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New 13-inch MacBook Pro

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Re: New 13-inch MacBook Pro

#121

Post by ashtonkem »

spuz wrote: post #98
Waterluvian wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I haven't owned a mac in a while since employment now supplies me with a laptop. But my experience with this point of view is that it's about holistic vs. non-holistic thinking. When someone points at specs and tells me that X is better than Y for price, they're getting to that conclusion by ignoring a whole bunch of variables. To take this to the extreme, I had a friend genuinely say, "Why did you spend $90 on a bab…

But, nothing about the Apple ecosystem prevents them from also adopting the latest hardware. The only reason it could that I can think of is that it genuinely takes them 2 years to test the latest Intel CPU in each new laptop.

Compatibility with low power mobile ram is usually the thing with Apple; they care more about long battery life, especially long sleep times, than raw CPU performance.

Re: New 13-inch MacBook Pro

#122

Post by skocznymroczny »

phaus wrote: post #70
explorigin wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Perhaps, but show me build quality on the same level in the PC world. Even though I find Apple lagging behind it's previous standards in build quality, it's still better that most in the PC world. (I'm still on a mid 2015 MBP and completely content to stay with it.)

You have the last good one. My 2015 died and my employer gave me a 2017 that promptly died 3 months later. Apple Care and the genius bar were a pretty shitty customer service experience but I eventually got it back. The keyboard is worse than the rubber domes on the $200 Walmart Black friday special I got several years ago. That's not a joke. For the 2017 model Ram maxed out at 16gb which made it a laughing stock for…

It might depend on your typing style. If you hit the keys with force, you might prefer rubber domes/mech keyboards, if you flow around the keyboard just gently tapping the keys, butterfly is amazing. I would easily pay $200 for a desktop keyboard that gives the same typing experience.

Re: New 13-inch MacBook Pro

#123

Post by stefan_ »

corey_moncure wrote: post #45

It's astonishing how far the MBP has fallen in ten years. My 2010 MBP was and still is the perfect laptop design. Look what Apple has taken away from us: MagSafe, SD card slot, optical audio I/O, RJ45, USB-A, even the top row of our keyboards. What have we gained? The same internal advances that are in every other computer, a gimmicky touch bar, fragile keyboard mechanism, and USB-C. What's really sad is that none of…

Except you aren't even getting the internal advances. They are seriously selling an 8th gen i5 with 8 GiB of DDR3 memory in the base models.

Re: New 13-inch MacBook Pro

#124

Post by threatofrain »

lmilcin wrote: post #28
nivertech wrote: post #7

4 cores? Pro? 2020? lol EDIT: maybe 4 cores are enough for development using non-compiled languages, and if you don't use Chrome and Electron apps, and not running several VMs and docker containers. Some programming languages like Julia and Erlang/Elixir will happily use all the cores available on your laptop to speed up calculations, run builds, tests and other development tasks.

4 cores is actually more than enough to do almost all development. I work on a four core PC right now (i7-4770k) running Linux and couple VMs and containers, one VM dedicated to running Windows 10 which is in turn running Citrix client. I have two 4K monitors and bunch of hardware. I work on webapps, backend software, have couple IDEs running at the same time and probably Zoom session, not to mention huge amount of C…

I find compilation painful even on my desktop, and cost of operation is still on my mind when I’m trying to do a quick demo to people. I feel like people here who are professionals make enough to justify buying away these latencies and distractions.

Re: New 13-inch MacBook Pro

#125

Post by alexggordon »

I was curious how the 13 inch was priced so I compared it to a new Dell XPS 13. Dell has a better processor (maybe, [2]) , but I couldn't find the option to upgrade the Dell to 4TB internal SSD, so I compared both with the 2 TB option. Ram is the same at 32GB.

Dell came out to $2399[0] USD and Apple came out to $2999[1] USD.

Dell Pros:

* Row of function buttons (I've used BTT to customize my touch-bar to the point where it's a little bit of a tossup, but years of muscle memory still haunt me)

* Better processor (maybe [2])

* Cheaper

* MicroSD reader

Apple Pros:

* Better Trackpad

* More Ports (Upgraded Dell only has 2 USB-C, while Upgraded MBP has 4)

* Better hardware support

* Better resale value

Objectively, seems to me that list used to be a lot longer on the Apple side. IMHO I think the Touch Bar disappointment is probably over dramatized by developers, it's not too bad a couple years in and BTT has made it so I can run whatever macros I want in any application, so overall tossup in my mind. I still miss mag-safe adapters though. I still don't understand that decision.

