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Apple introduces 8-core MacBook Pro

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Re: Apple introduces 8-core MacBook Pro

#921

Post by vetinari »

bscphil wrote: post #778
wj wrote: post #604

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My main system is currently a late 2012 maxed out Mac Mini that struggles with Adobe products. I also miss Linux on my desktop so your set up is appealing to me. Looking to use Lightroom, Illustrator, InDesign, and Photoshop. By chance have you passed through a drawing pad?

I have not, but Virtualbox supposedly supports passing through the USB protocol itself, so I imagine it works; at least it's supposed to work?

Yes, you can pass USB devices through most hypervisors, including Virtualbox.

For example, I tried a smartcard reader inside VM (host: macOS, hypervisor Virtualbox, guest: Windows) and it worked.

Re: Apple introduces 8-core MacBook Pro

#922

Post by spronkey »

js2 wrote: post #520
breck wrote: post #494

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the maxed out 2017 Air (before the retina display) is their best, if you're not doing much video or too much ML.

This is my personal laptop but the screen is really crap. My work laptop is a 2015 13” MBP. Work recently offered to upgrade me to a new MBP. I declined.

The Air's display isn't that bad. It's a good TN panel with a good non-retina resolution (1440x900 on the 13"), decent contrast, and good (for TN) viewing angles. It's certainly a big step up from the frankly abysmal base WXGA TN displays of many Lenovo/HP/Dell machines.

But yes, it's not even close to the retina IPS displays.

Re: Apple introduces 8-core MacBook Pro

#923

Post by welly »

AsyncAwait wrote: post #880
crispinb wrote: post #828

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Windows is perfectly viable for doing development, so is Linux. Viable, yes. I've spent the last year (since replacing a 2013 MB Pro) with a Dell 15 XPS, roughly 50/50 Windows & Linux (Ubuntu then Fedora). Both work. They each run everything I need a laptop for. Honestly neither is quite as good a desktop for me as macOS, but they are near enough that even if I liked the current generation of MacBooks (which I don'…

> Linux is more appealing and almost worth it for the speedy file access, but is too time-consuming for me to to commit to. I hear a variation of this semi-often and I never quite get what that's supposed to mean. Maybe being a full-time Linux user for a decade has made me used to whatever people are complaining about, but I don't think so, people are complaining about having to fix broken HW/SW occasionally, however…

Possibly once a year I install Ubuntu on my laptop and am always determined to move over to Linux on the desktop but sadly it takes only a few days of frustration before I revert back to OSX.

It's nothing to do with 3D shadows under windows, the dock enlarging when I roll over it or my co-workers being impressed because I've got a Mac, because they all have Macs too.

That last point is the least of it - honestly, I have no desire to impress anyone with what technology I happen to use and find it quite extraordinary that anyone thinks owning a Mac is some kind of status symbol.

It's not as if Apple product ownership is a rare thing, people from all walks of life own Macbooks or iPhones or whatever, yet this falacy that Mac/iPhone owners buy these products to impress people still somehow persists.

No, it's the fundamental user experience on various desktop managers I've tried on Linux that while it clearly works for other people, it simply doesn't for me.

There's nothing wrong with that, and I'm sure if I persisted with it for longer then I'd perhaps be happy enough using Linux on the desktop but to be honest it's time I'm not that interested in investing, when I'm immediately productive on OSX, and was when I first started using OSX back in 2004.

My OSX experience is wholly different to yours - I get rare update notifications, possibly because of the software products I use? and performance on my 2018 MBP is as quick as I've ever experienced, but then it should be for a modern computer.

For me, OSX/macOS simply stays out of the way and lets me get on with doing work. I'm sure Linux does the same for you but be assured, the reason I use OSX is not a single one of those reasons you've suggested.

Re: Apple introduces 8-core MacBook Pro

#924

Post by dwighttk »

totololo wrote: post #686
dwighttk wrote: post #584

Earlier quoted context omitted.

weird I'm on an early 2013 MBP (original battery) at 81% health (226 cycles)

You keep it plugged in all the time? Do you feel a noticeable drop in battery life? When mine reached those 80% health I felt like it had lost half its battery life or more...

mostly plugged in, but I don't have any anxiety when I unplug it

Re: Apple introduces 8-core MacBook Pro

#925

Post by spronkey »

satysin wrote: post #835
gilbetron wrote: post #74

After 8 years of macbooks, after using the 2018 model, I switched to a Dell Precision 5530 running Ubuntu 18.04 and it is awesome. The hardware is great, and having Unix under it all was the only real reason I liked Macs (used to be hardware, too). Granted, I don't need Adobe stuff, or anything else that doesn't run or have an alternative on Ubuntu (although it is dual-booted with Win10, but I've never used it, just…

On the flip side I switched from a Dell (XPS 15 9570) to a MacBook Pro 2018 15" last August after multiple issues with the Dell. I've not had a single issue with the MacBook Pro yet. Not a single crash/kernel panic, no keyboard issues, no T2 or TouchBar issues. I open the laptop in the morning and it wakes from sleep and works all day. I almost only ever reboot it for system updates that require it so usually every 4…

The attention on Apple really isn't unfair when you a) compare their 2016+ machines to their 2015 ones, and b) dig a little deeper into some of the design flaws of the machines beyond the keyboard.

