A take on some of the criticisms being levelled at the new MacBook Pro models
9to5mac.com
9to5mac.com
Also as a side note the new iPhone not coming with a cable is just bad. Directly connecting the phone to the computer remains the easiest way to transfer content and the only real way to reset the device in certain situations. Just complete failure to not have that included.
To me the reason these are Pro devices is they use top of the line materials and manufacturing techniques to make a powerful and portable device that basically lasts forever in computer years. Nothing so far has led me to believe the new MBPs will fail at this. And very little suggests PCs are competitive on this dimension yet.
Ars mentions this:
> It’s also much more feasible to use the scaling modes with current GPUs than it was with 2012’s GPUs, which were prone to dropping frames even at lower resolutions. I noticed no slowdown or jerkiness whatsoever in 1440×900 or 1680×1050 mode on the new Pro—you don’t need to worry about performance, so just pick the mode that treats your eyeballs the best.
Doesn't address 5K, but at least seems promising in terms of the ability of the new Iris chips to drive the display at higher resolutions. Hopefully 5k won't be an issue, and Apple is specifically advertising it as supported.
My gut, however, says that if you want to run 5k without any noticeable slowness, you'll need the 15.
To me this felt like too much, too quick. Each time Apple changed the MBP I cringe a little wondering if it's personally a net win or a net loss; non-removable battery (when each of the laptops had batteries die prematurely after 1 or 2 years), ditching ethernet, ditching the CDROM, non-upgradable RAM and HDD, dropping video connector of the week. Those all mostly happened one or two at a time over the years. Personally, I still have a 6yo MBP before most of that happened. These new changes make it a much harder pill to swallow and make me want to look at other options more closely.
The MBP line was long in the tooth before this. Everyone was expecting a spec bump last year, then in spring, and now we finally get it. Dropping all of the connectors and charging ports without even allowing for a significant boost in specs hit some people hard.
The price is high and I'm surprised they pushed it that far (being in the UK it's even worse since at the same time they corrected for the USD > GBP exchange rate changes) but I'm also not hugely price sensitive. I just like a robust, light, laptop that works.
I use Windows, macOS, and Linux daily and while I'm comfortable with all of them I'd never choose anything else for a laptop (equally I never use macOS in a desktop setup).
macOS feels, to me, like an operating system designed for laptops. The power management is excellent, the hibernation is robust, the screen (on the Macbook Pro line at least) is high quality and crucially the OS is well optimised for a high DPI display.
I get the feeling there is some sort of internet/blog drama war going on here, it just doesn't seem to warrant the response it's getting.
I mostly use Sublime Text, Slack, Google Docs, and the terminal. That pretty much covers everything I need to achieve. I appreciate I'm a special snowflake and other people have other requirements.
Disclaimer: I only ever use the function keys for display brightness, volume, etc. They are just not part of my routine keyboard usage.
Do you think that you will always need to look at the TouchBar in order to use it?
I am of the opinion that you will not. Especially for large dynamic control such as sliders.
Computers are becoming closer to appliances as time moves forward and "we" are not the target market. A lot of the chatter here has been about how Apple has "forgotten about us", developers/power users. The same outcry happened when Apple moved away from catering to video professionals. It doesn't seem like that really hurt their sales.
I know more people who own Apple products that are not power users. They buy their Apple products to read email, take care of their photo, music, and movie needs, and maybe do some homework. Being light, sleek, and fast enough is more important than having every port under the sun with the absolute newest CPU with the absolute maximum memory. I feel pretty confident that Apple is chasing their main user base.
I think the only thing keeping our preferred platform tethered to the future is iOS publishing, it seems inevitable Apple soon figures out how to make an IDE for iOS devices that already have big screens, powerful CPUs and gigabytes of ram.
For example the MacBook Air would be fantastic with a Retina display, but it's a tough sell without one in 2016.
In the world of general ("non-technical") commerce, branding is very important.
And Apple has nailed that down, in spades.
Thought, the last year or two, I've seen more and more people with non-Apple ultrabooks and the like.
Personally, I don't like the latest changes to the Mac laptops. But Apple may indeed see where the broad, commercial demographic is going.
