It's great. Keyboard and trackpad work surprisingly well (and is highly underrated... other manufacturers are going to have a really hard time getting this right on devices this thin... use one in a store if you haven't). Screen is great. Battery life is as expected. Size is obviously incredible. CPU performance is as expected (1.1) or slightly above (1.3, which is the one I have, is actually fairly fast). It's a superb machine.
As far as actual use, well that depends on who is using it. The role that this laptop fits really well IMO is use as a secondary device for consistently mid-level computing tasks (with some burst activity) in an environment where mobility is important. "webdev work while traveling" is exactly this role so as long as you are OK with the form factor then you will like this laptop. If the form factor is an issue, you should consider the Air. If power is an issue, you should consider the Pro. If price is an issue, look at other manufacturers (new Surface and new XPS are both great machines, for example, though neither are really that cheap).
The reviews on this device have been mixed but I think a lot of reviews are acting on the premise that it's a one-stop machine, but it's not. It's not perfect. It's a bit pricey. You aren't going to be running a new game at max settings on it. The one port thing is odd and you will need to wait for the adapter market to catch up for some of this oddness/clumsiness to disappear. 8 gig ram isn't quite enough if you are expecting to be running big VMs on it a lot. The CPU is relatively underpowered (though, honestly, I think this is overrated and the 1.3 in particular is quite good... even with the 1.1 you will likely never even notice).
For me, this device is replacing a 13" 2011 Air and so far I consider it to be superior in just about every way and my experience has been great. If I need to sit down and do some "serious" computing for a decent stretch of time (new game at max settings for a couple hours, large data crunching, long programming stretch where I really need a desk and several monitors) then, well, that's what my desktop is for (or a powerful, bulky, docked laptop which amounts to the same thing).
In other words, what you are buying when you buy this machine over something else is this: the keyboard, the trackpad, the screen, the efficiency of the CPU, the battery form factor, the fanless design, and the entire form factor to bring this all together in such a tiny laptop. In return, the tradeoff is slightly less RAM, slightly less CPU power, and a lack of extension ports.
I really don't get the RAM thing - I have a 2013 MBAir 13" which I slam hard, run a ton of apps, VMware w/WIndows XP, Cisco Router Virtualization Simulations (GNS3/Dynamips), full office suite, Google Earth, Chrome w/20 Tabs - usually around 20-25 Apps at once, and I never have Ram pressure. OS X and 8 GB of memory for "typical user stuff" (I.E. not huge VMs, not Databases, No Video Codecs) - just seems to be the sweet spot for memory, and I 100% of the time recommend people not worrying about not having more memory on the MBAir.
For the work that a Macbook is going to be doing, I would think that 8 GB is more than enough.
The thing that will kill me - lack of USB ports when I'm out in the field. I really need the two USB ports - and the MBair is a life saver their. Hopefully a cheap USB-C --> 2 USB port converter will come out soon.
Can this MacBook handle Windows VM with VirtualBox? My wife is considering this MacBook. She is not a power user/developer, mostly browsing, emails, word processing, and spreadsheets. But she also wants Windows VM for programs that don't have OSX versions or experience on OSX is not that good.
I have a hackintosh with i3 2310M[1], 8GB RAM and I think the 12 inch macbook, 1.2gh has 5Y71[2] ticking inside it. Judging by the benchmarks they are pretty similar with the 5Y71 beating the i3 on single threaded stuff with the higher clock speed but not always.
My machine handles a Windows8.1 in VirtualBox easily. I use it for Visual Studio 2013 daily and it's fine although it's not perfect. It's slow at times but not enough to make me dualboot.
I hope that someone chimes in with Win VM on the real MacBook because I'm interested in it but I think it'll be just fine.
I haven't tried this yet but as a regular VirtualBox user now on several different platforms, I would suspect that under a situation where you're not depending on the VM for a lot of graphics acceleration or sub-ms-level latency (games, for example, or _possibly_ video editing/composting), this macbook would handle it just fine. So for the uses you're describing she should be happy.
