MacBook Review

MacBook

Summary

Apple deserves credit for improving the MacBook's battery life and disk speeds, but other than that, this is, for better and worse, the same machine as last year's model. If you previously shied away from the 12-inch MacBook because of the "one port" thing, this still isn't the laptop for you. But if portability and screen quality are a priority above else, you can take comfort in knowing that this year's version is just as good in that respect, and that the performance is materially better.

It appears that some of my fellow tech reviewers tested the new MacBook in something other than this new rose-gold color. I happen to have the pink version, as you can see, and I'm glad for that: This is Apple's first rose-gold Mac, and there's news value there. If I'm honest, though, this is not the color I would have purchased for myself. The dusty mauve shade we have here reminds me only of things I don't want: a Barbie Dream House, ballet slippers and Elle Woods' wardrobe in Legally Blonde. This color wasn't my favorite even when it debuted on the iPhone, but on the Mac, where everything but the bezels and keys are pink, it's just too much. When I use it in public or at the office I feel like I have to explain myself. No, I am not actually this girly, I want to say.

Luckily for me, if I were in the market for a MacBook, I could still buy it in all the usual colors: silver, gold and my personal favorite, space gray. Ladies (or gents, even), if you do indeed want a rose-gold Mac to match your rose-gold iPhone, knock yourselves out.

As I said, that new color option aside, this is, for better and worse, the same hardware Apple introduced last year. There's still but one port on the left side: a USB Type-C socket you'll use both to charge the device and attach whatever optional adapters you choose to buy. The sound coming out of the stereo speakers above the keyboard continues to surprise me, both for its loudness and relative balance.

The 12-inch Retina display, meanwhile, still combines deep contrast, bright colors and some very high pixel density (that 2,304 x 1,440 resolution comes out to 226 pixels per inch). Once again too, this is the display I really wish I could have on the 13-inch MacBook Air -- you know, the one where I can still get a built-in full-size USB port to charge my phone.

Given that I'm used to dividing my time between a 13-inch MacBook Air and 21.5-inch iMac, the 12-inch panel here feels a little too small for me, personally -- at least for extended use. (As I type this review in a browser tab, I have one eye on Slack, so clearly this setup is usable, even if it's not ideal.) That said, it occurred to me during this second round of testing that I might be able to work this tiny Mac into my lifestyle after all. What I realize now is that in addition to being well-suited for travel, the MacBook also makes for the perfect "thing I take to meetings" device. At 2 pounds, it's so light that I can easily balance it in one hand without even having to shut the lid. This makes it easy to stop what I'm doing, hurry to a conference room and immediately be ready to take notes.

I can envision a setup in which I use an adapter to keep the laptop hooked up to an external monitor when it's parked at my desk. The thing is, I happened to cross paths with our company IT guy while I was working on this review, and once he heard what I was testing, he just shook his head. Unless Apple adds another port, preferably a full-size one, using the MacBook for work is a no-go. So while my fantasy is a nice idea, it's just not meant to be. Maybe you can swing it, though.

Keyboard and trackpad

I also felt more at home this time using the flat keyboard and Force Touch trackpad, even though neither has actually changed since I reviewed the first-generation version a year ago. I partly thank muscle memory for that. Even though I hadn't used the 12-inch MacBook since the week I spent with it last year, I clearly hadn't forgotten how to type on the flat keys. That bodes well for people who will actually buy this: If I can make progress on the learning curve in just a week, and still have retained the muscle memory after a year of not using it, imagine how comfortable one would get if this were her primary keyboard.

Even then, the learning curve is gentler than you might think. That's because the buttons only look flat. Under the surface, each keycap is propped up by what Apple calls a "butterfly" mechanism that lowers the entire key evenly each time you strike a button with your finger. This is a departure from conventional keyboards, where the common "scissor" keycap design means there's always gong to be a chance that one side of the keycap will hit the bottom before a press can actually register. That's why on other ultraportables I test, I often complain that the keyboards don't always "hear" me the first time, forcing me to either mash the buttons or frequently go back and retype stuff.

That wasn't a problem here. Though the buttons are nearly flush with the keyboard deck, they're actually quite springy and responsive. It helps too that the backlit buttons have 17 percent more surface area than on other MacBooks, which makes it that much easier to hit your intended key.

As for the trackpad, its Force Touch technology means that what used to be a clickable button has been replaced by a hard, fixed surface that uses a vibration motor to simulate "clicks" when the machine is turned on. (Power it off and you'll find the touchpad doesn't move at all.) It's also pressure-sensitive, allowing you to do things like push down extra-hard to preview an image in Finder or fast-forward through a movie in QuickTime at 60x.

Even a year after the technology came out, those hard "force clicks" continue to feel awkward; I sometimes have to try more than once to pull off the trick that I meant to. That said, I've warmed up to this touchpad when it comes to everyday use: "clicking" when I'm not really clicking anything. No, it still doesn't feel the same as the trackpad on the MacBook Air, but that's OK. In my case, I have the iMac's new Magic Trackpad to thank: It uses the same Force Touch technology as the MacBook. For everyone else as well, I suspect that Force Touch will feel more normal with time. After all, the MacBook Pros already have the same touchpad, and I wouldn't be surprised if the MacBook Air one day followed suit.