Macbook 12" - Anyone getting one?

b0rn2sk8 said:
While I agree with you that it has serious compromises, if you just want something tiny and fancy to 'go on-line' (like most apple users) then its perfect.

Just because it is not for you, does not mean is is not for most people. Most people is what Apple cater for.
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The verge review (or was it engadget?) said that performance suffered with ten tabs open so even as a 'just to go online' computer it doesn't work.
 
chex said:
It was but it was also one of the first laptops with SSD as standard and everyone thought the performance was great. We can't say the same about the macbook.
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The original MacBook Air had very little in the way of ports and an 80GB IDE drive. It was far from a good performer.
 
You all know a new one will come out within the next two years with bumped up specs, like the Macbook Air did. You don't HAVE to buy it now if it is not what you want.
 
chex said:
The verge review (or was it engadget?) said that performance suffered with ten tabs open so even as a 'just to go online' computer it doesn't work.
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Like I said normal people, normal people don't have 10 tabs going at once.

I do completely agree thought that it is far too expensive. Especially when you can pick up the ASUS version for £600 with actual ports but is slightly thicker.
 
Somnambulist said:
Given a couple of years and a refresh or two and it'll be the model most regular people buy - the function will catch up to the form and the price will drop. Same as the original Air. Never pays to get first-gen Apple anything most of the time (people still do though).
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This. Would love the form factor but unfortunately it's not for me, yet.
 
You're never going to have a laptop this form factor rammed with ports and multiple usb slots. It defeats the purpose and won't be slim.
 
I wouldn't call it being 'rammed' to have 2-3 usb-c ports. Or even a USB 3 port.

It's a bit silly to release something that is compatible with absolutely nothing without a dongle. Releasing something before it's useful is not 'innovation'.
 
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Look at how thin the macbook air is. You can't have more than 2 USB slots on the side. Just not possible?

Then people complain when apple go with something like a Thunderbolt port. You just can't have it both ways.
 
The only space for ports is literally where the USB-C and headphone jack are already - if people paid attention to the 'under the hood'...

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Compare this to the MBA:
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IIRC the new Macbook's board is smaller than the Raspberry Pi.
 
Somnambulist said:
The only space for ports is literally where the USB-C and headphone jack are already - if people paid attention to the 'under the hood'....
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Ahh, and it is these people that forced Apple to have this design, correct :rolleyes:?

Also why should any user care whats under the hood, if it doesn't meet someones needs it not their fault now is it, and I understand that their is a lot of other laptops but everyone wants the new hotness.

I mean if it means its 2mm wider and gets an extra USB-C thats a huge difference I feel. Not only is USB-C not really used for anything yet, you need to dongle if you want to charge + use something else, the battery life in most reviews gets 7 - 8hours on their simple video tests so real work would be a lot less meaning it can't last a day.
 
Apple always get rid of stuff earlier than competitors and it always winds people up whether it's Flash, optical drives, ethernet ports, etc. The Macbook is where they see general consumer laptops going in the next few years - it's not like they're forcing anyone to buy it since they're still selling two other lines - stripping things down to the bare essentials of screen, keyboard, display. Back in 2008 when the Air came out, the white Macbook was cheaper, more powerful and sold more. It wasn't until 2010/11 that the Air went down in price and became what we know now, killing off the white Macbook. 2015 and the roles have reversed.

Battery life will get better, speed will improve (the Retina 5K iMac is first-gen and can stutter/lag a bit too, despite being way more powerful), but the design philosophy won't change. If we look at what people (average joe) actually use ports for:

USB memory sticks - cloud-based file-hosting services are making these more unecessary as internet access is also increasingly 24/7, and things like the new Photos app on OSX mean whatever you take on your iPhone/iPad is uploaded anyway. Music is streamed. Media professionals who need to transfer large video/audio/image files will be using a MBP (hence why no Thunderbolt on the Macbook) anyway.

Headsets - wireless/bluetooth headsets are taking over (e.g. the new Beats which come in matching silver/gold/space grey for the Macbook).

Webcams - all built in now

Restoring a device - Internet Recovery

Large external storage - how many people carry large drives around with them these days other than perhaps media professionals (covered above)? Again, music, photos etc are cloud-based/streamed.

USB mice - who uses these now? Out and about, who even uses a bluetooth/wireless one?

External monitor - probably the only compelling use case but even then, using people like my sister as an example, she doesn't have room in her flat for a desk and sits on the sofa with her Air. Most people I know who have an external laptop for their display have a specific reason for it that goes beyond web/email/skype etc.

SD card slot - people with DSLRs etc will be wanting more than a barebones computer (i.e. not the Macbook). Average joe takes his photos with his phone.

The people actually NEED ports I suspect are the sort of people that require a more powerful machine anyway (hello MBP).
 
I don't know about you guys but if really need to whip out my laptop/MacBook in public (starbucks for example). I have a usb stick in there at most. Not like I'm running a 10 port hub with lava lamps and mini desk fans attached. :p
 
I like magsafe too and would miss it if they took it away on the rest of their range.

One thing I'm wondering is what kind of adapter is required to simply plug in a normal USB stick... I expect Apple will be pushing for Type-C USB sticks to hit the market... but is there even an adapter on the power cable?

The inability to simply connect a USB stick & power at the same time seems like a peculiar issue...
 
The Power cable is just a USB-C cable.

There's a £15 adapter cable, which is just USB-C to USB type A.

For Power and USB you need one of the multiport adapters with a Power, USB type A and either HDMI or VGA at an eye watering £65. There's no sign of one with Mini DisplayPort as yet.

Magsafe is brilliant, this is a bit of a backwards step. Apples intention with the MacBook is for a machine that you use like an iOS device and charge when it's low/overnight and use standalone all day.
 
MagicBoy said:
Magsafe is brilliant, this is a bit of a backwards step. Apples intention with the MacBook is for a machine that you use like an iOS device and charge when it's low/overnight and use standalone all day.
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I believe this to be their plan (they even come in the same colours!) - everything in the cloud, accessible across all apple devices via iCloud so no need to have USB sticks etc...
 
Despite having lots of Apple kit in our house including a rMBP I've just picked an XPS13 for out and about use. Feels like a much more rounded package.
 
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