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2018 MacBook Pro Review

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Re: 2018 MacBook Pro Review

#61

Post by wildrhythms »

jen20 wrote: post #40
notadoc wrote: post #22

Touch Bar kills it. I am a touch typer. I use the escape key constantly. I use the function keys frequently. Like every other touch typer I know, none of us want to look at our fingers to type anything, let alone to look down and navigate around a microscopic touch screen menu that requires you to not only look at your fingers but to move your hands away from the micro-screen to see what you're trying to tap on. I ha…

This is simply "anecdata". I too touch type, and simply remapped escape to caps lock, the same as the last 15 years, and moved on. I have had a touch bar since late 2016, and have not missed function keys a single time, while I have several uses for the touch bar. I would be annoyed if the touch bar were removed, or the trackpad made smaller, or the keyboard made spongier, or any of the other things that people on he…

Can you describe what value the touchbar adds in your usual workflow?

Re: 2018 MacBook Pro Review

#62

Post by reaperducer »

submeta wrote: post #36
knolan wrote: post #5

It’s shocking how expensive Macs have gotten. I paid around €2300 for my 2014 15” and today’s equivalent tier is over €3k. For this I get a faster thinner machine without MagSafe and a variety of ports. It seems that the only viable upgrade path is to convince your employer to stump up the cash.

Actually, I pay that extra amount without hesitation. Thinking of the times when I constantly had to fiddle around with my Windows ThinkPad or my Ubuntu ThinkPad, time is more expensive for me, so the extra 700 Euros means nothing for me. - But yes, you are right. They have gotten expensive in the past several years.

In my experience, the people who choose Wintel vs. Mac computers based primarily on price and not on whether it's the best tool for the task at hand are people whose time isn't very valuable.

I'm not trying to be insulting. But if you're using the computer for work and you can save eight or ten or twelve hours over the course of a month, when you multiply that by your hourly rate and then again by the number of months in a year, it makes sense.

I still have two client-supplied Windows boxes on my desk I have to use daily because the client's unusual legacy needs. But it's good because it reminds me of what the Windows ecosystem is like and every time one of them does something stupid, I love my Macs more.

The Mac isn't always the best tool for the job, but since I switched from Wintel boxes to Macs in 1999, I know that each Mac purchase premium will pay for itself in time and aggravation saved.

Re: 2018 MacBook Pro Review

#64

Post by reaperducer »

notadoc wrote: post #43
jen20 wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is simply "anecdata". I too touch type, and simply remapped escape to caps lock, the same as the last 15 years, and moved on. I have had a touch bar since late 2016, and have not missed function keys a single time, while I have several uses for the touch bar. I would be annoyed if the touch bar were removed, or the trackpad made smaller, or the keyboard made spongier, or any of the other things that people on he…

Your reply to "anecdata" is.... your personal anecdata? That's fascinating. Anyway I am glad you personally don't mind changing long standardized keyboarding habits by using software modifications to make up for befuddling product decisions. I think that's wonderful, and I am thrilled that works for you and a handful of other people that have a background with ADM-3A terminals, though you should really remap the 'tab…

I am glad you personally don't mind changing long standardized keyboarding habits

If you can't adapt to a new keyboard in a couple of weeks, you have other problems.

Re: 2018 MacBook Pro Review

#65

Post by simonh »

bdowling wrote: post #58
csydas wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Truthfully, it's why I'm very sad that the Air looks to be discontinued. I'm still using a 2012 MacBook Air, and it was quite possibly the least stressful computer purchase I ever made. $1000 and some change to get a computer that has just worked magnificently for nearly 6 years now without missing a beat. I walked into an Apple Store, told the Apple employee I wanted a 4 gb MacBook Air, and in 5 minutes I walked out…

Why do you think that the Air is discontinued? They're still up for sale on Apple's site. The most recent updates were apparently in 2017.

He said looks t be. There are rumours of a new low cost Mac laptop with different branding. ‘Air’ branding doesn’t make sense for the low end model that’s not actually the thinnest and lightest in the range, which it hasn’t been since the MacBook came out.

Re: 2018 MacBook Pro Review

#66

Post by AlexeyBrin »

I'm curious what the author thinks about the OpenCL deprecation in future versions of macOS. How will this deprecation influence his CFD work on macOS.

