1 Month In - Thinking of going MBP

[Queen6]

I think you and others rant and call owners of whatever Apple product you don't like stupid, mindless, delusional
Apple drones because of other reasons besides:" I rant because I really wanted this to be a machine for me, and in its current state, its not" nice try.

Then you have other options, equally in all honesty I can understand the disappointment if the rMB does not meet your criteria as Apple rarely release an entirely new model. Hopefully as the OS & Tech evolve the rMB will meet your needs in the future.

Frankly I had concerns regarding performance, so far so good and am impressed with what Apple has done. Certainly my initial impressions at the local Apple Store were much like yours as the initial display units were on 10.10.2 lagging across the entire UI was clearly evident, 10.10.3 not so, 10.10.4 is another step in the right direction and now 10.11. Right now my 1.2 is on 10.10.3 and I have no complaints in that direction.

Q-6

 

[kave]

I guess we all talk back and forth here, but I have just returned my MacBook after 5 days of use and got me a 2014 MacBook Pro 15" 2.5Ghz 16/512 for less money.
I was pleased with the performance, but the one USB port was too less. Sometimes I need to connect to both an USB memory and physical network at the same time which involves a sea of adapters and hubs. To me, If the MacBook one had two USB ports I would have accepted the compromizes.
Disadvantages, the MacBook Pro is very sharp next to the track pad which hurts my hands a little. Living with a 11" Air for two years and never hearing a fan spoils you somwhat.

 

[Queen6]

I guess we all talk back and forth here, but I have just returned my MacBook after 5 days of use and got me a 2014 MacBook Pro 15" 2.5Ghz 16/512 for less money.
I was pleased with the performance, but the one USB port was too less. Sometimes I need to connect to both an USB memory and physical network at the same time which involves a sea of adapters and hubs. To me, If the MacBook one had two USB ports I would have accepted the compromizes.
Disadvantages, the MacBook Pro is very sharp next to the track pad which hurts my hands a little. Living with a 11" Air for two years and never hearing a fan spoils you somwhat.

15" rMBP is a very strong Notebook, especially with the dGPU. Resultantly it`s runs at the very edge of it`s thermal envelope, which you will be acutely aware of very soon. Same as the Retina MacBook you will find there are tradeoffs for the performance available. don't get me wrong they are amazing Notebooks, I have owned many and still do. Man what a culture shock 11" Air to rMB, to the 15" Retina, be sure this is not a "laptop" unless you want your cookies, cooked, assuming you have

Q-6

 

[shenan1982]

Apple`s Mail is an ongoing problem for many, just turn to the OS X forums. I Mail working across multiple accounts; Exchange, IMAP, SMTP equally no easy auto set up and Mail has some very counter intuitive advanced settings.

Luckily for me as I had done the groundwork on my rMBP`s when I set up my rMB all setting migrated across seamlessly, which is a first.

Q-6

It's not a mail problem, it's a processor problem, when are you going to get this? My iMac's processor handles clicking through mail messages fast just fine, my old MBA just find, it's only the slow processor of the rMB that doesn't keep up. But hey, if you want to blame Apple's shortcomings on their left hand instead of their right, that's fine. This is 2015... if they can't make software that plays nice with their newest and most advertised computer, that's sad, really sad. Course you're just defend them blindly.

 

[shenan1982]

I disagree with that. I legitimately love the rMB. Of course there are issues with it and things that can be improved, but I'm not complaining at all. It's doing everything I wanted it to. There's absolutely no way I'd ever go back to the rMBP now. I'll upgrade to next year's rMB and so on.

"I love my Fiat Electric Car ... it can only go 87 miles best case scenario, and my commute is 120 miles.... but I love it. Sure it's a downside to be stranded alongside the freeway every day waiting for a rescue vehicle, but I love everything about it" - Fiat Kool-Aid Drinker.

