The 12-Inch Retina MacBook Refresh: A Minor Upgrade with Major Implications

With another year comes another 12-inch Retina MacBook refresh, and my glass II respect bump not much has changed for 2017 headlining this year's upgrade list is a move to Intel's latest cable a family processors. Although these new processors don't offer a major increase in performance, they do provide substantial improvements in efficiency and lower heat output, which is particularly important for the famous Retina MacBook, a hardware designed that sometimes causes issues with overheating which in turn leads to CPU throttling.

We'll take a look at some of those details in a minute but first let's go over the specs. This year's base model 12-inch Retina MacBook comes with a 1.2 gigahertz dual-core Intel Core i3 processor, 8 gigabytes of RAM, and 256 gigabytes of storage. Design-wise, the only visual difference are a couple of logos attached to the control and option keys. The keyboard has been updated with second-generation butterfly switches offering more key travel and a quicker feel, although this is a very minor change.

The new MacBook gets Bluetooth 4.2 over last year's Bluetooth 4.0. The eight gigabytes of RAM is exactly the same compared to last year's model, except you now have the option of upgrading it to 16 gigabytes for an extra $200. This option doesn't seem like a major selling point considering most users question whether they need the extra RAM. We should be looking at a MacBook Pro and said we tested the flash storage with a Black Magic Disk Test and found that it's around 63 percent faster than the previous model, offering faster transfer speeds as well as quicker boot and app loading times.

Let's get to the biggest change this year - the move to Intel's newest Kaby Lake processor, which gets a 100 megahertz increase in base clock over last year's model. Even more impressive is that the new chip turbo boosts up to three gigahertz instead of 2.2. Graphics also gets an update from Intel's integrated HD 515 to HD 615. These updates sound good on paper but what difference does it actually make? We ran through a few benchmarks to find out, and overall we found an average of around 26 percent increased CPU performance and around 50% increase in graphics performance.

Even with the CPU performance boost offered by Intel's latest chips, battery life for video viewing has increased by up to 2 hours compared to last year's model. Let's say the same for other uses like web surfing, since 12-inch MacBooks are familiar it becomes increasingly difficult to dissipate heat while executing CPU heavy tasks for extended periods of time. The only way to reduce heat is to throttle down the processor which results in lower performance. We test the thermal efficiency by continually looping the Cinebench R15 CPU benchmark and witnessed a decrease in scores of around 8% for the new MacBook and 12% for the previous model.

