MacBook. CREDIT: iMore
Today we are looking into an Apple product, which is targeted at a segment of business professionals that are looking for an ultra lightweight laptop. Something that can be carried about effortlessly for work.
It all started when I took my laptop to an Apple computer shop to get an SSD drive upgrade. I spent about an hour interacting with the 2017 MacBook of the space gray variant, which looks pretty dope and surprisingly minimalist.
The MacBook model was started off in 2015 as Apple sought to make a notebook that was lighter and more compact than the MacBook Air, which had served this purpose for years.
After research and design, the MacBook was launched, becoming Apple’s ultra portable laptop offering. It is interesting that the MacBook Air is pretty light in itself, so for the company to make something even lighter and more compact shows Apple’s boundless obsession with minimalist form factor design.
The MacBook 2017 was launched at about Shs4.5m which is Shs800,000 more than the Air’s Shs3.7m of the same year.
Features and specifications.
Available in four colours (space gray, silver, gold, and rose gold) the 2017 MacBook weighs in only at an astonishing 0.92Kg which is lighter than that kilo of meat you bought from the butchers last weekend. Of course that is if your butchers weighing scale is anything to go by.
The notebook has only two storage configurations, which is the 256GB and the 512GB SSD although the larger size is available as an upgrade. You also get 8GB of RAM, which is appropriately configurable up to 16GB if you wish to have more speed.
However, the SSD drive in this thing alone is makes for great performance speed.
The processor is a 1.2GHz 7th Generation Intel Core M i5, which is neat, or a 1.3GHz 7th Generation Intel Core M i5. You also get an upgrade to the butterfly keyboard, which feels satisfyingly tactile and the large multi touch track pad if you hate everything with the semblance to a normal mouse. There is also a speaker grill that runs across the top of the keyboard.
General Use
Looking at the model I had in the computer shop, the lack of traditional ports presented the most puzzling problem to this notebook.
To the left of the notebook you will find the only USB C port, which my brothers and sisters is all you will get with this baby.
The rest you will have to figure out with countless adapters to hook up traditional devices like USB thumb drives and mice. Yeah Apple we get it, you are into minimalism and all but this lack of ports is a serious deterrent in the effective use of this laptop.
Also do not let the price tag deceive you. The 2017 MacBook like the rest of them are designed for medium to light use. This means that you will not hit the same performance benchmarks you would with the MacBook Air and the MacBook Pro.
Do not buy this little guy for editing music or 4K videos because you might struggle a bit. This is the biggest bummer about this MacBook closely followed by its lack of ports.
But there is still a market for the product. Men and women of business who need a laptop for emails, balancing numbers using excel sheets etcetera in a hardware configuration that is less than a kilogram.
Also on the outside nothing has changed across all the three generations that the MacBook has been out. Notwithstanding, the build quality is awesome as is characteristic of Apple with all their products.
The full aluminum chassis gives a premium feel that is difficult not to fall in love with. For colours I would recommend the space gray or silver as the gold and rose gold are a little too unMacbook looking.
Battery life is great and you will clock in about 9 hours and 30 minutes of use with medium use, which is a great thing the computer has going. Overall this little guy is one of the best laptops you can get in the minimalist notebook form factor.