Apple MacBook 12 review – revolution or hype?

Apple’s products in additional needs no introduction. Deposit “apple” range – it is always a holiday, which are millions of people around the world. And no wonder, since the engineers of the brand constantly offer their fans something that does not exist from other manufacturers.

This time we decided to scrutiny expose Apple MacBook 12 – laptop, released just a month ago, which marked the beginning of the revival of already forgotten the MacBook without any attachments and accessories. The device is extremely lightweight (920 g) as well as extremely thin – 1.31 cm in the widest part. In addition, the laptop boasts a Retina-high-resolution display and a pretty good stuffing. However, it was not without controversial moments, such as a keyboard with a minimal response, and the lack of the usual ports that replaced a single USB-C.

Design of Apple MacBook 12

The appearance of new items is not particularly different from other notebook models Apple: the same recognizable chiseled body, the thickness of which tapers to the front bevel, the same minimalist design. The housing is still made from a single piece of aluminum, and we must pay tribute to the engineers, as before, it looks very modern and stylish. Recall that every detail of gadget is suitable for recycling than favorably with its competitors, who can not say the same. By the way, the buyer can choose the color of the body and you can choose between gray (Space Gray), gold (Gold) and silver (Silver) color. This new copy is very popular iPad and iPhone. The cover is decorated with apple company, however, in contrast to the model segment Air and Pro, it is not highlighted in the process.

Expands laptop Apple MacBook 12 moderately tight, at least do it with one hand is quite real. Inside the laptop is much more interesting than the outside, and it’s a huge achievement touchpad and keyboard equivalents to see which you hardly ever. It has no side frames so extreme keys are almost at the junction of the lateral edge of the notebook. Display unremarkable, over it, as expected, located webcam.

As strange or unusual as it may sound, but the device only two ports: a universal USB-C and audio. As for the bottom, then the manufacturer of laptop use the fanless system, but it is surprising that even passive cooling holes here. All the “salt” is that the heat generated during operation of the device, evenly distributed over the entire surface of the housing.

Seemingly, Apple MacBook Air 2014, which was released not so long ago, and so get the maximum light and small. But no, the engineers managed to outdo themselves and create a laptop with a diagonal display increased and reduced weight and size. Thus, the width of the gadget is 280 mm, length – 196 mm, and thickness – 3.5-13.1 mm. At the same time carry Apple MacBook 12 – a real pleasure, because a modest 920 grams – a huge plus for mobility.

Display, sound, and webcam of Apple MacBook 12

Diagonal of the new MacBook is 12 inches while the resolution is 2304h1440 points and has the prefix Retina. The density of pixels per inch is 226 ppi, aspect ratio – 16:10. Brightness, which reaches 353 cd / m2 and contrast of 1000: 1 has once again confirmed the high quality of the matrices used in laptops Apple. The picture looks juicy, rich and realistic. Match sRGB gamut is 102%, and it’s just a great result! Incidentally, although the surface gloss of the display, operate the device outdoors even under direct solar rays is not a problem: the text and pictures are always legible. Finally, I would like to note the small thickness of the screen frame so that visually looks more.

FaceTime webcam with a resolution 848h480 pixels hardly suitable for anything serious, however, to talk on Skype out.

Two stereo speakers are hidden under the perforated grille above the keyboard. We must pay tribute to the engineers, the quality of the sound they worked badly. He obtained a clear and voluminous, even at the maximum volume no wheezing.

Keyboard and Touchpad of Apple MacBook 12

One of the innovations that received the Apple MacBook 12 for the keyboard. How to say the developers to equip such a delicate device full-size keyboard, I had to work on it thoroughly. The Apple was coined a new mechanism – «butterfly switch», which is fundamentally different from the traditional “scissor”. Thus, the buttons have become more stringent and increased bearing area, whereby the keys are located below. They got a lot of resistance and reaction to the press and, consequently, the returns have become clearer and faster. Each button has increased by 17% and the space around it became less, and the keyboard has remained an island type. The whole area is equally sensitive buttons to press, and this, according to the manufacturer, should make typing more accurate and comfortable.

“Apple” keyboard has always distinguished his short course, but in the case of the Apple MacBook 12 he became even shorter. While typing the text tactile response is virtually absent, and at first it’s very unusual. This innovation will certainly appreciate not all, because, in fact, it seems as if your fingers run on absolutely flat surface. The keyboard backlight is, but it has also received changes. Now that each key has its own LED lights up and the keyboard is not in the individual points and evenly around all buttons. The LEDs are set to the same brightness, so all the letters and numbers look equally clearly, with the islands between the keys are not illuminated. Plus, the backlight is designed so that its power consumption is minimized.

It is impossible not to notice that the location of the boundaries of the keyboard also widened. Now the sides are no free space, almost touching the extreme button adjacent to the side faces of the laptop. To the size of the keys have no complaints, quite the contrary. All the “important” key, for example, [Enter], [Schift], [Caps Lock] – elongated and wide. The same applies to the switch unit, which has increased in size, which can not but rejoice. The power button is located in the upper right corner, next to the function keys.

Do you think on this surprise ending? Certainly not! The touchpad also has been redesigned and got a totally unique mechanism of work, and the name – «Force Touch». The essence of his work is that he is Apple MacBook 12 electronic with integrated sensors that respond to the pressing force, thereby allowing cause various actions and menus. Instead of the usual clicks it meets a small vibration force which can be adjusted manually in the system settings.

And the last thing I would like to mention – the familiar multi-touch gestures, the same as zooming, scrolling, dragging, etc.

Performance of Apple MacBook 12

For acquaintance with fillings, we chose the basic version of the notebook – Apple MacBook 12 Space Grey (MJY32). The operating system uses OS X 10.10 Yosemite. If this is the first “apple” the user’s device, the first may experience difficulties at work. However, one has only to understand the principles of operation of the OS, and it will show a good side. In this OSes solid advantages: stylish design, beautiful and many other applications.

