Fri 13 Mar 2015 11:08
Apple's new Macbook laptop: like a tablet?
I rarely write about Apple's products because they have no shortage of press already: Apple has superb marketing, and many of their products are remarkable in one way or another, often for excellent design and engineering. Their new super-thin Macbook laptop is no exception: it's very thin and light, has a superb high-resolution screen, a carefully redesigned trackpad and keyboard, and is very power-efficient. New to this machine is the fact that it has only a single USB-C port for power, data, and video (it also has a headphone port for audio). Most laptops have many more ports than this. A USB port used for both power and data, and a headphone port, but nothing else, is more typical of a tablet, not a laptop. Indeed, some of the press seems to have really latched onto this "tablet" comparison. Brooke Crothers of Foxnews/Tech claims that the MacBook is "almost a tablet" and states that the MacBook "is an iPad with a keyboard" while Lily Hay Newman of Slate claims that "you should think of the new macbook as a tablet". So how true is this? Is the new MacBook like a tablet?
Well, no, it's not. The MacBook's screen is not touch-capable, and is not capable of being used like a tablet screen. The keyboard and touchpad is an integral part of the machine: it is not optional or detachable. It runs a desktop/laptop operating system (MacOSX), not a tablet operating system such as iOS. The device is not a tablet, it is not "almost a tablet", it is not even like a tablet. It's a small, light, power-efficient laptop. If it must be compared to something, perhaps it can be compared to a netbook, though it has a much better keyboard, touchpad and screen, and is much more expensive.
Then what about the single I/O port? That's simply the consequence of the new USB 3.1 specification, which finally allows a USB connection to deliver enough power to power a laptop, and defines the USB-C connector, which in addition to USB data lines, provides "alternate mode" data lines that can be used for display protocols like DisplayPort. This makes it possible for Apple to build multiport adapters for the Macbook that provide video (e.g. HDMI), data (USB-A) and charging ports, making it unnecessary to provide all those ports separately in the laptop itself.
So does this make the Macbook "like a tablet"? While it is true that tablets have been using single connectors for power and data for a long time, this doesn't make the Macbook tablet-like. It's not the presence of a single shared power/data connector that makes something like a tablet, it's the interactive screen. Yes, a horse has four legs and is often sat upon, but a horse is not anything like a chair.
So will I be getting one of the new Macbooks? Probably not: like a fine thoroughbred, the new Macbook is lovely but rather too expensive for me. The need to buy the multiport adapter separately makes the already high cost of acquisition even higher. The high price doesn't stop me from admiring the design and engineering of this new laptop, but it does keep me from buying one.