The MacBook Pro 2015 is a niche product, falling neither in the MacBook Pro family or the MacBook Air lineup. That alone warrants a new price ceiling, or so it seems, but many find the $1,299 starting price too expensive for a laptop that's designed to be portable above all else.
Is the price of the new MacBook really overpriced? The only way to answer that is to take a look at the specs of MacBook Pro 2015.
Apple's newly launched MacBook is 13.1in thin and weighs just 2 pounds. That makes it 24% thinner than MacBook Air and 17% lighter. This extreme thinness earns applause from Mac users, considering that there's a battery in there that is 35% more efficient that the previous models and can last up to 9 hours of Internet browsing.
The tradeoff? The ports that laptop users have grown using have been replaced with a single USB Type-C port. The keyboard is also redesigned to fit to this ultra thin laptop. Underneath each key is the butterfly hinge which allows keys to pop up when typing even if they are outright flat.
The Retina display is also a major hit which according to Tech Radar's early hands-on review of the MacBook Pro 2015 is clear and bright and over the top in terms of sharpness.
Its clever trackpad has also won the reviewer's favor primarily for the plenty of new gestures that it offers in addition to what Mac users already know. Thanks to its pressure sensitive capabilities. It's cool but it requires a little sensitivity and concentration.
The Core M CPU of the new MacBook, however, is a performance downgrade compared to MacBook Air. The device demands additional $300 for 0.1GHz CPU speed boost and 256GB of additional storage. There's also the add-on charge of $79 for an adapter to make multi-port functionality feasible. It does not have an HD webcam, too, for Apple rather settled with 480p FaceTime camera.
The verdict: the new MacBook is for die-hard brand users and supporters that demand ultra portable laptop and at the same time come with impressive screen quality. But even with the impressive specs boosts, it is underpowered - a con that other very thin and lightweight laptops like the Del XPS 13 and Windows machine don't pose to their users. These machines come with all the usual ports, too.
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