Well, that was quick. After watching store shelves run dry of 12-inch MacBooks one day, and Apple assaulting customers with a new line of 12-inch MacBooks the day after, the company has now made the updated lineup available in limited quantities for stores needing display models and to fill early in-store purchases. Shipments are reportedly now arriving in the United States, Canada, the U.K., Australia, France, and other countries.
According to the web-based Personal Pickup tool available on Apple’s website, customers can walk right into an Apple store and purchase one of the new 12-inch MacBooks. For instance, there are five Apple stores located in North Carolina showing the 256GB Rose Gold 12-inch MacBook readily available, while eight stores have the same model on hand in Virginia (not including Washington, D.C.).
That said, potential customers merely need to enter their ZIP codes or city names within the search field and the tool will pull up a string of nearby Apple stores showing device availability or “ships to store.” Of course, customers can have the device shipped directly to their home instead for free (standard snail) or for a mere $10 (two to three business days), but that naturally involves waiting, and who wants to do that?
As previously reported, Apple has introduced two new 12-inch Retina MacBook models. For $1,300, customers get 256GB of storage, a dual-core Intel Core m3 processor (1.1GHz/2.2GHz), Intel HD Graphics 515-based visuals, and 8GB of memory. The $1,600 model sports 512GB of storage, a dual-core Intel Core m5 processor (1.2GHz/2.7GHz), visuals provided by Intel HD Graphics 515 hardware, and 8GB of memory. Color options include silver, gold, space gray, and rose gold.
However, those are just the base models. Customers can choose to configure their new MacBook to sport a dual-core Intel Core m7 processor, which has 4MB of L3 cache, a base clock speed of 1.3GHz and a Turbo Boost clock speed of up to 3.1GHz. That’s actually it on the customization front, although consumers can toss in needed accessories into the shopping cart while ordering. Obviously customers can’t pick up the Intel Core m7-based model immediately.
On an international front, the new 12-inch MacBooks are reportedly now available in Apple stores planted in major international cities and their surrounding metropolitan areas such as Berlin, Hamburg, Ottawa, London, Montreal, Paris, Rome, Sydney, and a number of others. There are also international locations that show a “ships to store” listing as well.
Additionally, select Apple Authorized Resellers should have the new MacBooks rolling in by now including Best Buy, Amazon, MacMall, B&H Photo, and so on. There’s a list of Apple stores with the new 2016 MacBooks on the MacRumors forum here as well, pieced together by its members to help out in the search.
But again, customers can use Apple’s online Personal Pickup tool (aka the “Available for pickup” option at the bottom with the Select button) to see what Apple stores have the MacBooks currently in stock. After checking, users should call the store’s provided phone number to make sure a specified model is really physically available to purchase. Current supplies are expected to be depleted rather quick.
The new 2016 12-inch MacBooks are the company’s thinnest and lightest MacBook yet, measuring just 0.516-inches thin and weighing a mere two pounds. The refreshed devices also introduce a new color, rose gold. So pretty.
