Thoughts on the MacBook

Vidit Bhargava
With the re-introduction of the MacBook, Apple’s once again offering its users three different laptops to pick from. The MacBook, MacBook Air and MacBook Pro. All three of them serve a different purpose, though.

Use Cases
The Three Different Versions of MacBook represent three different use cases.
The MacBook Pro is a laptop meant for professionals, it’s best suited for Graphic Designers, Video Editors and anyone who needs a laptop with good graphics processing capabilities.

MacBook Air on the other hand is a laptop meant for anyone who doesn’t need heavy graphics processing. Programmers, Casual Users would find this laptop just appropriate for them.

The newly Introduced MacBook caters to a slightly different set of people. It’s definitely not targeted to programmers or power users. It’s meant for those who primarily use their laptop to write content, browse the web and watch movies. Their use case maybe fulfilled by the iPad even, but an attached keyboard and OSX comes in handy.

Since the MacBook has only one port, it’s also extremely accessible to first timers. Usually Laptops intimidate first time users with the overwhelming number of arbitrary shapes cut off from the sides of a laptop. To be honest, ports aren’t very intuitive. None of the ports tell fore-hand what function they might perform, it’s you who has to figure out, while connecting your device to the computer, that which port fits in. For someone who might never hookup an external display on his laptop, the Mini Display port holds no meaning at all.  For such users, the lack of ports on the MacBook is an incredible improvement.

MacBook Air Deja vú
MacBook is rather oddly placed in the spectrum of needs vs price, you are actually paying for a slower computer. To me though, there’s an odd ring of familiarity between the MacBook’s Introduction in March this year and the MacBook Air’s introduction back in January 2008.

When Apple announced the MacBook Air back in 2008, it was slower than the existing MacBook range and expensive at $1799. However, through subsequent iterations, speed improvements and price cuts, The MacBook Air has now become the company’s most successful laptop range.

In a similar way, the MacBook, priced at $1299 is a little expensive for the function it provides. It’s also a little slow and like the MacBook Air, it’s a forward looking laptop, there are a lot of technological improvements introduced in the MacBook something that all future laptops might benefit from.

The Speed will improve with subsequent iterations. The lack of ports will get even less profound, if wireless devices populate faster. The new MacBook might not be the best general laptop you could buy today but it sure has a good chance to be one in the near future.

Hardware and Construction
Perhaps the most fascinating part of the new MacBook is its hardware and construction, it’s also the part most rooted to Apple’s history. When Steve Jobs and Wozniak built the Apple I, one of their achievement was to have reduced the circuit board size by eliminating a significant number of components. Jobs, famously even hated computer fans. The 2015 MacBook’s design echoes Apple’s initial passion for smaller and fan less computers.

I think we’ll remember the 2015 MacBook more for the hardware technology that it provided to laptops than the laptop itself. The tiny motherboard, the extremely thin and powerful display, the fan-less construction and most importantly the force touch trackpad. All of them are technologies that will be largely beneficial to the future laptops. It seems outlandish to that within two years we’ll not have the same technology in MacBook Pro and MacBook Air.

I would suggest the 2015 MacBook to casual users, it’s the best laptop to just browse the web, write emails and watch movies, basically for anyone who wants an external keyboard for their iPad. For first timers, now is the best time to try a laptop, the MacBook is far more accessible than any previous laptop. But to anyone who wants professional capabilities out of their laptop, they’d better get an Air or Pro.