In April 2015, Apple introduces the 12-inch MacBook with retina display. It’s a marvel of thinness and lightness. It’s also a display of ‘courageousness’ that predates the headphone jack removal in the iPhone 7. Because this laptop, while indeed retaining the headphone jack, has only one other port, and it’s USB‑C. And it’s for everything, including charging. But the pressing question is, Is this the MacBook Air killer?
No, not really. For about one year and a half, until October 2016, Apple still features both the 11- and 13-inch MacBook Air models together with the 12-inch MacBook in the lineup. But the only good thing this MacBook has to win people over is essentially the retina display. The MacBook Air is the better proposition for literally everything else. More ports, MagSafe, better keyboard, better performance, equally great battery life, negligible difference in size and weight (especially the 11-inch model), more affordable.
The 11-inch MacBook Air gets discontinued in October 2016. But not the 13-inch model. The 13-inch model gets discontinued today, in 2019. But so does the 12-inch MacBook.
But as far as compact laptops with retina display go, surely the 12-inch MacBook is the best proposition?
Not really. When first introduced in April 2015, the 13-inch retina MacBook Pro (introduced one month earlier) is a better machine for the money. The little MacBook wins in thinness and lightness. But the 13-inch retina MacBook Pro is better in every other regard. Better screen resolution, more ports, better keyboard, much better performance, even better battery life (at least on paper), and the base model costs $1,299, exactly like the 12-inch MacBook (for that price you only get 128 GB of storage in the 13-inch retina MacBook Pro, versus the 256 GB in the MacBook, but still).
In 2016, even the redesigned 13-inch MacBook Pro (without Touch Bar) is an overall better choice than the 12-inch MacBook.
The 12-inch retina MacBook hasn’t been an iPad killer, either. Not that it was ever meant to be, mind you, but for regular people who don’t need specific Mac OS software for their work, a 12.9‑inch iPad Pro of the same vintage as the 12-inch MacBook was an overall better value than the little laptop. Even that iPad Pro’s Smart Keyboard is probably better than the MacBook’s butterfly keyboard.
If anything, the 12-inch MacBook has lost to the iPad Pro. By removing the 11-inch MacBook Air first, and the 12-inch MacBook now, if you’re looking for an Apple ‘ultrabook’, today Apple has made sure that you take a good look at the iPad Pro. Not that the new 13-inch retina MacBook Air is a giant heavyweight, but the 11-inch iPad Pro is svelter, more compact, and some people will no doubt rush to add that it’s also more versatile and the future of everything.
Neither fish nor flesh
When I think about the 12-inch MacBook, it’s really an odd one. With Apple devices, my reactions have historically been very clear-cut: I’ve either loved them or hated them. This little MacBook is perhaps the first really ‘meh’ device, if you’ll forgive the highly technical jargon here. More seriously, I find it rather representative of Apple’s vague product focus under Tim Cook’s guidance. The 12-inch MacBook is a proof-of-design machine. The more I look back at it, the more its sole raison d’être seems to be: We made this because we could or, This is how much thin and light we can go. Strategically, though? I’m sorry to say, but it’s been little more than luggage.
(On a last personal note, this MacBook was remarkably useful to me for one thing: when I tested one for a few days back in 2015, it made me realise just how bad the then-new keyboard design was, and has spared me a bunch of unnecessary headaches ever since, as I’ve carefully avoided all MacBooks with that terribly-designed keyboard.)