However, a worker on go most of the day will appreciate how easy it is to lug around the new MacBook.įor Apple to be able to slim the MacBook down to its size, it had to make several compromises, the most notable of which is the battery life. If you're carrying your laptop only a few times each day, you probably will not notice that the MacBook Pro is such a burden to carry around. On paper, those numbers don't really make a difference. Apple was able to whittle down the weight of the MacBook to 2.03 pounds, which is far lighter than the nearly 3 pounds of the 0.68-inch MacBook Air and the 3.5 pounds of the 0.71-inch MacBook Pro. However, users that frequently do processor-heavy tasks (video editing, working on multiple spreadsheets, and playing video games) are better off with the powerful processors of the MacBook Pro.Īt a meager 0.51 inch at its thickest point, the MacBook is one of the thinnest laptops in the world, with only the Acer Aspire S3 having the same measurement. The MacBook should work pretty well for simple, single-core tasks that most people do, such as browsing, emailing, and word processing.
Now, the MacBook's lower-level specs shouldn't automatically mean the MacBook Pro is the best choice across the board. It also has 128GB of disk storage for the entry-level model and up to 512GB for the high-end model. The MacBook, on the other hand, has a less powerful 1.1 GHz dual-core Intel Core M processor with 8GB of RAM. Both laptops start at 128GB of disk storage, with the MacBook Pro offering up to 1TB and the MacBook Air to 512GB. Meanwhile, the MacBook Air has a new 1.6 GHz dual-core Intel Core i5 and 4GB or 8GB of RAM to replace the 1.4 GHz dual-core processor in the older model. Apple replaced the old 2.2 GHz dual-core processor on the old MacBook Pro with a slightly faster 2.7 GHz dual-core Intel Core i5 processor and up to 16GB of RAM. Under the hood is where Apple introduced the changes to the MacBook Pro and MacBook Air, and this is also where both laptops outpace the new MacBook.
However, if you're after a slightly larger screen, the MacBook Pro wins in this department. No doubt that both the MacBook and the MacBook Pro will deliver stunning graphics, and the differences will be minimal to all but those with the keenest eye for pixel detail. However, the MacBook Pro has a bigger screen, also at 13.3 inches like the MacBook Air, and a higher resolution of 2,560 x 1,600. The 12-inch Retina display has a resolution of 2,304 x 1,440, providing rich, vibrant images that the 1,440 x 900 regular widescreen display of the 13.3-inch MacBook Air cannot. This technology is called Electron.The new MacBook is simply as gorgeous as any Apple product can be. A lot of popular desktop apps like Discord, Slack, WhatsApp, Skype and Messenger - any “app” that looks exactly the same as its website - uses the same power-hungry web engine that Chrome runs on. Griffin Jones/Cult of Macīut that’s not all. For instance, the Slack website in Safari (left) and the Slack app (right) are functionally identical. Don’t let sneaky apps drain your MacBook battery. If most of your time on battery is spent on the web, using Safari instead of Chrome can make a significant difference to your MacBook battery life. The Chrome web browser is notoriously power-intense. If you want good MacBook battery life, don’t use Chrome (or apps that use Chrome) When Safari (left) and Chrome (right) run the same websites, you can see in Activity Monitor (center) that Chrome uses much more CPU power, threads and energy. When they’re in the background, minimized or hidden, they’re not using any power - just like your iPhone.
Apple’s built-in apps like Messages, Calendar, Notes, Safari and others use a technology called App Nap.