Why do people buy MacBook Pro retinas, given their relatively high price?
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Their software is a trainwreck, their hardware is even worse. Why on earth do people give this company money?
Oh yes, because glue takes up so much less space than a screw.
> They try to get rid of fans because they are mechanical thing that can break, sucks dusts and use energy.
That's like a car manufacturer saying that exhaust pipes clog up too often, so let's just pump the smog into the passenger cabin instead.
I've got three Macs currently, none of which have ever overheated. I use a MacBook Pro on my lap while wearing shorts for hours at a time. It gets warm, but not too warm to use on my lap.
You seem angry about Apple's choices, and clearly they're far from perfect, but it seems like there are a lot of people who value the things Apple does, like very quiet operation and compactness and so on. We're not all as stupid as you suggest.
The macbooks are not the first in that regard.
Various Apple products over the years have had problems with overheating because of this.
Supposedly one variant of the AppleII has a service recommendation of lifting and dropping it on to the desk. This because the lack of fans would make the logicboard buckle from heat, unseating some chips.
I do believe a certain Cube was also fanless, and had trouble keeping itself cool. Never mind that it had a power switch that would be flipped by a stray piece of paper...
This because you only get so much cooling passively, and you only get so much computing done pr unit heat (something that even mobile phones are discovering).
End result, you can only compute so much on a passively cooled system.
Whose hardware do you consider best-in-class currently?
Also, no one is buying Macbooks to take it apart, so the RAM/batteries/connectors are the least of majority of the market's concerns.
I don't claim any loyalty to any platform but I rather run software on my Macs because I know it lasts a long time. Prior to my '12 rMBP, I had a Macbook that I've used for 4-5 years and I sold it for a decently nice price, it held it resales value.
Just because you can't understand it, doesn't mean it is not the best for others.
I have no problem with macOS, it's fine for my purpose. I had far more issues with Windows 10 than I had with macOS and I actually have a Surface Pro 4 as well.
I made the mistake (in my personal opinion), based on the advise of a friend, to buy one recently. Insanely expensive and I really don't like it as much as the much cheaper Air; it has worse battery life (I had Apple check it twice and there is nothing wrong, just 'my usage pattern'; I use the same software on the Air and on my old X220 and get better battery life on both; on the X220 far better), the screen has staingate[0] which my local Apple store said they wouldn't replace for free (going to try different ones now). And it feels slower; it's objectively (tests) faster, but for my subjective performance perception it's slower. It often pops the beachball which I never see on the Air and it runs hot doing nothing but web browsing. Again, Apple checked it twice.
Price is not the only criterion. In fact for socially aware people it might even be a positive -- signaling you do well to others etc. This is not just a shallow thing for personal showing-off: in its general application (ie. not just in laptops), how you look and what you use can have quite an impact on your opportunities and connections.
But it's not like competitive products with smaller prices are just as good in every aspect either.
What actually happens is more like this:
Some cheaper competitive products are as good or even better as MBPr for the basics of computing (raw CPU/GPU), and some people think "computer" and automatically assume that CPU/GPU is all that matters (whereas most people, gamers aside, totally underutilize them).
But they fail to see where those cheaper products fail for someone who can pay for something pricier. E.g. in ergonomics (e.g. the mag-safe power adaptor, multi-touch trackpad, magnetic hinge, illuminated keyboard, etc), and some of the most important factors for laptops you carry frequently: construction (sturdiness), weight, thickness and battery life. Being able to run OS X (and Windows/Linux), and the nicer industrial aesthetics and lack of BS (intel inside stickers, OEM crapware, etc) don't hurt either. And MBPr's monitors frequently review as the best of the competition too (plus, they were the first to introduce hi-dpi screens, at least mass market).
Besides, when you get to the higher end Dells, Sonys etc, and add all the features and trimmings to match 1-1 those MBPr (including the "details" mentioned above), you end up with similar, or even higher in some cases, prices.
So it's down to what you value.
For raw CPU/GPU you can build something cheaper.
For variety/freedom/reuse (build-your-own-with-whatever-parts-you-like too).
But for ergonomics and laptopy-concerns, those Apple laptops are pretty much where it's at, and if you find something comparable (high end Dell, Sony, whatever) it will have a comparable price.
What makes this even funnier is I use a big 17" dell vostro (it had a better spec per price to Thinkpads).
Funny the biases we all carry.
It did look that way to me too in the nineties/early 00s, but not so sure anymore. I equate them more with "Microsoft shops" now.
I mean in most programming conferences, from web to functional, most alpha devs/presenters have Macbooks, and I'd say those are proper engineers. Heck, even Torvalds used a G5, an iBook (back in the day) and a couple of Macbook Airs for his computing (running Linux) -- though recently he got a Chromebook.
So what is it you're paying so much extra for then?
> mag-safe power adaptor
Can't say this has ever been an issue for me, and even they seem to be killing this off.
> multi-touch trackpad
Standard feature on any recent laptop.
> magnetic hinge
Huh?
> illuminated keyboard
Quickly becoming a standard feature, but if this is important to you then you probably shouldn't be spending that much on a laptop anyway.
> construction (sturdiness)
LOL.
> weight, thickness and battery life
Not an issue in the real world.
All those other things. I'm not using my CPU at anywhere near 100% 24/7 to care about its speed that much. But I do use the keyboard, trackpad, carry the weight, etc, every single day.
>Can't say this has ever been an issue for me
Well, good for you. Yanking the cable has been an issue for me, and several million others besides.
