faster than the equivalent MBA unit - from bottom of the range to the top. It has more legacy ports true, but with cloud and wifi most users won't need them. USB-C is the future and a small dock device gives you all the old legacy ports.

USB-C is the future, but the rMB's legacy 3.1 gen 1 limits how much one can do with a dock IMO (compared to Thunderbolt 2 or dual USB). The CPU on the 2017 is spectacular for an ultra-low voltage fan-less design, and the battery life is comparable to my MBAs. But adding a second USB port (or better, adding a second USB-C port with gen 2 or Thunderbolt 3 capability) could make it an even better design (and a better value.)

I really like this MacBook. I still really like the MacBook Air and its tendency to be on crazy good sales.