The 12-inch Intel MacBook was a disaster, with major design flaws, but Apple has had seven years to fix those problems — and it’s time for a comeback.
The 12-inch MacBook was a failure riddled with controversy during its four-year lifespan, but in the years since its discontinuation, Apple has fixed all of the problems that led to the laptop’s struggles. The computer was ahead of its time, and with the emergence of Apple Silicon, it’s the perfect time for Apple to revisit the beleaguered thin-and-light laptop. It was first announced in 2015 as the smallest Apple laptop ever, besting even the MacBook Air in some areas. Due to various problems in design and available technology, the computer wasn’t exactly a hit. The 12-inch MacBook last received an upgrade in 2017, and was discontinued in 2019 with no replacement in the company’s lineup. With all that said, a 12-inch MacBook with Apple Silicon could be the company’s best yet.
From design flaws, to technical flaws, to the price point, quite a lot went wrong with the 12-inch MacBook. The laptop was sold with a single USB-C port for power and data transfer, as well as a 3.5mm headphone jack. That was the only way to connect the device to other sources, and in 2015, people weren’t ready to take the leap to USB-C and were incredibly displeased with dongles. To make the laptop impressively thin, Apple redesigned the keyboard using the infamous first-generation butterfly keyboard, which required numerous service programs to correct issues like sticky keys, double clicks, and more. The Intel M-Series processor was comically underpowered, with a base clock of 1.1 GHz. To top it all off, the 12-inch MacBook had a flurry of solid stated drive (SSD) issues, and that component was soldered to the logic board. When that component failed, a whole new board was needed.
Looking back on the 12-inch MacBook, the product was essentially a concept computer without the adequate technology to make the concept a viable reality. All of the issues above were deal-breakers in 2015, but have already been solved as of 2022. The butterfly keyboard is officially dead, with a Magic Keyboard made up of more traditional key switches replacing the brittle butterfly switches. It takes up more space, making products a bit thicker, but the feel of the keyboard and the lack of problems make the increase in thickness a worthy sacrifice. Most importantly, the switch to USB-C is all but completed, and governments are even considering a mandate to force companies to use the standard. A laptop with a single USB-C port wouldn’t invoke the horror that it did in 2015.
Apple Silicon Makes A 12-Inch MacBook Possible
With an Apple Silicon system-on-a-chip (SoC), the processor, GPU, neural engine, and RAM are all included together on a single chip. This makes the logic board’s overall footprint smaller, and with the M1 and M2 processors, Apple has managed to provide immense power in a tiny and efficient way. As a result, a 12-inch MacBook with Apple Silicon could provide power in a way that the Intel 12-inch MacBook couldn’t, and this is evident in other products in the company’s lineup. The iPad Air and iPad Pro both house M1 processors in a thin, fanless body, and the iMac crams an entire logic board into the computer’s chin. Both of these successful products show just how small Apple can make its processors, which would be perfect for a 12-inch MacBook.
Due to all of the improvements — and design reversals — that Apple has made to its laptops over the past seven years since the 12-inch MacBook was originally released, it’s time for the company to take another stab at a thin-and-light notebook. There’s a market for a product that is as thin as a pencil and can compete with most thin-and-light laptops, and this is feasible with Apple Silicon. The 12-inch MacBook’s return has been theorized since before Apple Silicon was announced, and for good reason. The MacBook will be a fan favorite if Apple applies all of its innovations to its smallest notebook, including Apple Silicon, a Magic Keyboard, and thin form factor.
Source: Apple
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