>Standard feature on any recent laptop.
Yes, but with a crappy implementation. There's really no comparison.
> magnetic hinge
Magnetic close "lock" mechanism for the display, as opposed to some protruding hinge.
>Quickly becoming a standard feature
Yeah, everything is "Quickly becoming a standard feature". But I've had it, and other things, for a decade or so on my Macbook Pros...
>LOL.
Yeah, because sturdiness is not a thing to ask from your laptop.
>Not an issue in the real world.
Perhaps weight, thickness and battery life are not issues in the real world that you live in.
Oh, and premium quality HW. E.g. check the first response in TFA.
Very subjective. Apple's setup UI and default settings both leave a hell of a lot to be desired.
> Magnetic close "lock" mechanism for the display, as opposed to some protruding hinge.
Oh, that. Standard feature...?
> Yeah, everything is "Quickly becoming a standard feature". But I've had it, and other things, for a decade or so on my Macbook Pros...
This is 2016, not 2006.
> Yeah, because sturdiness is not a thing to ask from your laptop.
No, but the a MBP is not the thing to ask for sturdiness in.
> Perhaps weight, thickness and battery life are not issues in the real world that you live in.
The weight and thickness differences aren't significant. The battery life difference can be, but is rarely an issue. Road trips, I guess...?
> Oh, and premium quality HW. E.g. check the first response in TFA.
Yay, circular reasoning...?
Yes, being a follower can have a quite an impact on your life. So can being a leader.
> But they fail to see where those cheaper products fail for someone who can pay for something pricier.
I can pay for something pricier (and I do), but I never bring my Macbook Pro to meetings because it just sucks in comparison. I always bring my Surface Pro because it's a way better machine in every way. It kills the MBP in ergonoics (has a touch screen, multi-touch, mag-safe, illumited keyboard, etc), it's nice and sturdy (and I throw it around), light, thin and awesome battery life.
> plus, they were the first to introduce hi-dpi screens, at least mass market
That's not a reason people are buying Macbook Pros. More people were buying MBPs before that, when the highest resolution was a paltry 1440x900 (which really sucked compared to most PC screens at 1920x1080).
None of the technical details or build qualities that you mentioned matters one bit. Most people buying Apple products are doing so because of Apple's brilliant marketing and the social status that now comes along with owning an Apple product.
It's all about marketing. Like you said yourself, people don't care about technical details and they underutilize their machines...so how could it possibly be about the tech?
For me, I just got fed up with Windows and Windows laptops. The bloat. Windows itself (I dropped off at Windows 8, I just hated it). I had used every Windows version since 3.1. Both at home and work I use Linux for all my server needs, but for my home base, macOS is fine. I never upgrade it until it hits 10.x.4, and by that point, it's rock solid. I use a product called FastX for reconnectable SSH sessions to my home and work Linux machines, where I do everything in GNU Emacs, even email. I've been using nmh + MH-E + some filtering software I wrote myself. I've accumulated 30+ years of Emacs tweaks and that environment is as about as productive as I can make it, for what I do.
My son recently wanted to play Windows games (Steam) on his Mac, so we installed Windows 10 via bootcamp. I was impressed with how easy it was to install and how fast Windows was on his new 2016 Macbook.
Compared to all the Windows laptops out there, I think Macbooks are an incredible deal.
No other laptop I have used has a useable trackpad and most have a keyboard that is unusable. The only other laptop I have ever used with a pointing device I liked was the Thinkpad nub.
Also, everything seems to "just work" when compared to using a Linux. Sleep/hibernate, syncing with my iPhone and iPad. It's nice not worrying or having to tweak this only to never be satisfied with the end results. I remember spending hours and days trying to get things working sometimes. I expect some would argue the everything "just works" statement, but for me I have not had any problems of note.
I have not tried a Thinkpad + Linux in years or the Dell alternatives I have seen. I'm really eyeing a Thinkpad 460p and want to put Fedora on it and give it another try.
When I bought mine after some consideration last year it was the only laptop with a 16:10 screen, IPS panel, better than 1080p resolution, 16GB of ram, faster than SATA SSD, good battery life, light, decent keyboard, just all around a great device, the only missing option I would have liked hardware wise is a matte panel instead of glossy.
Alternatives I considered at the time were the Dell XPS 13 Dev and Lenovo 450s/440s which both were 16:9 and with less than 16GB of ram. I think there are still no other comparable options that come with a 16:10 screen out there even today.
OSX is not my OS of choice (it's still a lot better than having to run Windows) but battery life and scaling is worse on Linux, also if you do your development using Vagrant and Docker the OS is not much of an issue.
My years old PC still faster than most of my friends' new hardware. People always said PC is slow but they never thought they only spend half or 30% of Mac cost on their PC.
The internals of macbook pros can be found in B2B offerings from HP, Dell, Lenovo, Acer, Samsung, etc etc etc...
The keyboard and touchpad in particular is why I can't leave. It's ergonomic.
That's a nice thing about Apple, you find interesting awesome stuff that increases subjective value of a product for a customer.
iPhone 6 being water-proof was not in the ads. Was really cool to find out mine survived being in the sea for couple of minutes when I forgot to put it out of the pocket. (Don't risk it though, there are plenty of youtube videos if you want to see it for yourself :)
The motion sensor has been a standard feature in all laptops for over a decade. It'd be like advertising that it has a flat screen.
I'm not the only one. Regularly I have friends asking for chargers on Facebook. I also mentioned the case at Apple store and the specialist agree with me that they are fragile.