Traveling with the 12" MacBook

For the past week I’ve been traveling; thats an understatement as I’m currently sat in an airport 24 hours travel from my home in Brisbane. I’ve been helping staff the London Serverless Conference. So while I needed to keep things light-weight, some IT was needed — I’m not a savage after-all…

For anyone keeping-track (all 3 of you), I’ve recently started freelancing — developing online, video based, IT training. As part of leaving my last gig, I had to return my 2015 15" MacBook Pro.. not a happy time. The travel came at a pretty inconvenient time as I knew the 2016 MacBook Pros were close, but I needed something to travel with. Knowing that apple has a pretty generous return policy — I bit the bullet and ordered a 2016 MacBook as my travel companion.

I expected to like its benefits — size and convenience; but equally I had reservations about its negatives, or what I’d heard second-hand about its negatives. I’d been told it was slow, that it had ‘horse-power’ limitations and of course there is the keyboard.

I’m happy to report that its an amazing piece of kit. The keyboard takes some getting used too. About 2 hours not to hate it. About 4 hours to become accurate-ish with it. And after about 12 hours of usage — it feels normal, even superior to other keyboards with more ‘travel’. I’ve had no issues with the units capability — its much more useful than an iPad, and I don't notice a huge amount of difference between it, and a MacBook pro, for NORMAL work.

I don't think I can keep it for ‘real & heavy’ usage..my ‘day job’ means I need something with a bigger screen and a more capable CPU; but it can probably stand in well for short periods. The big deal for me is the 1 USB-C port, no matter what apple says, carrying around USB hubs isn't going to cut it. Whatever efficiency I gain with its size, is negated by the collection of dongles I need to keep around.

The dilemma I have though is that I knew, around this time, the MacBook pro 2016 would be announced. I knew I would order one, a 15" variant, and I knew I would be here writing this article. The problem, is that even though I will soon have a bigger, more capable laptop, there is part of me that doesn't want to give this little guy up. I’ve heard it referred to as the MacBook adorable — and now i know why…

I don’t know what I’ll do, what will win out — unconscious affection or my wallet ? only time will tell..