The ultra-thin new MacBook, which stole the show at the launch of Apple’s smartwatch in March, will go on sale in South Africa this Friday starting at R18 999, the company’s South African distributor, Core Group, has announced.

The new, ultra-thin notebook computer, which is 24% thinner than the already very thin MacBook Air, weighs just over 900g and packs in Intel’s fifth-generation Core M processor.

“This is the most extreme and efficient notebook we have ever created,” CEO Tim Cook told an audience in San Francisco at the product’s launch. At its thickest point, the new laptop, which sports a 12-inch high-definition display, is 13,1mm thick.

The computer is the first from Apple that does not have a fan to cool the processor.

Apple has shrunk the size of the computer’s motherboard by two-thirds compared to the MacBook Air’s and used the extra space to pack in a redesigned battery that fills most of the machine’s available internal space.

Controversially, the computer has only one port — USB-C — which charges the computer and doubles as a video output and USB 3 data transfer port.

The machine has a full-sized, edge-to-edge keyboard that Apple redesigned to fit into the thin chassis. Each key is individually back-lit.

A new “force touch” trackpad includes four “force sensors” and a “taptic engine”. The sensors detect a range of pressures, from light clicks through to deeper presses. A new gesture for deeper presses, called the “force click”, has a range of applications, including previewing the contents of documents by clicking on their icons.

Core Group has now announced how much South African Apple fans will have to fork out to get their hands on the new machine.

The new MacBook will be available in two versions. The first, costing R18 999, will have a 1,1GHz processor and 256GB of flash storage. The second, which will fetch R23 999, has a 1,2GHz processor and a 512GB solid-state drive. The machines are available in grey, silver and gold. — (c) 2015 NewsCentral Media