New Apple MacBook: Form Over Function?

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Let me preface this post in saying that for the majority of the last decade, despite the occasional Chromebook or Windows aberration, a MacBook of one flavor or another has been my primary computing device. (Some examples: MBP, MB, MBA) So I clearly have both appreciated and invested in Apple’s take on portable computing. But the newly introduced “Macbook” ($1300 and up) appears to be something of a compromised curiosity (which, incidentally, is how I responded to the original MacBook Air).

buystrip_macbook_largeIn whittling away a laptop to a mere two pounds, the MacBook is an engineering marvel. Stunning, really. I mean, just look at the pic above – the brains of the computer reside on that small board, with the rest of the space dominated by the laptop’s structure and molded battery. Beyond the guts, the laptop is a beaut. Which probably means more to me than it should – guess I’m shallow like that. However, as a laptop’s primary interface remains keyboard and touchpad, these redesigned elements concern me. Like most, I haven’t actually touched the new MacBook yet… but, based on the visuals and early reports, I certainly won’t be pre-ordering. Further, it seems the MacBook’s processing power will be equivalanent to my 2012 MacBook Air. For most of what I do, most of the time, that wouldn’t really be a problem. But it does seem a step backwards to save a marginal amount of size and power consumption. Lastly, we’re provided just a single USB-C port to cover both charging and any peripherals (beyond headphones) for a fee … that runs more than Apple TV.

While I’ve been pining away for a 12″ retina laptop from Apple, at this moment, I’d rather invest in an extra .38lb for a lower res 11″ MacBook Air with faster charger, more powerful processor, deeper keyboard, and standard USB-endowment with largely equivalent battery life (but at a slightly lesser cost). However, I suspect my window of opportunity will be limited. This Broadwell update may be the last refresh the MacBook Air sees before additional tiers of these new MacBooks fully populate Apple’s ultrabook catalog.

 

21 thoughts on “New Apple MacBook: Form Over Function?”

  1. New MacBook:

    2lbs
    13.1 mm thick
    Intel Core M processor
    LED lit keyboard
    2304 x 1440 screen
    9-hour battery life web browsing
    Starts at $1,299

    Surface Pro 3

    1.76 lbs
    9.1 mm thick
    Intel Core i3, i5, or i7 processors
    optional LED lit keyboard
    2160 x 1440 touchscreen
    9-hour battery life web browsing
    Starts at $799

  2. It’s essentially a 12″ tablet, albeit one that can run OS X instead of just iOs.

    The 13″ MacBook Air is a much better buy for little more weight.

  3. Bill, are you comparing a MacBook with a keyboard to a Surface without a keyboard? Just curious because 9.1 mm with a keyboard is ridiculously thin.

  4. Yah, I think those are the specs and price without the Surface keyboard. I do like the Surface, but it too suffers from a somewhat questionable keyboard. Although the newer version is better than the prior. Wondering what the Surface 4 may bring?

  5. I too was bothered by the slow clock speed and wondered how it would do after a couple of months of work. All computers are fast when you first get them.

    I think I’ll end up with the 13″ Dell.

  6. I have a 11″ MacBook Air that I use 95% of the time connected to a 24″ monitor, keyboard, mouse, scanner, 2 printers, and an external HDD. Needless to say this new 12″ device is something that wouldn’t make my life any better.

  7. Greg, yeah the new 13″ Dell XPS is a pretty amazing value. It caught my eye as well.

    Dana, makes you wonder if there will soon be a new USB-C Mac Display… (along with MBP receiving a port upgrade).

  8. “In whittling away a laptop to a mere two pounds, the MacBook is an engineering marvel. Stunning, really. I mean, just look at the pic above – the brains of the computer reside on that small board, with the rest of the space dominated by the laptop’s structure and molded battery. “

    All depends on what stuns you.

    I’m still stunned by my MBP that is dead simple to open up, and dead simple to access / swap RAM and hard drive.

    But then again, I’m a tinkerer. And Cupertino is no longer interested in customers like me…

  9. Of course, if they made one out of a solid gold/ceramic alloy, I’d line up all night to get my hands on one. Nothing says that you have good taste like ostentatious bling, amirite?

  10. The 13″ macbook pro retina is the exact same price, $1299. It has a vastly more powerful CPU and GPU, the same amount of memory, the same “force” trackpad, a retina screen, a better keyboard, and another hour of battery life.

    However, it weighs 3.5 pounds, versus 2.0 pounds for the macbook. Also the $1299 model only has 128GB of storage. If you need more storage you have to step up to the $1499 model, which is otherwise identical. Still, it’s what I would buy.

