12" MacBook (2nd gen, 2016) Review

Another year, another Apple refresh. Given the first generation 12" MacBook's exciting but controversial release, some of you might have expected more than a refresh of internals--say a second USB-C port or a higher resolution webcam. Sorry, that didn't happen. Apple did their usual first cycle refresh: update to the latest Intel CPU and chipset, employ faster PCIe storage and for an unexpected treat they increased battery life by an hour. The price remains the same, starting at $1,299 for a decently equipped model with 8 gigs of RAM and a 256 gig SSD. There's not enough change to make a 12" MacBook owner upgrade, but there's enough improvement to keep it interesting and tempting for those who were considering buying one.

The MacBook runs Mac OS X on 6th generation Intel Skylake Core M CPUs. It's available with 8 gigs of RAM (your only option and it's not upgradable) and a 256 or 512 gig SSD. It has a lovely Retina 2304 x 1440 IPS display that's unchanged from the previous model. Apple's added rose gold to the color selection, which is the model we have in for review. As ever, it's also available in space gray, silver and gold.

Design and Ergonomics

There's nothing new to say or see here. This is the exact same casing as the last gen Retina MacBook, with the only change being the new rose gold color. This is an extremely rigid and robust machine despite the very low 2 lb. weight. The lid doesn't flex, the keyboard deck doesn't bounce and the display doesn't show pools of light if you press on the back of the lid. Compared to the also very thin and light LG Gram laptop it's a weapon of mass destruction. Compared to the 13.3" Samsung Notebook 9 (a 13.3" laptop with a Core i5 that weighs just 1.9 lbs.), the MacBook has a stiffer lid that's harder to torsion and the bottom panel won't deform if you put serious pressure on it (one could ask why you'd put serious pressure on an expensive piece of consumer electronics). The 13.3" Samsung is much more rigid than the LG Gram, but it has a little bit of lid flex and the bottom will deform if you put significant pressure on it. The 15" Samsung Notebook 9 doesn't budge.

Display

Again, nothing is new here, and I don't think Apple needs to change a thing. This is a really lovely display with full sRGB coverage, 80% of Adobe RGB, strong brightness and excellent color accuracy out of the box. The Retina IPS display is leagues ahead of the MacBook Air's TN panel for color saturation, viewing angles and contrast. I do wish Apple would get around to updating the aging Air. The display has an oddball 2304 x 1440 resolution that works out to 226 PPI. That's competitive with the best Windows tablets and laptops in this size range as well as the bigger Retina MacBook Pro models. The display is every bit as good as larger MacBook Pro models, so you're not giving up anything here by going with Apple's smallest Mac other than screen size.

Horsepower and Performance

Apple updated the second generation 12" MacBook with current generation Intel Skylake CPUs. You can select from 6th generation Intel Core m3, m5 and m7 CPUs. The Core M family sits far above the lowly Intel Atom and closer to the Intel Core i CPUs used in the MacBook Air and Windows Ultrabooks in terms of pricing and performance. Intel's Core M has improved in terms of performance with each generation, though battery life improvements have been smaller. It's designed to be the lower heat, fanless counterpart to the Core i series of CPUs rather than a budget part. This is not a netbook folks--those run on sluggish Intel Atom CPUs and are much, much slower. They also have low resolution displays and plastic casings to fit the bargain basement price.

Speaking of SSDs, Apple has moved to a faster PCIe SSD storage protocol for the latest generation MacBook. Honestly, SSDs are fast enough that mere mortals won't notice the speed improvement immediately, but it does help when loading large image or video files from the SSD and programs launch a wee bit faster. According to Blackmagic's disk speed test, it's 200 to 250 MB/s faster for writes and reads.

Battery Life

Apple increased battery capacity just a little to 41.4 Whr from 39.7 Whr. That's not enough to account for the 1 hour of added runtimes according to Apple--the new Skylake platform and further Apple engineering improvements are likely the (good) culprits. Apple claims 10 hours of use from the Lithium Ion battery that's sealed inside, and though their claims are usually fairly accurate, in the case of the 12" MacBook (both generations), the claim is a bit optimistic for real world use. we averaged 6 to 7.5 hours with brightness set to 50% in a mix of productivity, web, social networking, streaming video and photo editing sessions.

The Competition

When the first gen MacBook shipped, there really were no direct competitors. A year later and we've seen the not terribly successful Samsung ATIV Book 9 (also 12" with last gen Core M and an even higher price tag), The business-minded HP EliteBook Folio (12.5", Core M, $1,299 with m5/8 gigs RAM/ 256 gig SSD), the passing of the Lenovo 3 Pro (Core M, 13.3"), the upcoming Lenovo Yoga 900s (12", $1,299 for a QHD display, Core m7, 8 gigs of RAM and a 256 gig SSD), the Toshiba Portege Z20t (a 2-in-1 tablet) and the base model Microsoft Surface Pro 4. On the more affordable end, there's still the Asus Zenbook UX305 (13.3" 1080p Core M). Interestingly, few beyond the UX305 have targeted the inexpensive segment, likely due in part to Intel's pricing for the Core M being close to the Core i.

Conclusion

As ever, the 12" MacBook is a surprisingly polarizing little laptop. The first generation sold so well folks had to wait months to buy one, so some people obviously love it (and are willing to spend this much on an ultraportable). Others have lambasted it for lacking ports, having a Core M rather than Core i5 and for costing so darned much. 


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