Digital Trends may earn a commission when you buy through links on our site. Why trust us?

12-inch MacBook finally upgraded to latest Intel hardware, and a rose gold finish

By Jon Martindale Published April 19, 2016

New processors, a new gold coating, all with a better battery life – Apple is continuing to iterate on its 12 inch Retina MacBook, giving consumers more options to choose from. We can’t promise you a reduced price tag, but the new Skylake-equipped, Retina MacBook is a tempting proposition regardless of price.

Related: See here for the latest Apple products

Recommended Videos

This refresh of the entire 12-inch Retina line up keeps the same dimensions, chassis, keyboard and the same single USB Type-C port on the side that caused so much controversy. It even costs the same – a $1,300 base price, but that means you get more bang for your buck in the same package as before.

It might look a little different, though, if you opt for the new Rose Gold color scheme, which is now among the more traditional Space Grey, Silver and Gold options, giving you – as 9t05Mac points out – the same options as iPhone buyers.

Internally things are changed up too, with the new Intel Skylake Core M CPUs Apple has installed, operating between stock and more powerful turbo frequencies, depending on what you’re up to at the time. That generation has improved on-board graphical performance too, offering 25 percent more oomf than what came before, as well as better energy efficiency, which gives users up to 11 hours of media playback and 10 hours of Wi-Fi web browsing. That’s up an hour by both measurements.

If you are buying one of these brand new, you can pick one up for $1,300 if you opt for the version with a Core M3 running at 1.1GHz (2.2GHz turbo), 8GB of memory and a 256GB PCI Express storage option. If you have slightly deeper pockets, you can pay $1,500 for the more powerful 1.2GHz (2.7GHz turbo) Core M5 CPU, twinned with the same memory and a 512GB PCI Express flash storage drive.

If all of that is just too pricey, and you don’t need the new processor and color scheme, you could opt for one of Apple’s refurbished devices. It’s now offering the last generation 12 inch Retina Macbooks for just $930 for the the lower specced 1.1GHz, 8GB of RAM and 256GB storage option, or you could pay up to $1,320 for the more powerful 1.3GHz model with 512GB of storage.

Evergreen writer

Jon Martindale is a freelance evergreen writer and occasional section coordinator, covering how to guides, best-of lists, and…

Topics

Computing

I went hands-on with Apple’s M4 MacBook Air and the app performance blew me away

M4 MacBook Air

Apple is marching in with new products for the spring, including a new MacBook Air featuring the M4 chip, a new iPad Air, uniquely featuring the M3 chip, and a new Mac Studio desktop, with M4 Max and M3 Ultra chip options. While enthusiasts await the launch of the coveted M5 chip series devices, including the MacBook Pro and iPad Pro later this year– the tech brand has brought in the expected refresh of its early-year devices. Notably, the MacBook Air and iPad Air see yearly upgrades, while the Mac Studio is getting its first revamp since 2023.

While largely maintaining their external designs, most changes to the devices can be found by way of hardware and AI support upgrades. Apple is looking to showcase Apple Intelligence app integration as functional and accessible to users. The brand is competing on the market with many on-device AI experiences, such as Microsoft’s Copilot+ PCs and Chromebooks inundated with Google Gemini.

Computing

10 years ago today, Apple launched a revolutionary MacBook that failed spectacularly

An Apple 12-inch MacBook on a desk.

Ten years ago today, Apple unveiled the 12-inch MacBook to the world, claiming it had “reinvented the notebook” for the better. The laptop almost instantly divided opinion, with fans and detractors at each other’s throats from the start. And sure, it was by no means perfect, but look a little closer and I think you’ll find a device that has had a monumental impact on the world of computing -- not just on Apple, but on the industry as a whole.

The 12-inch MacBook is often seen as a flop and as a product emblematic of the excesses of Apple’s Jony Ive era, where the design guru’s penchant for thinness and lightness ruled all. The fact that this MacBook was discontinued after just four years is seen as proof of this idea.

Computing

The new MacBook Air has got a small, but significant keyboard update

M4 MacBook Air

This week, Apple introduced three new products: a fresh MacBook Air, iPad Air, and iPad. One thing each of these devices has in common is that they basically look the same as the models they are replacing—except for one tiny detail on the new MacBook.

As iCulture’s noted first, the new laptop addresses a design flaw that Apple has had for the past 26 years. Since the launch of the PowerBook G3 ‘Lombard’ in 1999, the mute key on every Apple laptop has featured a speaker icon. However, this design does not clearly indicate that the button can both mute and unmute the computer’s audio. With the introduction of the new MacBook Air, the keyboard now displays a speaker icon with a strike-through, clearly signaling its full function. For those keeping score at home, the button in question is the F10 key.