Also, I'm happy with the new Magic Keyboard. I have the 16 inch MBP right now, and I will say that even though I prefer the travel of the '12-'15 era keyboards, this typing experience is far superior than the faulty butterfly keys.

I'm hoping given how they've walked the keyboard back, and how the new Mac Pro is actually a Pro machine that they're headed back in the right direction (post Jony Ive). A $600 price difference for this machine is probably worth it in my mind, just given my experience with resale value, longevity and lack of competitors, but there's a lot of room improvement.

[0] https://imgur.com/a/p6RA9HF

[1] https://imgur.com/a/f6ii7h9

[2] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23067768

Re: New 13-inch MacBook Pro

#126

Post by pivo »

phaus wrote: post #70
explorigin wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Perhaps, but show me build quality on the same level in the PC world. Even though I find Apple lagging behind it's previous standards in build quality, it's still better that most in the PC world. (I'm still on a mid 2015 MBP and completely content to stay with it.)

You have the last good one. My 2015 died and my employer gave me a 2017 that promptly died 3 months later. Apple Care and the genius bar were a pretty shitty customer service experience but I eventually got it back. The keyboard is worse than the rubber domes on the $200 Walmart Black friday special I got several years ago. That's not a joke. For the 2017 model Ram maxed out at 16gb which made it a laughing stock for…

I have a work provided 2019 13" Mac Book Pro. I was hesitant to let them replace my 2014 MBP because of all the negative press about the new keyboards. FWIW, I now prefer the 2019 keyboard over my personal 2014's MBP, the latter's keyboard now seems mushy and imprecise. So, aside from the touchbar, which I still don't love, I prefer the 2019 MBP over the older model.

Re: New 13-inch MacBook Pro

#127

Post by ianhowson »

bnt wrote: post #38

What I find irritating is the fact that you have to get the 2ghz CPU in order to be able to get 32gb RAM. It feels like artificial price inflation because the refresh is definitely not as exciting as people had hoped (no 14" micro LED screen, like every single "leak" suggested). Also, the base CPU is an 8th gen chip, you need to fork out a lot of extra $$$ to get to 10th gen.

Agreed. MacBook Air has quad-core in similar clock ranges but tops out at 16GB of RAM. Pay an extra $1300-ish for Pro, you can get 32GB of RAM. There's literally nothing else in this refresh that's compelling.

And the only reason I want that RAM is for Chrome.

Re: New 13-inch MacBook Pro

#128

Post by solarkraft »

hu3 wrote: post #102
nothis wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can defend their "chassis" as being ahead of the competition and you basically paying for the time they spent shaving shit off until it's perfect. But that damn touch bar. I wouldn't be surprised if that's the most custom of custom random hardware part, adding like half a smartphone's production cost to it. How much productivity can that thing possibly add? Who on earth says, "yea that touch bar, certainly worth mo…

I can't defend their chassis. Competition offers 14" machines in 13" form-factor with thin bezels for almost a decade now.

What decade old laptop would you compare to a Macbook in design? I have only started noticing attractive competitor laptops appearing around 2014.

Re: New 13-inch MacBook Pro

#129

Post by ashtonkem »

ikeboy wrote: post #116
Tenoke wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

All OSs have their issues. I use Windows and Ubuntu daily and have had work macbooks. In a lot of cases it does come down to what you are used to, as there are design differences that aren't necessarily worse or better but when you get used to one the other feels janky. At any rate, in Ubuntu's case things like display support are worse - especially multiple different DPI screens (yes, there are workarounds). UI is l…

I've seen this mentioned a few times now on HN as a drawback of Ubuntu. Are multiple monitors really that much of a benefit that so many people use them?

Yes, they are that much of a benefit.

Until this pandemic forced me to make do with one monitor at home, I rarely used the built in screen on my work laptops; I counted on the dual monitors on my desk. The idea of using a laptop display alone is baffling to me.

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