It was more compact than any other notebook in the MacBook family at the time and included a Retina display, fanless design, and a Butterfly keyboard with lower key travel.

The MacBook was announced at an Apple special event on March 9, 2015, and was released a month later on April 10.

It employed Intel's Broadwell Core M processors at a TDP of around 4.5 watts to allow for a fanless design and a logic board that is much smaller than in previous MacBooks.

It had a similar appearance to the MacBook Air, but was thinner and lighter, offered (at the time of introduction) more storage and memory, and a higher-resolution 2304×1440 Retina display, but lower processor and graphics performance.

Shortly after the MacBook's introduction, various companies began announcing cables and adapters for the USB-C port.

It was made of recyclable materials such as aluminum and glass, meets Energy Star 6.1 standards, and was rated EPEAT Gold.

[10] On June 5, 2017, Apple updated the MacBook with Intel Kaby Lake m3, i5, and i7 processors (previously known as m3, m5, and m7).

[14] On June 7, 2021, Apple announced macOS Monterey which dropped support for early 2015 model MacBook.

[16] On June 6, 2022, Apple announced macOS Ventura which dropped support for the early 2016 model MacBook.

[17][18] The letters on the MacBook's keyboard and the model name at the bottom of the screen bezel are in the San Francisco typeface, whereas previous notebooks made by Apple used VAG Rounded.

[6] Apple updated the word on its chin MacBook's typeface to San Francisco in the 2017 model.

[29] A report by AppleInsider had claimed that the updated butterfly keyboard fails twice as often as previous models, often due to particles stuck beneath the keys.