The new Apple MacBook is really the iPad Pro

Again, Apple have failed to wow this Gadgety writer. The new MacBook was announced and I could hear the fanboys and girls gush about how it’s super thin and feather-light. But a quick glimpse at the specs shows that it’s also lacking many other things as well as weight and girth. Is that the point though?

Within moments of Apple announcing its incredibly thin and light new MacBook both sides of the fence were at battle. The ‘for’ camp stating all the great bits and the ‘against’ team slating it for having worse performance than a MacBook Air.

I’m not pro Apple, I’ve always run PCs and, after a brief dalliance with iPhone 3 and 4, I am on Android, but is Apple up to something smarter than the likes of me are giving them credit for?

It’s hard to ignore that the new MacBook boasts nine hours of battery life in an impossibly small frame on top of having a Retina display, and manages to weigh just 907 grams.

Yes, It’s got a single USB type-C port which is just one of the things the PC army are throwing back in its face. Also some laptop makers are showing that their machines are actually thinner than the new MacBook and still manage to have real-sized USB ports – yes, plural.

Lenovo called the new MacBook “so last year” as their Yoga 3 Pro, released last year, is only 12.8mm thick compared to the Apple laptop’s 13.1mm. As much as love my Yoga 2 Pro, it’s not as light as others and the 3 Pro is also 0.62 pounds heavier than Apple’s latest. But at least the Yoga 3 Pro has two USB ports, not to mention a higher-resolution display.

The thing is, I am guessing that the new MacBook isn’t here to please geeks and function as a do everything workhorse. It has been designed to be light enough to carry around all day and help with general tasks.

So, business people that are in and out of meetings all day, university students that are carrying it around for school, or writers and journalists that have to drag things around all day at events or from coffee shop to coffee shop.

Wasn’t that what the MacBook Air was for though?

OK, so a minimalist laptop that can work for word processing, presentations and getting on the web doesn’t need multiple USB ports and all the other bells and whistles. But then there’s still the matter of the price.

The new MacBook starts at £1,049 for a laptop with a 480p camera, 29W charger, and one of the lowest Core M processors in the range. This is starting to sound more like a tablet/laptop hybrid. Is this the iPad Pro? Is this following the likes of the Yoga Pros or, perhaps, the Microsoft Surface but with less grunt at a higher price point? Hang on…

Looking at it that way then I know which I’d rather have, if this is more a Mac for the iPad generation – or a £1,000+ iPad with a keyboard.

For my money I’d get the Surface Pro 3, have the power of a ‘regular’ laptop and buy myself a treat with the £200 I’d saved and enjoy having something 200g lighter than the new MacBook.

If you really just need a very light and minimalist laptop – check out the Chromebooks!

Now, about that watch…