FYI the new version of Office for Mac will be out soon (preview is available now for free) if that's what you're referring to when you say "bad OSX experience."
Thanks for the feedback. I have a 2012 rMBP 15". I use Windows 7 VM in VirtualBox primarily for Tableau and large Excel files. I noticed the fan runs continuously and MBP gets hot while using VM. I am concern that if something similar happens on new MacBook w/o fans, it might be cooked. Both MS Office and Tableau are terrible on OSX. My wife is more concerned with Quicken. She prefers Quicken for Windows.
I don't think you have to worry about the chip getting too hot unless it turns out there is a serious manufacturing defect. This chip is quite unlike the ones in earlier MacBooks and is closer in efficiency and thermal performance to a chip you'd find in a phone or tablet. So it'll just throttle down for a bit, not fry, no matter what you throw at it.
Plus, once you have a chip that efficient, it simplifies your heat dissipation... a lot of times you'll have people put chips that really aren't made for laptops in because they are relying on the air flow to cool it to compensate, but air flow can be very unreliable. And that is the exact situation you have with some of the more notorious heat problems of other laptops. If however you have a good chip, and know it can't exceed X heat generation, and its low enough you can passively cool it, that's actually much more reliable... there's nothing mysterious about how much heat can be transferred from a chip to the piece of metal touching it, and the rate at which it transfers (note sturdiness and looks is not the only reason the case is metal). So in a lot of ways this device is actually far more thermally dependable than most actively cooled laptops, even though it'd seem to be the opposite at first glance.
As an aside, have you tried Win 8 for your VM? If you can deal with the UI, Win 8 is about 20% more efficient than 7 due to changes made for tablet support in 8. If you're running 8 in a VM and the VM is on a laptop and you're having heat issues, switching might be particularly beneficial. Also, consider VMWare Fusion or Parallels... I use VirtualBox myself but there's no question that the native Mac versions of the 2 main commercial VMs are going to be more efficient and give you less heat problems on day to day tasks.
Thanks for clarification on toasted chips. You just persuaded me to buy the new Macbook instead of 13"rMBP for her. We have been waiting for Retina to come out on Air weight/size format to buy new laptop for her.
I just can't get used to Win 8 interface. My wife uses Win 8 desktop. Anytime she asks me to troubleshoot issues on her desktop, I just cringe and become frustrated. I used Parallels and VMware Fusion before switching to VirtualBox. VMware asked for more money for compatible version with Yosemite. So, I finally gave up and switched to VirtualBox. I don't use Windows/other VMs often enough so VirtualBox is good enough.
/edit P.S. Adding this one line, as I forget if you mentioned this, but have your wife try out the laptop in the stores. The keyboard is awesome but may not be for everyone. Someone who used an Air for a long time shouldn't have any issues but I would definitely try it first just to be sure.
My pleasure.
I was in a similar situation, using the 2011 13.3 Air for years as a secondary device (being what I guess others would consider a "power user" I have always kept available a bitching desktop and/or (now) a bunch of cloud VMs, depending on the task), super happy with it (my Air is the best laptop I've ever owned, having started in about 1998), but wanting to upgrade, and watching the last Apple keynote in anticipation of a Retina Air. And I'm very happy with the new MB. It's not quite what I was expecting but if the form factor and power suits your needs, it's great.
Whew. That a was quite the run-on sentence.
Anyway, regarding Win8, I have to use it at work a lot and I feel your pain, it's pretty damned awkward at times. My experience so far is that the best way to navigate it is to a) use the search facility on the Start Screen to access your usual stuff (similar to OSX searchlight, so, Windows key to get to the Start Screen and then just start typing out the application or file name... its kind of awesome when it works) and b) set the OS to default to the desktop view on boot, in which case it's almost exactly the same as 7. The best way to look at it IMO is that Win8 = a more efficient Win 7 kernel + a mobile/tablet/metro API + a new UI start screen. Once you get past that it's surprisingly good.
