Review: Apple MacBook

I don't know just who Apple's newest laptop is for. Rich people who fly coach? People with one laptop who want a second, gold one? Maybe. But I do know two things about the new MacBook: This is what the future of laptops looks like, and I want one very badly.

In almost every way, it's the opposite of the first laptop I ever loved, a Dell Inspiron E1505. I bought it in 2006, and it had everything: a Core 2 Duo processor, 2 gigs of RAM, four USB ports, a dual-layer DVD burner. Of course, it also weighed seven pounds, and its battery had just enough juice for me to unplug it, sprint across the library, and plug it in again.

Strictly speaking, that Dell was more useful than Apple's new MacBook, which I've spent two weeks testing. I could connect a hard drive, a thumb drive, my camera, and an external mouse. I could play games, and I could even (sort of) run Photoshop. It was the hub of my digital life.

The MacBook doesn't do any of that. But then, it doesn't have to. In almost every case, the Internet has replaced our computers as the center of our digital experience; our laptops are just terminals of access, particularly suited to a certain set of tasks. More than any laptop I've ever used, the MacBook embraces that: It does a few things as well as it can, and leaves the rest to the Internet. It's running out a little bit ahead of consumers, but it's blazing the right path.

The MacBook has a great screen, a full-size keyboard, and a big trackpad. It doesn't have much to speak of beyond that. It's thin and beautiful, but not terribly powerful. And it hasn't got life-changing battery life. It has a new type of connector (a USB-C port), so you can't hook up any of your peripherals without tracking down an adaptor. At $1,299 (for a 1.1GHz processor, 8GB of RAM, and 256GB of storage) or $1,599 (1.2GHz, 8GB, and 512GB) it's crazy expensive.

I've been carrying it to and from work, and it's an absolutely perfect travel computer. At just a hair over two pounds and less than a half-inch thick at its fattest point, it feels more like an iPad in my bag than a laptop. It's still quite sturdy, too, this aluminum slab of a machine. I catch myself carrying it in weird ways since it's so light. But even when it's open, dangling at my side, my thumb and index finger on the palm rest, it never creaks or flexes.

It's easily the best-looking laptop I've used, but not because it's a big step forward in notebook design. It's still a wedge-shaped clamshell, available in silver, gold, and "space gray," with clean lines and rounded corners. It's the laptop, virtually perfected.

The standard reaction from onlookers is, "Ohmygod it's so small." I suspect it could be even smaller if Apple didn't feel the need to include a full-size keyboard. Of course it's got a 12-inch, 2304 x 1440 Retina display that is crisp, detailed and everything you've ever wanted a laptop screen to be. But I bet those bezels could have been even smaller. The keyboard runs literally edge-to-edge on the MacBook's palm rest.

About that keyboard. It is the oddest thing about the new MacBook. It largely looks like other Apple keyboards, with square black keys and white letters, but it feels completely different. Apple had to redesign the key-press apparatus to fit within the whisper-thin chassis, and came up with a slick new mechanism it calls the "butterfly" spring. It's a cross between a mechanical keyboard and tapping on glass. There's very little clack as you type, and only the slightest travel. Suddenly I understand what typewriter aficionados are always droning on about: There's something wonderful about hitting a key and having something happen. That feeling gets lost here. Yet after a day of adjusting to the new keyboard, I do type as quickly and accurately on the MacBook as on any other laptop (and far better than on a tablet).

The terrific trackpad has seen fewer changes. You might not notice the difference unless you find yourself leaning just a little too hard on its glassy surface. Then a Wikipedia page might pop up, or you might be looking at all your open Safari windows. That's Force Touch, Apple's newest input method. Use it in iMovie and it'll let you fast-forward through films with a specific gesture. Open a drawing app, and you'll notice the thickness of your lines change as the trackpad registers the amount of pressure you're applying. Something even more clever about the design: the trackpad doesn't actually click. It vibrates, in a way that tricks your brain into thinking it's clicking. It's some crazy mental gymnastics when you think about it too much, but it really makes no difference. It isn't clicking, but it works like it's clicking.

Many of these changes were borne of necessity. Apple started with this tiny frame and soon discovered there was no room for a super-clicky keyboard or a trackpad that physically moves up and down. So the company innovated around those things.

But then there are places where Apple is making careful, bold proclamations about the future of the PC. The most notable example is the fact the MacBook has but one, single, solitary, lonely USB-C port on its left side. (There's a headphone jack on the right side, and that's it.) You must use that port for charging, connecting a hard drive, running a second monitor—everything.

Right now, that kind of sucks. There are precious few USB-C devices available. And also, call me crazy, but I like to charge my computer and plug in a second monitor at the same time. I can buy Apple's $80 adapter and use my existing USB devices, but carrying a bunch of adapters sucks almost as much.

This is familiar move for Apple. As its computers have grown sleeker, they've grown simpler, shunning floppy disks, CDs and DVDs, FireWire, the 30-pin dock connector, and a variety of power connectors. It's always the same routine: it sucks for a while because your accessories don't work anymore, but then everyone catches up. And with USB-C, which virtually the entire consumer tech industry is committed to supporting, that will happen quickly. I'd much rather see the MacBook ship with two USB-C ports like the new Chromebook Pixel, but soon enough, even the one port won't be such a problem.

Apple's real bet is that you won't need that port for much of anything. Ditch your external hard drive, the USB-C port begs, and use Dropbox instead. (Well, it would probably recommend iCloud, but don't use iCloud.) Forget about your second monitor, because look at this screen! Oh, and that thing you do where you plug in your laptop every single damn time you sit down? Stop doing that. This'll last you all day.

That last claim is so close to being true, too. I can work a full day at the office on the MacBook with no problems. Granted, this consists largely of using Office and a web browser, neither of which are terribly taxing. Those simple tasks are also exactly what the MacBook's Intel Core M processor is designed for. But as soon as I open Photoshop, fire up Steam, or even crank up the brightness to watch The Tudors (great show), the laptop slows and the battery drains quickly.

That's the part I can't quite wrap my head around. If the new MacBook lasted a day and a half, I'd happily forgive the muscular deficiencies. If it were more powerful, nine or ten hours of battery would be a killer number. But when the MacBook is more expensive and less powerful than the Air, and even doesn't last as long, what's it for?

The answer to that question hasn't changed since we first saw the MacBook Air slide out of a manila envelope five years ago. That computer was pricey, spartan, and underpowered, and didn't make a lot of sense. Now it's the benchmark.

Much like that first Air, the new MacBook is for the future. It's a vision of our next computer, the one we'll buy when our Airs or ThinkPads can't keep up anymore. The MacBook is a work in progress: The processor and the battery will improve, and the price will drop. It won't take long. The future's getting here faster than you think.