Ars Technica
Andrew Cunningham
Tested: 12-inch MacBook, 1.1GHz dual-core Intel Core M (Core M-5Y31), 8GB RAM, 256GB SSD
Performance
Performance is good in 1280×800 mode but sometimes animations drop frames in 1440×900 mode with lots of windows open.
What reviewers said about the MacBook (Retina, 12-inch, Early 2015)
3 reviews of this exact model; 1 of a sibling configuration (same chassis; a different chip or size, or the review does not state this Mac’s base chip with its CPU and GPU core counts), used for design topics only. Quotes are short, word for word, and each links to the article it came from. Every one was checked against that article on . MacIQ gives no score and no stars, and averages nothing.
Articles read Specifications and sources for the MacBook (Retina, 12-inch, Early 2015)
What reviewers raise
A count of the reviews we quote on this page that have a quote on each topic, from the findings shown below. A review may say more on a topic than we quote, so it counts what is quoted here, not everything each review covers, and it says how often a topic is quoted, not what was said about it. Battery, performance and heat are counted over the 3 reviews of this exact model.
- 2 of the 3 exact-model reviews we quote mention performance
- 1 of the 3 exact-model reviews we quote mentions heat and fan noise
- 1 of the 4 reviews we quote mentions keyboard and trackpad
- 1 of the 4 reviews we quote mentions ports
Where reviewers and Apple differ
No reviewer’s own figure on this page can be set beside an Apple claim for the same kind of test, so nothing is compared here.
The reviews
Newest first, in the order of the date each article prints (which may be an update date, not a first-publication date). Each quote links to its article; the date is the one the article prints, labelled as the article labels it. “Published” and “Updated” appear only where the article prints that word beside the date; “Dated” means the article prints that date with no label, so the date itself does not say whether it is the first publication or an update. A later update that an article mentions only in an editor’s note is not used as its date.
Macworld
Jason Snell
Tested: 12-inch MacBook, base model in space gray (1.1GHz dual-core Intel Core M, 8GB RAM)
Performance
The integrated Intel HD Graphics 5300 processor is more than enough to drive the Retina display with no lag, and I found Apple’s various interface animations ran smoothly.
Heat and fan noise
The MacBook has no fan—it’s completely silent, even when stressed out.
The Verge
Dieter Bohn
Tested: 12-inch MacBook, 1.1GHz dual-core Intel Core M (the article gives the Core M as clocked at 1.1GHz)
Keyboard and trackpad
the trackpad itself felt completely natural, easily up to Apple's standards.
Wired
David Pierce
Reviewed: 12-inch MacBook, Intel Core M (the article prices the 1.1GHz, 8GB, 256GB model and does not say which configuration it tested)
This is a different configuration of the same chassis. Only its comments on design are quoted here; its battery, performance and heat findings belong to the chip it tested.
Ports
the MacBook has but one, single, solitary, lonely USB-C port on its left side. (There's a headphone jack on the right side, and that's it.)