Apple Announces The New MacBook (2015)

Today Apple announced a brand new MacBook laptop. This new laptop doesn’t fall under Apple’s existing MacBook Pro and MacBook Air categories, but is instead simply called the MacBook. In truth, this is actually more like the return of an old name that hasn’t been seen in some time, rather than the creation of a new product line. When the MacBook Air was introduced, consumers overwhelmingly chose it over the original MacBook line. It eventually absorbed that category of Apple’s laptops, while the Pro line remained for users who needed something with more processing power. 

This new MacBook was recently rumored, and there have been many different reactions from Apple fans and tech press alike. It’s certainly a departure from even the existing MacBook Air, and in many ways it seems more fitting of the Air name than the current Air does. Apple’s goal was clearly to make something thin, light, and almost appliance like. They’ve certainly succeeded, but in order to get there the MacBook makes some big changes to what is currently thought of as a notebook.

The biggest change is to physical connectivity. Macs currently come with a couple of USB ports, a couple of Thunderbolt 2 ports, a 3.5mm jack for audio, and some connector for power. The new MacBook goes in a completely different direction, ditching every single legacy port with the exception of the 3.5mm jack. Instead, the MacBook has a single USB Type-C port on the left side, and this port is the only method of connecting with other devices, as well as charging. It’s a huge departure from the current MacBooks and laptops in general, and only time will tell how well consumers respond to this change.

Apple’s pursuit of thinness also necessitated changes to the input devices when compared to other MacBooks. With a slimmer chassis comes less space for the key switches underneath the key caps. In order to make the keyboard on the new MacBook, Apple designed a new type of key switch which they are calling a Butterfly Switch. This new switch is 40% thinner than the scissor switches used on older MacBooks, and it eliminates the wobble that occurs when pressing on the edges of scissor switches. The trackpad has also been redesigned to use Apple’s Force Touch technology from the Apple Watch. which allows the user to press anywhere on the trackpad to click, and gives a haptic response to presses. It can also determine the force of a press to perform gestures or other actions. Both of these changes are interesting, but they do make large changes to the feel of the keyboard and trackpad. Key travel distance has certainly been reduced, and the new trackpad won’t have the clickiness of the old ones. It will be interesting to see how consumers react to these changes.

Apple’s other goal seems to have been making the new MacBook fanless. In order to do so, the new MacBook utilizes Intel’s new Core M processors. The starting configuration at $1299 uses Core M-5Y70 which has a base frequency of 1.1GHz and a turbo frequency of 2.9GHz. The 1.2GHz Core M-5Y71 is available in the $1599 model, and a 1.3GHz version is available as a build to order option on Apple’s online store. All models come with 8GB of LPDDR3 memory standard.

Like all of Apple’s recent products, the new MacBook comes with a Retina display. This is a 12″ 2304×1440 IPS display, which equates to 226 pixels per inch. While this new MacBook is not a MacBook Air, it’s good to see the thin and light laptop in Apple’s line finally moving both to a high resolution display as well as to an IPS panel. Assuming that Apple does the same 2x scaling that they’ve used in all of their other products, users will be given a desktop with the same area as a 1152×720 display which is actually slightly lower than the 11″ MacBook Air. Apple specifies that the scaled resolutions available are 1440×900, 1280×800, and 1024×600, although it remains to be seen how well Intel’s HD 5300 will keep up when rendering at 2880×1800 offscreen for the 1440×900 scaled mode.

This new MacBook reminds me a lot of the iPad. It has a port for charging and for interfacing with other devices via adapters, and a port for your headphones. Everything else is meant to be done wirelessly, and there’s certainly no room for user upgrades or repairs. It’s very much an appliance-like computer, and it’s something very different from any laptop Apple has ever done before. I naturally want to feel skeptical about it, but the MacBook Air was an equally dramatic shift from the norm when it was first introduced, and it eventually replaced the original MacBook line entirely. Whether or not the changes in the new MacBook become common among future laptops is up to consumers. If you want to be one of the first people to enter uncharted territory with this new MacBook, it’ll be available in just over a month, on April 10.

HP Releases The Spectre x360 Convertible Laptop

2015 has been a good year for laptops. We have seen some amazing new designs already, and had the chance to review several of them so far, with more upcoming. HP, even though they are one of the largest PC makers on the planet, is slowly reinventing itself. We have seen their Stream laptops and tablets already, which are a great take on the low end of the market, and now HP has a new offering to go after the premium laptop market. The Spectre x360 is a 13.3 inch laptop, with a CNC aluminum chassis, and a Yoga style hinge to make it as versatile as we already know the Yoga laptop can be.

