“Reinvented” for the ultimate in portability, the “Early 2015” MacBook models are even lighter and thinner than the smallest models from the MacBook Air series, and with just one USB-C port for connectivity and a headphone jack, the hardware more resembles an iPad with an attached keyboard than it resembles earlier Apple notebooks. However, like the MacBook Air, these MacBook models run OS X rather than the iPad’s iOS.

The MacBook “Core M” 1.1 12-Inch (Early 2015) features a 14-nm 1.1 GHz Intel “Core M” processor (M-5Y31) with two independent processor “cores” on a single chip, a 4 MB level 3 cache, an “integrated” Intel HD Graphics 5300 graphics processor that shares system memory, 8 GB of onboard 1600 MHz LPDDR3 SDRAM (that cannot be upgraded), and 256 GB of onboard PCIe-based flash storage (that also cannot be upgraded).

This all is housed in a wafer thin (0.14-0.52 inch), 2.03 pound, aluminum case offered in “traditional” silver color as well as gold (pictured) and a darker slate “Space Gray” color option. It also packs a lowly 480p FaceTime webcam, a backlit full-size keyboard with a thin “butterfly mechanism” keyboard design, a clever haptic-capable “Force Touch” trackpad, and a beautiful 12″ TFT LED-backlit active-matrix “Retina” display (2304×1440 native resolution at 226 ppi). Apple boasts that the notebook additionally uses a new “tiered” battery design to maximize space inside the chassis and delivers 9-10 hours of runtime depending on use.