Apple’s new 12-inch MacBook sure is a beautiful notebook.
It’s only 13.1mm thick and weighs two pounds. It’s got a beautiful high-res Retina display and up to 9 hours of battery life. The new MacBook’s also sporting that single (but versatile) reversible USB-C port.
While Apple spent plenty of time waxing poetic about how thin and light the new MacBook is, they didn’t have time to talk about some of the finer details. Here’s what you may not know about Apple’s svelte new MacBook.
1. Low-res FaceTime cameraEvery Mac ships with a 720p resolution FaceTime HD camera. The new MacBook? It got the short end of the stick — it’s saddled with a 480p resolution FaceTime camera. That’s as low-res as an iPhone 4’s front-facing camera. Every iPhone starting from the iPhone 5 has a 720p FaceTime HD camera.
With the low-res FaceTime camera, FaceTime or Skype calls will only be in standard-def, not HD. That’s a bit of a bummer considering how high-res the display is.
See anything different about the new MacBook? Those speaker grills right above the keyboard provide a clue. While the new MacBook has stereo speakers (like the MacBook Air), it also has slightly better sound. Mashable tech reporter JP Mangalindan says the speakers do sound louder. On the MacBook Air, the speakers are hidden in the vents near the hinge. On the new MacBook, the speakers are blasting sound upwards at you.
3. MagSafe takes a hike
The beloved MagSafe (and MagSafe 2) is nowhere to be found on the new MacBook. Instead, Apple’s replaced it with the USB-C port, which also outputs video and transfers data. MagSafe’s magnetic “trip-proof” design has saved a handful of my MacBooks from taking a drop to the ground.
The removal of MagSafe on the new MacBook has us wondering: How long until the rest of Apple’s MacBook product line loses the MagSafe port for slimmer designs? Apple’s known to sunset its own connector ports for the sake of streamlining. The company killed the 30-pin iPod/iOS connector for the reversible Lightning cable in 2012 with the introduction of the iPhone 5 and it’s never looked back
4. You’ll probably need a dongleThe single USB-C port is a blessing and a curse. On one hand, the single reversible port allows the new MacBook to be impossibly thin. On the other hand, you will need to purchase a $79 adapter if you want to simultaneously charge your pretty new notebook and and output video to an external display and connect a hard drive or flash drive or DVD drive with a full-sized USB.
5. The glowing Apple logo is no more
You can spot a MacBook from a mile away just by looking at it. All MacBooks, except the new MacBook, have an Apple logo on the lid that lights up. The new MacBook ditches the backlit-logo for a metallic one — kinda like the one on the iPad Air and iPad mini. So long glowy Apple logo, we’ll miss ya
Source:mashable.com