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The best laptop ever made

marco.org

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Re: The best laptop ever made

#161

Post by bhk »

petercooper wrote: post #101
dzhiurgis wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To me, the only downside is trackpad - it's too large and palm rejection ain't working perfectly. Keyboard is better, screen is better, ports and touchbar - neutral.

I felt similarly about the trackpad in the first few weeks but somehow the problem seems to have "gone away". I'm suspecting this is some sort of unconscious physical adaptation on my part..

Apparently I can't adapt. Spurious touch events while typing are incredibly frustrating on my 2016 MBP. I love the display and the size and weight but overall I'm a bit disappointed in my $3600 purchase.

Re: The best laptop ever made

#162

Post by jonbeebe »

I have a 2016 MBP with TouchBar and I'm mostly happy with it. I love the quality of the screen, its the brightness, and the overall performance of the computer, and I honestly prefer macOS over any other desktop operating system.

My main gripe is the keyboard. I know some don't prefer the feel, but I could honestly get used to that (I mostly use an external mechanical keyboard at my desk, but often have to use the laptop portably). However, the keys get sticky real easy and I hate having to constantly clean it/blow the keys out just so it works like normal. I think that's ridiculous for such an expensive computer.

I don't experience any downsides to the TouchBar honestly (besides the annoying non-tactile ESC key), but I don't use the TouchBar for anything more than I used the function keys before (brightness, volume controls mainly) so it's really not worth the extra $$$ that they added onto for this thing. In hindsight, I probably should have went with the 2015 model.

With all that said, it's the unreliability of the keyboard that bugs me the most, because this laptop should work PERFECTLY for this price (even if I don't agree with some of the decisions that were made regarding the design). If I didn't rely on macOS for work I probably would have got a Lenovo laptop instead. That makes me sad, because my first Mac was the unibody WHITE model and that was probably the best "new computer" experience I've ever had.

Re: The best laptop ever made

#163

Post by foobiekr »

trb8 wrote: post #111
petercooper wrote: post #63

I feel like the odd one out. I buy a new MBP every 12-18 months (have owned all Intel generations), use my MBP for hours every day, and think the latest is by far the best. Being able to charge on either side is a big deal for me as I move around a lot, plus being able to use 30W USB-C power packs and third party chargers (e.g. Anker) without fear of fire.. a massive boon for me, especially as my phone and Nintendo S…

> I feel like the odd one out. You're not. I have the late 2016 model. It replaced my ~2013-2014 model and I consider it an improvement. The Touch Bar / touch-id is a (mostly irrelevant) improvement over a row of keys that I never used. I think my computer would be worse if it dedicated space to a SD card slot reader. I've never used it. I wouldn't mind a USB-A port. But I have only wanted to plug something in twice…

The main reason to want an HDMI port appears to be that the external HDMI adapters are flakey as hell and simply do not work as consistently as the built in port. We have some LCD flatscreens in the conference rooms at the office, and one of the brands (which we've had since 2013) causes the brans new MBPs to panic.

Re: The best laptop ever made

#164

Post by jonbeebe »

trb8 wrote: post #111
petercooper wrote: post #63

I feel like the odd one out. I buy a new MBP every 12-18 months (have owned all Intel generations), use my MBP for hours every day, and think the latest is by far the best. Being able to charge on either side is a big deal for me as I move around a lot, plus being able to use 30W USB-C power packs and third party chargers (e.g. Anker) without fear of fire.. a massive boon for me, especially as my phone and Nintendo S…

> I feel like the odd one out. You're not. I have the late 2016 model. It replaced my ~2013-2014 model and I consider it an improvement. The Touch Bar / touch-id is a (mostly irrelevant) improvement over a row of keys that I never used. I think my computer would be worse if it dedicated space to a SD card slot reader. I've never used it. I wouldn't mind a USB-A port. But I have only wanted to plug something in twice…

I agree, but the keyboard is what gets me the most. I can get used to the feel, but it is simply too unreliable for a $2k computer. A spec of dust can bring it down for crying out loud.

Re: The best laptop ever made

#165

Post by mcphage »

recursive wrote: post #132
mcphage wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's a shame, since there are thousands of programmers who are using it for their work right now.

Why would that make it a shame? There are a lot of people using tools of all kinds that are insufficient for others.

It’s a shame that they can’t use for their job something that many other people enjoy using for that job.

Re: The best laptop ever made

#166

Post by chis »

It is interesting just how ahead of their time these laptops were. I wonder if it's even possible to make such an innovative laptop in 2017; it seems like all the easy wins have been claimed.

Also notable: they hold their value exceptionally well, even for an apple product. The 2014 model price is actually trending upwards on eBay lately.[1]

https://us.bidvoy.net/macbook_pro_2014_i5/111422

Re: The best laptop ever made

#167

Post by felippee »

sitharus wrote: post #131
mythbuster2001 wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wait till your Macbook dies and you try to pull some data out of the soldered on SSD. I find dongles annoying, lack of magsafe irritating but the soldered on SSD is what really puts me off.

But you have backups right? Betting on data recovery is a really poor strategy, you might drop your laptop under a truck.

Yeah sure. But sometimes you are traveling, without access to your backup. Or something did not yet make it to the backup. Or whatever, 100 other situations. Making SSD soldered on as opposed to putting a $3 connector just adds to fragility. On $3k laptop. No thanks.

Re: The best laptop ever made

#168

Post by mehrdada »

I like the new design better and I won’t switch to the previous version. The display alone is significantly superior.

While I like the previous design and think the 2015 model is pretty great, it is important to chronicle the history as it actually occurred so let me paint some light on some not so rosy features in 2012:

- MacBook Pros in 2012 almost universally had an image burn in issue (on the LG made displays) and it took Apple at least 6 month to reliably sort things out.

- MacBook Pro 2012 almost universally had a dGPU problem that made the machine crash on dGPU (presumably because of solder issues).

Those issues were very serious. Apple eventually did sort them out and the 2015 model is great but it is worth remembering that things take time to perfect. Issues will get fixed over time.

Re: The best laptop ever made

#169

Post by xauronx »

isoskeles wrote: post #122
sarreph wrote: post #58

I knew what laptop Marco would be talking about before I clicked on the link. Perhaps that says something about Marco, but I have the feeling it's almost certainly about how widely-lauded the old rMBP was, and still clearly is. Apple got so many things right with it, because all the design choices made sense , for exactly the reasons Marco gives. The design choices being made at the top of Apple no longer make sense.…

I thought "DongleGate" refers to that incident at PyCon in 2013 where someone made a bad joke about "dongles" within earshot of a woman who became offended. She took a photo of them, posted it on social media, and got them fired, and then she got fired for getting them fired.

My eye started twitching just thinking about that one.

Re: The best laptop ever made

#170

Post by sjellis »

vermaden wrote: post #86

Nope. The best laptop is the one with 7 row keyboard, like ThinkPad T420. While Macbooks have nice aluminium body and are very light and thin they are far from being 'the best'.

I think that the aluminium body, crisp display, and the blessed silence win it for the Mac, otherwise I would have said ThinkPad T420 as well. I don't even remember that the MacBook that I am typing this from has a fan unless I really brutalize it with a software compile. The classic ThinkPads were definitely something special, though: this MacBook has a good keyboard, but it's no ThinkPad keyboard, and I absolutely loved that retro style case design.
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