As for me, personally, I've long hated "giant" palm rests in front of the keyboard. Anywhere I cannot optimize my position/posture (i.e. desk at home), the front edge ends up pressing very uncomfortably into my wrists. And after decades at keyboard and managing to escape nascent RSI, I find this immediately and, increasing rapidly, extremely uncomfortable.
But, that doesn't seem to matter to most people. Again, I'm not the target demographic.
P.S. I should add that people also moved to Macs during a time where Windows machines were increasing sh-tfests of black-box breakage, malware, and frustration for the "average user".
And, as other people have pointed out while discussing this launch, Macs tend to "just keep working" for a lot of people a lot longer than Windows machines do. While providing a perception of "quality" and many hardware aspects that people have also found very attractive.
I don't know whether Apple has "lost it". But I do suspect that "developers" are not central to its product planning and marketing projections.
Me too, but those people buy MBAs and MacBooks, not MBPs, which leaves the question who are they really targeting with this laptop.
And why do people who want to do the basics on a computer require such an expensive piece of machinery? What does Apple expect people who actually require ports/hardware to do?
Now the cheapest model with 512 GB SSD would cost 2500 € without a Extra Slot, which would make it 200 € pricier without taking inflation into account but which would only be 20€ - 40€ in Germany and I forgot that it won't have a dedicated graphics card which the 2013er had for a smaller price. (And not taking into Account that SSD prices are dropping) Actually even their additional option do suggest that "Developers" are not their target. You can preinstall Final Cut Pro and Logic Pro, you couldn't pre install that on the 2013er and now you can even upgrade your dedicated graphics card memory, so that makes it even a bigger target for Designers, Movie specialists etc.
Just not useful for developers, since they will probably need more dongles than just one, I can count myself at least buying 6-7 of them.
So my overall sum would be at least 3000 € to have at least 756 GB storage 16 GB memory enough Dongle's and a dedicated graphics card. For the 2013er version we actually had a bill of 2600 Euro, but we also bought a dock, additional storage and a additional charger. If Apple would actually provide enough value to satisfy the price increase, i would say that it's fine, but they didn't they even made it pricier and removed stuff that I actually need to pay more for Accessoires. I'm actually really really happy with my late 2013 15" but I probably need to wait till for the new one till USB-c is more common to satisfy the additional price and I basically never need the touch bar, I don't see any value in it. I mean contextual bases switching is nonsense. I want to stop the music without having iTunes open.
We have a tax law, that exactly specifies what you can expense as a tax-admitted OPEX during a year, and what you must depreciate over several years as CAPEX. For laptops, the amount is below 1700 EUR (without VAT, so that makes it 2040 EUR with 20% VAT) and the duration of depreciation is 4 years.
No way most businesses are going do depreciate laptops for 4 years, unless there's a very pressing business need. The recent 200 EUR price hike severely limits the useful configurations available.
I think the semantic distinction he's trying to make is that a new cable is a replacement for the old cable, and that you don't need to carry around a new thing in addition to your charge cable.
But for most people, we'll now need to carry around two types of iPhone cables: one for use with our shiny new MBPs, and one for use everywhere else. My wall chargers? USB-A. Every charger in a hotel room, coffee shop, or airport? USB-A.
So while it might be possible to buy a new cable, it would actually be easier (and five bucks cheaper!) to buy an adapter because it's smaller than a cable, and multi-purpose.
I very much doubt that over the next couple years you'll see a mass migration to USB-C cabling. Every device you buy for this thing (printer, hard drive, usb stick, card reader....), you'll now have to buy an adapter.
Maybe in 3 years it won't be a problem, but I doubt it.
I think part of the issue is we're being told this is one connector "To Rule them All" to this machine. There are only 2 types of ports and one is a headphone jack. I think most of us would love that in an ideal world, but this world isn't.
I don't use VMs, so 16GB are enough for my development needs (thanks to compressed Memory I seem to rarely fill up my RAM anymore). CPU performance has never been an issue for me.
Since I carry my Macbook Pro with me every day, and I often use it on public transport, I appreciate low weight & long battery life.
One thing I'd really like would be a built-in 3G/LTE modem because connecting to public Wifi or personal hotspot seems like an unnecesary hassle -- I'd like to have my Mac be always online without any manual intervention.
Yes, I'd probably need to get a new cable for my keyboard, but at least USB-C is a standard that everyone agrees is the future!
