Apple Announces its Slimmest MacBook Yet

[MikeMurphy]

USB Type-C hubs. It's capable of 10 Gb/s, so daisy-chaining devices wouldn't be a problem, with the only inconvenience having to carry it around with you. But then again, it also makes the AC adapter smaller and less cumbersome so there's the trade-off there.

This is USB 3.0 implemented on USB Type-C. Therefore, it's only 5Gb/s.

 

[twilyth]

Use the new Macbook Air just like the old one - to slice, dice and even peel

 

[Aquinus]

Well, I like my 15" Macbook Pro with Retina. Granted it's a work laptop and our CEO is gung-ho on the Apple thing. I can't really complain about it since I didn't pay for it. I really couldn't personally justify buying anything short of a Mac Mini.

 

[Easy Rhino]

I thought that a 13" MBA was a nice device to develop and do work on, until work upgraded me to a 15" MBP with Retina and a larger SSD. If you take gaming out of the equation, it is by far one of the nicest laptops I've ever used. Regardless of what you're doing, Retina and OS X' scaling makes for a very nice picture. I really have no complains about retina scaling.

I am really jealous. I would love for my work to toss me a 15" macbook to do work on... They truly are the best notebooks out there.

 

[Aquinus]

I am really jealous. I would love for my work to toss me a 15" macbook to do work on... They truly are the best notebooks out there.

It's a beauty. I had a Macbook Air before with 4GB of memory and I was starting to run out of memory all the time nor could I work locally because of lack of resources (memory, disk space, under-powered CPU.) I've found running PostgreSQL on the MBP is almost as fast as the production server it runs on with respect to query speed.

 

[Easy Rhino]

It's a beauty. I had a Macbook Air before with 4GB of memory and I was starting to run out of memory all the time nor could I work locally because of lack of resources (memory, disk space, under-powered CPU.) I've found running PostgreSQL on the MBP is almost as fast as the production server it runs on with respect to query speed.

my work keeps buying us these Dells with i5s and 4 gigs of ram. They are OK I guess but I don't like doing real work on them.

 

[remixedcat]

Let's make a house with only one electrical outlet and one water tap. Nobody needs to shower and they only use one electrical device.

 

[Aquinus]

Let's make a house with only one electrical outlet and one water tap. Nobody needs to shower and they only use one electrical device.

That's a piss poor comparison and you know it. Also, if you were to need "more than one electrical outlet (sp. electrical circuit) or one water tap" then maybe you shouldn't be buying that house. You buy a device for what you need it for. It's like complaining that an iPad is not powerful enough to do what you need to on it. Well shame on you for buying an iPad. I find this to be somewhere between the Air and the iPad where someone just needs a mobile device, not connectivity. Once again, most people won't really give two craps about one port. For those of us who do, don't buy it, it's not geared towards you.

 

[Caring1]

Once again, most people won't really give two craps about one port. For those of us who do, don't buy it, it's not geared towards you.

I always use a wireless mouse, and never the touch pad, so obviously they don't want me to buy it.

 

[Aquinus]

I always use a wireless mouse, and never the touch pad, so obviously they don't want me to buy it.

No one is stopping you from using a wireless mouse, even more so if it's BlueTooth. Also Apple does have a BlueTooth mouse. Once again, you can point out things all day long but when push comes to shove, if the device doesn't offer what you want, then don't buy it. It's not like either of you even want a Mac anyways judging from your attitudes, so what does it matter? It's not even like you're the target audience.

 

[Uplink10]

Who needs to use USB key, USB mouse, USB keyboard, USB monitor, USB bluray drive while charging their laptops? MOST PEOPLE.

This is one of those moments: "You can`t make this up."

 

[Aquinus]

Who needs to use USB key, USB mouse, USB keyboard, USB monitor, USB bluray drive while charging their laptops? MOST PEOPLE.

Most people I know who own Macs don't need to do that because they use it as a mobile device. Rarely do I see people at work need to plug into more than 1 USB port and a monitor. Once again, this is targeting a particular market and if you really need a full blown docking station for your laptop, you're already outside of the intended audience for this laptop. Once again, you say "most people" when in reality, you're not most people...

