Apple MacBook (2016) Review in First Impression: Last year, the revamped MacBook that Apple unveiled was a quintessential the Apple product. The design was just impeccable and despite of its 12 inch display the new MacBook was managed to be both the lighter and slimmer than the 11 inch MacBook Air and up to that point it had been Apple’s most portable laptop.
Apple MacBook (2016) Review
But like usually, Apple’s uncompromising approach had the disadvantages Critics that are pointed to its limited connectivity. For both the both the power supply it relays just on the single USB-C port and the accessories such as a back-up drive or an external monitor. Battery life and performance were also modest.
The MacBook on one year has received its first significant update, so now we have tested the new model to see if the Apple has addressed any of those concerns.
QUITE LIGHTER than MacBook Air
The design of MacBook is barely a one-year-old and so now apart from the addition of the new Rose Gold version that remains unchanged for this update of 2016. It might have also in the competition from the rivals such as Lenovo’s Yoga 3 Pro, but at the thickness of just 13.1 mm and it weighs around 920g. Currently, the MacBook remains one of the lightest and the most portable 12-inch laptops.
The built quality is quite excellent and the weight is also well balanced, so that you can easily pick up with one hand and even when the screen is open and it is in use. There are no moving parts, even not any internal cooling fan, so virtually all the time the MacBook is silent.
Like its predecessors, the MacBook of 2016 has a 12-inch Retina Display with a resolution of the 2,304 by 1,440pixels of 226ppi. This provides a colourful image, bold with all the good-round viewing angles and making it a good option for the presentations even when you are away from the office. The display is also bright enough that we could use it at around 50 percent of the brightness with comfortably, and it helps to preserve battery life.
We find only minor criticism with the design is that the sheer thinness of the keyboard panel that means that the keys don’t travel well and feel quite lifeless when you are typing at some speed.
SKYLKE update:
The main reason behind this 2016 update is the introduction of the Intel’s sixth- generation Skylake processors and firstly it has to be used in the Apple’s laptop range. There are two configurations standard available with the prices unchanged since last year.
The entry level model which has been reviewed here comes with a dual-core Intel Core m3-6Yo which is running at 1.1.2.2 GHz, along with the 8 GB of RAM but non-upgradeable and solid storage of 256 GB.
The next step up provides the 1.2-2.7 GHz Core m5-6Y54 with SSD storage of 512 GB.
The processor of 1.1 GHz delivered a multi-core of 5.020 when running on the Geekbench 3 benchmark. This is only about a 10 percent improvement on the last’s year model, although Apple claims that the real improvement lies within the integrated HD Graphics 515 GPU.
The MacBook 2016 responded very smoothly and quickly when browsing through a large collection of the high-res photos. So it can easily handle routine task such as running Microsoft Office or photo-editing with no trouble at all and it might even stretch to some casual gaming when you are off duty.
BATTERY LIFE:
There has been a fractional increase in the battery capacity for the 2016 model i.e. up from 39.7 Whr to 41.4 Whr, but MacBook’s slimline design does not leave much room for a larger battery. So, once more Skylake comes to the rescue with Apple claiming that the new processor will provide an extra hour of battery life for the general browsing.
By using the BBC iPlayer to stream video did show an improvement i.e. from the six hours and forty minutes in last year to this year now seven hours and fifteen minutes.
CONCLUSIONS:
So the improved battery life and graphics performance are welcome improvements and for the sheer portability the lightweight design of the MacBook is hard to beat. Even though there are various alternatives that can offer the better battery life for the long journeys or more connectivity for the office use. But the less expensive MacBook Air will still surely hold the strong appeal for many business travelers.
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