The 13" model does not offer 32gb of RAM as an option.
I guess I'll have to continue waiting...
MacBook Pro with faster performance and new features for pros
671–680 of 1001 posts
Re: MacBook Pro with faster performance and new features for pros
#672Earlier quoted context omitted.
I wouldn't care about the touch bar if the esc+(sleep key) were still regular hardware keys. Those are the only ones that I actually use. But an even bigger problem for me is the price increase. The base TB version costs 200€ more (or 400€ if you'd buy the nTB 128gb version). With ne nTB version not getting the update, the updated MBP is too expensive compared to non Apple machienes.
I believe the price increase is purely based on the profit-maximizing strategy. If people will pay that much then Apple has no reason to ask for less. Unfortunately, I can not imagine myself switching to a Windows-based laptop. This is just another example of why monopoly is bad.
I still request a MacBook for work, but I can no longer buy it for my private use. It's just too expensive compared to their competitors.
Re: MacBook Pro with faster performance and new features for pros
#673Earlier quoted context omitted.
They didn't do that because it is not what most people want. Apple has to make changes that will sell more laptops to the masses to maximize shareholder value. The niche developer/macrumors posters will never be happy regardless of what Apple does. Better to focus on the 90% of customers who buy products and make up 10% of the complaints then to focus on the 10% of customers who make up 90% of the complaints.
The niche developer/macrumors posters will never be happy regardless of what Apple does The "niche developer/macrumors posters" were extremely happy with it before, and were hearty advocates of it. Further, I would say that developers/enthusiasts comprise a very high percentage of macbook purchasers.
Happy? Every single MacBook that's come out has been booed, loudly, by the "niche developer/macrumors posters". Without exception.
This is a long trend that goes back to the old PowerBook days.
Yet the same group that was so vocal in denouncing the new model is suddenly a huge fan of it when a new-new model comes in.
And so the cycle repeats.
Re: MacBook Pro with faster performance and new features for pros
#674Biggest new feature they could add would be to not have an additional screen taking up battery life and shining in my face, unable to be dimmed with f.lux. Maybe instead we could have a row of keys that provide some sort of function, and maybe a key that allows the user to escape. That would be a pretty useful feature that I can guarantee I would use dozens or hundreds of times a day. I'm considering replacing my Mac…
I know it's trendy to hate on the touchbar... but for what it's worth, I personally find it more useful than the old function keys. Most mac apps don't use function keys as shortcuts, so the old keyboard ended up being used for media keys (volume, brightness, play/pause, etc.). The touch bar gives me a better version of that (I actually get a volume slider ), plus more apps actually make use of that space to provide…
My pie-in-the-sky idealized computer experience is a color e-ink display with a decent framerate.
Replacing tactile buttons with a second blinding photon emitter is not progress as far as I'm concerned.
I understand all the benefits you quote, and I'm not just complaining because it's "trendy". If it was eink, I wouldn't care at all. But it's another backlit screen shining in my face. No thanks.
Re: MacBook Pro with faster performance and new features for pros
#675Earlier quoted context omitted.
There's not a million miles between LPDDR3 and DDR4
This. If I remember right, RAM hasn't changed much in performance between LPDDR3 and DDR4.
You and parent are right - the performance isn't like miles apart or anything. Best comparison I can find is here[1] (it's not testing low-power specifically though) showing basically that there's a small but measurable performance benefit from DDR4.
I'd suspect the biggest difference is the base clock boost that DDR4 provides (2400 vs 2133).
My point was simply that the number of differences between the two seem to be widening. It feels more like the 15" is the real Macbook Pro, the 13" is the standard-Macbook, and the 12" is the Macbook Air.
Apple's naming choices in the laptop lineup have been strange for years - but the widening gap between the Pro linup is interesting.
[1] - https://www.anandtech.com/show/9483/intel-skylake-review-670...