The biggest issue with the new 12-inch Retina MacBook is the price for $12.99 you could go for the newest base model 13-inch MacBook Pro instead performance-wise the step-up ProModel is better in every way except for a meagre offering of 128 gigabytes of storage. There's also the argument that it is thinner, lighter and more portable but for many the performance benefits offered in a base MacBook Pro far outweigh sleek design. The Pro version gets better speakers, better FaceTime camera, a bigger touchpad, a bigger brighter more colorful display with increased resolution and major performance improvements. It even gets double the USB-C ports with the option of adding more. Importantly for Apple's connectivity constraint MacBooks each port of the MacBook Pro supports Thunderbolt 3 unless portability is extremely important to you then skip the 12-inch Retina MacBook and go for the new 13-inch MacBook Pro instead.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enwith another year comes another 12-inch Retina MacBook refresh and my glass II respect bump not much has changed for 2017 headlining this year's upgrade list is a move to Intel's latest cable a family processors although these new processors don't offer a major increase in performance did you provide substantial improvements in efficiency and lower heat output lower thermals is particularly important for the famous retina MacBook a hardware designed that sometimes causes issues with overheating which in turn leads to CPU throttling we'll take a look at some of those details in a minute but first let's go over the specs this year's base model 12-inch Retina MacBook comes with a 1.2 gigahertz dual-core intel core and 3 processor with 8 gigabytes of RAM and 256 gigabytes of storage design-wise the only visual difference are a couple of logos attached to the control and option keys the keyboard has been updated with second-generation butterfly switches offering more key travel and a quicker feel although a very minor change the new MacBook gets bluetooth 4.2 over last year's Bluetooth 4.0 the eight gigabytes of RAM is exactly the same compared to last year's model except you now have the option of upgrading it to 16 gigabytes for an extra $200 that option doesn't seem like a major selling point considering most users question we need the extra RAM should be looking at a macbook pro and said we tested the flash storage with a black magic disk test and found that it's around 63 percent faster than the previous model offering faster transfer speeds as well as quicker boot and app loading times let's get to the biggest change this year the move to Intel's newest KB Lake processor which gets a 100 megahertz increase in base clock over last year's model even more impressive is that the new chip turbo boosts up to three gigahertz instead of 2.2 graphics also gets an update from Intel's integrated HD 515 to HD 615 these updates sound good on paper but what difference does that actually make we ran through a few benchmarks to find out overall we found an average of around 26 percent increased CPU performance and around 50% increase in graphics performance even with the CPU performance boost offered by Intel's latest chips we found that battery life for video viewing has increased by up to 2 hours compared to last year's model let's say the same for other uses like web surfing since 12-inch MacBooks are familis it becomes increasingly difficult to dissipate heat while executing CPU heavy tasks for extended periods of time the only way to reduce heat is to throttle down the processor which results in lower performance we test the thermal efficiency by continually looping the Cinebench r15 cpu benchmark and witnessed a decrease in scores of around 8% for the new MacBook and 12% for the previous model the biggest issue with the new 12 inch retina MacBook is the price for $12.99 you could go for the newest base model 13-inch MacBook Pro instead performance wise the step-up ProModel is better in every way except for a meagre offering of 128 gigabytes of storage of course there's the argument of being thinner lighter and more portable but for many the performance benefits offered in a base macbook pro far outweigh sleek design the pro version gets better speakers better FaceTime camera a bigger touchpad a bigger brighter more colorful display with increased resolution and major performance improvements it even gets double the USBC ports with the option of adding more more importantly for apple's connectivity constraint MacBooks each port of the MacBook Pro supports Thunderbolt 3 unless portability is extremely important to you skip to 12 inch retina MacBook and go for the new 13 inch MacBook Pro instead for more news reviews and how-tos check out inside ER comm and subscribe sample insider on YouTube youwith another year comes another 12-inch Retina MacBook refresh and my glass II respect bump not much has changed for 2017 headlining this year's upgrade list is a move to Intel's latest cable a family processors although these new processors don't offer a major increase in performance did you provide substantial improvements in efficiency and lower heat output lower thermals is particularly important for the famous retina MacBook a hardware designed that sometimes causes issues with overheating which in turn leads to CPU throttling we'll take a look at some of those details in a minute but first let's go over the specs this year's base model 12-inch Retina MacBook comes with a 1.2 gigahertz dual-core intel core and 3 processor with 8 gigabytes of RAM and 256 gigabytes of storage design-wise the only visual difference are a couple of logos attached to the control and option keys the keyboard has been updated with second-generation butterfly switches offering more key travel and a quicker feel although a very minor change the new MacBook gets bluetooth 4.2 over last year's Bluetooth 4.0 the eight gigabytes of RAM is exactly the same compared to last year's model except you now have the option of upgrading it to 16 gigabytes for an extra $200 that option doesn't seem like a major selling point considering most users question we need the extra RAM should be looking at a macbook pro and said we tested the flash storage with a black magic disk test and found that it's around 63 percent faster than the previous model offering faster transfer speeds as well as quicker boot and app loading times let's get to the biggest change this year the move to Intel's newest KB Lake processor which gets a 100 megahertz increase in base clock over last year's model even more impressive is that the new chip turbo boosts up to three gigahertz instead of 2.2 graphics also gets an update from Intel's integrated HD 515 to HD 615 these updates sound good on paper but what difference does that actually make we ran through a few benchmarks to find out overall we found an average of around 26 percent increased CPU performance and around 50% increase in graphics performance even with the CPU performance boost offered by Intel's latest chips we found that battery life for video viewing has increased by up to 2 hours compared to last year's model let's say the same for other uses like web surfing since 12-inch MacBooks are familis it becomes increasingly difficult to dissipate heat while executing CPU heavy tasks for extended periods of time the only way to reduce heat is to throttle down the processor which results in lower performance we test the thermal efficiency by continually looping the Cinebench r15 cpu benchmark and witnessed a decrease in scores of around 8% for the new MacBook and 12% for the previous model the biggest issue with the new 12 inch retina MacBook is the price for $12.99 you could go for the newest base model 13-inch MacBook Pro instead performance wise the step-up ProModel is better in every way except for a meagre offering of 128 gigabytes of storage of course there's the argument of being thinner lighter and more portable but for many the performance benefits offered in a base macbook pro far outweigh sleek design the pro version gets better speakers better FaceTime camera a bigger touchpad a bigger brighter more colorful display with increased resolution and major performance improvements it even gets double the USBC ports with the option of adding more more importantly for apple's connectivity constraint MacBooks each port of the MacBook Pro supports Thunderbolt 3 unless portability is extremely important to you skip to 12 inch retina MacBook and go for the new 13 inch MacBook Pro instead for more news reviews and how-tos check out inside ER comm and subscribe sample insider on YouTube you\n"