I ordered the New MacBook (in Gold of course!!) the day it was available for pre-order. I was a little slow on it, so won't be getting it until May 16th. A bit of a wait, but the 16th is my birthday so it will make a nice present.
I've been visiting my local Apple Store regularly since ordering it, hoping they would get some units in on display so I could actually play with it. They've been slow to receive it, but today was the day they finally had TWO out on kiosks to try.
It's a totally slick machine. A few initial thoughts:
1. Woah - It's small! The actual thinness and size of this device is just tiny. More of a netbook than a laptop when you look at it. And now I understand why people keep saying it's like an iPad turned MacBook. It's super compact.
2. It makes the Macbook Air look ancient. The MacBook Air is a great machine, but when you look at the design of the New Macbook compared to the Air, there is no comparison. The Air looks generations older.
3. Keyboard is awesome! I was worried I wouldn't like the keyboard due to the low travel of the keys. But I was able to immediately type on it with accuracy, at speed and with a good feel. I think it will honestly be a zero learning curve here for me, which is great. I was worried. No need to worry. It rocks. Looks cool too how it comes so close to the edge of the body of the device.
4. Trackpad is awesome! Similar to the keyboard, I was worried I wouldn't like the force touch trackpad. Change can be scary. Not the case here. You feel the "click"(whether it's clicking or not). It works as you'd expect. Super comfortable and feels great. No learning curve here.
5. Retina Display is awesome! We've all been wanting MacBook Airs to have retina for so long now. It's great to finally have retina on a small laptop like this. I only wish they could minimize the bezel around the display glass, and extend it closer out to the edges (sort of like the keyboard). Feels like they could add 1/2 to the display size this way. We see other OEMs doing this (like Dell).
Overall, super excited for my New MacBook to arrive. I have a Mac Pro as my office work machine, and an iMac 5k Retina as my home computer, so this new Macbook will be replacing my 15" Macbook Pro. My 15" obviously has way more power in it... but since I have other machines to do my heavy lifting (when I'm doing things like editing photos or videos), I'm not worried. The new Macbook will be my on the couch / in bed / business trip machine (where it's mainly things like presentations or excel / word / internet stuff) that I'm doing. Only thing I'm a bit concerned with is the low resolution camera. I do a lot of Skype Video calls and Google Hangouts... taking a step backwards in the video department kind of sucks.
12" is a little small when downsizing from 15". I think I'll manage, but if/when they make a bigger MacBook w/ this same design I'll totally be all over that.
I've been visiting my local Apple Store regularly since ordering it, hoping they would get some units in on display so I could actually play with it. They've been slow to receive it, but today was the day they finally had TWO out on kiosks to try.
It's a totally slick machine. A few initial thoughts:
1. Woah - It's small! The actual thinness and size of this device is just tiny. More of a netbook than a laptop when you look at it. And now I understand why people keep saying it's like an iPad turned MacBook. It's super compact.
2. It makes the Macbook Air look ancient. The MacBook Air is a great machine, but when you look at the design of the New Macbook compared to the Air, there is no comparison. The Air looks generations older.
3. Keyboard is awesome! I was worried I wouldn't like the keyboard due to the low travel of the keys. But I was able to immediately type on it with accuracy, at speed and with a good feel. I think it will honestly be a zero learning curve here for me, which is great. I was worried. No need to worry. It rocks. Looks cool too how it comes so close to the edge of the body of the device.
4. Trackpad is awesome! Similar to the keyboard, I was worried I wouldn't like the force touch trackpad. Change can be scary. Not the case here. You feel the "click"(whether it's clicking or not). It works as you'd expect. Super comfortable and feels great. No learning curve here.
5. Retina Display is awesome! We've all been wanting MacBook Airs to have retina for so long now. It's great to finally have retina on a small laptop like this. I only wish they could minimize the bezel around the display glass, and extend it closer out to the edges (sort of like the keyboard). Feels like they could add 1/2 to the display size this way. We see other OEMs doing this (like Dell).
Overall, super excited for my New MacBook to arrive. I have a Mac Pro as my office work machine, and an iMac 5k Retina as my home computer, so this new Macbook will be replacing my 15" Macbook Pro. My 15" obviously has way more power in it... but since I have other machines to do my heavy lifting (when I'm doing things like editing photos or videos), I'm not worried. The new Macbook will be my on the couch / in bed / business trip machine (where it's mainly things like presentations or excel / word / internet stuff) that I'm doing. Only thing I'm a bit concerned with is the low resolution camera. I do a lot of Skype Video calls and Google Hangouts... taking a step backwards in the video department kind of sucks.
12" is a little small when downsizing from 15". I think I'll manage, but if/when they make a bigger MacBook w/ this same design I'll totally be all over that.