Evolution of the MacBook

How Apple has changed the way we use computers - not just once, but again and again

- CARRIE MARSHALL

FOR MANY OF us of a certain age, our first Mac was a laptop: a clamshell iBook. And, now, this article is being written on another Mac laptop, the M1 MacBook Pro.

Those two laptops may be separated by 20 years, huge advances in technology and the many other mobile Macs we've owned and loved from 'Snow' iBooks and PowerBook G4s to MacBooks of every kind. But they're both unmistakably Apple, designed to excite and delight us as well as to reliably perform.

Apple's first portable Mac was a bit of a disaster, and there have been a few more missteps along the way to today's hardware heaven. But when it comes to laptops, Apple has had more hits than ABBA or Ed Sheeran. That's because Apple consistently pushes the limits of what's possible both in terms of design and technology, constantly redefining what mobile computing should be. Wireless networking, all-day battery life, incredible displays and even more incredible performance are all things we take for granted today, but they are all the result of Apple's constant research and innovation.

In this feature, we'll discover the story of the mobile Mac from the Portable to the PowerPC, from the first G4 to the final Intel Core and from Intel chips to Apple silicon. We'll celebrate the hits and sigh at the misses, pick out the most pivotal models and explore how each generation built on what came before while laying foundations for the laptops of the future.

From Portable to Pismo

From the first mobile Mac to one of Apple's most-loved models