Can I get one without all those pesky USB ports… they crowd my style; I mean what do you do with those things anyways?
I have a Technical Question
226 ppi… pp stands for Puppy Power (Scrappy Doo) but what does the i stand for?
What is the woot warranty?
Will Apple still service these?
Are they coming in the original box?
The processor isn’t too impressive. Looking at a comparison of macs, in a scoring range of 1,500 to 14,500, this laptop scores 6,700 - right in the middle.
pixels per inch
226 Pixels per Inch: remember the old days when 0.28 mm “dot pitch” meant the monitor gave you a nice, smooth picture with no jagged lines? 226 ppi is 0.11 mm dot pitch.
It’s a “retina” display, meaning that, at a normal viewing distance, the pixels (or dots) on the screen are so small and close together that the rods and cones in the retina of your eye can’t tell where one leaves off and the next begins.
It’s like a 4K TV: HD looks great, so you’re surprised that 4K looks obviously better.
It turns out that, with an HD TV or .28 dot pitch, the “dithering” (using pixels of varying colors at the border of 2 different colors) is visible to the eye, and the brain smooths it out, so you’re not aware of it. With a “retina” display, your eye sees a sharp demarcation, because the dithering is so tiny, and your brain just says “wow”.
With the SSD, it will do almost anything a normal person would do with a Mac almost instantly. The i7 is hilariously overpowered for almost any normal use.
You’d have to be doing some serious number crunching (Photoshop) or running a lot of bulked-up code with every keystroke (Eclipse) to notice the speed difference. In those cases, yes: you might notice that the fraction of a second you’d wait on the fastest Mac is a fraction of a second twice a big on this one.
It’s like those savings accounts that promise to pay twice the interest banks do: twice a tiny fraction is still a tiny fraction.
The i3 in my home laptop (with an SSD) only scores around 2,500 and the only times it runs the CPU up to 100% are when it’s rendering several web pages at once (though using Eclipse on it takes a laid-back attitude).
This is just like the guy with a 1,000 HP car looking down his nose at the 500 HP car, not realizing that the difference is noticeable for several seconds per year of driving, unless you take it to a drag strip.
Yes…A “balanced” system does not need the I7…The price is a bit high…But that is Apple…
I personally prefer an older refurb…With the I7…But you trade off the Retina display and the nicer mouse pad…
Of course mine was $300 less…
OK, so it comes with a 90 day limited woot warranty. Does is still have an apple warranty and apple service? Can an apple service plan be added?
This is not a bad deal. Do compare. I buy all my Macbooks on ebay from electronicsvalley which are brand new with full 1y Apple warranty. This deal beats electronicsvalley.
At least it’s got a headphone jack…
The Core M series processors are confusing, especially to the technically inclined because it appears less but still has powerful features. Yes, it is lower power than similarly named processors from Intel, but still quite capable. It’s main purpose is battery savings. This laptop will last seemingly forever on light computing running on battery. But, if you need power, 2.7Ghz turbo speed with today’s CPU threading and a large cache of 4GB is quite powerful for many tasks. Yes, even the ubiquitous Photoshop scenario will work well on this computer. Though, under normal loads the CPU only pushes 1.2Ghz which saves a lot of power, and keeps this machine perfectly silent.
I got the first generation of this and paid almost double when it first came out. I was looking for a MacBook Air replacement with a Retina display. I love love this machine. Thinnest lightest Mac they sell. Light as a feather with a great display. Fits on any airplane tray table. When I travel, I use Remote Desktop to access my work Windows machine- lots of options. I like Jump Desktop. I do use Photoshop and yes, a little slower than a powerhouse machine, but worth it for the portability. If you need a travel machine, your back will thank you. My only issue is the keyboard is not my favorite. Takes a little getting used to. But not a dealbreaker. Still, this is a great deal. Would love to get the rose, but macs last a long long time. My 2011 MacBook Air still works as my main “Desktop”. Cheers
I wish I could say say the same thing. Mine always seem to last five years before I want to replace it. My current one is even worse, because I NEED to replace it after five years. I can’t even move it without putting it into sleep mode, or the screen gets jumbled and the computer freezes. It’s like there’s something loose inside that gets jostled or something 
I love apple, but with how expensive they are, should definitely last longer if you want it to.
I bought one last time (Apple 12" Intel Core M5 512G SSD Macbooks). My previous/other laptop is the pre-retina 2012 MacBook Pro with an i7 and a SATA SSD. This one isn’t noticeably slower for everyday tasks, but I haven’t tried my Windows VM on it or done any video rendering. The differences in weight, battery life, and display quality are pretty amazing.
simoraw asks, “Are they coming in the original box?” It arrived in a plain white box (inside the shipping box) with a sticker on it with all the relevant numbers (Part number, serial number, MAC address, etc) and bar codes. Because they were intended to be warranty replacements, Apple considers them service parts, and that’s how they’re packaged.
madlaughlin asks, “Will Apple still service these?” The answer is yes, but not under warranty. They don’t have a warranty because they were expected to inherit the warranty of the machine they replaced. If you book a Genius Bar appointment at an Apple store, they will diagnose it and do software repairs for free but you’ll have to pay for hardware repairs. Store managers have, or at least used to have, the discretion to waive repair fees or offer replacements for out-of-warranty machines, so don’t be rude to them.
^^^Quality post
I purchased this exact model from Best Buy in August 2017 for 849$ with full Apple warranty. I’ve had 3 Macbook Air models and was excited for this one.
Admittedly, the single charging/usb C port really bothered me - but I bought adapters that aided in my work.
However I use this to teach, so it was moved classroom to classroom, several times a day. Unlike the Air, this unit is extremely fragile. The metallic facade began to flake after day two. By the end of the first week, the machine was showing signs of denting and pitting. Then the case started to bend, rendering the keyboard useless.
Ultimately I returned it and purchased another Macbook Air. Just my .02,
wow, half as fast as my beat up x220. It does have twice the SSD, a $150 value. And of course the apple qualities of parts costing 5x, and a warranty that apple will do everything not to honor.
I have a x220. Awesome laptop, I just wish they made a 1080p panel for it. The resolution of thinkpads is the biggest downfall.
Why not just go refurbished from Apple? For $100 more you can get a better performing MBP with a 13.3" display i5 with 8gb of ram (2133, not 1600).
HD is smaller SSD but that would be the least of my concerns. Also a full year newer.