Introducing the next generation of Mac • Hacker News Board

Re: Introducing the next generation of Mac

#451

Post by 3adawi » Tue, Nov 10, 2020, 9:57 PM UTC

rsp1984 wrote: post #449

Interestingly, the Air and the Pro now are almost identical in specs: same SoC, same display, same connectors, same RAM, same SSDs. On the plus side I only see the larger battery for the Pro. On the minus side it's more heavy and a bit more bulky. And it's got the TouchBar (I'd count that as a negative...). Honestly, why spend the $300 extra? I'd take the Air any day.

thing it does have a better mic and better cooling so you get better performance from your CPUs

Re: Introducing the next generation of Mac

#452

Post by keyle » Tue, Nov 10, 2020, 9:57 PM UTC

tiffanyh wrote: post #445

I don't understand the pricing of the MacBook Air vs the 13" Pro. The Air ($1249) vs 13" Pro ($1299), you get: - same CPU - same GPU - same Neural chip - same RAM (8gb) - More storage for the Air (512gb vs 256gb with 13" Pro) - You get Touch Bar with 13" Pro So if you don't care about the Touch Bar, you actually get with the Air: - better specs - smaller device footprint - and $50 cheaper. Am I missing something?

As a previous macbook pro top model owner, with the huge amount of dysfunctional features it had, I'd be totally in for a mac book air.

Re: Introducing the next generation of Mac

#453

Post by propelol » Tue, Nov 10, 2020, 9:57 PM UTC

dawnerd wrote: post #259

davio wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From MacBook Pro tech specs: Simultaneously supports full native resolution on the built-in display at millions of colors and: One external display with up to 6K resolution at 60Hz Thunderbolt 3 digital video output Native DisplayPort output over USB-C VGA, HDMI, DVI, and Thunderbolt 2 output supported using adapters (sold separately)

That's disappointing. Dual 4k isn't that uncommon. Sounds like their chip isn't quite as powerful as they're leading on?

Shouldn't one 6k display be the same data transfer as two 4k displays?

Re: Introducing the next generation of Mac

#454

Post by _alex_ » Tue, Nov 10, 2020, 9:57 PM UTC

rsp1984 wrote: post #449

Interestingly, the Air and the Pro now are almost identical in specs: same SoC, same display, same connectors, same RAM, same SSDs. On the plus side I only see the larger battery for the Pro. On the minus side it's more heavy and a bit more bulky. And it's got the TouchBar (I'd count that as a negative...). Honestly, why spend the $300 extra? I'd take the Air any day.

I think it's going to come down to battery and the fan, which will let them run the chip hotter (faster) for longer

Re: Introducing the next generation of Mac

#455

Post by css » Tue, Nov 10, 2020, 9:58 PM UTC

tiffanyh wrote: post #445

I don't understand the pricing of the MacBook Air vs the 13" Pro. The Air ($1249) vs 13" Pro ($1299), you get: - same CPU - same GPU - same Neural chip - same RAM (8gb) - More storage for the Air (512gb vs 256gb with 13" Pro) - You get Touch Bar with 13" Pro So if you don't care about the Touch Bar, you actually get with the Air: - better specs - smaller device footprint - and $50 cheaper. Am I missing something?

Air only has passive cooling; Pro has a fan.

Re: Introducing the next generation of Mac

#456

Post by keyle » Tue, Nov 10, 2020, 9:58 PM UTC

tiffanyh wrote: post #425

Apple officially has dropped mentioning the CPU frequency for these new Macs (just like they don't mentioned it with iOS devices)

Yep we're 4X this and 3X that and here is a graph with a 2 curves and no scale, but it's a glowing line!

Then the top model still ships with a Radeon mobile chip. So... your super duper M1 graphics, not so super duper.

Re: Introducing the next generation of Mac

#457

Post by justin66 » Tue, Nov 10, 2020, 9:58 PM UTC

tiffanyh wrote: post #445

I don't understand the pricing of the MacBook Air vs the 13" Pro. The Air ($1249) vs 13" Pro ($1299), you get: - same CPU - same GPU - same Neural chip - same RAM (8gb) - More storage for the Air (512gb vs 256gb with 13" Pro) - You get Touch Bar with 13" Pro So if you don't care about the Touch Bar, you actually get with the Air: - better specs - smaller device footprint - and $50 cheaper. Am I missing something?

Perhaps this pricing was brought about by the same head injury that caused someone in management to believe 8GB is an adequate base spec for RAM in 2020.

Re: Introducing the next generation of Mac

#458

Post by _0w8t » Tue, Nov 10, 2020, 9:58 PM UTC

TechBro8615 wrote: post #354

Straw poll: I need a new development machine, price is not an object but it has to be a Mac. Should I buy this new M1 or go with the Intel 16 inch MBP? My gut says there’s going to be a year or two of cross-compilation nightmares. I do a lot of Docker-based development. Wondering what everyone else thinks?

For such workflow 16gb is not enough. Docker on Mac is a VM and you need to have a lot of ram for disc caching to compensate for slow IO in VM even if 16GB looks like they could do it.

Re: Introducing the next generation of Mac

#459

Post by bengale » Tue, Nov 10, 2020, 9:59 PM UTC

pbronez wrote: post #383

TechBro8615 wrote: post #354

Straw poll: I need a new development machine, price is not an object but it has to be a Mac. Should I buy this new M1 or go with the Intel 16 inch MBP? My gut says there’s going to be a year or two of cross-compilation nightmares. I do a lot of Docker-based development. Wondering what everyone else thinks?

Honestly the new MBP seems dead on arrival if only because of the RAM limitation.

This is just the first SKU, no need to be dramatic about it.

Re: Introducing the next generation of Mac

#460

Post by _alex_ » Tue, Nov 10, 2020, 9:59 PM UTC

tiffanyh wrote: post #425

Apple officially has dropped mentioning the CPU frequency for these new Macs (just like they don't mentioned it with iOS devices)

I think it's actually a good move for the first gen. If they put out the CPU frequency, people would be comparing it to the intel parts. ARM and x86 being different architectures, a 2GHz M1 is going to perform differently than a 2GHz Core i5