Apple’s next MacBook is 24 percent thinner than a MacBook Air, and weighs just 2 pounds. The company is just calling it the MacBook.

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The notebook has a 12 inch 2304 x 1440 pixel “Retina” display with edge-to-edge glass.

The new MacBook measure 13.1mm (0.5 inches) thick, features a unibody all-metal case, and a fanless design, making this the first MacBook without a fan.

The system is powered by a 5 watt Intel Core M processor and features a logic board that’s 67 percent smaller than any the company has used to date. The company says it used the extra space in the case to fit sheet-style batteries to offer up to 9 hours of battery life while surfing the web over WiFI.

There’s also a new backlit keyboard which is also edge-to-edge and slimmer than a typical keyboard thanks to a new “butterfly” mechanism behind each key.

There’s also a new Force Click trackpad with a glass surface, but support for tactile feedback and an adjustable click feel.

macbook type c

The new MacBook features 802.11ac WiFi and Bluetooth 4.0 — but what it doesn’t have are a lot of ports. In fact, there are just two: one for your headphones, and a single USB-C port that works for power, DisplayPort, VGA, HDMI. It uses a reversible USB-C connector.

macbook port

Want to charge your laptop and connect your monitor, mouse, or other device at the same time? You’ll need a $79 adapter (or a wireless display adapter, mouse, etc).

The laptop will be available in silver, grey, or gold colors.

The MacBook has a starting price of $1299 for a model with a 1.1 GHz processor, 8GB of RAM, and 256GB of solid state storage. It will launch April 10th.

A $1599 model is also available with a faster 1.2 GHz processor and 512GB of storage.

Apple will continue to offer MacBook and MacBook Air models for folks who want more power than you can get from Core M processor.

macbooks

The company is also updating the MacBook Air and MacBook Pro starting today — each family will now ship with 5th-gen Intel Core i5 or Core i7 Broadwell chips. The 13 inch models also get flash storage that’s twice as fast, the MacBook Pro 13 inch gets an extra hour of battery life (for a total of 10) and also gets the new Force TrackPad.

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10 replies on “Apple introduces a 2 pound, fanless MacBook for $1299 and up”

  1. Wow. I don’t know who their target market is… People who want the bragging rights of “my ultrabook is so thin, it doesn’t have room for USB plugs”?

    This is clearly a lifestyle-product, and not a usable PC. More-so than other Apple products.

  2. I really hope that USB-C supports powering thru a hub. Because if you have to choose between power or using perifferals that’s a huge fail. Especially if you are planning on ‘docking’ this thing at a desk.

  3. Without normal ports that’s no longer a laptop, just a tablet with keyboard. Core M is also very weak for practical usage. Keyboard with no travel is a very bad way to go. I think this is a hipster device unuseable for normal work.

  4. Always nice to see Apple push the envelope, but as usual the pricing is pretty steep; you could almost get two Asus UX305s for it, and the UX305 is getting great reviews.

      1. Was either that or a spellchecker gone rogue.

        Interesting to see how quickly they adopted the USB-C, btw. Didn’t expect that, given that they already had the whole Thunderbolt thing going.

        Edit: oh, and i would not mind seeing that pressure sensitivity thing show up on smartphones and tablet screens. Would make it possible to separate resting fingers from inputs.

        1. My guess is that Apple is going to keep Thunderbolt around, alot of their users are pretty invested in it.

          Apparently the USB consortium expects the USB-C connector to be able to support a PCI-e connection, which is essentially what Thunderbolt is (a PCI-e, displayport, and DC power connection all together).

          However, it isn’t really clear if the performance would match Thunderbolt, or if it would provide the same support for plugging devices in a daisy-chain fashion.

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