    Apple had a problem before; the functional difference between macbooks air and pro at 13″ was largely the retina screen. The pro weighed half a pound more, but the screen was worth it, and they were priced pretty close, once you upgraded the macbook air to equivalent RAM and storage.

    Their product lines are far better differentiated now– the macbook is for portability, period. You buy it if you carry your laptop around all day. The macbook pro is for performance. It’s nearly twice the weight.

  11. Another way to post what the first commenter above posted is this:

    The Surface Pro weighs a bit more and is a hair thicker if you add a keyboard to it.

    But it’s really irrelevant. The MacBook competes against the MacBook Air and the MacBook Pro. The Surface Pro 3 competes to a Lenovo Yoga, etc. People aren’t buying Macs because of specs, nor are they buying Windows because of specs. They are buying a Mac because they love Macs or a PC because they love PCs. And then within that category, they can look at specs.

    For me, I have a Mac Book Pro 13” Retina that I got literally a week ago. I’m not returning it for the newer model, because the CPU upgrade is minimal, I prefer the touch pad I currently have, and it was the 512gb model on sale for $150 off, and I’d rather have the $150 in my pocket. That’s my laptop of choice, because at home I have a Mac Mini. I have a Mac Mini, because I need a server still, and my old first gen Intel iMac was really, really, really long in the tooth but I didn’t want to invest in the new iMac due to cost, and the reality that I work off a laptop primarily. So I want a FAST laptop.

    If I still sat at my desk all day at home and used an iMac, I’d get the new MacBook. It’d be “fast enough”, super portable, and perfect. But since I use the laptop as my primary machine, that means there’s photo editing, video editing, and my Logos (www.logos.com) software, all of which benefit from beefier CPU, more memory, and better GPU. Oh and for work I sometimes have to boot up VMs, so the 8gb of RAM was a nice upgrade from my prior laptop, an old Air with 2gb of RAM.

    That’s what Apple competes with. People who decide between SOME combination of iPad, portable and desktop. Not people who are going to buy a Surface or a Yoga because they perceive the hardware to be better. As beautiful as the Apple hardware is, and as competitively priced as it is now (it’s usually right in the ball park of a premium PC), I buy Mac because I prefer Mac. And if their laptops were still $2000 to $2500, I guess I’d still be buying them at those prices.

  12. I dunno about that… Surface 3 hardware is quite versatile and they’ve been doing well. I can see them tightening it up even further with the next iteration and I’ve been enjoying Windows 10 (versus and after the chaos of Windows 8) — so I personally am tempted. Then again, in the Microsoft Store on Sunday, I was also tempted by a newer $200 Asus just because. Probably have a gadget problem. :)

  13. I’m sticking with my Macbook Air for a while to come yet.

    Once the price of retina dispalys come down (another few years yet), this will take its place at the bottom of the lineup. I think Apple and their partners are still trying to figure out how to make laptop and larger high DPI displays that are both high quality and don’t cost a fortune. This may take a few more years of iteration before we get the Macbook down to $899, the Retina MBP to $1199, and no more non-retina displays in their lineup.

  14. I have the 2011 MBA 13″. I love it, but it was a casualty of a TSA-induced crash onto concrete and the video has been touchy ever since. And I’d like a little more processor and definitely more storage.

    But I will not be buying one of these. The smaller screen is ridiculous to me. I’d actually like a 14″ but would settle for what I have now, but in Retina rez. And I want one more USB-C port and one free USB-C to USB3 adapter for thumbdrives and that rare occasion where I use an HD. I’d really like an SD slot too. I have a Jet Drive (a small SD card that sits flush to serve as additional storage for my dropbox/google drive).

    Barring that, I’d take an updated MBA with Retina. They can keep the extra thinness if I can keep some ports. I don’t need it to be 2 pounds or 13mm. I wouldn’t cry if they also included the improved trackpad. Sadly, they decided to fiddle around the margins with a faster thunderbolt port (great. never used it) and a SLIGHTLY faster processor. No fan is nice in the new one, but I won’t cry if a Retina MBA had a fan if it gets to keep its performance.

  15. I lovingly did it with a lowercase U… versus the Intel/Windows capital U brand inspired by Apple and the Air. :)

  16. “In this completely unstable post-Snow Leopard world of OS X, I cannot begin to express how thankful I am for Terminal. Unix to the rescue!”

    And this is why the crazy ones, the rebels, the folks like me, still run an exclusively Snowy shop.

    Even still running iTunes 10 on all machines but one, and that exception is just for iOS sync. Only minor drawback with Snowy is that you have to roll your own security patches, but the instructions, and sometimes even the compiled binaries, are widely available and easy to do.

    (The last 2 generations of Snowy compatible machines with an SSD are powerful and speedy enough to do everything anyone could want. Just bought an extra used Snowy MBP about six months ago…)

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