The MacBook Shaped the Modern Mac
One of Apple’s most controversial devices is still leading the company’s computers today.
In 2015, Apple reintroduced the MacBook. It was the Mac of the future, with a sleek, lightweight design and new features.
It had an all-aluminum chassis. It was the first Mac without a fan. It had a Retina Display. It had a brand new keyboard, trackpad, and logic board. It was, without a doubt, an awesome feat of engineering.
This device had its faults, but it went on to shape the design of the modern Mac. Here’s a few of the notable features of the MacBook, and the influence they had on future Macs.
The MacBook was the first device with the Butterfly Keyboard
One of the features of the MacBoom was the new Butterfly Keyboard. Designed to make the key mechanism thinner, it increased key stability. But it reduced key travel, and many users complained of sticky or unresponsive keys, as debris would easily get stuck under the keycaps.
Apple released several other iterations of the Butterfly keyboard mechanism, but it never matched the stability and travel of the old scissor-switch keyboards.
Eventually, Apple gave up on the Butterfly Keyboard, and today all of Apple’s computers ship with a scissor-switch Magic Keyboard.
The Butterfly Keyboard was a technically necessary decision, but it had many faults, and was eventually replaced.
The MacBook had USB-C
The MacBook was the first of Apple’s devices to use a USB Type-C connector. This I/O allowed you to use just one port for power, data transfer, displays, storage, USB, and more. This feature made its way to every Mac in Apple’s lineup, and Thunderbolt 3 was added along the way, increasing maximum data speed.
USB-C was a revolutionary change, and despite the need for many adapters at first, it has become a staple feature of modern Macs.
The MacBook was a fanless computer
The MacBook was the first Mac ever without a fan. But it came at the cost of a severely underpowered processor. The MacBook was equipped with an Intel Core M processor, a lightweight, power-efficient chip that was incredibly limited in performance.
Due to the performance limitations of a processor without a cooling system, the fanless design of the MacBook never made its way to any other Macs.
The MacBook had a Force Touch trackpad
Apple has always had the best trackpads in the business, and the Force Touch trackpad, introduced as a part of the MacBook, only set them further ahead of the competition. The Force Touch trackpad is unlike a traditional trackpad. Instead of physically clicking via a button under the trackpad, this trackpad detects the force of your finger on the surface and responds with a haptic vibration via Apple’s Taptic Engine. The haptics are so advanced that they feel like the trackpad is physically moving, even though it isn’t. This trackpad was well-received by critics and is still used in the company’s computers today.
The Force Touch trackpad pushed Apple’s already-great trackpads to the next level. In addition to being added to all other Macs in Apple’s lineup, the technology was used in the Magic Trackpad 2.
The MacBook, despite its faults, started a technical revolution for the Mac.
While the MacBook was the first device to use the Butterfly Keyboard, infamous for its unreliability, it brought innovations in its lightweight design, the Force Touch trackpad, and USB-C connector, all of which were used in future Macs. The MacBook’s all-aluminum design was also used in future Macs.
The MacBook was arguably one of the most influential Macs ever, and the features it introduced are still used in Macs today.
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