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YMMV. My 12" retina MacBook was perhaps my favorite machine I've owned. I have a M1 Air now, I like it as well. There are some pros and cons to both. I do still
by jghn 6y ago
YMMV. My 12" retina MacBook was perhaps my favorite machine I've owned. I have a M1 Air now, I like it as well. There are some pros and cons to both. I do still miss the smaller form factor.
- spinningarrow 6y agoMine too! I loved how incredibly light it was. I never had to think twice about taking it somewhere with me. I rarely used the port for anything other than charging, so it wasn’t too much of a hassle. Definitely disliked the keyboard though (I had the first generation).
- jghn 6y agoI kept mine instead of trading it in for the post-pandemic era. Similar to you, I could throw it in a bag and not even notice it was there. It was perfect for carrying around, traveling, etc.
- sjwright 6y agoI have exactly the same feeling about the form factor but even with the maxxed-out spec (2017 with i7 and 16GB of RAM) it feels underpowered even when doing fairly basic tasks. And though I'm sure it's mostly psychological, the keyboard feels delicate. The M1 Air is a bit bigger, but that two centimetres of width does go to good use with a bigger screen (with more pixels), a bigger trackpad, and a bigger battery.
- mercantile 6y agoI agree — the 12" is still Apple's best ever form factor. I even considered buying another one as the line was winding down. (Though was glad I didn't after the M1 came out.) But to be fair, the comment you're replying to is talking specifically about the 12" MacBook's keyboard, which is indeed awful. I'm typing on one right now, and even after years on the thing, it's a perpetual reminder of how they're slower to type on, and kind of make your fingers hurt. Remove the butterfly keyboard, add a second port, and the 12" MacBook gets unequivocally better.
- Nextgrid 6y agoSurprisingly enough I quite like the keyboard. Its reliability is shit (though better in the 2017 model - haven't had to replace mine yet) but the feeling of it is fine; it took some time to get used to but after that I don't mind it at all!
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- jghn 6y agoI didn't mind the keyboard so much. I'll admit that when I switch back to that machine that I don't like it as much as on the MBA, but it was fine. Granted, I've always had weird keyboard preferences in terms of tactile feel, travel distance, and the like. Once in a while I'd wind up with the sticky keys, but was lucky enough to avoid anything permanent.
- Mindwipe 6y agoAgreed. The small form factor is amazing, but ultimately the keyboard will always be awful.
- Nextgrid 6y agoSame here. I've got the M1 Air and while it's good, it's definitely bigger and heavier than the 12-inch, which is a bit of an inconvenience once you're used to the former. It's a sad coincidence they decided to discontinue it before their M1 CPU was ready because the M1 would've been right at home in the power & thermal envelope of the 12-inch Macbook.
- Mindwipe 6y agoI hope there will be a 12-inch Macbook successor at some point. The 13 inch Air is too big. But I suspect we're going to see chassis redesigns for everything given the new thermal windows, so maybe that will be the opportunity.
- shp0ngle 6y agoI have 2017 MacBook retina, and... it is just way too slow. Can open 2 or 3 electron apps at the same time at max. Trying to run 3 electron apps and an IDE, it becomes unusable. And nowadays everything is an electron app. So... I am considering updating. I love the form factor though and I don’t really care about the ports or the keyboard. (it broke once, I fixed it)