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Apple MacBook Pro 13” M1 Review- Why You Might Want to Pass

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51–60 of 116 posts

Re: Apple MacBook Pro 13” M1 Review- Why You Might Want to Pass

#51
post #29

This device, and the non-Touch Bar "MacBook Escape" before it, succeed or fail based on what you think "Pro" means. John Gruber thinks when Apple says "Pro" they mean "deluxe" or "nicer". (See https://daringfireball.net/2015/11/the_ipad_pro for example.) You can argue that this could have been avoided by calling this particular device the MacBook. But that might have made people think it was the default choice, where…

Apple trashed the "Macbook" reputation with the previous generation of intentionally crippled 1-port (including charging!) machines.

Now they are stuck with a 13" pro that stopped being Pro.

Re: Apple MacBook Pro 13” M1 Review- Why You Might Want to Pass

#52
post #21

This review is hilariously bad and biased ("no touchscreen or 5G!"), but the app compatibility is an expected chicken-or-egg issue with early adopters. The point I would make is you have to weigh the app experience in Nov 2020 against your expected experience for the rest of the life of the machine. I know people who've kept Macs running for nearly a decade (e.g. 2011 Macbook Air) and I'd strongly suspect 5 years fro…

>("no touchscreen or 5G!")

This is a huge plus in my opinion.

Re: Apple MacBook Pro 13” M1 Review- Why You Might Want to Pass

#53
post #29

This device, and the non-Touch Bar "MacBook Escape" before it, succeed or fail based on what you think "Pro" means. John Gruber thinks when Apple says "Pro" they mean "deluxe" or "nicer". (See https://daringfireball.net/2015/11/the_ipad_pro for example.) You can argue that this could have been avoided by calling this particular device the MacBook. But that might have made people think it was the default choice, where…

I guess a lot of it has to do with aspirational marketing. It's the same with DSLRs or sporty versions of cars. If you would benefit from more available peripherals and monitors, a bigger screen and more memory (pretty much most professional computer people I can think of would benefit from these) then this likely isn't the machine for you.

Re: Apple MacBook Pro 13” M1 Review- Why You Might Want to Pass

#54

That there is still not an LTE modem indicates some kind of market failure. Is this because of the Qualcomm patents?

If Apple were to ship one it would be in a later release. Eg the iPad didn’t have one as Apple don’t like to reveal info about models which you have to do for FCC approval.

Re: Apple MacBook Pro 13” M1 Review- Why You Might Want to Pass

#55

There's nothing of any value in this diatribe disguised as a review.

The same could be said for this comment. His article is full of concrete reasons why you might not want to buy an M1 right now. Would you care to address even a single one?

The article is full of concrete reasons not to buy an M1 if you use Microsoft and Adobe software.

I suspect the number of Edge users in the Mac ecosystem is not high. Acrobat might be more of a problem, but it's still not quite the mainstream MacBook Air use case.

The question isn't so much "Do these apps work?" but "When will they work?" MS and Adobe will be distributing Apple Silicon builds within the year - most likely within six months, and possibly by early next year.

So these are showstopper problems if you need these applications on a Mac right now, but not so much if you're planning to wait and see a while.

Honestly, Catalina and Big Sur broke far more applications than the M1 move did. If you're doing the prudent thing and running a year or so behind it's very likely there will be fewer problems.

So ultimately there aren't many reasons beyond novelty and a percentage of natural replacement why most people who lean heavily on Office and Acrobat are going to need a Macbook Air right now.

Re: Apple MacBook Pro 13” M1 Review- Why You Might Want to Pass

#56
post #34

This is a review from someone who uses Microsoft Edge, Outlook, and Adobe Reader on a Mac. Those are very unusual choices nowadays for Mac software, so I don't think this applies to most Mac users considering upgrading.

Outlook isn’t a weird software choice to be fair, I’ve never found another email application that comes close if you are a heavy user. Adobe reader and edge... I agree have better alternatives that come shipped with Mac.

Sure I think Outlook is fairly widely used in corp environments, though I’d be surprised to find many such environments who use outlook purchasing or supporting mac laptops for their users. There are cheaper and perfectly capable windows machines for office work.

So it is an unusual choice on an Apple laptop, but also I expect it to be supported in time, and it is unsurprising that it is not amongst the first apps ported to a new architecture.

Re: Apple MacBook Pro 13” M1 Review- Why You Might Want to Pass

#57
post #21

This review is hilariously bad and biased ("no touchscreen or 5G!"), but the app compatibility is an expected chicken-or-egg issue with early adopters. The point I would make is you have to weigh the app experience in Nov 2020 against your expected experience for the rest of the life of the machine. I know people who've kept Macs running for nearly a decade (e.g. 2011 Macbook Air) and I'd strongly suspect 5 years fro…

Why would a review be biased if they want 5G or a touchscreen in their laptop?

Those are features of other laptops. And Apple already ships the technogy to support both.

Re: Apple MacBook Pro 13” M1 Review- Why You Might Want to Pass

#58
post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apple shows no signs towards being interested in selling a touch screen laptop. They steer people to their iPads for that and have indicated otherwise for their laptops. Rightly or wrongly.

Jobs famously said quite strongly that they'd never do one. There is a video around of him justifying it due to the user's hands getting too tired https://www.youtube.com/watch?reload=9&v=S9ZJHy8QOso . After 12 years on Macs I picked up a touchscreen PC and would simply never go back to a non-touch machine, it is not essential, but it is incredibly convenient. Why shouldn't it be possible to touch rather than tap whe…

I picked up a Dell touchscreen laptop and literally have never used the touchscreen. I even forgot it has it. I just can’t see any reason to use it and how it’s better.

Re: Apple MacBook Pro 13” M1 Review- Why You Might Want to Pass

#59
post #42
post #7

"Apple-chosen press" is referenced in almost every paragraph of this article if you are wondering what the author's intent is here. I'll sum up his unique complaints... Lots of old Microsoft specific software still doesn't work well at the moment. If you are an enthusiastic Edge browser user, this laptop probably isn't for you.

This has gotta be the first time I’ve heard of anyone using Edge on macOS... I mean, why?

Going off the rest of his stack, probably corporate reasons.

Re: Apple MacBook Pro 13” M1 Review- Why You Might Want to Pass

#60
post #42
post #7

"Apple-chosen press" is referenced in almost every paragraph of this article if you are wondering what the author's intent is here. I'll sum up his unique complaints... Lots of old Microsoft specific software still doesn't work well at the moment. If you are an enthusiastic Edge browser user, this laptop probably isn't for you.

This has gotta be the first time I’ve heard of anyone using Edge on macOS... I mean, why?

Cross-browser testing of web apps would be one use case.
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