Comments
It's great. Keyboard and trackpad work surprisingly well (and is highly underrated... other manufacturers are going to have a really hard time getting this right on devices this thin... use one in a store if you haven't). Screen is great. Battery life is as expected. Size is obviously incredible. CPU performance is as expected (1.1) or slightly above (1.3, which is the one I have, is actually fairly fast). It's a superb machine.
As far as actual use, well that depends on who is using it. The role that this laptop fits really well IMO is use as a secondary device for consistently mid-level computing tasks (with some burst activity) in an environment where mobility is important. "webdev work while traveling" is exactly this role so as long as you are OK with the form factor then you will like this laptop. If the form factor is an issue, you should consider the Air. If power is an issue, you should consider the Pro. If price is an issue, look at other manufacturers (new Surface and new XPS are both great machines, for example, though neither are really that cheap).
The reviews on this device have been mixed but I think a lot of reviews are acting on the premise that it's a one-stop machine, but it's not. It's not perfect. It's a bit pricey. You aren't going to be running a new game at max settings on it. The one port thing is odd and you will need to wait for the adapter market to catch up for some of this oddness/clumsiness to disappear. 8 gig ram isn't quite enough if you are expecting to be running big VMs on it a lot. The CPU is relatively underpowered (though, honestly, I think this is overrated and the 1.3 in particular is quite good... even with the 1.1 you will likely never even notice).
For me, this device is replacing a 13" 2011 Air and so far I consider it to be superior in just about every way and my experience has been great. If I need to sit down and do some "serious" computing for a decent stretch of time (new game at max settings for a couple hours, large data crunching, long programming stretch where I really need a desk and several monitors) then, well, that's what my desktop is for (or a powerful, bulky, docked laptop which amounts to the same thing).
In other words, what you are buying when you buy this machine over something else is this: the keyboard, the trackpad, the screen, the efficiency of the CPU, the battery form factor, the fanless design, and the entire form factor to bring this all together in such a tiny laptop. In return, the tradeoff is slightly less RAM, slightly less CPU power, and a lack of extension ports.
I really don't get the RAM thing - I have a 2013 MBAir 13" which I slam hard, run a ton of apps, VMware w/WIndows XP, Cisco Router Virtualization Simulations (GNS3/Dynamips), full office suite, Google Earth, Chrome w/20 Tabs - usually around 20-25 Apps at once, and I never have Ram pressure. OS X and 8 GB of memory for "typical user stuff" (I.E. not huge VMs, not Databases, No Video Codecs) - just seems to be the sweet spot for memory, and I 100% of the time recommend people not worrying about not having more memory on the MBAir.
For the work that a Macbook is going to be doing, I would think that 8 GB is more than enough.
The thing that will kill me - lack of USB ports when I'm out in the field. I really need the two USB ports - and the MBair is a life saver their. Hopefully a cheap USB-C --> 2 USB port converter will come out soon.
Can this MacBook handle Windows VM with VirtualBox? My wife is considering this MacBook. She is not a power user/developer, mostly browsing, emails, word processing, and spreadsheets. But she also wants Windows VM for programs that don't have OSX versions or experience on OSX is not that good.
I have a hackintosh with i3 2310M[1], 8GB RAM and I think the 12 inch macbook, 1.2gh has 5Y71[2] ticking inside it. Judging by the benchmarks they are pretty similar with the 5Y71 beating the i3 on single threaded stuff with the higher clock speed but not always.
My machine handles a Windows8.1 in VirtualBox easily. I use it for Visual Studio 2013 daily and it's fine although it's not perfect. It's slow at times but not enough to make me dualboot.
I hope that someone chimes in with Win VM on the real MacBook because I'm interested in it but I think it'll be just fine.
[1] http://www.notebookcheck.net/Intel-Core-i3-2310M-Notebook-Pr... [2] http://www.notebookcheck.net/Intel-Core-M-5Y71-SoC.129324.0....
I haven't tried this yet but as a regular VirtualBox user now on several different platforms, I would suspect that under a situation where you're not depending on the VM for a lot of graphics acceleration or sub-ms-level latency (games, for example, or _possibly_ video editing/composting), this macbook would handle it just fine. So for the uses you're describing she should be happy.
