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Newest MacBook Pro is the first MacBook not recommended by Consumer Reports

businessinsider.com

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Re: Newest MacBook Pro is the first MacBook not recommended by Consumer Reports

#111

Post by spilk »

S_A_P wrote: post #106

I'm pretty disappointed by the new mbp and the state of Mac in general for several reasons. I've made pretty significant investments in the Mac ecosystem. I bought a semi pro sound card(uad Apollo 8) tons of software audio related plugins and logic and I don't have a lot of confidence that when it's time to replace my 2014 mbp that there will be a viable Mac option to replace it with. That immediately makes my sound…

I think you probably mean Thunderbolt, or maybe Firewire, and not Lightning, yes? Lightning is the connector found on iPhones.

I don't remember people complaining this much about adapters when the Firewire 800 port was a different form factor than the Firewire 400 port that came before it - most of the equipment that plugged into it was "pro" level hardware like you mention.

Re: Newest MacBook Pro is the first MacBook not recommended by Consumer Reports

#112

Post by jsjohnst »

jghn wrote: post #76
jsjohnst wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The keyboard on the 12" MacBook does take getting used too. Took me about a week, but loved it once I got used to it. My only "complaint" is how noisy it is. When I'm typing fast in a meeting, it's quite noticeable to others.

Agreed on all counts. There are two other things I dislike about typing on my 2016 12" rMB: 1) if I have to make transient use of arrow keys I always mess it up and 2) over long periods of time my hands start hurting from always being pushed up against the sharp edges whereas on my 15" rMBP there are a few inches on each side of my hands. For the most part though I love that rMB. I wouldn't want to code on it several…

I think it's the best laptop for a management level person in engineering running from meeting to meeting who occasionally sits down to write some light code / test code that they are reviewing from others. Great screen, decentish (but not great) memory, and great battery life, all with the simplicity of a single cable connection for power/monitor/accessories. Best of all, it's fantastic traveling as it can be easily charged from a USB-C battery pack that doubles as a phone charger.

If I was writing code all day, then yes, a 15" rMBP would clearly be superior, but as I don't currently the 12" makes a perfect work laptop.

Re: Newest MacBook Pro is the first MacBook not recommended by Consumer Reports

#113

Post by S_A_P »

spilk wrote: post #111
S_A_P wrote: post #106

I'm pretty disappointed by the new mbp and the state of Mac in general for several reasons. I've made pretty significant investments in the Mac ecosystem. I bought a semi pro sound card(uad Apollo 8) tons of software audio related plugins and logic and I don't have a lot of confidence that when it's time to replace my 2014 mbp that there will be a viable Mac option to replace it with. That immediately makes my sound…

I think you probably mean Thunderbolt, or maybe Firewire, and not Lightning, yes? Lightning is the connector found on iPhones. I don't remember people complaining this much about adapters when the Firewire 800 port was a different form factor than the Firewire 400 port that came before it - most of the equipment that plugged into it was "pro" level hardware like you mention.

Yes thank you for the correction. I will edit the parent.

Re: Newest MacBook Pro is the first MacBook not recommended by Consumer Reports

#114

Post by acqq »

untog wrote: post #41
sprite wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It sounds like a bug in Safari causing the cpu to kill the battery. Possibly a race condition since it's random. Guessing this will be fixed in an OS X update shortly.

If that were the case it would affect all Macs - it must be some combination of Safari and the new hardware, which I wouldn't be at all happy with if I'd just spent a ton of money on a new Macbook.

Do we really know it doesn't affect all Macs? Have they tried to run their exact same tests with the old MBP and the latest OS updates?

Re: Newest MacBook Pro is the first MacBook not recommended by Consumer Reports

#115

Post by spilk »

symfoniq wrote: post #47

A co-worker who upgraded last week to a 2016 MacBook Pro from a 2013 is complaining about battery life, too. He used to get 10+ hours and now he's lucky to get six.

Having owned MacBooks/PowerBooks/iBooks in various configurations over the past 15 or so years, what models were getting real-life 10 hour lifetimes, and while doing what? I've never seen anything near that on anything I've owned before.

Re: Newest MacBook Pro is the first MacBook not recommended by Consumer Reports

#116

Post by mistersquid »

SakiWatanabe wrote: post #108
thought_alarm wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How do you deal with the arrow keys? I like the feel of the keyboard, but I found absolutely no way to orient my fingers over the arrow keys. There is no way tell whether I'm hitting the up arrow or the right shift. As someone who works with text, it's a deal breaker for me.

Don't use arrow keys, it shifts the center of gravity when typing. You want to use hjkl for movement, even better, try not to use hjkl at all and use movement commends such as w b e etc for movement. First thing I do when setting up vim. 1. unbind arrow keys 2. bind jk to Esc 3. Set up tmux + vim integration with clipboard / mouse support Love the new MBP the keyboard is great to type on.

I'd never heard of using hjkl for cardinal directional movement.

I am familiar with ijkl where jl W E and ik N S (used in Lode Runner and BurgerTime for the Apple IIe).

I honestly don't know: is hjkl standard in a command line app?

Re: Newest MacBook Pro is the first MacBook not recommended by Consumer Reports

#118

Post by redler »

sprite wrote: post #13
coldtea wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When they say: "ran for 16 hours in the first trial, 12.75 hours in the second, and just 3.75 hours in the third" they don't mean that each of the three trials consists of the same load. The mechanism sounds highly random too: "Consumer Reports tests battery life using a real-world test: They turn on the laptop's screen and surf webpages using Chrome. It's not a test based on benchmarking software or watching video t…

They say at the end of the test they use Safari, but got much better results with Chrome: "Once our official testing was done, we experimented by conducting the same battery tests using a Chrome browser, rather than Safari. For this exercise, we ran two trials on each of the laptops, and found battery life to be consistently high on all six runs. That’s not enough data for us to draw a conclusion, and in any case a t…

This actually bodes well for battery life once Safari is cleaned up. Safari is a much better energy consumption citizen than Chrome on other Mac laptops, and it's very unlikely something about this new hardware will reverse that relationship.

Re: Newest MacBook Pro is the first MacBook not recommended by Consumer Reports

#119

Post by timemachiner »

Mine is 15", 16GB, 512G, 455 model. I'm a student and use it for programming, checking emails and browsing sites. I program in Java using Eclipse and in Python using Jupyter Notebook. I browse using Safari and keep tabs of time estimates in the Activity Monitor Energy tab.

First 2-3 days I was getting 5 hour estimates. Since then it increased to 8-10 and now has increased to 14.5 hours. I keep it unplugged for 6 hours regularly and the estimates have been consistent thus far with the 14.5. I haven't kept it unplugged more than 6-7 hours but I am not afraid of it running out of juice while I'm out and about. Suits my needs as a student.

Re: Newest MacBook Pro is the first MacBook not recommended by Consumer Reports

#120

Post by Keyframe »

g00gler wrote: post #105
Keyframe wrote: post #80

I went to a store in order to try one out. I wanted what was in 15" model in a 13" form, but ok - I went out to at least check out the 15" model. Even though I knew it was too big for my needs. What really surprised me was how bad the keyboard was on new models. What's up with that? It feels like a cheap plastic mockup of a keyboard. That turned me off completely. I hope they get their act together within a year and…

I agree, I don't want a new MacBook and competition is shit. I wish the Asus Zenbook 15" models didn't have a number pad. Vaio models look pretty nice, I'd seriously consider the Vaio Z over a 13" MBP.

I've been looking at different manufacturers. GIGABYTE Aero 14 seems to be nice in sub 15" range. It even has Nvidia 1060 in it and a large battery.
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