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Apple Launches MacBook 2016 With Intel Skylake Processor, Longer Battery Life

Apple, on Tuesday, announced a refresh for its 12-inch MacBook laptop. The 2016 MacBook comes with an Intel Skylake processor -- sixth-generation dual-core Intel Core M model, offering up to 1.3 GHz clock speed with Turbo Boost speeds of up to 3.1 GHz, faster 1866 MHz memory, and a 'rose gold' color variant. Apple assures 10 hours of wireless Web browsing time, or 11 hours of movie playback on a single charge. The new model will hit retail stores on Wednesday. It starts at $1,299 for the 256GB SSD and 8GB (up from 4GB) version, and goes all the way up to $1,599 for the top-of-the-line model which offers 512GB SSD.

A couple of points: the first-generation MacBook didn't fare well with reviewers and plenty of users alike. Second, today's announcement also hints that the MacBook Air and the MacBook Pro lineups won't be getting the Intel Skylake upgrade for at least a few more months -- which is really sad, because, at present, they come equipped with almost three-year-old processor and graphics chips. No wonder, Oculus executive made fun of Apple's computers.

8 of 179 comments (clear)

  1. Re:More battery lies by Aaden42 · · Score: 4, Informative

    Video decode uses a specialized, highly optimized decoder chip, most likely part of the GPU. The silicon is designed to decode H.264 and probably the various MPEG codecs using as little power as possible. CPU usage is very low while playing video.

    Web browsing does JIT compilation of text-based script languages, initiates dozens of network connections per page load to pull in resources, and has to parse & render all of that using the general purpose CPU. That requires much higher CPU usage, and much greater power demands.

    The difference is obvious on smaller (IE less compute) devices like phones. Smart phones have been able to play video flawlessly for years, but they still generally feel slower, more jumpy than most full computers for web browsing. Video decode has a very well defined, relatively small set of operations that can be optimized in silicon. Web browsing is wide open, anything goes in terms of computation. The additional flexibility required makes silicon-based optimization much more difficult, and power demands increase.

  2. Re:Price Point by __aaclcg7560 · · Score: 3, Informative

    I was almost sold on a Mac Mini until I found out that you cannot upgrade the RAM in the newer models.

    Buy and upgrade an older model from OWC.

    http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/Apple_Systems/Used/Macs_and_Tablets

  3. Re:what about macbook pro by alexhs · · Score: 4, Informative

    Semi related: how do you make a clickable link?

    Like in HTML: <a href="http://buyersguide.macrumors.com/#Mac">MacRumors</a>
    Which gives:
    MacRumors
    I don't know if there's a list of "allowed HTML tags and entities" anywhere anymore. BTW, I used <quote> for quoting you.

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  4. Re:Would be interesting to know... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    Both.

    Apple plays the long, long, long game with their supply chain and they probably had plenty of existing inventory. (Look how long apple kept selling the optical drive sporting non-retina MBP)

    Sure it makes them sluggish but they enjoy profit margins that are 1000% better than their competitors. - Fun fact. Despite Apple not being the biggest PC maker in terms of units sold.. They make more money at it than anyone else by a HUGE margin. Quality over quantity.

    Lenovo, Dell, HP, Microsoft. They all wish they were Apple.

  5. Re:Make fun of the slow software, not the hardware by FlyHelicopters · · Score: 3, Informative

    Compute CPU power is not much more than it was 3 years back.

    In some regards, that is true, in others, less so.

    Haswell to Skylake is rather pointless, but Sandy Bridge to Skylake is not, depending on what you're doing.

    The other factor is power consumption, which has been Intel's real focus.

  6. Re:Price Point by AmiMoJo · · Score: 3, Informative

    Or just get an Intel NUC or one of the many other, cheaper, better and smaller units.

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  7. Re: Apple fanbois by HornWumpus · · Score: 3, Informative

    They have been RAM bandwidth constrained for a _long_ time.

    Don't buy new motherboards because of a new CPU family. Buy new motherboards because of new RAM, which usually comes with a new chipset. If the chipset/CPU doesn't do anything for the RAM bandwidth, skip the upgrade.

    --
    John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
  8. Re:Frist POS by jellomizer · · Score: 4, Informative

    It comes from a long line of Nerd hate.
    Back in the 1980's the good old IBM vs Apple debate. Then it moved to a command line vs GUI debate.
    by 1990's With Windows becoming the dominate "OS" Windows 3.1 was more of an advance shell for DOS, and the inclusion of a large range of PC Compatibles it morphed further to General Purpose PC's vs. Apple.
    During these geek wars for the past generation, had diminished Apple.
    Then during the late 1990's Apple switch to "Cute" with the Fruit Colored iMac. And the Powerbook. Which were popular enough to get a few converts. But the geek debates were much less than as the PC was still the victor. However you got the Linux fanboys joining up with the Apple Fanboys as Microsoft was the common enemy, giving Apple a bit of an edge, and impression of the underdog outsider.

    Then there was the iPod, which was popular. That allowed people to get interested in Macs again. so during the 00's Macs were getting popular with Microsoft messing up with major security problems with Windows XP and failures like ME. A lot of the people switched to Macs to avoid being boring PC guys. But this caused the hate wars to begin again. As apple is now becoming a major player on the block. No longer the underdog, but a major influencing threat. The Linux allies broke off and started to side more with Microsoft on the grounds that you can get more versatile hardware.

    Then Apple changed the game with the iPhone. Which spawned tablets and other touch devices. Which diminished the popularity of Personal Computers in general. So the war moved mostly to Apple vs Android, however interests in Macbooks vs PC's have diminished. But in terms of Hardware manufacture Apple is the big name, and who do we have as a popular PC manufacturer? No longer IBM, Compaq, Gateway, and Dell. Lenovo Thinkpads keeps the business market. But the others not so much, as the big name.
    So the underdog PC's are now getting Apple hate.

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