On the bleeding edge of technology

Singapore

THE MacBook laptop is the sort of bleeding edge technology that Apple has not ventured into since Steve Jobs pulled the original MacBook Air out of a manila envelope at Macworld 2008. It has nothing in common with the entry-level polycarbonate MacBooks that Apple discontinued in 2011. In fact, it has little in common with other Apple products.

Although the newest 13-inch MacBook Pro also has Apple's new Force Touch trackpad, it is especially useful on the MacBook because it is more likely to be used without a mouse. The trackpad uses finger pressure to activate functions such as contextual menus; no clicks involved. It is slick and incredibly efficient. Apple trackpads were already the best in the business. Force Touch now puts them on another level. Aside from a headphone jack, only a single USB-C port mars the fanatically minimalist edges. There is not even a separate power jack. That USB-C port handles charging duties too. So if you want to charge the battery and connect a device at the same time, you have to buy an optional adapter such as Apple's USB-C Digital AV Multiport Adapter (S$118).