Apple's latest MacBook, or "New MacBook" as it has come to be known to avoid confusion with either Pro or Airs with the same first name, is, funnily enough, a high­-design halfway house between the MacBook Pro and MacBook Air laptop lines.

Rather than just whack its premium "Retina" screen on an Air, Apple decided to create a whole new category - a stunning 12­-inch MacBook that created a keynote wow moment in its new gold getup but also muddied the water somewhat if you're after a portable Mac.



The new MacBook, at a £1,049 entry fee in gold, silver or "space gray", costs 250 notes more than the basic MacBook Air for a thinner, lighter laptop with a higher resolution display and greater memory but with a less powerful processor running things and a single connectivity port: the all-new USB Type-­C, ready to handle all your power and data needs, the clever little thing (once you've bought some adaptors).

So the MacBook is lighter than the MacBook Air but the MacBook Air is more powerful than the MacBook. Got that? But how does this all effect actually using one in the day to day? We've been using the entry-­level 1.1GHz, 8GB RAM, 256GB flash storage version for the last month to see.

The Good



Looks stunning

Excellent screen

Incredibly light and slim

Great software



The Bad



Divisive keyboard

Not overly powerful

Expensive

Design

Hardware

Screen and software

New tech tricks

USB-C

Verdict

Design

The new MacBook is undeniably gorgeous – rooms gasp and eyes shoot you evils over its tightly engineered aluminium majesty. It's intimidatingly attractive and impossibly thin. It actually more closely resembles an iPad Air 2 than a laptop when closed, particularly if you're Space Graying, so sleek is its frame (0.35cm at its slimmest, 1.31cm at the business end) and refined its edges.



The design's not just aesthetically pleasing, either, it's practical, continuing the iPad resemblance in the weight and portability stakes, being both super-­light and, at 0.9kg, easily tucked away for a commute. There's even a little joy to be had in watching the screen pivot up perfectly as you lift the screen open without the slightest lift on the keyboard. Yes, we know it's geeky.

Hardware

It's fairly unsurprising that all this lack of size and heft comes with a few compromises, though. The most obvious is the 1.1GHz Core M processor running the show, selected as its fan-­less form can be squeezed into such a slim chassis, but which lacks the grunt of even the 1.6GHz Core i5 on the entry-­level Air, let alone the 2.7GHz 13" MacBook Pro with Retina that comes in at £50 cheaper. You pay the price for the tiny profile in more ways than one.

But once you establish the new MacBook isn't intended for overly heavy lifting in the processing department – GarageBand and Photoshop work a treat and video editing can vary depending on intensity but forget vaguely high­-end gaming – it is more than capable of handling the naturally erratic ebb and flow, and endless browser tabs, of the casual, if well­-endowed-­of-­wallet user it's clearly aimed at.

The 8GB of memory is welcome to power the MacBook's many multi­-tasking ways over the Air's basic 4GB, with a noticeable response boost. What the fan-­less Core M processor lacks in power it gains by running very cool, which is noticeably friendly to your lap, and is virtually silent, too, so if you're prone to late­-night working/internetting, you won't wake a soul.

Despite the laptop's small outer shell, battery life is extremely solid. The quoted nine hours is reliable for the everyday mix of typing, browsing and music streaming, dropping to seven if you segue into a film marathon.

Screen and software

The 12-­inch "Retina" (2304x1440 resolution) screen is far and above better than the Air's 1366x768 one, looking bright, crisp and, for the presentation­-heavy, handily readable from a distance, even in direct sunlight (170-­degree viewing angles, apparently).



The 16:10 aspect ratio is complemented by the small, iPad-­like bezel, too, which coupled with the resolution's many extra pixels gives you more space to play with, or lay spreadsheets out on.

The decluttered Yosemite operating system comes as standard and is packed with Apple's ever-­improving stock of apps bundled in. With the former iWork package of Pages, Numbers and Keynote included alongside iPhoto, iMovie, Garageband and more, you're spoiled for software to show off the screen.

