With a Retina display and a thin, lightweight design, the space gray Apple 12" MacBook (Early 2016) provides both portability and performance. Measuring just 0.5" (13.1mm) thin and weighing only 2 pounds, the MacBook is compact yet still has a premium feel, thanks to its unibody design.
The MacBook features a 12" Retina display with 16:10 aspect ratio and 2304 x 1440 native resolution, which results in 226 pixels per inch (ppi). The display also has 178°-wide viewing angles. To deliver the total Retina experience on the MacBook, Apple redesigned the pixels to create a larger aperture, allowing more light to pass through. This enabled Apple to use LED backlighting that's 30 percent more energy efficient than the displays on other Mac notebooks with no loss in brightness.
Inside the MacBook you'll find the 6th-Gen (Skylake) Intel Core m3 processor, which is designed with 14-nanometer process technology. This means that the chip is packed with more transistors than the previous generation, for higher density and more efficient performance. Since the Intel Core m3 only draws 5 watts of power and generates less heat than its predecessors, Apple is able to omit the fan. Instead, the logic board, which is 67% smaller than the one in the 11" MacBook Air, is seated on top of an anisotropic graphite sheet, which helps disperse any heat that is generated out, to the sides. No fan also means the MacBook will be virtually silent. Even with its miniaturized internal components, the MacBook has an impressive capacity, featuring 8GB of fast, power-efficient 1866 MHz LPDDR3 onboard RAM and 256GB of PCIe-based flash storage.
Since the logic board is much smaller and there is no fan, Apple decided to use the remaining space in the MacBook to install a custom battery. The result is 35 percent more battery capacity than before, which adds up to 10 hours of web browsing and up to 11 hours of iTunes movie playback (battery life may vary depending on usage).
In order to maintain its thin and light design, the MacBook features a universal connectivity standard that combines the essential functions you need every day in one dynamic port. The USB Type-C port offers charging, quick USB 3.0 data transfer for connecting to external devices and peripherals, and video output that supports HDMI, VGA, and Mini DisplayPort connections. It is all in a reversible design that's one-third the size of the current USB port.
The Force Touch trackpad features Taptic Engine, which provides a click sensation when you press anywhere on the surface. The sensory capabilities of the Force Touch trackpad allow you to tell your MacBook what you want it to do, based on subtle differences in the amount of pressure you apply as well as providing haptic feedback.
The MacBook also embraces 802.11ac Wi-Fi for fast wireless Internet access. It also has Bluetooth 4.0 technology, which allows you to connect wirelessly to supported peripherals and accessories.
To deliver the Macbook's Retina experience, Apple redesigned the pixels to create a larger aperture, allowing more light to pass through. This enabled them to use LED backlighting that's 30 percent more energy efficient than the Retina display on previous models while still achieving the same level of brightness.
Traditional trackpads use a "diving board" mechanism, which requires room underneath for the downward motion of a click and makes it harder to click the part of the surface closest to the keyboard. With the Force Touch trackpad, force sensors detect your click anywhere on the surface and move the trackpad laterally toward you, although the feel is the same familiar downward motion you're accustomed to in a trackpad. The Taptic Engine also provides haptic feedback, so instead of just seeing what's happening on the screen, you can feel it, too. The trackpad sends a tangible response to your fingertip when you perform certain tasks, like aligning annotations on a PDF.
In addition to the intuitive Multi-Touch gestures you may be familiar with – like scrolling, swiping, pinching, and rotating – Force Touch brings an added dimension to the Mac experience. The sensitivity is customizable, allowing you to adjust how much pressure is needed to register a click. And the trackpad can even tell whether you're clicking with your thumb or another finger and automatically adjusts the sensitivity level.
The redesigned keys on the MacBook feature a larger surface area, a thinner construction, and a deeper curvature, creating a more defined space for your fingertip to naturally find and press the keys. These refinements may be subtle, but the feel is distinct and intuitive. Combined with the butterfly mechanism, this innovative design allows for much greater control when typing.
Since the keyboard is thin, Apple had to address how to backlight the keys in a way that took up less space while delivering an even cleaner and more refined look and feel. To do that, Apple removed the row of LEDs and the light guide panel that distributed light throughout the keyboard and instead placed an individual LED under each key. These LEDs are calibrated for uniform brightness, so every key and character looks clear and sharp with minimal light around the keycap. All while being engineered for as much energy efficiency as possible.