Newest MacBook Pro is the first MacBook not recommended by Consumer Reports • Hacker News Board

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

#101

Post by benashford » Fri, Dec 23, 2016, 3:27 PM UTC

bnycum wrote: post #83

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…

Apple claims a 10 hour battery life on the 2016, and 9 hours on the 2013 for both the wireless web and iTunes playback tests. Judging by the Comsumer Reports tests though, they would get a shift of 6+ hours from test to test on the 2016 model.

Apple appears to be banking on software efficiency gains offsetting the reduction in battery capacity. They've done this with various iPhone and iPad releases several times.

But the trouble with trying the same thing for the Mac is the wider variety of software people run on macOS. Third-party software may not have got any more efficient, meaning the battery doesn't last as long.

But if you stick to Mail.app and Safari then, in theory, you'll get the expected battery life.

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

#102

Post by robert_foss » Fri, Dec 23, 2016, 3:29 PM UTC

dingo_bat wrote: post #97

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'?

Retina.

Apples very own throughly innovative marketing term for high resolution displays.

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

#103

Post by dguo » Fri, Dec 23, 2016, 3:30 PM UTC

dingo_bat wrote: post #97

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'?

It stands for "retina display", which means the display has a higher pixel density.

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

#104

Post by bluedino » Fri, Dec 23, 2016, 3:32 PM UTC

thought_alarm wrote: post #81

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…

How do you deal with the arrow keys? I like the feel of the keyboard, but I found absolutely no way to orient my fingers over the arrow keys. There is no way tell whether I'm hitting the up arrow or the right shift. As someone who works with text, it's a deal breaker for me.

The whole keyboard feels like that to me. When they made the keys bigger they basically took away the ability to 'feel' the outside edges of the keys and know where your hands are. It's very disoriented and most of my typing errors are off by one.

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

#105

Post by g00gler » Fri, Dec 23, 2016, 3:32 PM UTC

Keyframe wrote: post #80

I went to a store in order to try one out. I wanted what was in 15" model in a 13" form, but ok - I went out to at least check out the 15" model. Even though I knew it was too big for my needs. What really surprised me was how bad the keyboard was on new models. What's up with that? It feels like a cheap plastic mockup of a keyboard. That turned me off completely. I hope they get their act together within a year and…

I agree, I don't want a new MacBook and competition is shit.

I wish the Asus Zenbook 15" models didn't have a number pad.

Vaio models look pretty nice, I'd seriously consider the Vaio Z over a 13" MBP.

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

#106

Post by S_A_P » Fri, Dec 23, 2016, 3:32 PM UTC

I'm pretty disappointed by the new mbp and the state of Mac in general for several reasons. I've made pretty significant investments in the Mac ecosystem. I bought a semi pro sound card(uad Apollo 8) tons of software audio related plugins and logic and I don't have a lot of confidence that when it's time to replace my 2014 mbp that there will be a viable Mac option to replace it with. That immediately makes my sound card useless (thunderbolt connection) and unless there's a Windows version of the plugins (most do have this) then I'm out that money as well. I'm already looking at having a dongle if I want to use the new mbp with a thunderbolt connection which feels like a hack. Maybe this seems like first world problems but I bought into Mac on the promise that they truly supported the "pro" community. It's looking more and more like Tim Cook and company have forgotten that.

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

#107

Post by [deleted] » Fri, Dec 23, 2016, 3:32 PM UTC

dingo_bat wrote: post #97

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'?

[deleted]

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

#108

Post by SakiWatanabe » Fri, Dec 23, 2016, 3:33 PM UTC

thought_alarm wrote: post #81

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…

How do you deal with the arrow keys? I like the feel of the keyboard, but I found absolutely no way to orient my fingers over the arrow keys. There is no way tell whether I'm hitting the up arrow or the right shift. As someone who works with text, it's a deal breaker for me.

Don't use arrow keys, it shifts the center of gravity when typing. You want to use hjkl for movement, even better, try not to use hjkl at all and use movement commends such as w b e etc for movement.

First thing I do when setting up vim. 1. unbind arrow keys 2. bind jk to Esc 3. Set up tmux + vim integration with clipboard / mouse support

Love the new MBP the keyboard is great to type on.

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

#109

Post by acqq » Fri, Dec 23, 2016, 3:33 PM UTC

bnycum wrote: post #83

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…

Apple claims a 10 hour battery life on the 2016, and 9 hours on the 2013 for both the wireless web and iTunes playback tests. Judging by the Comsumer Reports tests though, they would get a shift of 6+ hours from test to test on the 2016 model.

We all know that the webpage content, when the ads are presented, actually changed since 2013. Has anybody measured the resource stress of the pages used for tests in 2013 compared to these used for the tests now?

Is it apples to apples?

iTunes test is less controversial.

But "the 13-inch model with the Touch Bar ran for 16 hours in the first trial, 12.75 hours in the second, and just 3.75 hours in the third" seems to dramatic to be due to hardware -- here it seems something kept some CPU's at 100% in the last case or something like that?

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

#110

Post by bluedino » Fri, Dec 23, 2016, 3:33 PM UTC

mmjaa wrote: post #93

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?

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.

>> the new keyboard doesn't require as much haptic effort as the old one

I end up hitting the keys harder to get the feedback I'm expecting. Otherwise it feels like I'm typing on a flat surface with no keys at all.