More than 10 years ago, Apple officially launched the 12-inch MacBook with the confident statement that they had “reinvented the laptop” in a completely new way. This was not just a regular product in Apple’s computer catalog, but also a manifesto of the future of design that Jony Ive and his team wanted to aim for: absolutely thin and light, radically minimalist and full of avant-garde.

The product immediately became a hot topic in the technology world. Some users and experts praised it as a “mobile work of art”, different from all laptops of the time. On the contrary, there were also many harsh criticisms, saying that Apple had sacrificed too many basic elements in exchange for a slim appearance.

The 12-inch MacBook isn’t perfect, that much is clear. But that doesn’t mean it’s not memorable. In fact, it’s a milestone in the history of laptops, not just for Apple, but for the industry as a whole. It’s a product that, when you look back, you’re both wistful and aware that it helped usher in technological trends that are still strongly influential today.

Many people call the 12-inch MacBook a failure. For them, it symbolizes the excesses of Jony Ive’s design thinking, when he was too obsessed with thinness and lightness to the point of forgetting practicality. The fact that Apple was forced to kill the product after only four years seems to confirm that. But for others, the 12-inch MacBook was not just a “mistake” but also the precursor to many of the technologies and experiences that Apple users enjoy today. Despite many shortcomings such as low performance, high price and infamous keyboard, this small MacBook still contained bold innovations.

1. Innovative new features

The 12-inch MacBook made the tech world look up when it was launched, not only because of its unique design but also because of its starting price of $1,299, equivalent to a MacBook Pro. For users, it was a confusing choice: spend the same amount of money but get a machine with less powerful performance. Apple certainly does not consider the 12-inch MacBook a product for the majority.

The first point of contention was Apple’s choice of an Intel Core M chip, which was designed for tablets or ultraportables, not professional laptops. This chip is extremely energy efficient, does not need a fan to cool, but at the same time has serious performance limitations. Users quickly realized that the machine works well for office tasks, browsing the web or watching movies, but when opening Photoshop, running video editing software or even just having multiple Chrome tabs, everything becomes slow. For many, the performance is the first “shock”.

Another point of contention is the butterfly keyboard. In an effort to make the machine even thinner, Apple designed the keys to be super-shallow, almost close to the face. In theory, this makes typing faster and more accurate. But in practice, users complained about the stiff typing feel, lack of bounce, and especially the vulnerability to dust. Over the years, Apple has faced a series of lawsuits and free replacement programs related to this keyboard. The 12-inch MacBook is where the series of troubles began.

However, it would be unfair to stop there for the 12-inch MacBook. Because it also brings some truly valuable improvements. First of all, it is the super thin and light design. Only 13.1 mm thick and weighing less than 1 kg, it easily becomes the lightest laptop in the Mac line, even surpassing the MacBook Air, which is considered a mobile icon. Holding the device in your hand, people feel like it is an iPad with a keyboard rather than a traditional laptop.

Second is the Retina display. Although it is not the first time Apple has used a Retina display, with a compact 12-inch size and a resolution of 2304 x 1440, it has brought a great visual experience. This is clear proof that even ultra-portable laptops can have a high-end display, instead of having to accept the trade-off in display quality.

Another highlight of the 12-inch MacBook is the Force Touch trackpad. For the first time, Apple has brought force-sensing technology to the trackpad, allowing users to press hard or light to perform different actions. This is an improvement that not only impressed at the time of launch but also became standard on every MacBook after that.

In particular, USB-C cannot be ignored. In 2015, USB-C was still almost an unfamiliar concept. Apple did something bold: leaving only this one connection port, for charging, data transfer, and image output. This forced users to buy additional adapters, dongles to use mice, USBs, separate monitors... and of course caused a lot of complaints. But looking back, this was the most powerful push that made USB-C become a global connection standard. Today, most Windows laptops, Android tablets, and even the iPhone 15 have switched to USB-C.

As for the battery, Apple has created a stacked multi-cell design to maximize the space in the ultra-thin chassis. This still allows for all-day battery life, which is no small feat considering its size. And when combined with the lack of a fan, the 12-inch MacBook delivers a remarkably quiet experience, with no mechanical noise whatsoever.

Overall, the 12-inch MacBook is a combination of bold moves: thin, light, beautiful screen, advanced trackpad, long battery life, and pioneering USB-C. But those bold decisions also make it a "double-edged sword".

2. Paving the way for the future of MacBook

Looking at it from today’s perspective, it’s easy to see that the 12-inch MacBook has too many weaknesses: poor performance, bad keyboard, high price, inconvenient connectivity. But if we stop at criticizing, we will miss a more important aspect: its pioneering role in the MacBook’s development journey.

Like the Apple Newton (a failed PDA that laid the foundation for the iPhone), the 12-inch MacBook was also a product ahead of its time. It was released when the hardware was not powerful enough to realize Apple's vision. The Intel Core M chip was too weak to meet real-world needs, the butterfly keyboard was not yet mature enough to replace the old mechanism, and USB-C was too immature for users to accept.

But sales failures aside, the 12-inch MacBook ushered in a new era. The technologies it experimented with have matured and become standard. The Force Touch trackpad is on every MacBook. USB-C has become the universal port. The idea of ​​a super-thin, fanless, long-lasting laptop was dramatically realized with the Apple Silicon-powered MacBook Air in 2020.

The 12-inch MacBook even left a “painful lesson” for Apple: you can’t sacrifice the basic experience just to pursue thinness and lightness. After listening to user feedback, Apple returned to the traditional scissor keyboard, added more ports to the MacBook Pro, and at the same time focused heavily on performance instead of just focusing on design.

In other words, the 12-inch MacBook was both a failure and a “stepping stone”. Without it, Apple might not have dared to experiment so hard and learned valuable lessons. Without it, the Apple Silicon MacBook Air would not have achieved the perfect balance it has today.

And that's why, despite being discontinued after four years, the 12-inch MacBook is still remembered as a special milestone in Apple's history.

3. Conclusion

The 12-inch MacBook is a clear demonstration of a truth in the technology world: not every pioneering product is successful, but every successful product requires pioneering experiments.

Yes, the 12-inch MacBook was a commercial failure. It was too expensive for its value, too weak for its price, and too inconvenient for its users. But at the same time, it was an idea that was ahead of its time, planting the seeds for innovations that we take for granted today. More than 10 years later, when you hold a MacBook Air M2 or MacBook Pro M3 in your hand, you can see the silhouette of the 12-inch MacBook: thin and light, Retina display, Force Touch trackpad, long battery life, full USB-C. The only difference is that this time, the technology is mature enough to make the vision a reality. So calling the 12-inch MacBook a “miserable failure” is not wrong, but it is also not enough. It was a brave failure, an imperfect but necessary note in the symphony of Apple’s evolution. And sometimes, in the world of technology, such failures are more memorable and valuable than instant successes.