Updated 12-Inch MacBook Gets Skylake Processors And New Rose Gold Color Option

Apple on Tuesday gave the 12-inch MacBook its first upgrade with the latest Intel Skylake processors, improved graphics performance, faster flash storage and a claimed additional hour of battery life. The Macbook’s aluminum unibody enclosure is now available in four finishes: gold, silver, space gray, and for the first time on a Mac, the rose gold that has been such a smash hit on the iPhone 6S and 9.7-inch iPad Pro. Apple says that with its 12-inch Retina display, full-size keyboard, Force Touch trackpad, versatile USB-C port and all-day battery life in a design that weighs just 2 pounds and is 13.1 mm thick, MacBook “is the future of the notebook” — perhaps giving us a hint of what to expect in updated MacBook Pros later this year.

Photo Courtesy Apple

“MacBook is the thinnest and lightest Mac we have ever made and its our vision for the future of the notebook,” said Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing. Customers are going to love this update to MacBook, with the latest processors, faster graphics, faster flash storage, longer battery life and a beautiful rose gold finish.”

The updated MacBook features sixth-generation “Skylake” dual-core Intel Core m3, m5, and m7 processors of 1.1 GHz, 1.2 GHz, and 1.3 GHz respectively, with Turbo Boost speeds up to 3.1 GHz, and a step up form the Core M silicon with the same clock speeds in the 2015 model, plus faster 1866 MHz memory and faster Intel HD Graphics 515 that are claimed to deliver up to 25 percent faster graphics performance, along with faster PCIe-based flash storage and a slight battery capacity increase from 39.7 watt-hour to 41.4 watt hour capacity providing a claimed 10 hours of wireless web browsing and up to 11 hours of iTunes movie playback.

MacBook is still equipped with just a lone (and way oversubscribed, IMHO) USB-C port that has to handle all charging, data transfer and video output via a single connector one-third the size of a traditional USB port dependent on an ecosystem of Apple and third-party USB-C adpter accessories. (Photo Courtesy Apple)

With no moving parts or vents, MacBook is still entirely fanless and silent. For connectivity, MacBook is equipped with built-in 802.11ac Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 4.0.

Also, in what may well be the 13-inch MacBook Air’s swan song update Apple gave it a standard 8GB across all configurations.

The updated MacBook is available through Apple.com, Apple’s retail stores, and select Apple Authorized Resellers now. MacBook with a 1.1 GHz dual-core Intel Core m3 processor with Turbo Boost speeds up to 2.2 GHz, 8GB of memory and 256GB of flash storage is US$1,299 (US); with a 1.2 GHz dual-core Intel Core m5 processor with Turbo Boost speeds up to 2.7 GHz, 8GB of memory and 512GB of flash storage it’s US$1,599; with configure-to-order options including a 1.3 GHz dual-core Intel Core m7 processor with Turbo Boost speeds up to 3.1 GHz. Additional technical specifications and accessories are available online at:
http://www.apple.com/macbook

(Photo Courtesy Apple)