Apple today officially added the last version of the 12-inch MacBook with Retina display to its list of obsolete products. This means that Apple is permanently ending hardware support and will no longer offer repairs for the notebook itself or provide spare parts to independent repair service providers.
This approach is not unusual for Apple. Products are generally designated as obsolete around seven years after they were last sold in the Apple Store. However, since Apple has not released a comparable product to this day, the end of support for the MacBook is significant. The device originally launched in 2015 and introduced many innovations that made its very thin, lightweight design possible, from the haptic Multi-Touch trackpad and USB-C to the infamous butterfly keyboard.
Weighing just 920 grams, the device is 320 grams or 26.2 percent lighter than the MacBook Neo ($689 on Amazon) yet it still featured a backlit keyboard. It is a shame that Apple does not offer a new version of the ultralight laptop, as the more efficient ARM chips in modern MacBooks could allow the manufacturer to address the main criticisms of the 12-inch MacBook. As our in-depth review of the latest model from 2017 showed, the performance of the power-efficient Intel chip never quite managed to impress. However, its very good speakers, excellent display and silent operation would still hold up well in 2026.





