When it was released in 2015, the Apple MacBook was something of a revelation. Not only was it incredibly thin and light, but internally it showed off all of the expertise in creating tiny circuit boards and big batteries that Apple had gained creating the iPhone and iPad.
However, any kind of portable design is inevitably also a compromise, and the first generation of MacBook wore its compromises heavily on its sleeve. Despite the case packed with batteries, battery life was nothing more than average. Worse was performance: rarely has Apple, or anyone else, released a model costing more than others in the range, but offering less performance. If you’re undecided about buying a MacBook or a Windows laptop, take a look at IT Pro’s MacBook Pro 15in vs Dell XPS 15 head-to-head, where the pros and cons are broken down into digestible chunks.
The MacBook, then, was something of a niche machine. It was great if you valued portability over everything else, and didn’t have much requirement for performance or all-day battery life. The keyboard, with its super-shallow travel, also divided opinion.
For me, the MacBook was ideal. My needs, as you might expect, are fairly basic: occasional video and audio editing is as far as my “power user” profile goes. Thin and light, though, are massively important to me. Hence my 13in MacBook Pro went into semi-retirement, despite its superior performance and connectivity.
Apple MacBook 12in (2016): Design
Now, Apple has updated the MacBook, almost a year after its introduction. This is one of the company’s “press release-only” updates. There was no event, no product managers on stage, no Tim Cook proclaiming how “gorgeous” the new MacBook is.
This is understandable, for nothing about the MacBook’s design has changed. If you’ve picked one up, you’ll know exactly what to expect. It’s still incredibly thin and light. The screen is still gorgeous, but not bezel-free like the edge-to-edge “infinity” display on Dell’s XPS 13. As before, you can get the MacBook in Space Grey, Silver and Gold, and Apple is also making it available in Rose Gold (AKA pink).
Subjectively, this is a laptop that weighs almost nothing. At under a kilo, you can throw the MacBook into any bag and barely notice it’s there. Impressively, however, the body feels robust and taut; it doesn’t creak or flex at all. This is high-end engineering of the kind that Apple has become exceptionally good at.
Apple MacBook 12-inch (2016): Display
In our review of the first version, Sasha described the 2,304 x 1,440 display as “superb”, and nothing has happened to change our opinion. It’s still a great screen – bright enough to be used outdoors on a reasonably sunny day (or at least as sunny as you get in Britain in April), and with a good, wide colour gamut covering 94.2% of the sRGB colour space.
In fact, it isn’t as bright as the previous version – in testing, it reached a maximum brightness of 335cd/m2 versus last year’s 381cd/m2 – and the contrast ratio is down as well, from 1,063:1 to 805:1. However, there’s an upside: according to Apple, it uses less power than last year’s display, and it still looks great to the naked eye. Yes, it’s only 12in, but I’m happy to work on this screen for a full day.
As with all Apple retina laptops, it has a default setting that mimics something with less pixels – in this case, the Default setting “looks like 1280 x 800”. You can, though, change this and run at other modes, including 2560 x 1600, all the way down to 1024 x 640. All of these modes look fine, although higher resolutions tend to make things look incredibly small on a 12in screen.
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Apple MacBook 12-inch (2016): Design
Another thing that hasn’t changed is the fanless design. Apple has replaced the old Core M with a range of different Skylake Core M options; I was sent the model with the Core m5-6Y54, but there are also faster Core m7 and slower m3 models. All the new models are fanless, meaning they retain the MacBook’s “no moving parts” approach.
Even the trackpad doesn’t move – although you’ll think it does. As with all Apple trackpads these days, it’s big and feels great, employing Apple’s ingenious Force Touch system. Press down on the trackpad, and sensors inside detect pressure is being applied; electromagnets then provide haptic feedback, which makes it feel as if the trackpad is being pressed downwards physically.
It’s a spooky feeling when, after using the trackpad for a while, you try pressing down on it when the machine is turned off and realise it’s just a solid, immovable piece of glass.
The keys on the keyboard do move, although, as with the previous version, this is something that’s likely to polarise opinion. In a move designed to slim down the physical thickness of the keyboard, there’s significantly less travel here than on conventional laptop keyboards.
The best advice I can give is to try this keyboard before you run out and buy a MacBook. Either you’ll find it perfectly acceptable – some people I’ve talked to even prefer it – or you’ll react with visceral hatred towards it and want to throw the machine out of the window every time you use it.
The other big controversial feature of the MacBook range concerns physical connectivity. Basically, there’s a single USB Type-C port, a headphone/mic jack – and that’s it. The USB Type-C port charges the laptop and provides all the connectivity bar audio. And yes, that means you can’t connect a peripheral and charge the machine at the same time without using some kind of multi-port dongle.
Lots of people use their laptops without ever connecting anything to them, but if you’re the sort of person who likes to plug in an external keyboard, mouse and monitor when you’re using your laptop at your desk, be aware that you’ll need to budget extra cash for connectors. The USB Type-C standard is clearly the future, and the advantages of using it are obvious, but having only a single port makes life more difficult than it should be.
Apple MacBook 12-inch (2016): Performance
Here’s the good news: the 2016 MacBook is definitely faster than its predecessor. Our benchmarks showed it to be around 10% quicker than the previous model. The bad news is it isn’t noticeable in day-to-day use. It’s slower than any other currently available Mac we’ve benchmarked, and on a par with the Dell XPS 12.
That said, subjectively, it’s fine for light work. I used the MacBook for editing Office documents, web browsing, a bit of photo editing and some (very) light video and audio editing and it performed perfectly well. If you spend all your time in Photoshop or CAD applications, this is not the Mac for you, but, if you do that, what on earth are you doing considering a machine with a 12in screen?
However, one big change is the battery life. I’ve used the MacBook for a year as my main machine, and I’ve always been a little disappointed with the battery life. Starting at 9am, I usually get to 2pm or 3pm before looking desperately for my charger; it isn’t quite the all-day experience I like.
Our tests on the last model delivered 7hrs 10mins of battery with Wi-Fi off and the screen turned down to 120cd/m2. This time round, that figure improved to a far more impressive 10hrs 12mins – a significant improvement. The new MacBook might not make it all the way to 5pm, but it gets a whole lot closer than its older sibling.
Apple MacBook 12-inch (2016): Verdict
The MacBook answers the question, “What would happen if you mated a MacBook Air with an iPad?”. It’s a Mac, running OS X, but the design and feel of the product is heavily influenced by the iPad. It’s the first Mac I’ve used where OS features that have been ported over from iOS, such as full and split-screen apps, actually make sense.
And, with the 2016 model, the MacBook is better than ever. It delivers a significant uplift in battery life, a minor but welcome increase in performance and, for those who want everything in Rose Gold, wider colour options. It’s an iterative improvement, but iterative improvements can turn good products into truly great ones. Iteration, not revolution, is the most important force in technology today.
It feels like a design that has pushed a little bit further than the underlying technology wants to go
Like the original Apple MacBook Air, however, it feels like a design that has pushed a little bit further than the underlying technology wants to go. Just a little bit more performance, and maybe an extra USB Type-C port, would make the Air as redundant as the Air made the 2008 version of the MacBook. It took three years for the Air to effectively replace the MacBook as Apple’s low-end Mac. Perhaps it’s too much to expect the new MacBook to replace the Air in only a year.
Should you buy one? If your needs are relatively light, and if you value design and portability over everything else, then you’ll love the MacBook. But you’ll also find yourself grimacing occasionally when you release you’ve left the vital dongle you need to connect a monitor and power simultaneously at home. Thankfully, at least with this generation, you’ll get closer to all-day battery life from it.
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