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Newest MacBook Pro is the first MacBook not recommended by Consumer Reports

businessinsider.com

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Re: Newest MacBook Pro is the first MacBook not recommended by Consumer Reports

#91

Post by mmjaa »

jmnicolas wrote: post #24
mmjaa wrote: post #19

I've had mine for a week now, and have been able to use it alongside my late-2014 rMBP, which has been a solid workhorse. I'm starting to notice very subtle preferences for the 2017 model creeping in - after an hour of typing, for example, going back to the old keyboard feels really, really inefficient and antiquated, and my typing rate is lower than on the new rMBP. I also really enjoy the Touchbar - it hasn't been…

You don't address the point of the article which is battery life though.

I've been getting 6 - 7 hours average runtime on a full charge for the last few weeks, but I'm working (Xcode, vim and builds) and I don't think I have a representative work load - but I do note that this laptop 'seems' to be as long-lived without the charging cable as my previous machine. I suppose I'll pay more attention over the next week and see if its as bad as everyone makes it out to be - so far, I haven't even noticed.

One thing I do really like though, is being able to charge from either side of the laptop. This actually improves things for me when in 'hacking in bed mode', since the previous left-sided configuration was inconvenient .. and is now not an issue.

Re: Newest MacBook Pro is the first MacBook not recommended by Consumer Reports

#92

Post by rayiner »

Fnoord wrote: post #77
slantyyz wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They can make 32GB with current chipsets but chose not to for battery life. Given the outcry, they can put less efficient RAM in a newer model. The people asking for 32GB aren't newbies and presumably are willing to pay the price in battery life in exchange for the extra RAM. If I were in the market for a new Macbook Pro (I'm not), I'd be willing to make the sacrifice in battery life for the extra RAM, because I woul…

> They can make 32GB with current chipsets but chose not to for battery life. This is false dichotomy. There are alternatives, parallel decisions. They could've decided to not sacrifice weight or size for battery power. This'd have made the MBP Pro, not Air like it is now. You used to buy a MBP for several years, so it'd need good battery power. The new MBPs are all less good with battery power, than the 2015 version…

> They could've decided to not sacrifice weight or size for battery power.

Using DDR4 would have been a major regression even if they stuck to the old form factor. It uses a lot more power, especially on standby: https://macdaddy.io/macbook-pro-limited-16gb-ram.

There is a reason that all the PC laptops that have great battery life either have big external batteries (T460), or also use LPDDR and have a 16GB limit (Surface Pro, XPS13). Comparably-sized machines that use regular DDR (e.g. XPS15), either downgrade to a much less power-hungry 1080p display, or have only 5-6 hours of battery life.

Re: Newest MacBook Pro is the first MacBook not recommended by Consumer Reports

#93

Post by mmjaa »

amelius wrote: post #68
mmjaa wrote: post #19

I've had mine for a week now, and have been able to use it alongside my late-2014 rMBP, which has been a solid workhorse. I'm starting to notice very subtle preferences for the 2017 model creeping in - after an hour of typing, for example, going back to the old keyboard feels really, really inefficient and antiquated, and my typing rate is lower than on the new rMBP. I also really enjoy the Touchbar - it hasn't been…

> after an hour of typing, for example, going back to the old keyboard feels really, really inefficient and antiquated Isn't that just because you are used to a different keyboard now?

Its because the new keyboard doesn't require as much haptic effort as the old one, in my opinion. A direct A/B comparison between the two leads me to conclude that I do in fact prefer the new keyboard on the 2017-rMBP over the old one. However, both are pretty decent and a matter of taste, I expect.

Re: Newest MacBook Pro is the first MacBook not recommended by Consumer Reports

#94

Post by mmjaa »

rsl7 wrote: post #70
amelius wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> after an hour of typing, for example, going back to the old keyboard feels really, really inefficient and antiquated Isn't that just because you are used to a different keyboard now?

I've had a similar experience. the new keyboard is much better. Except I keep palming the new huge trackpad.

I do too, but over the last few days have trained myself not to rest on the trackpad and to find the little 'lip' region between keyboard and trackpad to rest on instead. I guess this is a habit thing though, and it can be difficult to break those habits. I do occasionally find myself thumbing the mouse around by accident, but generally don't find it that inconvenient.

I do wish to note that it has been difficult for me to acclimate to the new motionless trackpad and do things like complex hold/drag/click manoeuvres .. this has required a bit of getting used to, but generally I'm not bothered by the bigger trackpad. Just the haptic adjustment felt like user fail for the first few days - I've gotten over it.

Re: Newest MacBook Pro is the first MacBook not recommended by Consumer Reports

#95

Post by at-fates-hands »

sprite wrote: post #34
bpicolo wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

3700 in what currency? I'm seeing 2900 USD fully specced (though definitely still absurd) edit: I was looking at the 13, oops

The new 15 inch max specced is $4,299 + tax in the US.

WOW.

