Who would have thought that the most interesting thing to
come out of Apple's "Spring Forward" event would actually be a new
laptop? In addition to spilling more details on its new smartwatch, the company
also unveiled a brand-new (and long-awaited) update to the MacBook Air. Well,
sort of. The "new MacBook," as it's called isn't actually an upgrade
to the Air at all; it exists as an entirely new product line, separate from
both the Air and the Pro. At $1,299, it won't be cheap, but it's for people who
demand the thinnest and lightest possible design from Apple, without having to
compromise on the screen quality (as you normally would when you buy an Air). I
had the opportunity to get hands-on after today's event, and came away
impressed -- not just with its fanless design, but with the Retina display, pressure-sensitive
trackpad and redesigned keyboard. That said, it's not for everyone.
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| The New Macbook |
You'd be forgiven if you thought the new MacBook was a
replacement to the current Air. This new machine has a similar aesthetic, with
a unibody aluminum chassis, available in three colors; black keys; and a
wedge-shaped profile. It also has a stunning 12-inch 2,304 x 1,440 Retina
display that's equal to all the other Retina displays in quality, if not actual
resolution. In other words, it clearly shares the same DNA as its stablemates.
But man, is it ever so much lighter than the Air. At two pounds, it makes the
Air (which I'm using to type this) feel like a heavy, old thing. I actually
feel a bit bummed I'm using this instead. At this weight, too, it's nearly as
light as the "world's
lightest laptop" that Lenovo showed off at CES, except the build
quality is far superior here. Apple was able to get the weight down without
having to resort to cheap-feeling materials. That alone is no small feat.
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| Thinnest Of the New Macbook has been reduced by 24% |
To achieve this thinness -- just 13.1mm at its thickest
point -- Apple had to redesign the keyboard you would normally find on the Air.
This was a serious gamble on Apple's part: The Air's springy, well-spaced
keyboard is one of the reasons many people prefer it over rival machines.
Indeed, I actually cringed a bit when I first saw the new MacBook's button
layout: The keys here really don't have much travel. Given that I review
Ultrabooks for a living, and am so often tasked with testing shallow keyboards,
I almost instinctively cocked my hands a certain way; I was prepared for a
keyboard that wouldn't offer much resistance under heavy typing.
It turns out, I just needed to give it a chance -- and learn
to trust the machine, which admittedly takes time. Though the backlit buttons
are indeed flat, and while they aren't cushy, they are still springy. They pop
back up when I hit them. That means I can type at a gingerly pace and know that
for the most part, I won't miss a key, and that most of my button presses will
register. If this were another machine, I might unconsciously start mashing the
buttons, just to make sure I don't have to go back and re-type anything. I was
prepared to do that here, but quickly felt my hands relax once I realized they
didn't actually need to work that hard. Again, though, there could still be a
learning curve for those of you upgrading from an older MacBook.
The trackpad has
also received an update. Don't worry, it's still a spacious glass surface, and
it still excels at all the basic stuff, like single-finger tracking and
two-finger scrolling. But it's now pressure-sensitive too, which opens up
possibilities for lots of new gestures, even beyond the ones you already know.
For instance, I can press and hold my finger down over an address in Mail, only
to see a map pop up. I can do the same in Safari as a way of getting a
Wikipedia summary. It also works in Finder, allowing me to preview files. My
favorite, though -- and I imagine the favorite of anyone watching the keynote
-- is the ability to fast-forward or rewind extra fast in QuickTime by bearing
down on the arrow icons. Throughout, the experience feels very controlled; very
deliberate. I can't see how you would accidentally use a Force Touch gesture if
you didn't mean to. A light tap on the touchpad means something totally
different than a hard press with your finger. Even if you press lightly and
keep your finger there, that's not the same as applying real pressure. The
machine knows better. It has what I'd call the touchpad equivalent of palm
rejection.
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| And It Comes with HD Retina Display |
But back to the thickness. Apple didn't just have to retool
the keyboard. It also had to rethink what kind of ports could even fit on a
machine this thin. With this next-gen system, Apple moved to just a reversible USB
Type-C port, the same size as a typical micro-USB socket. From there,
you can use the port to charge the device, as well as use
adapters to make it work with HDMI, VGA and DisplayPorts on other
devices. On the one hand, this seems a bit inevitable -- I can tell you now
that other PC makers have laptops in the works with USB Type-C ports. On the
other hand, there's only one such port here (not even two) and also, that kind
of port is hardly ubiquitous yet. For people used to plugging in full-sized USB
connectors into their existing laptops, this could be an off-putting change
indeed. I know I'm not used to it.
So will that be a dealbreaker? For some people, yes. It
depends on how much you need that Retina display -- and that two-pound design.
The regular Air might still offer even longer battery life, not to mention all
the ports you need. But it weighs more, and the screen is far inferior to the
one here. Meanwhile, if you wanted this kind of screen quality (and all the
usual ports), you'd have to step up to the MacBook Pro with Retina display,
which is obviously much heavier. For Mac diehards, then, that leaves little
choice if portability and screen quality are important. For the more
OS-agnostic among you, though, the decision could be tougher. We've seen some very
thin, lightweight Windows machines and some of them, like the Dell XPS 13,
even make do with more powerful processors than the low-power Intel Core M chip
used here. And yes, they have all the usual ports, too. That's something to
keep in mind as you're shopping -- and for me to remember when I eventually
write my full review.