I suppose this might be a “feature” of the 12″ MacBook. Since there's only one port, it forces you to use a single-cable setup, and creates a market for accessories that fit this use case, which will also work with the MacBook Pro.
USB-C, on the other hand, can do all of these. By having four of them, the laptop is maximally versatile (USB, Thunderbolt, DisplayPort, power input, configure as you like) and offers maximum peak I/O bandwidth.
Keeping one of the older ports would be more immediately convenient (no need for an adapter), but would mean a less powerful machine overall if that means sacrificing a USB-C port.
The lack of an SD card slot is sad, though. Losing MagSafe is maybe a shame, too, but you do gain a standardised port (so one companies other than Apple can make chargers for), a power cable detachable from the brick, and the ability to connect it to either side of the machine.
I guess the best way to describe the port configuration is “far-sighted”. It's extremely future-proof and capable, and will be great once USB-C is everywhere, but it's painful right now.
Fortunately, I am not a photographer. I can imagine that they will miss the SD slot.
* a thunderbolt 2 dongle for my external monitor
* a lightning dongle for my phone (not for backups, for dev work)
* a usb dongle for my mouse (the trackpad is great for casual use, but a real mouse is still far more productive -- and I hate bluetooth mice with a passion due to recharging hassles and the fact that after so many years they still haven't completely solved the interference issue)
* a second usb dongle for my video conferencing USB headphones
Keep in mind I bought one of these things the second the site opened up, but I still had a moment of "oh shit, yeah, I need to buy a lot of dongles!"
If I could have I would also have bought something that lets me use the 4 power bricks I already have with the new box. Not looking forward to having to buy a few extra of those.
+ One also need VGA or HDMI adapter because when I go for a presentation at some place then it is very probable that their projector is at least four year old.
+ I use Ethernet connected to my router
+ CD/DVD player (Super Drive) has USB A end.
There are already thunderbolt docks: https://eshop.macsales.com/shop/Thunderbolt/Dock/OWC/Thunder...
It's just a matter of time for it to be adapted to usb-c/thunderbolt.
I think that's just called a cable.
https://www.alibaba.com/product-detail/usb-type-c-to-usb3-0_...
Honestly unless one of my friends had tried one and told me it was great, I would stay far away.
Apple has calculated how many customers will be upset, lost, indifferent and gained due to various product decisions.
Apple is not perfect or flop-proof, but they must make product decisions. These decisions, whether short term or long term, consider customers, competition and technology trends. Every decision has benefits and costs.
I agree Apple may have lost its way a bit and taken too far the old Steve Jobs' approach of "don't ask the customer what they want, they don't know, a company has to show them what they will want".
If you have decided not to upgrade to the new MBP because of the price or lack of ports. If you are going to buy a non-Apple laptop next time you do need to upgrade. Apple already knows this, you/we are statistics, and while they want customers to stay, they know a certain % of customers will not.
The removal of the headphone jack on the iphone went through the same calculations.
Still worth voicing our opinions, Apple listens as does the competition. Someone will offer what enough people want.
Offering USB-C and USB-A would have been a safe move. I think Schiller said *we don't design for price, we design for the experience". This is a bad experience.
Removing the chime seems like a pointless slap. Again, experience.
I do like having the T1 Security Enclave. We'll see about the function keys but that'll probably turn out pretty good.
16GB DRAM cap is really low, especially when prices got kicked up. Battery charge isn't great since they went with thin. Again, bad experience.
Lastly, I really don't want a thinner MBP. That is the Air which seems to have died. I want a powerful MBP because the P in MBP stands for Pro.
Increased power consumption with higher RAM may be true.
Presumably DDR3 and more important DDR3L have continues to improve the watts/GB.
Generally the CPU/GPU and LCD are the leading consumers of power on laptops. LCDs get somewhat warm, but have a large surface to dissipate heat from. CPUs on the other hand often need active cooling, where dimms (generally) do not.
Seems unlikely compared to a 28 Watt CPU and a 500 nit 13.3" display that the 16 -> 32GB upgrade would be particularly noticeable. Especially when apple claims that the low end and high end models have the same battery life, despite the low end model having a 10% larger battery and lower power CPU, GPU, less ports, and no touch panel.