Q1: how does a laptop cope without a fan
A1: its seen an increase in efficiency and reduction of scale from previous iteration
Interjection: " not impressive. my dongle is even smaller and has more ports ;) "

analogy:
"Turkish serves good food in the air with DO&CO catering"
"not impressive. my neighborhood restaurant has a michelin star and a deep wine list ;)"

both are similar in that they have to do with food.

It doesn't cost me more than 15 seconds to indulge you with a reply when you insist on dragging it on.

Aside from the motherboard this and that banter, I am not a techie, so I am trying to determine the impact of this new architecture to my day to day use of the computer.

Right now, Flash, Skype and Parallels can (randomly) send my SMCFanControl temp monitor to almost 100C and slow the computer down to a near crawl.

With this new motherboard, do I understand correctly that it will never get hot, but it will slow the computer down to a crawl, or possibly just make it unusable until a reboot?

I am loath to give up my discontinued 17" MBP, but I am also somewhat loath to keep dragging it around like a dead weight if there is a lighter, faster option.

It will get hot, probably very hot. It will just be like a mobile phone that overheats. You'll get a speed throttle first, and I'm going to assume it will be like what my iPhone did this summer when it was sitting on my car seat in the sun. It will just stop. Apple won't let the system put itself in peril just so someone can render an effect in Photoshop.

What day to day software will cause the slowdown is anyone's guess, but if it is like a Windows netbook (or the most equivalent is a fanless chromebook I guess) it won't take much beyond watching an HD video and using Word to slow it down. I'm certain enough that the first reviews on the MB will be torture tests to see what actually causes the speed to drop.

Core M is a great processor for low power needs, but it really doesn't perform well when you push it. For that reason, I swapped out my Lenovo Yoga 3 to a Yoga 2 - battery life isn't as good, but the machine no longer chokes when I push it hard. Skype, web and office will work fine, but anything like Photoshop or poorly codes flash will grind it to a halt.

That said, my experience is based off Core M on Windows, it is entirely possible that Apple manages to make it far more efficient.

I went from a 15" non-Retina to a 13" Retina and I actually enjoy it. I cranked up the effective resolution to match what my 15" had (1680x1050) and the only time I hear the fan really is if I use VMware. Occasionally the display hiccups though, probably because there's no discrete GPU and I'm using display scaling.

However, going from 17" to 12" is going to be a lot bigger of a jump though even if you can come close to the same effective resolution as the 17". Plus I'm not sure Parallels is a good fit for the MacBook. If it was just Flash and Skype I wouldn't have as many reservations. I'd see if you can try one in store once they finally start shipping and see if it's a good fit for you.

presumably the aluminum chassis will also help much in heat dissipation

depends on how old your MBP is this new one might very well be faster

I might self classify as an apple fan boy, but I have to admit that I was rolling on the floor.

Which 17" MBP do you have?

I think you want a 15" MacBook Pro (Retina). But figure out what your needs are and get the machine that fulfills it. Don't be seduced by the form factor.

This is a great development in portable computing, but I don't really consider it to be a true laptop replacement, not going to even replace the MBA for most users who use more than just web/email/docs. I'm not talking about heavy photo editing or 3d gaming at all, just pushing it harder than browsing.

The new processors seem pretty low powered (having only seen them in PC's to date) and then won't be pushed well.

Add in the lack of any ports other than the ONE usb-c, even if you want to just dump your photos on it, you'll have to go find the dongle, for either SD or USB connections.

This is CLASSIC apple. They could have certainly introduced more ports, more power, retina, etc., but with V1.0, it's dribble them in version by version to essentially guarantee annual upgrades by early adopters.

I've had many people ask me if they should wait for this unit to arrive and the only response I can give is "if WEIGHT IT PARAMOUNT, then you might wait for this unit, but if you need or want anything like retina, ports, more memory 16GB, more battery life, you should look at the newly updated rMBP 13" or a slightly upgraded MBA 13"

An MBA is 2.96lb, the rMBP is 3.4 lb. Yes, this is 2lb (a true feat!) but is that really going to break ones bag?

I had a 2011 Macbook Air and when I realised I needed a replacement (November 2014, I went for the Macbook Pro, the performance benefit outweighs the weight and space saving. I was actually surprised at how thin the newer Macbook Pros are compared to the Air!

Same reason apple zealots go into a samsung/android/PC thread and turn it into a pissing match? ;)

Oh please. It's a base model laptop. They have no problem getting people to upgrade regardless of the ports. What's classic Apple is people spent a small fortune in time and money designing the thing. Every OEM on the planet is going to reverse engineer a lot of what they've done.

Should you want ports, power, etc, they have a Pro model of laptop. It's not a giant conspiracy to get people to upgrade by adding things next year. They removed the floppy drive a long time ago and were the first to do it. It wasn't a ploy to add it later.

usually Apple gets this stuff right, but I think having only 1 USB-C is a mistake and they will change that in the second iteration. It's great that they moved completely to USB-C on this device, and the accessory industry will follow with compatible devices, but they really should have added a second one. The fact that a second port is a $79 option is ludicrous (though it was probably their true motivation).

Thinking back to when the first iMac dumped the floppy drive I was a Senior in high school and the district bought one of those beasts for every classroom, which from some respects was kinda neat, from another, they were a pain to use (mostly the mouse.) The floppy drive was quickly, and I mean quickly, becoming insufficient. Alternatives such as the Zip drive, the Superdrive, and CD-RWs were becoming common, and flash drives (even though only about 16mb) were starting to pop up. 1.44mb was simply not enough to keep pace with the computers. It was a no brainer.

Here's a bigger picture yet. Apple wants people to be in their "ecosystem." Buy an iPhone, use an iPad, and get a Macbook (pick a flavour.) The bigger problem with only having one port is that there's no lightning port to USB-C cable around yet, which means there's no ability to use a cable to backup, sync, or transfer information between you iDevices (no matter how fast Airdrop is, there's times when a cable is always better.) iPhone going dead, better hope to find a plug if you forgot your dongle.

I get moving forward and leaving behind ineffective technologies, but USB 3.0/3.1 is still current, and the rest of Apple's products rely on it already. Unless the iPhone 6s switches over to USB-C they might have made a foolish choice. But I can see the complaints starting a few months after launch, the lack of a second port limits the device's abilities in general. There's a chance that someone would want to charge the thing, and have something else plugged in at the same time. (SHOCKER!)

Anyone know when this will be available to preorder? I know it goes on sale April 10th.