I assume an OpenCL -> Metal 2 migration will solve the problem.

Re: 2018 MacBook Pro Review

#67

Post by pteredactyl »

matthewmacleod wrote: post #59
pteredactyl wrote: post #28

Cons: Keyboard, Touch bar, lack of ports, cost Pro: Great display. Build quality. MacOS It's too bad all the cons except cost are new to the latest generation ( post-2015 ) MBP.

I’ve been using one for six months - in my experience, the keyboard is awesome to the point that I hate going back to my other, older machine. I reckon there’s been a bit of an unfair perpetuation of this idea that it’s particularly bad, though I accept that some other people have different tastes!

Interesting. Maybe I need to evolve.

Re: 2018 MacBook Pro Review

#68

Post by coldtea »

stefano wrote: post #19
BugsJustFindMe wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It’s shocking how expensive Macs have gotten Expensive now? A Quadra 950 in 1992 had a starting price of $7200 (1992 dollars) and that didn't include any hard drive. That's almost $13000 or more than €11000 today for the basically empty base model before several thousand more to upgrade RAM and add storage.

That's a very unfair comparison. You need to compare the relative price against comparable laptops produced today. Also Apple seems to be the first laptop producer to raise prices instead of lowering them. In 2010, I could get a MacBook for 1000 euros. The equivalent laptop upgraded to today's standards would cost 2-3 times that.

>That's a very unfair comparison. You need to compare the relative price against comparable laptops produced today.

Well, first spec them comparatively though. Which includes things like same CPUs and GPUs, and the quality of the screen, the touchpad, and the casing.

High-end MS Surface laptops, for example, cost just as much (15 inch Intel Core i7-8650U CPU clocked at 1.9 GHz, a discrete Nvidia 1060 GPU with 6GB of RAM, 16GB of memory and a terabyte SSD = $3,299, 13-inch machine with an i5 processor, 8GB of RAM and an integrated Intel GPU = $1,499 ).

>In 2010, I could get a MacBook for 1000 euros. The equivalent laptop upgraded to today's standards would cost 2-3 times that.

No, it wouldn't. The MacBook was a low spec machine for students and such. The equivalent machine today would be a lowest spec 13' Macbook Pro retina, which goes for €1.499 in Germany. So 1.5 times that (though it's not exactly comparable).

Re: 2018 MacBook Pro Review

#70

Post by npunt »

torben-friis wrote: post #51
satysin wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have a new 15" MBP on order at £3300. I also have a similar spec XPS 15 which cost me £2600. So yes the MBP is £700. The XPS also has a better CPU (i9-8950HK) but that is kind of a waste, I only got it with that because Dell basically upgraded me to it for free. However I have had no end of issues with my XPS 15. To the point that I have had enough and I am returning it for a refund and will pickup something else.…

>To be honest I am fine with pay £700 more for a machine that doesn't develop a problem with the spacebar after 11 days as well as all the other problems I have had. I'd argue that is a bad comparison. You're basically judging them both on a vacuum (since one is x amount more expensive but gives me reliability, that X extra is justified). but putting those two devices in context, if we take a look at earlier models,…

They haven't increased enormously in price, when comparing like models and factoring in exchange rates to USD.

The 2012-2015 generation 15" were bifurcated in 2013 between integrated and discrete graphics. You need to look at discrete graphics models.

The 2009-2012 generation 15" was the midrange model, and the 17" was the top of the line model, so you need to compare to that model.

The 2018's have introduced new tiers of parts on the super high end (i9 and 4tb ssd) that bump the fully spec'd model up in price. Of course that's getting a lot of attention, but those don't represent the typical builds.

See this chart on historic USD pricing [0] and historic pricing by country [1], and historic 10Y exchange rates (pick any currency) [2]. I did this comparison for someone on reddit [3] with CAD and each of their examples of price increases were 100% accounted for by looking at exchange rates.

[0] https://everymac.com/global-mac-prices/mac-prices-us-usa-uni...

[1] https://everymac.com/global-mac-prices/index-global-internat...

[2] https://www.xe.com/currencycharts/?from=USD&to=CAD&view=10Y

[3] https://www.reddit.com/r/apple/comments/8yqu2p/the_prices_of...

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