I think most of you are missing the point of this laptop; and that isn't to say that I want one. I do agree that it's lacking expandability but, that's kind of the point considering it's designed to be similar to the Macbook Air, just lighter and more mobile. Apple is making consumers choose Retina or I/O and if they want both, your option is a MBP. If they gave you everything you wanted on the cheapest laptops they had, who would buy the expensive ones? It's called marketing...

 

[Uplink10]

Most people I know who own Macs don't need to do that because they use it as a mobile device.

Everyone needs at least 1 free USB port at all times. Apple gives too much attention to designers.

 

[DeadSkull]

If anything, it's the opposite. For some reason, Apple laptops hold their value like no other computer and are kept long beyond what most of us would consider obsolete. For example, a mid 2010 model with a Core 2 Duo CPU is inexplicably still worth $400 on eBay.

This. Apple laptops and computers really hold their value and don't depreciate as fast as PCs.

 

[DeadSkull]

Yes, @macintux is right. Apple has soldered a lot of things together and have made their newer models much harder to even get open. The batteries in the newer macs aren't a single module like it was in older models.

Take my current mac laptop for work, thanks to ifixit.com, we can have a peak at what's under the shell:
View attachment 63266

How many batteries do you count there are how do you figure they're wired in? It's not exactly as simple as replacing the battery like on a 2012 MBP:
View attachment 63267

There are a lot of factors that go into this, but the simple fact is, a smaller package won't always sport easily replaceable parts.

Which version is this? Looks like a 2014 MB 13" to me. At least the sad isn't soldered to the motherboard like the ram chips are.

 

[xorbe]

This. Apple laptops and computers really hold their value and don't depreciate as fast as PCs.

I never understood this. One person's argument was "good luck with the depreciation of your pc laptop!" When I get done with hardware, I can't even give that stuff away. Are these people selling and upgrading every 12-18 months. I can't imagine people paying decent bucks for 3 year old laptops -- these things have limited life spans, hinges / backlight / keys / ports / etc.

 

[remixedcat]

Thing is tho apple created this crappy target market. Hell,most apple die hards are loling at this "laptop" right now.

And this laptop is 1300$ so its not cheaper.

 

[Caring1]

It's not even like you're the target audience.

You're right, i'm no hipster, floral shirt wearing guy, working in an art design studio, in fact, most real men have probably never used Apple devices, leaving them to the collared shirt brigade sitting in their offices and admiring their manicure and shiny shoes.

 

[remixedcat]

also they create bad fads. we don't need more crocs or uggs or crap like that... this laptop is the crocs of the laptop world

 

[Aquinus]

And this laptop is 1300$ so its not cheaper.

I didn't say it was cheaper, I said it was on the same level as the Air. The MB gives you retina and no connectivity. The MBA gives you connectivity but no retina. MBP gives you both. It's marketing, man. Did you not read my last post?

Apple is making consumers choose Retina or I/O and if they want both, your option is a MBP. If they gave you everything you wanted on the cheapest laptops they had, who would buy the expensive ones? It's called marketing...

You're right, i'm no hipster, floral shirt wearing guy, working in an art design studio, in fact, most real men have probably never used Apple devices, leaving them to the collared shirt brigade sitting in their offices and admiring their manicure and shiny shoes.

I don't see how making stereotypes is appropriate. You're not adding to the discussion, you're just adding discourse. Let's keep the conversation civil and productive, shall we?

also they create bad fads. we don't need more crocs or uggs or crap like that... this laptop is the crocs of the laptop world

I'm not disagreeing with you on this one. All I'm saying is that it's a marketing scheme to make people try and buy a MBP if they want both Retina and I/O. I said nothing about agreeing with this. None of this changes the fact that Apple builds a good laptops whether or not you want to admit it or not. If you exclude price and just look at the laptops themselves, you have to admit, a lot of effort has gone into their design. I think that one thing that we all agree on here is that the price is too steep for a laptop with so little. I'm just trying to explain why I think they did it.

