18 Macworld • March 2021MAC
lighter than the 11in Air, although it
was a tiny bit deeper.
Let’s be clear, a 1.29kg laptop is
pretty great. But you know what’s
better? A 920g laptop, which is what
the MacBook was. There’s a 12in
MacBook still in use in my house, and
when I pick it up I do a double-take.
It’s just so much less than my M
MacBook Air. It really takes me back
to the 11in Air in a way the current
model doesn’t.SOME IMPROVEMENT
NEEDED
Not convinced yet? Okay, I will admit
that despite its delightful size, the
12in MacBook was hardly a perfect
product. If Apple is to bring it back, it
needs to make some changes.A lot of those changes would
just come as a natural part of the
upgrade to an M1 processor. The
old MacBook was hamstrung by the
poor performance of low-power Intel
processors that had to run slow in
order to keep operating in the laptop’s
fanless enclosure. Of course, we know
from the M1 MacBook Air that Apple
has managed to create a fanless
laptop that provides performance
the likes of which we’ve only see
on high-end Macs before. It’s not
unreasonable to imagine that an M
MacBook would be as speedy and
capable as an M1 MacBook Air.
The MacBook also had some
serious deficiencies when it came to
peripherals. As in, it only had a single
USB-C port. Any M1 Mac is going toIf Apple brings back a MacBook, it needs to have more than one USB-C port.18 Macworld • March 2021MAC
lighter than the 11in Air, although it
was a tiny bit deeper.
Let’s be clear, a 1.29kg laptop is
pretty great. But you know what’s
better? A 920g laptop, which is what
the MacBook was. There’s a 12in
MacBook still in use in my house, and
when I pick it up I do a double-take.
It’s just so much less than my M
MacBook Air. It really takes me back
to the 11in Air in a way the current
model doesn’t.SOME IMPROVEMENT
NEEDED
Not convinced yet? Okay, I will admit
that despite its delightful size, the
12in MacBook was hardly a perfect
product. If Apple is to bring it back, it
needs to make some changes.A lot of those changes would
just come as a natural part of the
upgrade to an M1 processor. The
old MacBook was hamstrung by the
poor performance of low-power Intel
processors that had to run slow in
order to keep operating in the laptop’s
fanless enclosure. Of course, we know
from the M1 MacBook Air that Apple
has managed to create a fanless
laptop that provides performance
the likes of which we’ve only see
on high-end Macs before. It’s not
unreasonable to imagine that an M
MacBook would be as speedy and
capable as an M1 MacBook Air.
The MacBook also had some
serious deficiencies when it came to
peripherals. As in, it only had a single
USB-C port. Any M1 Mac is going toIf Apple brings back a MacBook, it needs to have more than one USB-C port.