Hands-on with the 'crazy-thin' new Apple Macbook

The new Macbook comes with a Retina Display, and it's a vision into the future of what laptops can and should be: untethered from power cables, devices whose battery life just lasts and lasts.

[bluezero]

The amount of effort that went into this Mac is insane. Yet people say apple doesn't innovate...

[jamesdoe]

If people are confused, it doesn't replace the air. It is its own tier of notebooks between the air lineup and the pro lineup. The thing that made my jaw drop was how 90% of the interior space is taken up by battery... Go apple

[quaternio]

The question literally tens of people want to know: for those of us who prefer mechanical keyboards, is this keyboard a step forward or backward?

[GroudFrank]

blue4zero What effort did Apple put in this exactly? They removed a bunch of ports and bumped up the resolution and added more color options. How hard can that be? The fact that it is thinner, lighter and has better battery life is because it is using the Intel Core M. That's Intel's engineering prowess, not Apple's.

[RareMade]

Guess the Macbook is back and not really aimed towards creatives with just one port i think its more for the average comsumer?

[trfandom]

This is the most stupidest thing Apple has ever invented. What the hell is the point in having one port? What if you have to use more than one port at a time like charging the computer while charging your phone or plugging it into a projector?

 "Oh well you could just buy an adapter"

But I shouldn't have too, I'd sure hate it if you forget that adapter at home when you have to present your project in school or at work. Your pretty much fucked if that happens. Plus the price is outrages just like all of Apples devices. 

[surethom]

That's so so thin & gorgeous design & finally apple is joining an industry standard with usb-c

[RajitRoy_NR]

Just 1 port ??? How can i insert 2 pen drives??

[NFS]

I don't get who this is for... it's not powerful enough for professionals and is too expensive for the average consumer

[DragonRiderNetwork]

I wonder how many of the adapters you could link up together. Maybe 50? I bet you wouldn't have to worry about USB plugs ever again!

[Ghettofinger]

The Zenbook UX305 is literally the exact same thing as this, save for OSX, for $699.... Come on, Apple. Hell, the Dell XPS 13 is better, because it is more powerful, with 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage, $1099.... What reason would anyone have to get this?

[jpkurokami]

You guys must be so happy its a Mac book so you don't have to go comparing it to a Mac book like you do with every other laptop

[OviWanKenoi]

It's pretty nice looking actually and usually don't like Apple stuff.. I try to be brand agnostic though.

Now, can it run Windows? Can it play some games? I wonder if the MacBook Pro (with a more powerful gfx card) will get the same treatment.

I have a Canadian spec ATIV Book 8 right now and for gaming and battery life it blows the socks off a Macbook Pro. Also are Macs getting touchscreens anytime soon? I wouldn't go back to not having one.

I read up on the price of this thing. Not too bad.. The ATIV 8 after an SSD purchase was over $2K... (but tier 1 vid card in there)

Edit: Nvm.. i just read some of the drawbacks in the comments. Far cry from my 13 hrs of battery I get with my laptop and one port for everything? Were they high?

[gamesmaker]

i really like the gold and black color option, even the one blue and white is not bad

[bartoszskiba]

I am so  in apple today ! I was actually hoping for a retina air! Now my choice is clear, switching to either pro line or moving to windows.

[JerryNeutron]

The form factor is crazy on this thing. I don't see why you'd buy it though. You can get a current gen MacBook Pro for the same price which is better in nearly every way

[PaulKehoe]

if everything is going through one port....how can i charge it and plug in a harddrive at the same time?

[Re_Kitty]

At 1200 that's pretty cheap considering industrial computers from Dell and Lenovo can go into the 2400$ range. (The kind they use in the police force, military and the international space station)

[xXBurntBaconXx]

As someone who doesn't own a single Apple product, I think i could go for this. If it could flip the screen all the way backwards so it turns into a tablet (like the Asus Flipbook) I think this could be pretty awesome. 

[pearcake]

So let's see the positives vs. negatives;

Positives:
- Higher res screen
- SSD storage
- Thinner

Negatives:
- Only 1 port (forget charging and having a USB mouse plugged in at once)
- Worse battery life than the current Macbook Air
- Weaker processor than the current base Macbook Air (Core M vs. Core i5)
- Worse front facing camera than the current Macbook Air (480p vs 720p)
- Less tactile feedback in the keyboard (another writer from Verge mentioned it feels closer to a touchscreen keyboard)
- High price

Bottom line:  Buy a MacBook air instead.  The extra 11 millimeters of thickness won't kill you, and you'll get a better battery, better processor, and more ports.