Which MacBook as a portable second laptop

newellj said:

I'm not Samtb, but I can tell you why I'm returning an 11" MBA that I bought as a portable second laptop: the display. I love everything else about that machine, but it's just too...I'm not sure what the word is, maybe annoying?...to go back and forth between retina/HiDPI IPS displays and the TN display in the MBA. Call me fussy, whatever. I spend too much of the day looking at displays...I thought it wouldn't bother me, but I think I was wrong.

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Same for me technically a high end 11" Air would be the perfect choice, however the display simply kills it for me both the aspect ratio and the poor TN panel. Not solely the increased resolution, the vastly improved quality of the Retina panel and of course scaling is a huge benefit.

Q-6

Queen6 said:

Same for me technically a high end 11" Air would be the perfect choice, however the display simply kills it for me both the aspect ratio and the poor TN panel. Not solely the increased resolution, the vastly improved quality of the Retina panel and of course scaling is a huge benefit.

Q-6

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Yes, just for clarity - it wasn't really clear in my reply - my real beef is not the display res, and not the aspect ratio (for me). My problem is the TN display. Honestly, if it were the same res and ratio with an IPS panel I probably would keep it. If it were IPS at 1080p in either 16:9 or 16:10 I'd definitely keep it. But it isn't, and I'm not...

newellj said:

Yes, just for clarity - it wasn't really clear in my reply - my real beef is not the display res, and not the aspect ratio (for me). My problem is the TN display. Honestly, if it were the same res and ratio with an IPS panel I probably would keep it. If it were IPS at 1080p in either 16:9 or 16:10 I'd definitely keep it. But it isn't, and I'm not...

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Same really, it`s not bad as TN panels go, but not something I want be focused on for any length of time, and coming from Retina it`s far to much of a step back.

I may well just go for another 13" Retina and switch my present one to be the backup. The 13: MBPr is really a fantastic portable with very little compromise, the 2015 now with Broarwell, Force Trackpad and 10 hours on battery is becoming ever compelling; the Air is out the question due to the display and the new MacBook remains to be seen...

Q-6

As a second computer for travelling the new MacBook,for everything else Retina MacBook Pro is the winner.

Samtb said:

The new MacBooks lack of ports really bothers me though. I would definitely plug things in even on the go. HDMI to TVs in hotels, SD cards and USB.

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rMBP

Samtb said:

The new MacBooks lack of ports really bothers me though. I would definitely plug things in even on the go. HDMI to TVs in hotels, SD cards and USB.

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http://store.apple.com/us/product/MJ1K2AM/A/usb-c-digital-av-multiport-adapter

Samtb said:

That would make it even more expensive. It's already more expensive than a MacBook Pro in the UK, which has superior specs.

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I would say insanely small size would be considered a spec that is superior in the new Macbook, and you pay for that. I'll personally be running the new Macbook in tandem with my 15" rMBP, and the latter will usually stay at home.

Samtb said:

What will you be using the new MacBook for?

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I own a business, and I unfortunately have to deal with clients at all hours and on weekends, so the Macbook will be the computer I bring along when I'm out and about and not in my office. I also like to jump on my bike and go to a coffee shop or park to work, so a tiny OS X-based laptop will be great (my iPad doesn't work for this use.) I'll be using the usual Quickbooks, Filemaker, Office, etc., and I can always remotely log in to my more powerful computers at home, should I need to do something with video, which is rare for me (I work in TV.)

I'll likely use the new Macbook when traveling, too. I've already started the move toward the cloud, so I'm not too concerned about ports or a huge hard drive, although I'll probably go ahead and just get the 512 GB hd to be safe.

Queen6 said:

MacBook:
I am looking for a secondary/backup Notebook for the field, presently the new MacBook is looking favourite as superficially it meets my requirements; Retina, 8Gb RAM, 512 SSD, decent battery life, reduced footprint. The one issue, performance. Until the real world reviews start to trickle in, performance remains a major concern.

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This.

I'm eagerly waiting performance reviews and, sadly, benchmark results - for an indication on real-world performance. The rMB form factor, RAM, battery, and 256GB SSD is otherwise perfect as a compliment to my primary iMac workhorse.