I could spec out a laptop (pick a vendor) with a 500SSD, i7, 32GB RAM and still be under 2K. I don't want to say their hardware is overpriced. . .but they're stuff is WAY over priced.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/HP-ZBook-Studio-G3-15-6-Core-i7-2-7G...

$1,350.00

- HP ZBook Studio G3 - 15.6"

- Core i7 2.7GHz (6th Gen)

- 32GB RAM

- 512GB SSD (M6V80AV)

It's a dealer refurb, but still. . .

Re: Newest MacBook Pro is the first MacBook not recommended by Consumer Reports

#96

Post by [deleted] »

rayiner wrote: post #78
alberth wrote: post #75

71.8 watt-hour: 2013 13" MacBook Pro [1] 49.2 watt-hour: 2016 13" MacBook Pro Touch [2] Why are so many people surprised that the battery life went down from ~10 hours down to ~7 hours? When the physical battery size is only ~70% of the previous model, it's no surprise the new MacBook Pro only gets ~7 hours of battery life. [1] https://support.apple.com/kb/sp691?locale=en_US [2] http://www.apple.com/macbook-pro/specs…

The really disconcerting thing here is that this is the first macbook in 10 years to be a major regression on key points. Since the first Intel macbook, Apple has focused on core competencies: good touchpad, good screen, good battery life. Every generation got consistently better on those dimensions. PC vendors will do stuff like ship a great touchpad one generation and a shit one the next, but you could generally co…

[deleted]

Re: Newest MacBook Pro is the first MacBook not recommended by Consumer Reports

#97

Post by dingo_bat »

mmjaa wrote: post #19

I've had mine for a week now, and have been able to use it alongside my late-2014 rMBP, which has been a solid workhorse. I'm starting to notice very subtle preferences for the 2017 model creeping in - after an hour of typing, for example, going back to the old keyboard feels really, really inefficient and antiquated, and my typing rate is lower than on the new rMBP. I also really enjoy the Touchbar - it hasn't been…

What's the 'r' in 'rMBP'?

Re: Newest MacBook Pro is the first MacBook not recommended by Consumer Reports

#98

Post by acqq »

jnbiche wrote: post #67
duggan wrote: post #33

This is an article that (incompletely) summarizes the Consumer Reports article[1]. The reason for the wildly varying performance appears to be due to a bug (presumably) in Safari. They had consistent results with Chrome: > Once our official testing was done, we experimented by conducting the same battery tests using a Chrome browser, rather than Safari. For this exercise, we ran two trials on each of the laptops, and…

The fact that Apple would ship a version of Safari that so deeply affected the battery of their newest MBP is concerning, and perhaps illustrative of why many MBP afficionados are so upset about the situation.

Isn't it still a bug that is not new MBP specific therefore a completely wrong diagnosis of the problem?

Wouldn't it be observed on any Apple notebook?

Re: Newest MacBook Pro is the first MacBook not recommended by Consumer Reports

#99

Post by mmjaa »

jnbiche wrote: post #67
duggan wrote: post #33

This is an article that (incompletely) summarizes the Consumer Reports article[1]. The reason for the wildly varying performance appears to be due to a bug (presumably) in Safari. They had consistent results with Chrome: > Once our official testing was done, we experimented by conducting the same battery tests using a Chrome browser, rather than Safari. For this exercise, we ran two trials on each of the laptops, and…

The fact that Apple would ship a version of Safari that so deeply affected the battery of their newest MBP is concerning, and perhaps illustrative of why many MBP afficionados are so upset about the situation.

I wonder if its not the Touchbar that draws the battery down. Chrome doesn't seem to have as much for the Touchbar to be doing as Safari does - though Safari surely demonstrates the functionality of the Touchbar in impressive ways. When I'm not laying flat in bed (i.e. sitting at the office) I've actually used the Touchbar a few times ..

Re: Newest MacBook Pro is the first MacBook not recommended by Consumer Reports

#100

Post by drakenot »

jnbiche wrote: post #67
duggan wrote: post #33

This is an article that (incompletely) summarizes the Consumer Reports article[1]. The reason for the wildly varying performance appears to be due to a bug (presumably) in Safari. They had consistent results with Chrome: > Once our official testing was done, we experimented by conducting the same battery tests using a Chrome browser, rather than Safari. For this exercise, we ran two trials on each of the laptops, and…

The fact that Apple would ship a version of Safari that so deeply affected the battery of their newest MBP is concerning, and perhaps illustrative of why many MBP afficionados are so upset about the situation.

I've been having Safari issues since I updated to Sierra. Every once in awhile Safari will peg my CPU at ~250% and brings my computer to a standstill.

I took a screenshot of the activity monitor while this was going on[0]. Note that this wasn't the "Safari Web Content" process, which I typically see where there is a rogue tab doing something crazy. This was simply the Safari process itself. The only extension I have installed is 1Password which I've temporarily disabled to ensure it wasn't causing the issue. It isn't.

[0] https://imgur.com/a/YDv7c

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