You hold it in your hands and do not believe your eyes. This laptop should not exist. Subtle, mesmerizing, and unlike any other. So many possibilities, and innovations in one device. What can he do? Why is he better than others? And why is it unique? Let’s get acquainted: this is a MacBook 12 inch m7 with a Retina display. 

History repeats itself MacBook 12 inch m7

Disgruntled people can be heard from the back rows. Like, what is the future here, with one port, with such and such a processor? This is fine.

The MacBook Air has always seemed to be the pinnacle of portable laptop design – a true ideal of a working “companion” that will help you create a document, deal with mail, and even edit photos from a video. The weight, the shape, the features, the battery life… everything about it was just right. The only thing that did not suit me was the display with an outdated resolution and small viewing angles.

To our requests to fix the situation, Apple was silent for many years. A month ago, she finally answered, having made another revolution. But a lot of people didn’t recognize it. We will notice the fruits only in a year or two, and after three we will begin to remember this particular laptop with a warm word.

Why? We just kind of forgot.

In 2008, the MacBook Air was viewed as a toy . For the rich. It was small, weak by the standards of other laptops, and had just a microscopic number of ports.

It also lacked a DVD drive and an Ethernet port – a death sentence for any laptop of those times. He was very warm, barely played the video and did not meet the requirements of “advanced users”. So it was expensive and became the butt of many jokes.

It was so? It was.

In the yard of 2015. Today, every second portable computer looks like a MacBook Air. Apple saw the future in completely different technologies and did not hesitate to bring it closer on its shoulders. Agree: DVDs are no longer needed, two ports are enough for us, as long as there is fast Wi-Fi nearby. And it is almost everywhere: at home, in a cafe, at work. Nobody sticks Ethernet into their laptop, cuts discs to transfer files. The future that was not believed in in 2008 has come.

We have already forgotten how in 2011 the macbook 12 inch m7 became the most affordable laptop in the Apple lineup, displacing the plastic, heavy and already unusually “nameless” 13-inch MacBook. Air became the market vector for the next 4 years, capturing a huge share and becoming for many the very first computer with an apple logo.

Air, along with the iPhone, and then with the iPad, began a revolution in wireless technologies and brought them to the masses, where the idea was picked up and replicated by other manufacturers. The task of the device is completed one hundred percent. So, it’s time for a new revolution.

The 12-inch MacBook I’m holding is the future of computing that Apple believes in. A response to years of Microsoft’s attempts to promote the idea of ​​a “hybrid”, a tablet-computer. A huge set of cutting-edge ideas, many of which will soon become the standard and lead thousands of electronics manufacturers – and its users. Apple understands this very well, and therefore it was not in vain that they called it simply MacBook. I didn’t add “Air” there, I didn’t add anything about “Retina display”.

This is a “reboot” of the company’s laptops, a clean slate from which a new album of MacBook history begins. 

Breathtakingly thin

Even at its thickest point, it looks more like a tablet than a full-fledged computer. It is worth opening it – and it seems that something is simply missing in it. Maybe it just doesn’t have a battery? Or is it actually a tablet, and a keyboard “dock” is attached to it …

But no. At the top, a bright, high-contrast, ultra-clear Retina display with anti-reflective coating and black bezels. Below – a decent “stuffing”, the thinnest keyboard, a full-fledged operating system, an incredible touchpad, separate LED backlighting, 9 hours of battery life, the best speakers in Apple laptops since the 15-inch MacBook Pro. In the hands, it is almost the same as the first generation iPad. Only maybe 10 times more.

Exact dimensions of macbook 12 inch m7

Thickness: 0.35 – 1.31 cm
Length: 28.05 cm
Width: 19.65 cm
Weight: 0.92 kg

The minimal thickness is a visual advantage that gives the laptop a futuristic look. In fact, it is slightly thicker than it looks, being on the table.

But no one cares about this, because there are no analogues.

On one side is a USB Type-C port, and on the other side are two microphones and a headphone jack. Nothing else, no full-sized USB, no separate output for an external display or Thunderbolt port. Gone is the much-loved, legendary magnetic lock for the charging port – MagSafe with LED indicator. It’s a pity, of course. Now be careful not to hit the cable – knocking this laptop to the floor is ten times easier than the old models.

It is amazing that so much new stuff fits in such a thin case. The 2016 macbook 12 inch m7 is all about innovative ideas and technology. For starters, Apple went over the keyboard with a roller.

Ultra slim click keyboard

The height of the keys has decreased several times. Now they practically do not protrude above the body, and it has become much more difficult to find them. The shape of the buttons themselves has also changed: they have become larger and have lost the “concave” shape that directed the fingers to the center.

The new form is adjacent to the changed pressing mechanism. Now it’s more like a click: as if you are pressing the buttons, and not the keys in the keyboard. The buttons themselves do not flex from the corners, working equally from the very edge and from the center. The first impression is strange. And the sound is not the most familiar: a deaf and soulless knock.

Initially, I considers the new keyboard to be the biggest drawback of this laptop. It takes a very long time to get use to it after the usual one in Mac. But the more you print on it, the more you see its advantages. The keys travel a shorter distance when pressed, which makes it possible to jump from letter to letter faster, spending less time on each key.

In just two days, I managed to learn how to print on it at a subjectively the same speed as before. But I missed most of the time.

Many have noticed the changed key layout: large power and Escape buttons, enlarged side arrows. Instagram even asked if Apple went too far with the sizes, because now it’s so easy to miss them? The answer is – not once in all the time I missed any of the top buttons. 

