Evolution of Apple's MacBook lineup from polycarbonate designs to M2 silicon
1. The MacBook family was initially housed in designs
similar to the iBook and PowerBook lines which preceded them,
now making use of a unibody aluminium construction first
introduced with the MacBook Air. This new construction also has
a black plastic keyboard that was first used on the MacBook Air,
which itself was inspired by the sunken keyboard of the original
polycarbonate MacBooks. The now standardised keyboard brings
congruity to the MacBook line, with black keys on a metallic
aluminium body.
The lids of the MacBook family are held closed by
a magnet with no mechanical latch, a design element first
introduced with the polycarbonate MacBook. The Memory, drives,
and batteries were accessible in the old MacBook lineup, though
the newest compact lineup solders or glues all such components
in place. All of the current MacBooks feature backlit keyboards.
The MacBook was discontinued from February
2012 until March 2015, when a new model featuring an
ultraportable design and an all-metal enclosure was introduced. It
was again discontinued in July 2019 following a price reduction of
the 3rd generation MacBook Air and discontinuation of the 2nd
generation model.
2. MACBOOK AIR
The MacBook Air is Apple's least expensive
notebook computer. While the 1st generation was released as a
premium ultraportable positioned above the 2006 - 2012
MacBook, lowered prices on subsequent iterations and the
discontinuation of that MacBook has made it serve as the
entry-level Mac portable.
The 2010 to 2017 base model came with a
13-inch screen and was Apple's thinnest notebook computer until
the introduction of the MacBook in March 2015. This MacBook
3. Air model features two USB Type-A 3.0 ports and a Thunderbolt
2 port, as well as an SDXC card slot (only on the 13 inch model).
This model of MacBook Air did not have a
Retina Display. A MacBook Air model with an 11-inch screen was
available from October 2010 to October 2016. In 2017, the
MacBook Air received a small refresh, with the processor speed
increased to 1.8 GHz. click here to bought
On October 30, 2018, the MacBook Air
underwent a major design change, dropping the USB Type-A
ports, MagSafe, and the SD card slot in favor of two
USB-C/Thunderbolt 3 ports and a headphone jack.
It was updated with a Retina display and Intel
Y-series Amber Lake i5 CPUs, as well as a Force Touch
trackpad, a third-generation butterfly mechanism keyboard, and
the Touch ID sensor found in the fourth-generation MacBook Pro,
but without the Touch Bar. click here to access.
The base price was also raised, although the
base configuration of the 2017 model was retained until July 9,
2019, when it was discontinued along with the Retina MacBook.[1]
The base price of this model was also dropped to $1099 ($999
for students) on the same day.
4. On November 10, 2020, Apple announced that
the MacBook Air would use the new Apple M1 system on a chip.
The M1 Air does not have a fan, ensuring silent operation, but
limiting the M1 chip speed in sustained operations. Performance
was claimed to be higher than most current Intel laptops.
On June 6, 2022, at WWDC 2022, Apple
announced a new MacBook Air based on the Apple M2 system
on a chip. It incorporates several design elements from the
fifth-generation MacBook Pro models, such as a flat, slab-shaped
design, full-sized function keys, and a Liquid Retina display with
rounded corners and a notch for a 1080p webcam, but retains the
previous generation's fanless design. It includes two combination
Thunderbolt 3/USB 4 ports and adds MagSafe charging.
MACBOOK PRO
The MacBook Pro is Apple's higher-end
notebook available in 13-inch, 15-inch, and 16-inch
configurations. The current generation 13-inch MacBook Pro was
introduced in October 2018. It features a touch-sensitive OLED
display strip located in place of the function keys, a Touch ID
sensor integrated with the power button, and four USB-C ports
that also serve as Thunderbolt 3 ports.
5. The 13-inch model was also available in a less
expensive configuration with conventional function keys and only
two USB-C/Thunderbolt 3 ports, but since July 2019, the base
MacBook Pro model has the Touch Bar as well as quad-core
processors, similar to the higher-end models, although it still has
only two USB-C / Thunderbolt 3 ports.
6. The May 4, 2020 refresh adopts many of the
upgrades seen in the 16" 2019 MacBook Pro, including the
scissor mechanism keyboard ("Magic Keyboard") and a physical
Escape button.
On November 13, 2019, Apple released the
16-inch MacBook Pro, replacing the 15-inch model of the
previous generation, and replacing the butterfly keyboard with a
scissor mechanism keyboard (dubbed the Magic Keyboard by
Apple), reverting to the old "inverted-T" arrow key layout,
replacing the virtual Escape key on the Touch Bar with a physical
key, and replacing the AMD Polaris and Vega graphics from the
15-inch model with options from AMD's Navi graphics
architecture, as well as reengineering the speakers, microphone
array, and the thermal system compared to the 15-inch; the latter
had thermal limitations in the 15-inch model due to its design. In
addition, the 16-inch is available with up to 64 GB of DDR4 2667
MHz RAM and up to 8 TB of SSD storage. It also has a 100 Wh
battery; this is the largest battery that can be easily carried onto a
commercial airliner under U.S. Transportation Security
Administration rules.
On November 10, 2020, Apple announced a new
model of the MacBook Pro incorporating the new Apple M1
system on a chip. It has a fan, allowing sustained operation of the
M1 chip at its full performance level, which is claimed to match or
exceed that of Intel versions. Unlike Intel Pro models, the M1
7. version only comes with a 13-inch screen, has only two
Thunderbolt ports and has a maximum of 16 GB random access
memory (RAM).
On October 18, 2021, Apple announced new 14-inch
and 16-inch MacBook Pro models during an online event. They
are based on the M1 Pro and M1 Max, Apple's first
professional-focused ARM-based systems on a chip. This
release addressed many criticisms of the previous generation[12]
by reintroducing hard function keys in place of the Touch Bar, an
HDMI 2.0 port,[13]
a SDXC reader and MagSafe charging. Other
additions include a Liquid Retina XDR display with thinner bezels
and an iPhone-like notch, ProMotion supporting 120Hz variable
refresh rate, a 1080p webcam, Wi-Fi 6, 3 Thunderbolt 4 ports, a
six-speaker sound system supporting Dolby Atmos, and support
for a third 6K display on M1 Max models.The 16-inch version is
bundled with a 140W GaN power supply that supports USB-C
Power Delivery 3.1, though only MagSafe supports full-speed
charging as the machine's USB-C ports are limited to 100W.
On June 6, 2022, Apple announced an updated 13-inch MacBook
Pro based on the Apple M2 system on a chip. It is housed in the
same chassis as the previous M1 MacBook Pro.
8. ORIGINAL MACBOOK
The original MacBook was discontinued on July 20,
2011, for consumer purchase and in February 2012 for
institutions, being superseded by the 2nd generation MacBook
Air, as the 11-inch model introduced in 2010 had the same
starting price of the MacBook. The sales of the Mac computers
amounted to 18.21 million units in Apple’s 2018 fiscal year.
RETINA MACBOOK
The Retina MacBook was a line of Mac portable
computers introduced in March 2015. It was discontinued on July
9, 2019, as it had been superseded by the 13-inch Retina
MacBook Air, which had a lower base price, additional USB-C /
Thunderbolt 3 ports, and better performance.click here to register
your macbook pro
9. All Intel-based MacBook Air and MacBook Pro models were
discontinued in November 2020 and October 2021 respectively,
and replaced by Apple silicon models.