FYI the new version of Office for Mac will be out soon (preview is available now for free) if that's what you're referring to when you say "bad OSX experience."
Thanks for the feedback. I have a 2012 rMBP 15". I use Windows 7 VM in VirtualBox primarily for Tableau and large Excel files. I noticed the fan runs continuously and MBP gets hot while using VM. I am concern that if something similar happens on new MacBook w/o fans, it might be cooked. Both MS Office and Tableau are terrible on OSX. My wife is more concerned with Quicken. She prefers Quicken for Windows.
I don't think you have to worry about the chip getting too hot unless it turns out there is a serious manufacturing defect. This chip is quite unlike the ones in earlier MacBooks and is closer in efficiency and thermal performance to a chip you'd find in a phone or tablet. So it'll just throttle down for a bit, not fry, no matter what you throw at it.
Plus, once you have a chip that efficient, it simplifies your heat dissipation... a lot of times you'll have people put chips that really aren't made for laptops in because they are relying on the air flow to cool it to compensate, but air flow can be very unreliable. And that is the exact situation you have with some of the more notorious heat problems of other laptops. If however you have a good chip, and know it can't exceed X heat generation, and its low enough you can passively cool it, that's actually much more reliable... there's nothing mysterious about how much heat can be transferred from a chip to the piece of metal touching it, and the rate at which it transfers (note sturdiness and looks is not the only reason the case is metal). So in a lot of ways this device is actually far more thermally dependable than most actively cooled laptops, even though it'd seem to be the opposite at first glance.
As an aside, have you tried Win 8 for your VM? If you can deal with the UI, Win 8 is about 20% more efficient than 7 due to changes made for tablet support in 8. If you're running 8 in a VM and the VM is on a laptop and you're having heat issues, switching might be particularly beneficial. Also, consider VMWare Fusion or Parallels... I use VirtualBox myself but there's no question that the native Mac versions of the 2 main commercial VMs are going to be more efficient and give you less heat problems on day to day tasks.
Thanks for clarification on toasted chips. You just persuaded me to buy the new Macbook instead of 13"rMBP for her. We have been waiting for Retina to come out on Air weight/size format to buy new laptop for her.
I just can't get used to Win 8 interface. My wife uses Win 8 desktop. Anytime she asks me to troubleshoot issues on her desktop, I just cringe and become frustrated. I used Parallels and VMware Fusion before switching to VirtualBox. VMware asked for more money for compatible version with Yosemite. So, I finally gave up and switched to VirtualBox. I don't use Windows/other VMs often enough so VirtualBox is good enough.
/edit P.S. Adding this one line, as I forget if you mentioned this, but have your wife try out the laptop in the stores. The keyboard is awesome but may not be for everyone. Someone who used an Air for a long time shouldn't have any issues but I would definitely try it first just to be sure.
My pleasure.
I was in a similar situation, using the 2011 13.3 Air for years as a secondary device (being what I guess others would consider a "power user" I have always kept available a bitching desktop and/or (now) a bunch of cloud VMs, depending on the task), super happy with it (my Air is the best laptop I've ever owned, having started in about 1998), but wanting to upgrade, and watching the last Apple keynote in anticipation of a Retina Air. And I'm very happy with the new MB. It's not quite what I was expecting but if the form factor and power suits your needs, it's great.
Whew. That a was quite the run-on sentence.
Anyway, regarding Win8, I have to use it at work a lot and I feel your pain, it's pretty damned awkward at times. My experience so far is that the best way to navigate it is to a) use the search facility on the Start Screen to access your usual stuff (similar to OSX searchlight, so, Windows key to get to the Start Screen and then just start typing out the application or file name... its kind of awesome when it works) and b) set the OS to default to the desktop view on boot, in which case it's almost exactly the same as 7. The best way to look at it IMO is that Win8 = a more efficient Win 7 kernel + a mobile/tablet/metro API + a new UI start screen. Once you get past that it's surprisingly good.
But yeah, I feel your pain.