New Apple MacBook announced with 12 inch Retina Display, thin frame and gold color

Apple has announced a brand new 12 inch MacBook with an all-new design which offers a super thin profile. The notebook slots in at the middle between the entry-level Apple MacBook Air and the high-end Apple MacBook Pro.

The new MacBook offers a 12 inch edge-to-edge Retina Display with a 2304 x 1440 pixel resolution. Apple has had to make a lot of adjustments in order to make the high resolution fit into the slender frame, but the outcome is still crisp, high-res experience akin to the iMac and MacBook Pro.

Despite having a larger display, Apple has managed to make this the slimmest and lightest MacBook to date, weighing only 2 lbs and measuring only 13.1 mm thin.

In order to make this ultra slim device, Apple has miniaturized the entire logic board, making it 67% smaller than the one found on the MacBook Air. Apple has also done away with the internal fan, making this the first fan-less Macbook. The notebook is powered by a 1.3GHz Intel Core M processor, which can be turbocharged up to 2.9GHz.

Apple has also employed a new terraced design for the batteries on the new MacBook, which takes up much less space than the standard rectangular batteries. This new arrangement allows 35% more battery cell capacity than before. Because of this Apple is able to promise all-day battery life for its new MacBook, with up to 9 hours of web browsing and up to 10 hours of iTunes movie playback.

One of the new MacBook's most intriguing features is the new pressure-sensitive "Force Touch" trackpad. A completely revamped system, it’s comprised of a glass surface harboring four force sensors and a taptic engine beneath, which can accurately detect the amount of pressure being applied at any moment.

Unlike previous trackpads, it doesn't click, and instead, includes what Apple is calling "Force Click." These stronger presses of the trackpad essentially offer the user features ordinarily associated with right-clicking, and the new trackpad in general should bring an unprecedented degree of interactivity to OS X. Force Click can be used to click on a Finder file for a quick preview. Or, in QuickTime, a Force Click on the fast-forward button may speed up a video.

Apple has also outfitted a full keyboard on the new MacBook which has been reengineered from ground up. Apple uses a new butterfly mechanism, instead of the standard scissor mechanism for the keys. This makes them more stable, precise and 40% thinner. Each key has an LED under it, ensuring that the entire keyboard has a uniform glow. Apple also boasts that each key is four times more stable, and has 17% larger surface area.

Because of its lean size, there is not much room for ports. Apple solves this by outfitting the new MacBook with a single USB C port. This new connectivity standard gives you power, USB data transfer, DisplayPort, HDMI and VGA capabilities through one port.

The new Apple MacBook is priced at $1299 for the base model. A second configuration is available for $1599 with the 12 inch Retina Display, 512GB of flash storage, and a 1.2GHz Intel Core M processor with Intel HD Graphics 5300 and 8GB of RAM. The notebook will start shipping on April 10.