Apple Event Roundup: Apple Watch, New MacBook

Cook next spoke about the Mac. He announced a reinvention of the notebook and showcased a new MacBook line. Phil Schiller was brought to the stage to discuss the new MacBook range.

The new product weighs two pounds, is 13.1mm thick and is the lightest Mac Apple has ever made. Even at its thickest point, it is just 13.1mm thin, it was announced that it is the thinnest ever, being 24% thinner than 11-inch MacBook Air.

The new MacBook comes in an all metal enclosure with a full-sized keyboard, made with a new design not based upon the scissor mechanism that is currently used in keyboards but rather a new butterfly mechanism. A new back lighting system is also in place for the keyboard, while the display for the new Mac is a full 12” retina 2304 x 1440, this equates to 3.3 million pixels. Apple say it is the thinnest and most energy efficient display that Apple has made.

It also sports a new trackpad is called Force Touch. Force sensors and a Tactic engine (technology from Apple Watch) are included in the design. The new trackpad is software adjusted and the Force Click feature will accomplish different things depending upon the software used.

The new Macbook is powered by an Intel Core M, 5th Generation, 4nm processor with speeds up to 1.3 GHz.  The design team at Apple have created batteries in sheets that can be terraced with contoured shapes to fit more inside the casing. Interestingly the new MacBook works upon a fan-less technology and because there is no fan, it is completely silent. Only time will tell about any heating issues this may cause. The new computer will come with 802.11ac and Bluetooth 4.0. The really cool feature about the new product, is the power connection point; the new range of macs are USB-C compliant and they will support USB, DisplayPort, Power charging, HDMI and VGA all from a single port.

The new Mac line up will come in Silver, Space Grey and “stunning gold” with a 12-inch display, 8GB memory, 256 GB SSD and a starting price of $1,299. Or if you prefer, $1,599 for the faster processor and twice the internal storage of 512 SSD. The new Macbook line up will begin shipping April 10. 

Schiller also mentioned an update to the existing MacBook line up; the MacBook Air is being updated to Thunderbolt 2 and the MacBook Pro with two times faster flash and will sport the new force pad trackpad. It will also come with all-day battery life to boot.