HP worked closely with Microsoft on the implementation of the x360, and they have included a lot of tweaks and technologies to improve battery life. First, the battery size is good. The x360 has a 56 Wh battery inside, edging out the Dell XPS 13’s 52 Wh battery and the Yoga 3 Pro’s 44 Wh power pack. The QHD (2560×1440) display also features Panel Self-Refresh technology, to let the laptop power down when the display is not changing. And the drivers were tweaked to allow the x360 to deliver up to 12.5 hours of battery life on the FHD model, according to HP.

HP will offer two versions of the display. Both are optically bonded, to increase brightness and bring the pixels closer to the touch digitizer, much like we see on quality tablets. The first display is a Full HD 1920×1080 touch panel, and the upgrade is a 2560×1440 Quad HD model, which works out to 166 Pixels per Inch, and 221 Pixels per Inch respectively. Those who like to use a pen as an input method will be happy to see that HP is offering an active pen as an accessory as well, but at this time we do not know what kind of digitizer it will use.

Powering the new convertible will be the Intel Core i5-5200U and i7-5500U processors, and memory will be 4 to 8 GB. Storage options are all solid state, and options range from 128 GB to 512 GB.

The prices are quite competitive as well, with a starting price of just $900 for the Core i5 model with 4 GB of memory, a 128 GB SSD, and the Full HD touchscreen. To bump up in performance, HP will also be offering a model with a Core i7, 8 GB of memory, and a 256 GB SSD with the Full HD display for $1150, and the top end model will have the Core i7, 8 GB of memory, 512 GB SSD, and the Quad HD touchscreen for $1400.

The Spectre x360 goes on sale today at HP.com, and will be available at Best Buy starting on March 15^th.

Source: HP

Gigabyte 17.3” P37X Gaming Notebook Now in North America

Gigabyte has an interesting line of gaming notebooks these days, including their own brand of P-series laptops as well as the AORUS brand. We’re in the process of reviewing the P35X v3, which packs a GTX 980M into a 0.82” thick 15.6” chassis, and now Gigabyte sends word that they have officially launched the big brother P37X with a 17.3” chassis in the North American market. It’s actually slightly thicker than the P35X, and the design language is very similar as well. That’s either good or bad depending on what you’re looking for in a gaming notebook.

On the one hand it’s generally slimmer (0.9”) and lighter (6.17 lbs.) than competing notebooks from Alienware, ASUS, Clevo, and MSI; however, keeping things cool in a thinner chassis generally means either more noise from the fans, higher temperatures, or both. It’s also either a conservative and subdued looking design, or it’s boring – I tend to like less bling on my laptops, but others are happier with multi-colored keyboard backlighting and a more aggressive industrial design.

In terms of features, all the core elements are essentially the same as the 15.6” model, but the keyboard adds a column of six dedicated macro keys. The top key switches between five banks of macros, so all told that gives you access to 25 macro sets. Besides the GTX 980M GPU, the system also supports Core i7 processors (Haswell series still), up to two 512GB mSATA drives in RAID 0, and two 2.5” drives are available as well. As with most other 17.3” laptops, the display remains a 1080p panel – there just aren’t many other options yet, though we’ve heard 3K/4K may be coming later this year (hopefully?) for 17.3” panels. At least the display is anti-glare and wide viewing angle (IPS most likely, though AHVA is also a possibility)

Amazon and other retailers are carrying the Gigabyte P37X, and the base model comes with i7-4720HQ, GTX 980M 8GB, 8GB system RAM, and a 1TB HDD (no SSDs in the base model, though you can always add your own) for $1999. If you prefer a slightly upgraded build, the Gigabyte P37X-CF2 also has 8GB RAM and an i7-4720HQ, but it includes a 256GB mSATA SSD and a Blu-ray burner for $2499. So yeah, just buy the base model and pick up a pair of 512GB mSATA MX200 SSDs for $440 instead – and if you really want a Blu-ray burner, that can be arranged for the remaining $60. You’ll probably want to upgrade the RAM as well, as 8GB is a bit chintzy on a high-end gaming rig these days.

Despite the odd pricing on the “upgraded” build, it’s good to see additional gaming notebook options, and for those that prefer a more subdued aesthetic the Gigabyte line might be exactly what you’re after. We’ll have the full review of the P35W v3 in the next week or two, so stay tuned.

Gallery: Gigabyte 17.3” P37X Gaming Notebook Now in North America