 

[Prima.Vera]

At my work I need to use all the time an RSA USB hardware token, plus USB storage like flash dongles, plus charger, plus at least 1 more monitor. Already counted 4 mandatory ports...
Apple, seriously??

 

[DanielLim]

Apple announced its slimmest MacBook yet, equipped with the Retina display. Barely ripping the scales at 1 kg, just 13.1 mm thin (at its thickest point). Dressed in an all-metal unibody, including the antenna. Bolstered by a slimmer "butterfly" keyboard that's slimmer and more precise; and a new 12-inch Retina display with 2304 x 1440 pixels resolution; and a slimmer Taptic-engine backed trackpad. The best part? It's versatile connector that combines power, USB-C (10 Gb/s), DisplayPort, Thunderbolt, and more.

Under the hood, the MacBook Retina features a completely fanless design, and a logic board that's 67% smaller than the previous generation. The notebook is driven by an Intel Core M processor (5W TDP). With a new space-efficient layered battery, it offers 24-hour battery life, including 10 hours video playback. Storage is care of a 256 GB PCIe SSD. Connectivity includes 802.11 ac and Bluetooth 4.0. And then there's OS X "Yosemite." The MacBook Retina comes in silver, space-gray, and gold. Prices start at US $1,299 for the base-model with 8 GB RAM, 1.1-2.4 GHz processor, 256 GB SSD storage; and $1,599 for a 1.2-2.6 GHz processor, 8 GB of RAM, and 512 GB storage.

The one USB port feature is really bothersome. I checked out adapters for this USB Type-C and they can be quite expensive

 

[Aquinus]

I never understood this. One person's argument was "good luck with the depreciation of your pc laptop!" When I get done with hardware, I can't even give that stuff away. Are these people selling and upgrading every 12-18 months. I can't imagine people paying decent bucks for 3 year old laptops -- these things have limited life spans, hinges / backlight / keys / ports / etc.

My parents bought a used MBP with an i7 in it for 400 USD. It's just as fast as just about every other laptop on the market now, the only difference is battery life isn't as good as laptops now.

At my work I need to use all the time an RSA USB hardware token, plus USB storage like flash dongles, plus charger, plus at least 1 more monitor. Already counted 4 mandatory ports...
Apple, seriously??

It clearly take a special brand of person to buy hardware that doesn't suit their needs. Clearly you don't understand the comment:

Most people I know who own Macs don't need to do that because they use it as a mobile device. Rarely do I see people at work need to plug into more than 1 USB port and a monitor. Once again, this is targeting a particular market and if you really need a full blown docking station for your laptop, you're already outside of the intended audience for this laptop. Once again, you say "most people" when in reality, you're not most people...

I would get off your high horse and stop acting like your needs are the needs of the majority of the market, which it is not. If you need that much and you buy a new MB, then once again, shame on you for buying the wrong product for your needs. The narrow sightedness and anti-Apple mentality in this thread is astonishing. Even more so when most of the people commenting are people who've already stated that they would never use a Mac anyways.

 

[twilyth]

Obviously at least some people need the additional connectivity, otherwise why have a dongle that acts as a port expander? Not only that, at $80, the dongle represents a 6% increase over the purchase price of $1300. So maybe it has less to do with "design" and more to do with bending people over the sink.

 

[Aquinus]

Obviously at least some people need the additional connectivity, otherwise why have a dongle that acts as a port expander? Not only that, at $80, the dongle represents a 6% increase over the purchase price of $1300. So maybe it has less to do with "design" and more to do with bending people over the sink.

I do think that at least 2 USB ports, much like the MBA, should be on the adapter and the adapter should come with the laptop IMHO. Wanting more than one display though, that's grounds for a Macbook Pro. I think everyone knows that there is a premium price to be had with Apple's products though. At least we're starting to see more PCs with high DPI displays on the market. For a while, Apple was the only company doing it on laptops.