For example:

* The trackpad on 2016+ models is too large for many users who experience palm rejection issues. * The display cable on 2016 and 2017 machines was too short, and is now starting to cause the issue known as "flexgate". It's almost a given that with enough use, every one of these machines will suffer this failure. To make matters worse, unlike the 2015 machines where the display cable could be replaced on its own, the entire display assembly is glued together on 2016+ machines and has to be replaced as a whole unit. * Stupid electrical decisions such as putting pins for high voltage backlight power and low voltage data signalling right next to eachother mean that there's a good chance the machine will fry itself if it gets at all humid inside (most machines do at some stage, especially if used on a lap). Most other notebooks do not do this and are much more durable in this regard. * The storage being soldered is fucking braindead. Apart from being planned obsolescence due to NAND flash's finite lifespan and macOS's increasing hunger for storage space, data recovery is not possible without a proprietary system to connect to a lifeboat port on 2016-2017 machines. 2018 machines have no such port and at this stage, there is no known way to recover data from working flash chips on a dead logic board without board-level repair.

Apple made far better computers in 2015. The competition also being shit doesn't excuse Apple's regressions.

Re: Apple introduces 8-core MacBook Pro

#926

Post by spronkey »

owenwil wrote: post #822
bluedino wrote: post #447

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I love Thinkpads but the trackpads, screen, and build quality leave a lot to be desired. Every Mac is the same level of assembly/quality but ThinkPads vary too much from one to another. The prices for the high-performance models are almost as high as Apple and the power bricks are actually bricks.

The modern X1 carbon does not have this problem. I’m using the 8th generation and the trackpad is very good, along with a screen that accomplishes full-on HDR, and much better color depth.

There are other issue with almost every ThinkPad, X1 Carbon included.

Speaker quality is a lottery with every model, and none of them are as good as the 2013+ MacBook Pro. Coil whine and electrical noise is almost a given from either the machine itself or Lenovo's chargers. The quality of the audio output on the machine is almost certainly not as good as that on the MacBook Pro.

Oh, and I can all but guarantee that the battery in a MacBook Pro will have better longevity than that of the ThinkPad.

You also have to pay almost MacBook Pro prices to get decent specs out of the Lenovo machines.

Re: Apple introduces 8-core MacBook Pro

#927

Post by spronkey »

dzonga wrote: post #736
bluedino wrote: post #447

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I love Thinkpads but the trackpads, screen, and build quality leave a lot to be desired. Every Mac is the same level of assembly/quality but ThinkPads vary too much from one to another. The prices for the high-performance models are almost as high as Apple and the power bricks are actually bricks.

I have a t490 with 500 nit display. 100% ARGB / SRGB. I haven't seen any macbook display that's sharp. Btw I have a personal 2012 Retina Macbook pro & a 2018 Macbook pro that I use for work for frontend.

The 2012 Retina displays are no less sharp than the best display on the T490. Are you sure you aren't just comparing macOS to Windows?

I'm the biggest critic of modern Apple notebooks there is, but I can't fault the quality of the MacBook Pro displays. They are, and have been for a long time, the best displays on notebooks.

Re: Apple introduces 8-core MacBook Pro

#928

Post by Teknoman117 »

lostlogin wrote: post #225
ordinaryradical wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is the real announcement, to be honest. 8 cores is a convenient smokescreen, and they clearly don't want to talk about how borked their product is at WWDC so they are dropping the keyboard update with this news like it's a detail when it's actually the real story. These shitty keyboards cast a shadow over the whole product line. If they didn't fix it the third time around, it's time to abandon the damn mechanism…

> If they didn't fix it the third time around, it's time to abandon the damn mechanism and accept that thicc computers can be beautiful, too. The crazy thing is that it was/is. Who didn’t love it?

The pre 2016 retina MacBook Pros were thin enough with a great keyboard. Then they went and broke them.

Re: Apple introduces 8-core MacBook Pro

#929

Post by jwatt »

jnskw wrote: post #535
macbookcabler wrote: post #404

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Dave Lee made a video about the Core i9 (now previous generation) that thermal throttled almost immediately under load. The throttling was so terrible it actually performed worse than the 2017 MacBook Pro. https://youtu.be/Dx8J125s4cg

That was a software bug IIRC

His follow-up video after the patch, FWIW: https://youtu.be/UTguywiC9aw
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