Macbook 2017: The Bang For Your Buck Gets Better

Kaby Lake processors provide Apple’s lightweight laptop a much-needed speed boost.

- Roman Loyola

It’s now year three of the MacBook (go.macworld.com/mbo) as we know it, and it seems that after initially being a laptop without an ecosystem (go.macworld.com/eco1), and then a laptop that we’re still getting used to (go.macworld.com/gut), the MacBook has settled into its groove. It’s established its place in Apple’s laptop line, and it’s finally gaining acceptance by the consumer.

But maybe you’re still a holdout. You’re out there, I know, still not convinced that the MacBook is a good buy. Well, I have some good news: The newest MacBook is a better buy than it has been, thanks to performance improvements by its processor and graphics upgrade. What Apple has in the MacBook is a small and light laptop that packs a nice speed punch.

KABY LAKE, GRAPHICS, SSD UPGRADES

The speed increase is largely due to Kaby Lake, Intel’s seventh-generation CPU. In the $1,299 MacBook (which is the model this review focuses on), you’ll find a 1.2GHz dual-core Core m3 processor with Turbo Boost up to 3.0GHz, which replaces a Skylake (Intel’s sixth generation CPU) 1.1GHz dual-core Core m3 processor with Turbo Boost up to 2.2GHz that was in the 2016 $1,299 MacBook. Apple also offers a $1,599 MacBook, which has a Kaby Lake 1.3GHz dual-core Core i5 processor with Turbo Boost up to 3.2GHz. That replaces a Skylake 1.2GHz dual-core Core m5 processor with Turbo Boost up to 2.7GHz.

The MacBook’s graphics gets an upgrade, too. It’s still an integrated graphics chip (where the graphics processor is part of the main CPU and uses part of a computer’s main memory); the Intel HD Graphics 615, to be specific. It replaces the Intel HD Graphics 515 from 2016.

To top off the speed upgrades, Apple says that the solid-state drives in all of its laptops are now 50-percent faster than before thanks to an improved hardware controller.