Apple announced its new thinner, lighter, smarter MacBook today in a true Apple fashion.
Apple took everyone by surprise by announcing its new laptop at the "Apple's Spring Forward" event. According to Engadget, Apple unveiled a brand new and much-anticipated upgrade to the MacBook Air besides providing more details on its new smart watch.
Engadget notes that the new MacBook is not actually an upgrade to the Air and it exists as an entirely new product line that is separate from the Apple MacBook Pro, as well as the Apple MacBook Air. As far as the price is concerned, at $1,299 its not the best choice for people looking for a budget friendly laptop. However, the new MacBook is an apt choice for those who demand the thinnest and the lightest possible design from Apple, without compromising on the screen quality.
According to Apple, the new MacBook is 13.1 mm thin, weighs 2 lbs and sports a 12-inch retina display, making it an easy-to-carry and ideal choice for those who are always on the run.
The new MacBook will be available in three color choices, Space Gray, Gold and Silver.
Apple realizes the importance of a comfortable, full-size keyboard for a great notebook experience. The tech giant had to completely rethink how a keyboard is constructed and engineered in order to for one into the uber-thin new MacBook. According to Apple, the company redesigned each key and its underlying mechanism thus making the whole keyboard a lot thinner and also enabling more precise, responsive and comfortable typing experience.
Engadget noted with the Retina display, redesigned keyboard and pressure-sensitive track pad, the new MacBook is not for everyone. Although it clearly shares the same DNA as the other Apple range of laptops, however it is so much lighter as compared to the Air. Weighing just 2 lbs, it makes the Air feel like a heavy, old laptop. In fact, the new MacBook is almost as light as the "world's lightest laptop" that Lenovo showed off at CES, in fact the build quality is far superior here. The tech giant was able to get the weight down without using cheap-feeling materials and this alone is no small feat.
In addition, the track pad too received an update. Still a spacious glass surface, the track pad still excels at all the basic stuff such as two-finger scrolling and single-finger scrolling. Not only that, it's now pressure sensitive too. For instance, users can press and hold their finger down over an address in Mail to see a map pop up.
According to TechCrunch, in the new MacBook, a lone USB-C port will handle the charging, date input as well as video out. Apple introduced a series of accessories for the USB-C port in the new MacBook to enable recharging an iPhone and the laptop at the same time. In order to use a standard USB cable, this $19 adapter will be needed. Cost $79, both the USB-C Digital and VGA adapters each add another USB-C port, a standard USB port as well as an HDMI or VGA output, respectively.