New tech tricks: Keyboard and Force Touch

First, let's rejoice at Apple trading in the horrendously tinny speakers of the MacBook Air for the HTC One-­esque stereo strip above the keyboard here to make the most of your media. It pumps out surprisingly clear and punchy audio, even if you're in a hotel and separated from your speaker system.

The new keyboard, meanwhile, is an acquired taste and takes some getting used to – you've definitely got to like your typing tools shallow, for one. The MacBook's thin frame means there's very little give to the keys at all, and anyone more proficient than two-­finger typing will have to alter the pace of their keystrokes. Once you're acclimatised, though, we found it fairly speedy, but you've got to make the effort.

Similarly, the new "Force Touch" trackpad takes a bit of re-­learning, too, its haptic and "Force Click" tech, much like the Apple Watch, reading two strengths of press and simulating feedback.

It simultaneously adds extra customisable options and makes what is effectively a screen that you're fingering feel like the buttons you'd get in a deeper chassis. Again, it's a case of experimentation, and we soon got used to it. The fact that you can now click anywhere on the pad, rather than just the lower half, is a real boon for control.



USB-C: one port to rule them all

The tiny USB Type-C port allows for a thinner laptop, and its faster speed and one-­stop shop for charging and data transfer will be no doubt very convenient in the long run. However, for now, it almost certainly means that no peripheral or cable you currently own can connect to the new MacBook without an adaptor.

Until USB-­C hard drives, mice and assorted peripherals are widespread and part of your computing armoury – and it will be great when they are, as the Lightning­-style, stick-­it-­in-either-­way-­up design saves precious seconds every time you use it – you'll have­ to remember ­to ­carry­ around various adaptors to get the most out of it.

A USB­-C to USB extension is clearly a must for everyone at £15. But for those who can't get WI-­Fi connection in their kitchen and have to cable into a Powerline adaptor (i.e. me), a USB-­C to Ethernet adaptor is also needed at £20 (and that's from a third party as Apple don't do them yet).

If you're looking to hook up displays and camera gear, there's even more to invest in there as well, as and when adaptors are released. The good news is it's a new connection standard, so they will increasingly work with more and more devices from all manufacturers, from computers to smartphones.

It's also worth bearing in mind that the new all-­in-­one USB cables are inserted snugly into the port, not connected magnetically like Apple's usual MagSafe chargers, so if your cat runs into your cable, your new MacBook is heading with it. Let's hope there's a new charger that disconnects magnetically halfway down the cable in the works.



Verdict

The new MacBook sure is a handsome device but it is also the point where Apple's portable computing lines have converged so much that the differences are no longer as clearly defined, leading to a more personal, subjective choice to make. Some will find many of the new additions too alien or ill­-fitting to their needs, others will simply gobble up their potential. There really is something for everyone now.

But if a MacBook Air was a slimmed-down, lower­-specced Pro, the new MacBook feels like an iPad that happens to run the excellent OS X and have a keyboard, touchpad and a decent set of speakers plugged in the bottom. It's a classic notebook play, meant to complement your higher-powered desktop or be the go-to hub for those who demand style over substance. The increased portability is palpable, as will be its compromises to those who like to push the processing or connectivity envelope.

It's really something you need to road-­test for yourself. But what you're definitely getting right now is a really stunning looking laptop – that's what the first­-generation, early­-adopting price tag is there for. Sure, there are cheaper options (Asus Zenbook UX305), there are more powerful options (Dell XPS 13), there are more versatile options (Lenovo Yoga Pro 3), and the entry-­level MacBook Pro is all three, but there aren't better-­looking or more portable ones.

We can only presume the MacBook lines will converge further in the future, with the Air losing its ultrabook place in the hierarchy now it no longer has 'slimmest' or 'lightest' on its CV, and as the increasingly-not­-so-­new MacBook becomes cheaper with time. Maybe then it will be the must-­buy that the Air became. Right now it's a very attractive proposition indeed for a very particular person. And you probably already know if that's you.

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Price, specs and release date: from £1,049 (1.1GHz, 8GB RAM, 256GB flash storage) to £1,299 (1.2GHz, 8GB RAM, 500GB flash storage), out now.

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