The new 12-inch Macbook, wonderful and annoying

Published on 4 June 2015

To keep up the tradition of the Apple-fan Paingout, here's my little review of the new Macbook, released a few weeks ago, and freshly available. As always (I don't know why I always give the warning), I won't get into the technical details, firstly because I'm not a specialist (well, actually a little, but I'm a modest boy), and secondly because on this machine, you'll cover the ground quickly. I know you like it when I pull the "why it's good" and "why it's not good" trick on you, so I'm going to do that once again.

First a little intro, we're looking here at a Macbook with a 12-inch screen. It's not a Macbook Air, but this Macbook is nonetheless much thinner and lighter than a Macbook Air. To tell you everything, it's even thinner and lighter than the 11-inch Macbook Air, which has a smaller screen. To put it simply, we're looking here at an improbable product, which bets absolutely everything on thinness and lightness, and absolutely not on performance. The target is clearly the mobile user who already has a big Mac at home, or those who really don't need to do any photo or video editing at all. Alright, here we go!

WHAT'S TOP GIGA COOL: – The size of the device, it's tiny, you don't feel it in your bag, it's just insane. – The screen, unlike the Macbook Airs, here we have a Retina screen, so the work surface is really pleasant, and obviously it's aesthetically top-notch. – The keyboard, sometimes criticized, in use it's frankly pleasant, even if the key travel is short. – The overall design of the device, in addition to the classic light gray, it's available in dark gray and gold, to match your little bourgeois iPhone 6. – The trackpad, equipped with ForceTouch technology, allows several levels of pressure. For now it's pretty little used by apps, but that should come. In the meantime the click is pleasant, really.

WHAT'S ANNOYING: – The ports. I'm the first to defend Apple when they make radical choices about changes to plugs, cables, etc. But this is still a bit annoying. Basically there's only one port left, USB-C, not classic USB then. In itself that's not a big deal, but this port is also used to charge the device, so you can't plug something into your Mac while leaving it plugged into the wall. Annoying, even if you get used to it. At my level it mostly bugs me not to have an SD port to read my memory cards, so it quickly becomes annoying, what with the external reader, the USB adapter, etc. At a minimum they should have put two USB-C ports. – The slowness. This mac is silent, it has no fan, and the cooling system is really minimalist, which forces Apple to use a processor that's also very minimalist, and therefore frankly very slow. So it's not uncommon for the system to lag a bit, even doing simple tasks. Processing videos takes ages, and even photos are a bit annoying (but you get used to it…)

THERE YOU GO. Honestly, you can't recommend this Mac to the general public, too limited, too annoying, too expensive too (1450 for the base version), for really lame performance. It's a little luxury product, that goes alongside your existing Mac, or for those who really have just one single need, going on the Internets and doing a bit of office work now and then. If you've got the cash, go for it, otherwise wait a bit huh, or buy a classic Macbook Air.

Photo credit: Apple

By Paingout