Apple MacBook12-inch (2015) Apple announced the new MacBook in early 2015, and it is finally readily available in Apple Stores in three colors and several configuration options.The new 12-inch Apple MacBook is amazingly thin and light, has a premium look and feel, and is available in three colors. It offers better battery life than other laptops with Intel's Core M processors, and performance that's as good as or better than those models. The new USB-C port allows you to charge from an external backup battery pack. The 12-inch Retina display sports 3 million pixels and 2304 x 1440 resolution, offering beautiful depth of colour and shade and crisp text. The pixels have been redesigned to allow more light to pass through, resulting in more vivid brightness and tone interpretation - particularly when watching videos. The display performed beautifully in low-light conditions, but was more difficult to make out in bright direct sunlight. It’s performance is excellent. You’ll have no problems with normal productivity and web browsing, even if you leave lots of tabs open at the same time. There’s 8GB RAM as standard, which is more than ample – as is the standard 256GB of flash storage.
Speaking of which, it’s the PCI-e flash storage that helps keep the MacBook so responsive and useable. It’s blisteringly fast – the Blackmagic Disk Speed Test measured it at 741MB/s read and and 405MB/s write. You’ll notice this most when opening applications or waking from sleep – it wakes as fast as an iPhone or iPad does.
This makes up for the slightly sluggish Intel Core M processor, which scores 4,502 in Geekbench 3. This makes it slightly faster than the Asus Zenbook UX305 (4,098) – another Core M laptop – but not to a significant degree, and about the same as the 2011 version Core i5 MacBook Airs.
Spun another way, the MacBook is 26% slower than the current entry-level MacBook Air. This doesn’t show during general use, but you notice it more when tackling chunkier tasks such as batch image and video editing. The MacBook is fine for light editing duties, but only in extremis. It’s a similar story for gaming – only basic 3D games need apply, but that’s predictable enough.
BUT,Its performance and battery life falls short of the MacBook Air and Pro. The new keyboard is shallow and takes some getting used to, and sharing a single port for all accessories as well as the power cord is almost immediately frustrating.
THE BOTTOM LINE The new MacBook is a fantastically light and compact laptop that delivers a rich display, long battery life and surprisingly strong ergonomics, but it needs more ports.If you can live with its limitations, the new 12-inch MacBook delivers a groundbreaking design that points the way to the next chapter in laptops. Specs Display size/resolution: 12-inch 2,304x1,440 screen PC CPU:1.1GHz Intel Core M 5Y31 PC Memory:8GB DDR3 SDRAM 1,600MHz Graphics:1,536MB Intel HD Graphics 5300 Storage: 256 SSD Optical drive: None Networking:802.11ac wireless, Bluetooth 4.0 Operating system:Apple OSX 10.10.2 Yosemite Pric:$1299
VS Samsung Ativ Book 9 (2015) The Samsung Ativ Book 9 is one of the nicer Windows Ultrabooks around at the moment with stylish design and impressive-looking specifications.Solid offering of ports, Excellent sound,Beautiful display; Thin and light design; Solid overall performance. Samsung fits a good number of ports into its very slim 12-inch Ativ Book 9. The system gets the best battery life to date from a Windows system running a Core M processor. The 12.2-inch LED panel on offer puts out a sharp 2,560 x 1,600 pixels, right within Apple's "Retina" range. (Not to mention Samsung nixed touch control on this model, citing unsavory adoption rates.) But Samsung does you one better with an outdoor viewing mode that ups the max brightness from its standard 350 nit to a whopping 700 nit. For the most the specification of the Ativ Book 9 is in line with the MacBook Air. You’ve got a latest generation intel Core processor, 4GB of RAM, 128GB of SSD storage and around 12 hours battery life (Samsung claims 12.5hrs, compared to the Air’s 12hrs). However, it significantly trumps that laptop in one crucial area: its screen.
The Ativ Book 9 2015 Edition packs in a 12.2in display with a whopping WQXGA (2560 x 1600) resolution. It’s a superb quality display too, with great viewing angles, a reflection-free matt finish and bright, vivid colours.There is one significant trip up when it comes to features, though. Like the Asus Transformer Book T300 Chi, (another supposed MacBook Air killer), it lacks a full size SD card slot. This is a significant inconvenience for any photographers.
Otherwise connectivity is about on par with two USB 3.0 ports and microHDMI port and the latest Wi-Fi and Bluetooth standards. You do also get a microSD slot, but it’s just not the same.
BUT,Shorter battery life than Apple's very similar 12-inch MacBook, and a matching configuration costs more. The lack of a touch screen and small touch pad aren't ideal for Windows 8.
