Apple revealed the most radical redesign of the MacBook last week. The new laptop is equipped with Intel's 6th generation Skylake processor, and it has a longer battery life of up to 11 hours of iTunes movie playback. Now, here's what's known about 12-inch Retina MacBook 2016 release date, specs and prices.

From the fifth Generation Broadwell in the original 12-inch MacBook, Apple installed a more powerful Skylake Core M processors in this year's 12-inch MacBook. To complement that much better chipset, Apple also installed Intel HD Graphics 515 silicon that gives up to 25% faster graphics performance.

As we mentioned earlier, the new MacBook can last for up to 11 hours. It is an hour longer than the current 11-inch MacBook Air.

The physical design remains the same. However, its ultra-thin chassis lacks ports, which is the most common critique in the laptop. Some buyers were disappointed about the complete lack of ports for accessories and external monitors, as per reports from CNET.

Nonetheless, the laptop is still the thinnest Mac that Apple has ever released. The butterfly mechanism under the keyboard helps to reduce its size. However, the keys are shallow, barely popping up above the keyboard trey. For Mac users who have accustomed to the deep, clicky keys, it takes some time to get used to the new laptop.

Because of these changes, Forbes predicted Apple might develop more MacBooks that is based on the minimalist design of the current 12-inch MacBook.

The screen of the new laptop is small, but it has a sharp display. The 12-inch Retina display boasts a 2,304x1, 440-pixel resolution that gives users a very high pixel-per-inch density. In addition, it has 16:10 aspect ratio compared to the 16:9 aspect ratio present in most of today's laptops and HDTV screens.

As for the price of the 12-Inch Retina Macbook 2016, the base model, with 8GB of RAM, 1.1GHz processor and 256GB of storage, is available for $1,299. The next variant with a 1.2GHz chip and 512GB of storage is priced at $1,599.

Market analysts say a base model that starts at $1,300 is going to be a big hurdle to mass-market acceptance.  It is advisable to wait for a couple of months before buying the refreshed Macbook model.  For those who can't remember, the first MacBook Air became available for around $1,799, but now its price starts at $899.