My Year with the 12" Apple MacBook
When the 12" Apple MacBook first came out I absolutely had to have one since it is the first new laptop class form Apple in years. There have been a lot of praise and criticism of the new MacBook and I wanted to share my first hand experience in a personal review...
Before buying my MacBook, I had a 15" MacBook Pro Retina I used when working at home and (I know...) a 13" MacBook Air for travel. Yes, having both was excessive but I wanted the screen real estate of the MacBook Pro but needed the portability of the Air for travel. One problem I had with the Pro when traveling was it didn't fit in many hotel room safes. The Air even had trouble fitting into a few.
The Physical
Anyway, when I first got the MacBook, I was immediately impressed with the look and feel. Its about 2 lbs and feels light as a feather. In typical Apple fashion, the casing is strong and solid and the aluminum hinge is part of the lid giving it an even stronger stance.
I found it easy to open the laptop with a single finger without the base coming off the table. I've seen this impressively standard on Apple laptops for the lid hinge to be precisely balanced. Too many Windows laptops require two hands to open, one to grab the lid and the other to hold it down.
Performance
I have to admit, I was worried about replacing my MacBook Pro with the MacBook when it came to performance. But, booting up from being completely off is super quick and waking up from sleep is almost instantaneous. Launching applications also is quick and working between applications is a breeze. For my work habits, I'm a heavy multi-tasker and will have multiple applications open across multiple desktops including a Remote Desktop for access to a Windows server back in the office. Running that load has been easy, but I do find myself missing the larger screen. When i'm in the office, I stretch my work across a 27" iMac and external Thunderbolt display so I am used to having that visibility so I've come to the conclusion that the size will be a personal preference.
Display
The Retina Display on the MacBook is astonishing. My iPad has been my go to device for watching movies on the plane, but once we're past 10,000 feet, i'm breaking out my MacBook now. The display is just incredible and helps make the work day less like work.
Keyboard and Force Touch Pad
The full size keyboard did take a little getting used to, but really wasn't that big of a deal. How long did it take to get used to the shorter travel on the keys? about 15 minutes... The touch pad is also nice. Back in my PC days, I had to have one of those little erasers in the middle of the keyboard because the PC track pads were always crap. On the MacBook, the touch pad is as great as it was on the Air and Pro. The new Force Touch feature feels no different than the old touch pad on the Pro and Air did. The only difference I noticed was when the laptop was off and the corners won't click, but they aren't supposed to. The Force Touch feature takes the physical click out of it and replaces it with an electronic response to help cut down on thickness.
Battery Life
The Battery Life is as expected given Apple's listing as an "all day laptop'. My multi-tasking though drains it much faster than advertised but still easily lasts a coast to coast flight.
Ports
Apple only included a single USB-C port on the MacBook. The USB-C port is used for charging the laptop and any physically attached accessory. This is a point a lot of people have complained about and I have to say... I've found it inconvenient a couple times. To compensate I had to purchase one of Apple's USB-C adaptors that allows for the power to be lugged in and adds a USB port along with a graphic port. The MacBook does include a headphone jack.
Conclusion
Overall, I've been pleased with the MacBook; with its performance and ability to keep pace with my work load. For all the complainers about "lack of power" of the MacBook, I've filed all those in the power user bucket. For typical laptop use, students, business, etc the MacBook is more than suitable. I have not tried running a Windows VM on this and don't plan to. I don't do photo or video editing on this either... Bottom line though, I've been more than pleased with it and plan on keeping it for quite a while... depending on what Apple comes out with this summer!
Where to Buy Apple MacBook
PortableOne offers the lowest prices for the Apple MacBook, offers FREE ground shipping and NO SALES TAX outside of CA.