Apple’s 12-Inch MacBook Proves To Be A Compelling Ultraportable

Apple’s updated 12-inch MacBook has received mostly good reviews. Wired gave the ultraportable notebook a 9/10 rating.

“But for the most part, the world is ready for a beautiful, thin, light laptop with a great screen, a weird keyboard, and exactly one port. It’s an online world.”

The review adds that the MacBook may not be the laptop the world is ready for, but the MacBook is the laptop it needs. Indeed, when you hold the MacBook, it’s almost impossible to put it down. It’s impossible to take your eyes off the gorgeous screen, as well.

After using the MacBook extensively for one week, it feels like the dream laptop. Indeed, if you are a blogger who does some office work, internet surfing, and light Photoshop work, it’s the best choice for an ultraportable right now. It’s even great for viewing HD and 4K videos.

The MacBook doesn’t have a touchscreen like the Surface Pro 4, Dell XPS 13, or even the Samsung TabPro S. However, the Force Touch trackpad, which outdoes that of any notebook on the market, more than makes up for the lack of touchscreen, which would have made the MacBook thicker.

Then, there is the controversial keyboard, which does take a day or two to get used to. However, once your fingers adjust to the larger keys and lack of travel, you’ll never want to go back to another keyboard. The keys feel custom made for your fingers to conquer, and even though there is barely any key travel, your fingertips don’t feel anything that resembles uncomfortableness.

Of course, there is the issue of the ports — or better stated, lack of ports. The MacBook has just one USB-C port. In order to connect a USB-3 flash drive, you’ll need to buy an adapter that costs about $20. Then, you won’t be able to use the power supply at the same time. However, the MacBook battery life, which is a minor improvement from 2015’s model, provides at least eight hours of use for power users. It’s doubtful that you will need to charge the MacBook and use a flash drive at the same time.

The MacBook is top-notch as a multimedia machine, especially because of the sound, which is rich and provides actual “thumps” from bass. The sound is similar to that of the MacBook Pro, although it doesn’t get as loud. Still, listening to EDM music on the MacBook is a pleasure when there aren’t any speaker systems nearby.

Although 2016’s MacBook is slightly more powerful than 2015’s debut version, it does have its limits. If you are a graphic designer, you may be able to do some work on the MacBook, but expect it to be slow. If you are a HD or 4K video editor, the MacBook certainly isn’t your device. And if you are a heavy gamer, turn away from the MacBook — now!

However, the MacBook represents the future of computing. You won’t need a huge SSD drive — everything will be stored on Dropbox or some other cloud storage. You won’t need a powerful processor to edit photos — they will be done online as well. If the MacBook doesn’t make sense to you right now, it certainly will in a couple of years.

[Photo via Daryl Deino]