MacBook 12 appreciation thread

[aespana]

My bad, it's been a while should have said tried "reinstall Mac OS Monterey" not Disk Utility.

Oh, I see. Yeah, maybe there was a problem with your SSD or something like that. As Star-fire says, usually i don't see any problem when I try to install a new OS on the Macbook.

Is there a general consensus on which OS is the best for an early 2016 (m7 1.3Ghz, 8g RAM)?
I'm on Catalina and don't mind it. I only browse the web and do email on this machine.

I think is Catalina as well. It moves nice, not that old as High Sierra/Mojave and if you like the old design so, this is the best option.

Just need to use another browser than Safari due to not support for webp images

 

[JiggyJaggy]

Interesting article here on a potential Chromebook competitor...

Chromebook killer

 

[Star-fire]

Interesting article here on a potential Chromebook competitor...

Chromebook killer

It would be interesting something like a Macbook 12" with maybe a lower spec M2 like a 4/2 core split, or maybe even just efficiency cores, I'd imagine with just 4 efficiency cores it could get insane battery life. It would have to be pretty cheap though to compete.

 

[JiggyJaggy]

Honestly even an M1 chip if they are aiming at the lower budget market would be fantastic. I have said it so many times - the M1 chip is one of the best buck for buck chips out there and is crying out to be placed into an Ultraportable MacBook 12 (2023 iteration).

 

[537635]

Honestly even an M1 chip if they are aiming at the lower budget market would be fantastic. I have said it so many times - the M1 chip is one of the best buck for buck chips out there and is crying out to be placed into an Ultraportable MacBook 12 (2023 iteration).

This would not be as much a Chromebook - killler, but an iPad (Pro) - killer.

Probably the singular reason why they retired the 12'' format.

 

[Star-fire]

At that I would say give us an iPad with full OS but I'd rather have a laptop with a proper keyboard and most important a hinge. Most tablet keyboard replacements never replace a real keyboard and a hinge. I mean the MacBook 12" form factor could be made into an iPadOS machine but just don't want iOS. Yes even a M1 within a similar form factor would be great too. The other thing is price, it would have to be $300-400 to even be a competitor to a Chromebook and that's high compared to Chromebooks.

 

[glhiii]

I have a 16" M1 MBP and a 13" M2 MBA. A couple of weeks ago, I bought a 2017 12" MacBook for $350 (512gb, 15gbl RAM, i5). Running the latest version of Ventura, it works extremely well. I find I like it better than my two other computers -- actually, I haven't used them for a week while I use the MacBook for hours every day. No problems with the keyboard. Of course I don't make videos with the machine or use it for graphics processing , but it works just as well as the M1 or M2 for text processing, the web, mail and the like. For 1/10 the price, I have a machine I use more than my other two.

 

[537635]

Sigh. It's a 6 years old machine and I still scout the local "ebay" for it. Local keyboard is the issue, so probably not a lot of these laptops still out there.

You're lucky to be able to get the 2017 full specs device.

 

[VivienM]

You're lucky to be able to get the 2017 full specs device.

There are some out there... I'm trying to remember when I bought mine, it was the summer so I guess it was summer 2022.

The thing is, at the price of a used one, the 12" MacBook is a very appealing device. I can't imagine that I would have ever paid the price of a new one though... although I did buy an M1 Max MBP so I am not averse to spending big money on launch day Apple products.

 

[aespana]

Nice! I again find that Big Sur+ doesnt run good on my base model 2017. Isnt just as fast as use Mojave/Catalina.

Just yesterday I reinstalled Mojave and uff, it just fly. Really love the performance but I should probably upgrade to Catalina at least since even Firefox doesnt have full support for that OS.

Those who find a upgraded model are very lucky. That i5 should be a lot of faster than the M3 base model

 

[VivienM]

Those who find a upgraded model are very lucky. That i5 should be a lot of faster than the M3 base model

It's not. Go and look at, say, Geekbench results for a i7-7Y75 vs a m3-7Y32.

The m3 is in the mid-high 900s single-core, 1700-1900 multi-core, while the i7 is in the 11xx single-core and 20xx multi-core.

(I will say, one of the things that amazes me about the now-dead Intel i3/i5/i7 nomenclature is how many people are convinced that, say, an i5 or an i7 must have a huge performance improvement over something else of the same generation. Generally... they don't, maybe 10-20% at most.)

 

[StoneJack]

Nice! I again find that Big Sur+ doesnt run good on my base model 2017. Isnt just as fast as use Mojave/Catalina.

Just yesterday I reinstalled Mojave and uff, it just fly. Really love the performance but I should probably upgrade to Catalina at least since even Firefox doesnt have full support for that OS.

Those who find a upgraded model are very lucky. That i5 should be a lot of faster than the M3 base model

I had Monterey on my base m3 2017. It worked fine (MS teams was a bit slow but that's given).

 

[glhiii]

Ventura works very well on my 2017 i5.