Now a little more about what the stuffing laptop. The dual-core processor Intel Core M-5Y31 generation Broadwell clocked at 1.1 GHz technology support Turbo Boost, so the frequency can be increased up to 2.4 GHz. CPU is made on 14-nm process technology and has 4 MB cache in the third level, and TDP of just 4.5 watts, making it very energy efficient and can be used in fanless systems such as our Apple MacBook 12. By the way, the buyer and the model are available with a chip Intel Core M-5Y51 with a nominal clock frequency of 1.2 GHz. However, with a special wish for an additional $ 250 can be equipped with a laptop 1.3 GHz Intel Core M-5Y71. But it is hard to pay for them, since a significant increase in performance of such a stripped-down mobile chip will not.

As for graphics, it is represented by the built-in video card Intel HD Graphics 5300. GPU supports DirectX 11.2 and OpenCL 2.0, plus it is energy efficient. The video card is not designed for gaming battle, but not a particularly challenging game it should draw.

The amount of RAM is 8 GB standard LPDDR3-1600, and it is the only option when purchasing. But choose a solid-state drive capacity of 256 GB, which is set in this modification, not necessarily can give preference to a more capacious SSD 512 GB. In general, equipment is quite standard for a compact gadget apple.

Ports and Communications of Apple MacBook 12

With interfaces to the Apple MacBook 12 all interesting situation: there are only two. On the right side are the audio output for headphones and two built-in microphones.

While the left side has a port USB Type-C.

This new standard, whose speed in Apple MacBook 12 up to 5 Gb / s. At the moment, it can also be found in the Chromebook Pixel 2 from Google, but it’s no secret that many manufacturers are guided by a policy of “apple” brand, so it is expected that the laptops to the port USB-C will soon become a mass phenomenon. This type of USB is used here for the sake of a small thickness of the laptop because of its size it is comparable to the Mini-USB. With it you can charge the laptop itself, and third-party device (phone, tablet) to connect external gadgets that transmit data at high speed, in addition, it replaces the video outputs HDMI, VGA, DisplayPort. Sounds, of course, beautiful, but in reality is not so rosy after all these promises are the need to purchase adapters. And, as you know, Apple accessories are just as expensive as any of their products. For example, to connect a USB flash drive, an adapter will have to acquire a $ 19 adapter to connect the monitor charging and – even more expensive – $ 79, etc. For many nets will be no magnetic power connector MagSafe, which, we believe, more than once saved the notebook from falling. However, let us also not finish on a minor note, but on the positive: the port USB-C, as well as the Lightning, allows you to insert the connector by either party, which certainly is very convenient to use.

Of course, the laptop Apple MacBook 12 are provided and wireless modules, in this case – Bluetooth 4.0 and Wi-Fi 802.11 a / b / g / n / ac.

Battery of Apple MacBook 12

As says the manufacturer, Apple engineers have achieved the impossible: to create a new type of battery, the capacity of which is enough to 9 hours on the Internet, and up to 10 hours playing movies in iTunes. The result of the lithium-polymer battery capacity of 39.7 Wh really happy, because in the Web-surfing with the included Wi-Fi and an average luminance level of the device to “live” without charging almost 9 hours. Accordingly, there is no reason to doubt the rosy promises of the manufacturer, the gadget is really capable of running an entire business day.

By the way, there is no Apple MacBook 12 fan. As mentioned above, the filling comprises the laptop very energy efficient processor that uses up to 4.5 W, and practically not heated, so there is no need to cool the body. However, developers of the special material layer were set under the motherboard, whereby the laptop runs silently and heat is dissipated in various directions. Thus, the body cool gadget remains stable regardless of the level of complexity of the tasks.

Conclusion of Apple MacBook 12

The new Apple MacBook 12 – is clearly a revolution, that’s just a small, with the prefix “mini”. This device manufacturer resumed range MacBook, which disappeared from the shelves many years ago. The laptop is extremely lightweight (920 g) and slim (1.3 cm at its thickest point). The 12-inch display has a resolution 2304h1440 points, high brightness and contrast, wide viewing angles. The keyboard and touchpad engineers realized their innovative ideas and concepts. So, instead of the traditional “scissor” mechanism is applied the effect of “butterfly” that provides a minimal tactile feedback while typing, but all subjective. With regard to the touchpad, it is electronic, and depending on the force pressing on it can perform various actions in applications. The battery is also the strength of the MacBook 12: During the daily work it can work with the laptop as a day without thinking of charging. Fanless and quiet we could not fail to note because it is – an integral part of the comfortable operation.

Another detail is the use of the new standard USB-C, which replaces all previously involved interfaces MacBook. Of course, it does have its advantages, but also disadvantages are also present. The biggest disadvantage – is the need to separately buy additional adapters, which, given the pricing Apple, will fly to the user in the “penny.”

Well, if you put aside the emotions, then we have the following: Apple MacBook 12 is positioned as a relatively inexpensive (in the concept of Apple, of course) laptop worth $ 1,299 (Intel Core M-5Y31 + 256GB SSD) or $ 1,599 (Intel Core M-5Y51 + 512GB SSD) (+ $ 250 for the version with a chip Intel Core M-5Y71). Unfortunately, the manufacturer fails to mention that to complete the work will have to buy a considerable number of adapters, which significantly increases the cost of the device. At the same time, a special performance of the gadget can not boast, and innovations implemented in it, like not all. By weight and dimensions, the laptop is not much different from the last model “Air” line – Apple MacBook Air 2014, except that the resolution of its display was better. So is it worth it?

Source: Apple

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