Re: MacBook Pro with faster performance and new features for pros
#676Biggest new feature they could add would be to not have an additional screen taking up battery life and shining in my face, unable to be dimmed with f.lux. Maybe instead we could have a row of keys that provide some sort of function, and maybe a key that allows the user to escape. That would be a pretty useful feature that I can guarantee I would use dozens or hundreds of times a day. I'm considering replacing my Mac…
I know it's trendy to hate on the touchbar... but for what it's worth, I personally find it more useful than the old function keys. Most mac apps don't use function keys as shortcuts, so the old keyboard ended up being used for media keys (volume, brightness, play/pause, etc.). The touch bar gives me a better version of that (I actually get a volume slider ), plus more apps actually make use of that space to provide…
The touchbar was what I thought was most idiotic before I got my macbook with it, and is the least idiotic thing after I've had my macbook. It is ok, sometimes kinda nice. If they put a physical Esc key on the far left, and a physical Mute key on the far right, and stuck the touchbar between the two, it would be actually very nice, because I agree the function keys are useless on a mac. But the touchbar utility doesn't make up for not having a physical Escape key.
Re: MacBook Pro with faster performance and new features for pros
#677> The new keyboard has the same dimensions and look as its two predecessors, but the keys feel just a little bit different. They're quieter, for one thing. They have a softer, less click-y feel that is a little closer to the pre-2016 models' chiclet keys. We found the new keyboard to be a little nicer to type on, but it's not a radical difference. It's unlikely to convert the detractors, but it's a welcome iteration…
Sorry I am missing something here. I just looked up my laptop's info: 2.7 GHz Intel Core i7 from 2012. So you are telling me 6 years later, I can get a 2.9GHz 6‑core 8th‑generation Intel Core i7 processor for ~$2800. So Moore's law was incorrect?
Moore's Law is with respect to transistor counts and has nothing at all to do with performance.
Historically speaking transistors and performance were coincidentally related: More transistors helped do more things at once, and tinier transistors ran faster than bigger ones.
Now we're at a different inflection point where the transistors aren't shrinking as quickly, but the dies themselves are getting bigger and the chips are growing more complex in terms of 3D structure. There's more transistors in there, but the easy gains in terms of pitch reduction leading to higher clock-speeds are gone.
If we'd been on the same track as before you'd have a ~140GHz CPU. Instead you have a 2.9GHz one because physics is a buzzkill.
Here's an older article discussing the problem from 2012 but the same trend has held: https://www.extremetech.com/computing/116561-the-death-of-cp...
Transistor counts continue to climb but power consumption, clock speeds and performance per clock have all hit a wall.
Re: MacBook Pro with faster performance and new features for pros
#678Earlier quoted context omitted.
I know it's trendy to hate on the touchbar... but for what it's worth, I personally find it more useful than the old function keys. Most mac apps don't use function keys as shortcuts, so the old keyboard ended up being used for media keys (volume, brightness, play/pause, etc.). The touch bar gives me a better version of that (I actually get a volume slider ), plus more apps actually make use of that space to provide…
IMHO the touchbar requires more effort and distraction to control the brightness and volume. What previously was one key-press to dim/brighten or mute/volume - all without me having to take my focus from the screen now requires a multi-stages process with no tactile feedback. No thanks. Plus the keyboard will likely have the same issues my 2016 version has. I’ve had keys replaced 4 times already.
Just to note because it is non-obvious and not documented - both volume and brightness buttons are one touch. You can just tap and drag up/down to immediately adjust, and you don't have to tap, move over to the slider, tap again, then drag.
Re: MacBook Pro with faster performance and new features for pros
#679Ports, dammit! I have a project of capturing old videos from VHS tapes -- via an ElGato EyeTV box WITH USB-3 OUTPUT -- and saving the captured videos onto an external 3GB hard drive WITH USB-3 I/O. I can plug these to the opposite sides of my 2013-era MBP and off we go, smooth as butter. New MBP? Either buy an RGB video capture device with thunderbolt output (which I don't think exists) and a new enclosure for the HD…
Or you simply buy two USB-A-to-USB-C-Adapters for a few cents and put them permanently onto the ends of the cables. Makes the plugs a bit longer, but just works.
Re: MacBook Pro with faster performance and new features for pros
#680My most recent personal laptop (after having been a MacBook user for a while) is a ThinkPad with ArchLinux. For a fraction of the price, I have a much more powerful laptop with a much better battery life. I no longer have to worry about things like the best older version to buy to avoid things like only having 2 ports or the infamous TouchBar. Still calling these machines "MacBook Pros" is an insult.
Apple fanbois downvotin you