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Apple MacBook Pro with M1 Review

theverge.com

41–50 of 101 posts

Re: Apple MacBook Pro with M1 Review

#41
post #24

Once they remove the touch bar and add back normal function keys I'll switch back from my ThinkPad to a Macbook Pro.

You can get the function keys with the Air, which has the same internals as this Pro.

The air is missing the active cooling.

The next upgrade that puts apple chip in the 4 port pro would be the ideal version to purchase without a Touch Bar impacting usability and battery life.

Re: Apple MacBook Pro with M1 Review

#42
post #26

“Apple’s insistence that reaching up to touch a laptop screen is too burdensome is just getting silly, especially when that is not a problem on the iPad and across the universe of Windows laptops, and most especially when these laptops can run iPhone and iPad apps natively.“ In a way Nilay is right - ultimately it makes no sense not to allow touch interaction. However Apple is also right in a different way. If apps a…

Not only is most desktop software not well suited to touch interactions, touchscreens on laptops are also an ergonomic nightmare. Try reaching your hand up to touch your monitor and hold it there for a minute. Now try pretending you’ll do this for an 8 hour workday. It’s a useless feature in search of a use-case.

My own limited personal experience is that a touchscreen is basically useless in a conventional laptop whose hinge only opens to 135-180 degrees. Once you can open the screen 360 degrees, you have a fighting chance at being able to take handwritten notes and drawings on a somewhat ergonomic convertible tablet. But I've never had to do this much, and have always preferred pen and paper.

Re: Apple MacBook Pro with M1 Review

#43
post #34
post #26

“Apple’s insistence that reaching up to touch a laptop screen is too burdensome is just getting silly, especially when that is not a problem on the iPad and across the universe of Windows laptops, and most especially when these laptops can run iPhone and iPad apps natively.“ In a way Nilay is right - ultimately it makes no sense not to allow touch interaction. However Apple is also right in a different way. If apps a…

Most users are not asking for touchscreens on their Mac laptops just like no one wants a touchscreen TV.

I'd settle for turning the trackpad into a second display and supporting Apple Pencil input. I'd keep it turned off most of the time, but it would be amazing to be able to flip it on and have it zoom into part of the main display in order to handwrite or draw something now and then.

Re: Apple MacBook Pro with M1 Review

#44
post #24

Once they remove the touch bar and add back normal function keys I'll switch back from my ThinkPad to a Macbook Pro.

You can get the function keys with the Air, which has the same internals as this Pro.

Yup, this was my main reason for choosing the Air over the Pro. The touch bar is so unfortunate -- Apple could probably do something interesting with it, but ultimately they've basically left it untouched since they released it.

I suspect the only reason for its continued existence is to look cool in marketing photos.

Re: Apple MacBook Pro with M1 Review

#45
post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think we'll see a Mac Pro for a long time, this will be the most difficult (and interesting) one to see move over to ARM.

Why? ARM server CPUs are already a thing for years now.

Discrete GPUs probably, though I don't see a reason Apple couldn't cram more of their own GPU cores onto a die.

Re: Apple MacBook Pro with M1 Review

#46
post #8

I wonder why the performance for Microsoft's Surface Pro X under performs so much in comparison... Color me surprised, I didn't know ARM could perform so well for desktop applications.

Because Microsoft, much like most of the ecosystems around ARM, didn't build their own CPU. They got an off the shelf mobile chipset, customised it slightly, rebranded it and then chucked the whole shit heap of windows on top.

I have also heard that Microsoft put lower priority on the x86 emulation layer, because they felt like if it was really good, developers would have no incentive to make native compiles.

While this sounds instinctively ridiculous to me, as of late I’ve become very cognizant of general laziness in our industry, so who knows…

Re: Apple MacBook Pro with M1 Review

#47

Is any web developer planning to get the new Apple Silicon Macs? How's docker support (for ARM and x86 images)? Do the major IDEs work on Rosetta? What's support looking like for languages like GO, Rust now/in the near future?

I just got one mbp.

Still in box and will only open after dinner. If you want to ping me in a week or so for feedback: brunomtsousa @-that-G company-mail-service.com

Re: Apple MacBook Pro with M1 Review

#48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can get the function keys with the Air, which has the same internals as this Pro.

The air is missing the active cooling. The next upgrade that puts apple chip in the 4 port pro would be the ideal version to purchase without a Touch Bar impacting usability and battery life.

The active cooling might not make as big a difference as you think… in The Verge’s benchmarks, literally the only place they saw a significant difference in speed was a multicore benchmark involving 30 solid minutes under full load. https://www.theverge.com/21569603/apple-macbook-air-m1-revie...

Re: Apple MacBook Pro with M1 Review

#49
post #26

“Apple’s insistence that reaching up to touch a laptop screen is too burdensome is just getting silly, especially when that is not a problem on the iPad and across the universe of Windows laptops, and most especially when these laptops can run iPhone and iPad apps natively.“ In a way Nilay is right - ultimately it makes no sense not to allow touch interaction. However Apple is also right in a different way. If apps a…

Not only is most desktop software not well suited to touch interactions, touchscreens on laptops are also an ergonomic nightmare. Try reaching your hand up to touch your monitor and hold it there for a minute. Now try pretending you’ll do this for an 8 hour workday. It’s a useless feature in search of a use-case.

>It’s a useless feature in search of a use-case.

This was true until just now. The use case is right at the end of OP's quote. These laptops now run iOS apps that are designed with touch as their primary or only interface. It is weird to include the functionality to run these apps but not the functionality to interact with them properly.

Re: Apple MacBook Pro with M1 Review

#50
post #24

Once they remove the touch bar and add back normal function keys I'll switch back from my ThinkPad to a Macbook Pro.

This appears on all threads. I understand some people don't like it, I'm a developer and I have mixed feelings (prefer touchbar for somethings, keys for others), but in general, I feel normal folks prefer the touchbar. I just got the mbp which after a few tests, will be my girlfriend's computer. She asked for the MBP over the Air because of the touchbar that she enjoys alot in her current mbp
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