It’s just physically impossible, or you need to have fingers the size of a fist. Another thing is that the new size of the letter keys takes some getting used to. You will often make mistakes at first if you are used to touch typing on other Macbooks.

Too bad the keyboard on the macbook 12 inch m7 doesn’t make that nice, almost soothing clacking sound – I’m going to miss it. But just as much I miss the high speed typing, typing these words on a regular Air with a standard keyboard. You can definitely get used to it, this is the most important thing.

Force Touch touchpad with virtual pressure

The main difference with the new MacBook Touch Bar is that it doesn’t press like a physical button. Instead of a real “click”, you feel the feedback of the advanced Taptic Engine vibration motor, the analogue of which is installed in the Apple Watch. This motor is able to imitate the sensations of pressing so high quality that the vast majority of “makovods” with experience will not distinguish it from the usual one the first time. He also recognizes the force of pressure.

In operation, the new touchpad is practically no different from the old one, except for the ability to press in the upper corners (previously it was impossible to do this). I did not experience any discomfort and did not notice that my work rhythm has changed in any way with the transition from physical buttons to virtual ones.

The presence of a feedback motor allows Apple to implement interesting “chips” in programs for OS X. For example, the harder you press on the touchpad in the QuickTime application, the faster the movie or music track scrolls. Unfortunately, there are very few applications available today that support this technology. I really look forward to when it is implementing in some Photoshop.

In a year, all Apple laptops will equippe with the Force Touch touchpad. So Apple has clearly spent a lot of time perfecting this technology. I can confidently say that they succeeded. The only moment that, perhaps, is observed only in my MacBook.

With strong pressure on the panel, the entire case begins to weakly, but noticeably sag. It is so thin that it cannot resist 🙂 It does not pull on a minus, since the pressure must apply not weak, and in everyday work it will not be.

Front speakers brought to the body

It’s just a bomb. I can say with confidence that the speakers in the 12-inch MacBook tuck the entire Airline (11-inch and 13-inch models) into the belt, as well as at least the 13-inch MacBook Pro with Retina display. They must hear live: with their microscopic size. They manage to play loud, clear, clear, and even emit something similar to low frequencies – bass!

If you turn up the volume on your macbook 12 inch m7 and invite guests, they will never believe that a miniature, ultra-slim laptop can make such a sound. Apple has done some magic here. A huge role in improving sound quality is play. The fact is that speakers are brought directly to the body and place above the keyboard unit, with their own zone and perforations.

Movies and music demonstrate a noticeable stereo effect (on such and such a baby!), And the sound seems to be streaming directly from the display, and not from somewhere inside the laptop. Some portable bluetooth speakers play worse 😉

Independent illumination of each key

An unexpected change in the new MacBook that no one foresaw. Now under each key there is a miniature LED that illuminates only this button. This decision has two pluses: obvious and not so. The first one is literally visible to the naked eye: if the backlight in old MacBooks looked like this …

Then in the new macbook 12 inch m7 it is as smooth as possible, practically does not “peep” over the edges of the keys:

As a result, energy efficiency has increased (less light goes nowhere) and the uniformity of button illumination. There should no longer be any “dark” zones under the letters. All this concerns the obvious advantages, but there is one more.

The fact is that now Apple can technically control the backlighting of each key in the MacBook. This possibility has not yet implements in any way, but it still exists. As well as ideas for implementation: for example, you can create an application for learning keyboard shortcuts in OS X, which will highlight the learned keyboard shortcuts.

The new type of backlighting (in theory) will also allow you to partially dim some keys and increase the brightness of others in certain applications – for example, dimming a row of F-buttons when typing in TextEdit. In general, the new system has a lot of advantages, many of which have yet to be implemented. 

There was only one minus left behind, and even then it was peculiar. Over time, for some owners, the backlighting of a particular key may “die”, which will not look very nice. There’s nothing to do here.

By the way, the keys in this keyboard have already tried to be removed – and found. That they are very simple and without visible damage return to their place without any tools. Probably, this way you can clean the clave from dust after a year or two of active use. But we didn’t say that – don’t repeat it at home, okay?

Gorgeous Retina display

He is good. I don’t see the point in explaining why – Apple has long been making gorgeous screens with excellent colors and very high contrast. The picture quality has improved significantly for two reasons. Firstly, the resolution has become larger – if you wish, you can fit more information on the screen than before.

And secondly, the viewing angle problems that made the display in the macbook 12 inch m7 (11-inch model in particular) unsuitable for high-quality photo processing have finally disappeared. You don’t understand if it’s black, or is it still gray? Dark blue or light blue? This will never happen here.

In addition to the matrix, the changes affected the entire module. In the same style as the MacBook Pro, the screen in the new MacBook is now frame with glass with black frames around the perimeter. They are expecting to attract fingerprints, so be prepared to carry a microfiber cloth with you.

One can argue about the next point, but personally it seems to me that the new screen glares in the sun more than the old one – without a protective glass on top. It was not possible to capture it in the photographs. Probably, the impression is still erroneous, reinforce the glossy display bezels, which the Air did not have. Anyway, the brightness of the backlight is more than enough to kill moderate glare from street light and work without harming the eyes.

Apple has finally eliminated the biggest drawback of its portable laptops, and for that we are grateful. The only pity is that the changes did not affect those same Air – apparently. They are doomed to have a low-contrast screen with an outdate resolution until the end of their days.