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2018 MacBook Pro Review

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Re: 2018 MacBook Pro Review

#341

Post by copperx »

joshvm wrote: post #132
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.

If this review sample was for keeps, then... lucky guy. The model as specced in the review (maxxed out) costs around £6k. Most of that is the 4TB SSD which adds about £2.5k on top.

Apple doesn't give anything away.

Re: 2018 MacBook Pro Review

#342

Post by adrianN »

derefr wrote: post #220
manigandham wrote: post #200

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You didn't answer the question. It doesn't need to be so dysfunctionally thin and light to travel between work and home sometimes. Nobody is going to suffer from an extra pound of weight.

In places other than the US, the majority of commuters are supporting the weight of their laptops on their backs (on public transit/walking/cycling), rather than having it sitting beside them (in a car.)

When I was in primary school we were taught that our backpacks shouldn't weigh more than 10% of our body weight. That's not much when you're in third grade, but I think most adults can comfortably carry laptops that are two millimeters thicker and weigh a pound more than the Macbook.

Re: 2018 MacBook Pro Review

#343

Post by joakleaf »

batiudrami wrote: post #232
sophistication wrote: post #213

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Who doubted Apple would be successful in ~2008? The iPhone and the MacBook Air were phenomenal products.

In 2008 the iPhone was a $500 subsidised device (at a time when other phones were "free" or up to $200) which really didn't do anything. It didn't do MMS, third party apps didn't exist, google maps didn't have turn-by-turn. I'm sure the user experience of a reasonable sized capacitive touch screen was great compared to the alternatives - but I never even saw one in real life and on paper it was very expensive and did…

I think, that you didn’t see it in person was the reason you didn’t expect it to be a success.

The 3G had 3G, but otherwise same hardware specs as the original.

What sold me was that Apple got the UI right (“smooth as butter”), the webbrowser and email actually worked, and jailbroken it was almost Unix in your pocket! It really felt like a phone with so much potential and a far ahead of anything I had seen. The things you mention were just a matter of software updates. Btw. 3G and App Store both came out in 2008.

Re: 2018 MacBook Pro Review

#344

Post by chx »

bproven wrote: post #215
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.…

I agree the Dell XPSs are hit or miss on quality. I had a 9550 and after dealing with its issues moved over to the Thinkpad line (with Linux). Zero problems after that + better a much better keyboard than the Dell. I will say even on Thinkpads you cannot approach the greatness of the Mac trackpad ... Maybe the 13" XPSs (dev editions) are better - I dont know. I do think that if you are going Dell @ 15" it may be wort…

XPS is a consumer line, ThinkPad T/X are business laptops and it shows.

Re: 2018 MacBook Pro Review

#345

Post by mirimir »

sumedh wrote: post #335
mirimir wrote: post #258

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Bandwidth is much greater.

Yes but I am pretty sure there very few people who need so much bandwidth and you can always buy a usb c flash drive.

True, I guess. And I'm one of them. Sometimes I use numerous Linux, Windows or macOS VMs for testing stuff. At 5-10GB per VM, that's way too much for my system array. So I use LUKS-encrypted HDDs and SSDs via USB. With my pitiful uplink, cloud storage for hundreds of GB would be unworkable.

And yes, I could use USB-C.

Re: 2018 MacBook Pro Review

#346

Post by kalleboo »

likeclockwork wrote: post #263
sumedh wrote: post #228

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I use USB sticks semi regularly What do you use it for, is it something dropbox or others cannot do?

When did the sneakernet become a foreign concept to hackers?

I had stopped using floppy disks completely by high school. The reliability of floppies of that era was so poor that despite only having 56K at home, I'd start an FTP upload of my documents to my free 20 MB dialup ISP space when I left for school and by the time I arrived they were all safely there.

Re: 2018 MacBook Pro Review

#347

Post by [deleted] »

slavik81 wrote: post #282
reificator wrote: post #278

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I don't recall being annoyed by those changes. In particular, the VGA->DVI transition was handled really well. Just about everything was DVI-I and would accept a VGA signal over a DVI cable, so you just bought a VGA->DVI cable and continued using VGA. Just about everything was USB-C and would accept a USB-A signal over a USB-C cable, so you just bought a USB-C->USB-A cable and continued using USB-A. I don't see a d…

There are a lot of USB devices that do not attach via a cable. You can't just use a different cable in that case, because you were not using one to begin with. VGA devices always connected via a cable, so you weren't adding bulk. Even adapters for devices with integrated cables (grrr...) were pretty minor compared to the sheer heft of the VGA cable itself.

[deleted]

Re: 2018 MacBook Pro Review

#348

Post by kalleboo »

copperx wrote: post #325
jetti wrote: post #161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I'll have to get used to the reduced travel after working with a late 2012 for 5+ years! I have been working on my 2012 MBP since my wife got it for me new as a birthday gift. I absolutely love it and actually just put in an SSD the other day and it is even more amazing now. I just can't imagine not being able to easily change parts on my own laptop and the fact that this is the last model to allow that for MBP has…

I'm confused. My 2012 MBP already came with a 256GB SSD (lowest possible standard configuration) and it's soldered, like the RAM. Did you mean a 2011 MBP?

You're talking about the "2012 MacBook Pro with Retina Display", they also sold a model without a retina display that used a standard laptop drive and came with an optical drive (!).

Re: 2018 MacBook Pro Review

#349

Post by donio »

chx wrote: post #176
drewg123 wrote: post #160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or even a lot of other people, like professors. My wife, the professor, is finally going to replace her 2011 Macbook Air. She was excited to check out the new 13" MBP. Then she saw the touch bar (without a real escape), hated the keyboard after typing on it in the Apple Store, and realized she'd have to replace the dongles she uses to present to her classes (VGA and HDMI). What really killed it was when she realized…

X1C6 is a wonderful machine, go for it.

I am using the 5th gen and it's just about the perfect Linux laptop but a while ago I read that the 6th gen needs some tweaks under Linux, https://delta-xi.net/#056 or https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Lenovo_ThinkPad_X1_Carb... for example.

This may have changed since but the 5th gen is probably a safer choice for the less adventurous

Re: 2018 MacBook Pro Review

#350

Post by watersb »

chrisseaton wrote: post #211
Stratoscope wrote: post #179

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Lately I've been working at a company that uses YubiKeys for 2FA. You can use a traditional YubiKey, but the YubiKey Nano is especially popular because you can put it in your laptop and leave it there. It barely sticks out at all, just enough that you can touch it and activate the touch sensor. [1] I started noticing people in meetings with their new MacBook Pros and six inch cords sticking out the side, and on close…

I don't understand - why don't they just get USB-C compatible YubiKeys if they have USB-C laptops?

The company would have to provision and deploy those, and these things take time and money.

You could purchase your own, I suppose.

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