There ’s a grounds Apple has n’t changed the MacBook Air ’s core excogitation for yr now : It ’s essentially perfect — the epitome of a flimsy - and - light laptop , from its grand , razor - flimsy exterior to its olympian glass trackpad . But even perfection ca n’t palaver Apple into sit on its bounder .
On Monday , Apple discover a raw 12 - inch MacBook , a radical revamp that shakes up the gain MBA design by dumping virtually every formal port — Thunderbolt , the SD card expansion slot , a power connection , everything — in favour of a brace a undivided USB Type - C connection and an audio jack . That , paired with numerous other progression , helped the 12 - inch MacBook become the slimmest , lightest MacBook ever — and it ’s silent , too .
“ Can you see it ? ” a grin Tim Cook asked , holding one aloft onstage . “ I ca n’t even feel it ! ”
The redevelopment slims the notebook down to a ridonkulous 2 lbs . and 13.1mm — the slight MacBook by a full 24 percent , according to Apple ’s Phil Schiller ( though it ’s still not quite as wakeful as Lenovo’s1.72 lb . LaVie Z HZ550or as slender as Lenovo’s12.7 mm Yoga 3 Pro ) . And that ’s with a full fanless innovation . Achieving such thinness required Apple to redesign the machine from the ground up .
First , the display on the 12 - column inch MacBook — which compact a Retina - class 2304×1440 solving — now reaches edge - to - edge , with scarce there bezel . It measures just 0.88 mm lean and uses 30 percentage less energy than other Retina displays , while still offer the same point of luminosity .
The keyboard now sits edge - to - edge , sporting closer - together keys than the young MacBook ’s opposite number . Apple actually created a new keyboard switch for the 12 - inch MacBook , to replace the scissor switch that power most laptop computer keyboard . The “ Butterfly mechanics ” utilise a undivided assembly with a stainless steel noggin , which Johann Christoph Friedrich von Schiller claims is four times as stable as scissor switches despite being 40 percent slender .
The MacBook also premise a new “ Force Touch trackpad . ” It ’s cover in glass like Apple ’s previous models , but also sports four power sensors under the hood to produce a uniform tapping feel . Together with the introduction of a “ Taptic railway locomotive , ” standardised to watch you ’d get hold in the Apple Watch , the 12 - inch MacBook introduces the idea of light and “ force”clicks — the laptop register a new class of deep suction stop that it uses to automatically open certain program depending on where you click . force play get through on a word in Safari , for instance , open a Wikipedia entry for it , while force clicking a date open a calendar entry .
Inside the 12 - in MacBook Air .
One of Intel ’s newfangled energy - efficient Core M “ Broadwell ” processors power the 12 - inch MacBook , seat in a logic table 67 per centum smaller than Apple ’s old track record . The CPU sip a bare 5 watts of mightiness , running at 1.1GHz that can Turbo Boost to 2.9GHz when moreoomphis needed .
Around the Force Touch trackpad and itty - teensy logic table , Apple ram the 12 - inch MacBook with batteries , using a new layered , terraced battery design that countenance the party use all the useable space inside the unibody chassis . The 12 - column inch MacBook will get 9 hours electric battery life while web surfing , or 10 hr while watching video .
Reach out and touch someone
The ascetical redesign also would n’t have been possible without the cutting - sharpness USB 3.1 standard and new Type - carbon joining . This back - compatible wonder cable television service does it all : It ’s capable of render 100 watts of baron , 10Gbps data transference pep pill ( doubly that of USB 3.0),andeven audio frequency and picture signals using the DisplayPort communications protocol . Goodbye , big businessman cord , HDMI , VGA , DisplayPort , and Thunderbolt . And the Type - vitamin C connector is reversible , too , just like Apple ’s MagSafe connexion , so you ’ll never have to bungle with shove your USB cable in the good way again .
“ This is the most extreme , effective notebook computer we ’ve ever created , ” Johann Christoph Friedrich von Schiller beamed .
There is a downside to streamlining things down to a solitary humble , potent port , as Michael Simon noted in hisoriginal coverage of the 12 - in MacBook rumors . You ’re go to require a lot of transcriber cables to multiply the lose functionality of the original . certainly , Apple ’s embraced the novel USB tech , but the legion of external computer peripheral and displays currently available have n’t . touch base those Type - C transmission line to a paries socket or a DisplayPort - equipped monitor will want arranger , and you ’ll need other adapter to connect to Thunderbolt , Ethernet , or standard USB twist . Want to secure in multiple devices ? You ’re proceed to need a hub , too .
Apple ’s software ecosystem is already build around wireless connectivity .
But that ’s where Apple ’s software ecosystem comes into play . Johann Christoph Friedrich von Schiller touted that features like Continuity , AirDrop , and AirPlay allow you to wirelessly share data between your Apple twist without ever touching a cable .
The 12 - inch MacBook will be available in atomic number 47 , space grey , and — wait for it — gold , on sale on April 10 . The $ 1,300 theme model includes a 1.1GHz double - core processor , 8 GB of RAM , and a 256 GB solid - United States Department of State drive . A $ 1,600 example will pack a 1.2GHz double - sum mainframe and a 512 GB SSD .
The rest
While the focus was squarely on the raw Mac , Apple did n’t go away the old Macs untouched . The entire MacBook Air blood line is being upgrade to Intel ’s novel 5th - genesis “ Broadwell ” processors , which should bid increase battery life and a modest performance boost over the last - gen Haswell processors . The 13 - inch MacBook Pro with Retina will also receive Broadwell .
The 13 - in MacBook Air models will also be outfitted with flash computer memory two - times faster than before , while both the 11 - inch and 13 - inch Airs will be promote to Thunderbolt 2 . The 13 - inch MacBook Pro with Retina model will also have the libertine blink of an eye , as well as the fresh Force Touch trackpad introduce in the 12 - inch MacBook . The vamp onetime - schooling MacBook Air and Pro models are available today .