THE BOTTOM LINE The Samsung ATIV Book 9 offers a level of ultrabook-caliber performance that few manufacturers can match.This very usable 12-inch laptop is a good, if expensive, tool for websurfing and casual use, but would benefit from better battery life. Specs Display size/resolution: 12-inch, 2,560, x 1,600 screen PC CPU: 1.1Ghz Intel Core M 5Y31 PC Memory: 4GB DDR3 SDRAM 1600MHz Graphics: 2005MB Intel HD Graphics 5300 Storage: 125GB SSD Networking: 802.11ac wireless, Bluetooth 4.0 Operating system: Windows 8.1 (64-bit) Price:$1199
Speaking of which, it’s the PCI-e flash storage that helps keep the MacBook so responsive and useable. It’s blisteringly fast – the Blackmagic Disk Speed Test measured it at 741MB/s read and and 405MB/s write. You’ll notice this most when opening applications or waking from sleep – it wakes as fast as an iPhone or iPad does.
This makes up for the slightly sluggish Intel Core M processor, which scores 4,502 in Geekbench 3. This makes it slightly faster than the Asus Zenbook UX305 (4,098) – another Core M laptop – but not to a significant degree, and about the same as the 2011 version Core i5 MacBook Airs.
Spun another way, the MacBook is 26% slower than the current entry-level MacBook Air. This doesn’t show during general use, but you notice it more when tackling chunkier tasks such as batch image and video editing. The MacBook is fine for light editing duties, but only in extremis. It’s a similar story for gaming – only basic 3D games need apply, but that’s predictable enough.
BUT,Its performance and battery life falls short of the MacBook Air and Pro. The new keyboard is shallow and takes some getting used to, and sharing a single port for all accessories as well as the power cord is almost immediately frustrating.
THE BOTTOM LINE The new MacBook is a fantastically light and compact laptop that delivers a rich display, long battery life and surprisingly strong ergonomics, but it needs more ports.If you can live with its limitations, the new 12-inch MacBook delivers a groundbreaking design that points the way to the next chapter in laptops. Specs Display size/resolution: 12-inch 2,304x1,440 screen PC CPU:1.1GHz Intel Core M 5Y31 PC Memory:8GB DDR3 SDRAM 1,600MHz Graphics:1,536MB Intel HD Graphics 5300 Storage: 256 SSD Optical drive: None Networking:802.11ac wireless, Bluetooth 4.0 Operating system:Apple OSX 10.10.2 Yosemite Pric:$1299
VS Samsung Ativ Book 9 (2015) The Samsung Ativ Book 9 is one of the nicer Windows Ultrabooks around at the moment with stylish design and impressive-looking specifications.Solid offering of ports, Excellent sound,Beautiful display; Thin and light design; Solid overall performance. Samsung fits a good number of ports into its very slim 12-inch Ativ Book 9. The system gets the best battery life to date from a Windows system running a Core M processor. The 12.2-inch LED panel on offer puts out a sharp 2,560 x 1,600 pixels, right within Apple's "Retina" range. (Not to mention Samsung nixed touch control on this model, citing unsavory adoption rates.) But Samsung does you one better with an outdoor viewing mode that ups the max brightness from its standard 350 nit to a whopping 700 nit. For the most the specification of the Ativ Book 9 is in line with the MacBook Air. You’ve got a latest generation intel Core processor, 4GB of RAM, 128GB of SSD storage and around 12 hours battery life (Samsung claims 12.5hrs, compared to the Air’s 12hrs). However, it significantly trumps that laptop in one crucial area: its screen.
The Ativ Book 9 2015 Edition packs in a 12.2in display with a whopping WQXGA (2560 x 1600) resolution. It’s a superb quality display too, with great viewing angles, a reflection-free matt finish and bright, vivid colours.There is one significant trip up when it comes to features, though. Like the Asus Transformer Book T300 Chi, (another supposed MacBook Air killer), it lacks a full size SD card slot. This is a significant inconvenience for any photographers.
Otherwise connectivity is about on par with two USB 3.0 ports and microHDMI port and the latest Wi-Fi and Bluetooth standards. You do also get a microSD slot, but it’s just not the same.
BUT,Shorter battery life than Apple's very similar 12-inch MacBook, and a matching configuration costs more. The lack of a touch screen and small touch pad aren't ideal for Windows 8.
THE BOTTOM LINE The Samsung ATIV Book 9 offers a level of ultrabook-caliber performance that few manufacturers can match.This very usable 12-inch laptop is a good, if expensive, tool for websurfing and casual use, but would benefit from better battery life. Specs Display size/resolution: 12-inch, 2,560, x 1,600 screen PC CPU: 1.1Ghz Intel Core M 5Y31 PC Memory: 4GB DDR3 SDRAM 1600MHz Graphics: 2005MB Intel HD Graphics 5300 Storage: 125GB SSD Networking: 802.11ac wireless, Bluetooth 4.0 Operating system: Windows 8.1 (64-bit) Price:$1199
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