Let's not forget when Consumer Reports attacked the iPhone 4 because of the antenna issue. That model went on to set sales records. If we're looking for a signal about the MacBook Pro's success, sales numbers may be a better indicator.
Newest MacBook Pro is the first MacBook not recommended by Consumer Reports
121–130 of 440 posts
Re: Newest MacBook Pro is the first MacBook not recommended by Consumer Reports
#122This 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…
It doesn't seem like it was that long ago that Apple was marketing Safari as the least power-hungry browser.
Re: Newest MacBook Pro is the first MacBook not recommended by Consumer Reports
#123I 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'm still happy with the high-end Lenovo ThinkPads (currently using a W541) - not as awesome as in the early 2000s but still very solid, well-built, great keyboards, matte screens (but check if you mind this, I'm not sure if every model has them) and with trackpoint, which becomes a must when you get used to it.
Re: Newest MacBook Pro is the first MacBook not recommended by Consumer Reports
#124Earlier quoted context omitted.
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. . .
You're seriously comparing a refurb on eBay..?
Re: Newest MacBook Pro is the first MacBook not recommended by Consumer Reports
#125Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
I'd never heard of using hjkl for cardinal directional movement. I am familiar with ijkl where jl W E and ik N S (used in Lode Runner and BurgerTime for the Apple IIe). I honestly don't know: is hjkl standard in a command line app?
It's the standard in vim.
Re: Newest MacBook Pro is the first MacBook not recommended by Consumer Reports
#126Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
I'd never heard of using hjkl for cardinal directional movement. I am familiar with ijkl where jl W E and ik N S (used in Lode Runner and BurgerTime for the Apple IIe). I honestly don't know: is hjkl standard in a command line app?
Re: Newest MacBook Pro is the first MacBook not recommended by Consumer Reports
#127Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is where it gets more bizarre. They did not use Chrome. According to their website: "We conduct our battery tests using the computer’s default browser—Safari, in the case of the MacBook Pro laptops." They proceed to find serious aberrations with battery life under Safari. Then they say, "Once our official testing was done, we experimented by conducting the same battery tests using a Chrome browser, rather than S…
Any issue fixable by software is a software issue.
Haha, you've not written many hardware drivers I imagine. Sometimes a software workaround is viable, but that doesn't mean the root cause is not a hardware problem.
Re: Newest MacBook Pro is the first MacBook not recommended by Consumer Reports
#128Earlier quoted context omitted.
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. . .
That said, 16 GB is sadly the norm. Dell XPS 15 caps there too.
What the hell is going on here, though? Two different XPS 15 product pages:
http://www.dell.com/en-us/shop/productdetails/xps-15-9550-la...
http://www.dell.com/us/business/p/xps-15-9550-laptop/pd
From the former, you can't even get to a 16GB laptop, despite the same price points. What the hell is up with that? They target consumers with a crappier box at the same price, or what?
Edit: I guess the 4k option is standard on the 1699 on the former page, and costs extra for the business version. That's pretty absurd though. The models are labeled exactly the same.
Re: Newest MacBook Pro is the first MacBook not recommended by Consumer Reports
#129Earlier quoted context omitted.
> 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 (S…
That appears to be true. I looked up at Tweakers Pricewatch [1] looking for 32 GB RAM DDR4. I ended up with either 1080p or gaming laptops like Razer Blade Pro or certain MSI. Which aren't meant to be portable in the same sense a normal laptop is (worse than a MBP ever has been).
Apple still could've gone different routes here, or provide alternatives. This also doesn't make it a MBP; it makes it (together with the obsession on size and weight) more akin to MBA.
It also raises another question. Perhaps, there isn't a good laptop in the market right now which provides a long term usage pattern.
Re: Newest MacBook Pro is the first MacBook not recommended by Consumer Reports
#130Earlier quoted context omitted.
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…
I'm not familiar with the activity monitor, what does 247.9% even mean?! Two cores at 100% and one at 47.9%?