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MacBooks are outdated, underpowered and overpriced

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41–48 of 48 posts

Re: MacBooks are outdated, underpowered and overpriced

#41
post #34

For more than three years I've been using my mid-2012 Macbook Air 11" (8GB RAM, 512GB SSD upgrade, my first Mac ever, with external monitor) as my only machine. Never had a problem. The size is perfect for an airline seat-back tray. The keyboard and trackpad Just Work. I very much prefer the Mac OS after decades of Windows experience. These days I grumble when I have to do tech support for my wife on her Windows 10 s…

I have a similar MBA I've been using for years and I love it. They are also quite easy to repair- I've broken the keyboard and damaged the power board but replaced both myself relatively easily!

The retina macbook pros on the other hand are literally glued together and aren't user serviceable.

Re: MacBooks are outdated, underpowered and overpriced

#42
post #27

I have a 16Gig 512 SSD Macbook pro and its faster than ever, since I have upgraded. As far as touchscreen on laptops is concerned; Steve Jobs mentioned that its not ergonomically correct. And I agree, I don't know how much long I can lift my fingers and touch the screen everytime I have to navigate. Apple has added lot of gestures on its track pad which is awesome.

I would say using laptops for long period of time is also pain in the ass. That's why many people use external monitor, keyboard and mouse. My wife uses her touchscreen laptop for web browsing at the couch. Using laptop at your lap is quite bad, but touch screen makes it a lot of better.

I've been using laptops exclusively for the last six years, I move around too much to go back to a Desktop computer.

Re: MacBooks are outdated, underpowered and overpriced

#43
This article came out a couple of months before WWDC - which is widely expected to include the announcement of new Macbooks, and likely also a Mac Pro update.

The 5K iMac is recent, a good value, and includes cutting-edge hardware from the time it was introduced. I expect Apple will continue to invest in new Mac development, as Macs are both profitable and important halo products.

Re: MacBooks are outdated, underpowered and overpriced

#44
post #18

My 2004 Corolla is outdated, underpowered, and was "overpriced". It has 250,000 miles, and we use it every day without worrying about breakdowns. Likewise, I use my 2009 MacBook Pro every day without worrying about breakdowns [1]. Quality comes with a steep up-front price that pays you back with a long tail of value. [1] The native Apple hardware has failed exactly once in the MacBook's lifetime (SATA cable)

They may happen to be reliable because you just take better care of pricey things (but that's not to say that it isn't their merit to turn you into a careful person).

True, except I've dropped the MacBook about ten times over its lifetime. I've been more careful with it lately. ;-)

Re: MacBooks are outdated, underpowered and overpriced

#46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Interesting, I really don't see myself reaching up 6-8 inches to touch the screen when I can do it faster (and with less finger smudges) from the trackpad but maybe I'm wrong, I love my iPad but I still just don't feel like I would like it on a laptop.

I am a developer, I use the touchscreen sparcely. I use mainly for zooming in and out pdf documents. IMHO tochscreen are a valuable adition to the set of interfaces , to be used for determined gestures in some apps. Also , if you are into mobile dev , you can test the touch functionality on the device emulator.

>I am a developer, I use the touchscreen sparcely. I use mainly for zooming in and out pdf documents.

Yeah, but on a Mac laptop you can do it more conveniently, from the multi-touch trackpad too.

Re: MacBooks are outdated, underpowered and overpriced

#47
post #29
post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Touchscreens are a BS feature for laptops. Our hands where not made to be used a pointers held at those angles. Nobody uses their Wintel laptops that way either, even when they have the feature. Now if you're talking about detachable screens, that could be the case. But there are tablets for that, that are even more convenient and specialized to long term use in that way.

My wife uses her touchscreen laptop all the time. 'nobody' is your opinion. Reality is different.

Nobody an in "a very small number of people".

Of course some do.

A lot of people also loved Apple's "hockey puck" mouse or the Dell Ditty -- but I'd still called them "nobody".

Re: MacBooks are outdated, underpowered and overpriced

#48

I don't need a ton more "innovation" (touchscreen on a laptop is a gimmick IMHO) in my macbook and it's plenty fast for what I do (run 2 external + laptop screen, 1-2 IDEs, chat, email, chrome, firefox, sequel pro, etc) but I think I'll go to the 15" next for the real graphics card and the ability to run 3 external monitors. All that said it pains me that Apple has not made any real improvements in quite some time. I…

I agree if it's touchscreen on laptop with no other form factor then it might be a gimmick. However, the ability to use a pen on my lenovo and later surface had a huge impact on the way I did math throughout grad school. Essentially, it gave me unlimited scratch paper which was automatically stored, tagable and organizable.
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