Gadgetory

hey guys this is Austin it might be small but is the new MacBook worth it a year later the mech design hasn't changed much for good and bad on the plus side you're getting one seriously small laptop with a footprint that's just barely bigger than an iPad the aluminum build still feels incredibly sturdy with no flex and the thinness really does make you feel a step ahead of most other laptops there are quite a few colors including silver space grey gold and new for this year rose gold it's not hard to imagine a future where nearly all laptops of this thin enlight but you've got to make some sacrifices the poor selection is about as basic as it gets with a headphone jack and microphone on one side and a single USBC port on the other as ports go this is a pretty full-featured one that handles charging USB 3 and video out however it's not Thunderbolt 3 and having only one poses some problems something as simple as plugging a normal USB device requires an adapter and if you want to charge the macbook while also using a flash drive you'll also need an adapter USB see support is becoming more common though for example the Samsung t3 Drive will work natively what's really cool is the Acer h7 which not only supports a 1440p monitor over USB C but it'll also charge the MacBook and give you a couple USB 3 ports metal USB C cables are created equally but for example the included cable really only works for charging but being able to power your laptop get display out and a hub over one Tanic cable is awesome where you'll find the real upgrades though or inside if you open up the MacBook you'll see it's incredibly straightforward there are a series of slightly upgraded batteries that fill all the empty space along with the logic board that houses literally everything including the processor RAM and SSD here you'll find a skylight based Intel Core M CPU which is passively cooled meaning there's no fan which makes the MacBook totally silent regardless of which model you go for you're getting 8 gigabytes of memory which is slightly faster than before but you will find a big improvement in the SSD there's still 256 and 512 gig but they're significantly faster than before especially when you compare write speeds unlike last year there's actually a fairly big difference when you upgrade the base model comes with a Core m3 and 256 gigs of storage where the upgraded model bumps that up to a core n5 and 512 gigabyte SSD while you're getting fairly low base speeds the boost clocks bring it up to normal laptop levels which you should be seeing for everything besides heavy tasks like gaming and editing there's a pretty major difference in CPU performance and Geekbench where the mid spec model is approaching the 13-inch MacBook Pro the new MacBooks also have HD 515 graphics which while not a huge change or still a modest improvement over last year that means you can actually do some video editing on the MacBook well it's not exactly meant for it I edited this entire video on the core m5 MacBook inside Final Cut and it works fine it gets a bit slow at times but considering this is 4k footage it's really not bad it's also capable of some light gaming as well titles like tomb raider aren't officially supported but if you turn the settings down you're able to get it to be playable it's the same story with dota 2 on low it's actually able to keep a perfectly respectable frame rate older titles like portal 2 are easy to run and minecraft as always is no problem even on a relatively low powered system like bits since it's passively cooled I want to see how warm it gets under load and surprisingly it's really not bad the top of the keyboard does get slightly warm but it's not enough to be uncomfortable it might not be a gaming PC but it is impressive how well this works is a laptop it's got a solid 12 inch screen with a resolution of 23:04 by 1440 and it's a really good display with impressive viewing angles and color your not giving anything up with the audio either the MacBook has some surprisingly good front firing speakers one area where the MacBook definitely falls short is with the webcam it's only a 480p camera and as you can see it definitely leaves a lot to be desired the keyboard is a little different to most laptops though it has wide fairly shallow keys that take some getting used to there's just not a ton of key travel considering the space constraints the keyboard reaches all the way out to the edges with individual LED backlighting most people wid used to it easy enough but I still prefer a more normal keyboard there's absolutely nothing to complain about with the trackpad though not only is it huge for a laptop of this size but attracting a spot-on and the forced touch gestures make this by far my favorite trackpad out there there's a lot to like with the MacBook clearly Apple spent a lot of time giving you a laptop and a small and light a package as possible without sacrificing the essentials like the screen and battery life the single USBC port means there's no getting away from adapters anytime soon though and the price means you really are paying a premium for the tiny science it's a surprisingly good laptop but it's meant for a very specific person speaking of I recently spent some time with the new iPad pro to see if it can actually replace a laptop definitely go check that video out and I will catch you in the next one