Hey guys this is Austin. It might be small but is the new MacBook worth it? A year later
the MacBook design hasn’t changed much for good and bad. On the plus side you’re getting
one seriously small laptop with a footprint that’s just barely bigger than an iPad.
The aluminum build still feels incredibly sturdy with no flex and the thinness really
does make it feel a step ahead of most other laptops. There are quite a few colors including
Silver, Space Gray, Gold and new for this year Rose Gold. It’s not hard to imagine
a future where nearly all laptops are this thin and light but you’ve got to make some
sacrifices. The port selection is about as basic as it gets with a headphone jack and
microphone on one side and a single USB-C port on the other. As ports go this is a pretty
full featured one that handles charging, USB 3 and video out however it’s not Thunderbolt
3 and having only one poses some problems. Something as simple as plugging a normal USB
device requires an adapter and if you want to charge the MacBook while also using a flash
drive you’ll also need an adapter. USB-C support is becoming more common though, for
example the Samsung T3 drive will work natively. What’s really cool is the Acer H7 which
not only supports a 1440p monitor over USB-C but it also will charge the MacBook and give
you a couple USB 3 ports. Not all USB-C cables are created equally though, for example the
included cable really only works for charging but being able to power your laptop, get display
out and a hub over one tiny cable is awesome. Where you’ll find the real upgrades though
are inside. If you open up the MacBook you’ll see it’s incredibly straightforward, there
are a series of slightly upgraded batteries that fill all the empty space along with the
logic board that houses literally everything including the processor, RAM and SSD. Here
you’ll find a Skylake based Intel Core M CPU which is passively cooled meaning there’s
no fan which makes the MacBook totally silent. Regardless of which model you go for you’re
getting eight gigabytes of memory which is slightly faster than before but you will find
a big improvement in the SSD. There are still 256 and 512 gig options but they’re significantly
faster than before especially when you compare write speeds. Unlike last year there’s actually
a fairly big difference when you upgrade. The base model comes with a Core m3 and 256
gigs of storage where the upgraded model bumps that up to a Core m5 and 512 gigabyte SSD.
While you’re getting fairly low base speeds the boost clocks bring it up to normal laptop
levels which you should be seeing for everything besides heavy tasks like gaming and editing.
There’s a pretty major difference in CPU performance in Geekbench where the mid spec
model is approaching the 13 inch MacBook Pro. The new MacBooks also have HD 515 graphics
which while not a huge change are still a modest improvement over last year. That means
you can actually do some video editing on the MacBook. While it’s not exactly meant
for it I edited this entire video on the Core m5 MacBook inside Final Cut and it works fine,
it gets a bit slow at times but considering this is 4K footage it’s really not bad.
It’s also capable of some light gaming as well. Titles like Tomb Raider aren’t officially
supported but if you turn the settings down you’re able to get it to be playable. It’s
the same story with Dota 2, on low it’s actually able to keep a perfectly respectable
frame rate. Older titles like Portal 2 are easy to run and Minecraft as always is no
problem, even on a relatively low powered system like this. Since it’s passively cooled
I wanted to see how warm it gets under load and surprisingly it’s really not bad, the
top of the keyboard does gets slightly warm but it’s not enough to be uncomfortable.
It might not be a gaming PC but it is impressive how well this works as a laptop. It’s got
a solid 12 inch screen with a resolution of 2304 by 1440 and it’s a really good display
with impressive viewing angles and color. You’re not giving up anything with the audio
either, the MacBook has some surprisingly good front firing speakers.
One area where the MacBook definitely falls short is with the webcam, it’s only a 480p
camera and as you can see it definitely leaves a lot to be desired. The keyboard is a little
different to most laptops though. It has wide, fairly shallow keys that take some getting
used to, there’s just not a ton of key travel. Considering the space constraints the keyboard
reaches all the way out to the edges with individual LED backlighting, most people will
get used to it easy enough but I still prefer a more normal keyboard. There’s absolutely
nothing to complain about with the trackpad though, not only is it huge for a laptop of
this size but the tracking is spot on and the Force Touch gestures make this by far
my favorite trackpad out there. There’s a lot to like with the MacBook, clearly Apple
spent a lot of time giving you a laptop in as small and light a package as possible without
sacrificing the essentials like the screen and battery life. The single USB-C port means
there’s no getting away from adapters any time soon though and the price means you really
are paying a premium for the tiny size. It’s a surprisingly good laptop but it’s meant
for a very specific person. Speaking of I recently spent some time with the new iPad
Pro to see if it can actually replace a laptop, definitely go check that video out and I will
catch you in the next one!