 

[shenan1982]

15" rMBP is a very strong Notebook, especially with the dGPU. Resultantly it`s runs at the very edge of it`s thermal envelope, which you will be acutely aware of very soon. Same as the Retina MacBook you will find there are tradeoffs for the performance available. don't get me wrong they are amazing Notebooks, I have owned many and still do. Man what a culture shock 11" Air to rMB, to the 15" Retina, be sure this is not a "laptop" unless you want your cookies, cooked, assuming you have

Q-6

I guess that's the issue I have. Apple advertises this as a business\productivity laptop alongside the Air and the rMBP, so for the number of shortcomings, it feels like they may have overreached a bit when it comes to stating its capabilities. I'm tired of people saying "it's an ultra book, you knew what you were getting into" ... the air, too, is an ultrabook... and that has a fully capable processor.

 

[Queen6]

I guess that's the issue I have. Apple advertises this as a business\productivity laptop alongside the Air and the rMBP, so for the number of shortcomings, it feels like they may have overreached a bit when it comes to stating its capabilities. I'm tired of people saying "it's an ultra book, you knew what you were getting into" ... the air, too, is an ultrabook... and that has a fully capable processor.

Seriously the Air is in a different "game" with it`s actively cooled 18W Braodwell CPU, I do tend to think that Apple have been a little disingenuous, as the rMB can do many things, however it is not suitable for sustained heavy workloads, nor will it be in the near future, that should be made crystal clear.

I don't believe the majority of users should disregard the rMB, equally they should be aware of the performance envelope and it`s boundaries. rMB works for me, equally I have intent & purpose for the device, not a general purpose PC.

Another aspect is the previous MacBook was a strong "all rounder" the new Retina MacBook not so, it`s an ultraportable at the very "bleeding edge" of technology, and (in my opinion) aligns very well with the role as an office productivity, business related ultraportable, most definitely not an "all rounder"

If the rMB fit`s your need you will be amazed & pleased, however if the rMB does not meet your expectations, you will be seriously disappointed. No other Mac has drawn such a polarised response from the community in recent years, and this we can clearly observe in realtime...

rMB works for me, and I am impressed with what I can accomplish with it, equally YMMV and it likely will

Q-6

 

[Queen6]

It's not a mail problem, it's a processor problem, when are you going to get this? My iMac's processor handles clicking through mail messages fast just fine, my old MBA just find, it's only the slow processor of the rMB that doesn't keep up. But hey, if you want to blame Apple's shortcomings on their left hand instead of their right, that's fine. This is 2015... if they can't make software that plays nice with their newest and most advertised computer, that's sad, really sad. Course you're just defend them blindly.

Sorry no, as my own 1.2 has no issue, equally as stated initially setting up "mail" was a PIA, and what issue I observe is mirrored on all my other Mac`s, with one account being unreasonably slow to sync, respond etc.

It`s not blind defence, that`s not my style, I have voiced more than enough on the poor thermal management of the 15" MBP over the years, it`s rather differing circumstance; providers, accounts, content, location etc.in this case.

Dont jump to conclusions so rapidly, you may be able to work it out, nor is there any derogatory implication, by openly & honestly discussing the rMB we will all benefit from the communities experience.

Q-6

 

[jimboutilier]

Wow, you who frequently states as facts, things that, well, aren't factually correct. You who who frequently states things as absolute, things that are self evidently not. You who frequently attacks others calling them defective or delusional when they point out your facts aren't facts or your absolutes aren't absolute, or who's opinions happen to disagree with yours are talking about the credibility of others? All folks have to do is read your posts in this thread alone to see examples of these things.

Maybe I'm not as well read as I think or am having memory problems, but I've read and watched a lot of rMB reviews and can't remember any of them pointing out your four "known issues". Why don't you post links to a handful of reviews that mention all these things as "known issues"?

• I do a lot of web surfing and have one page I frequent that exhibits "jerkiness". Its really annoying but I know its something to do with that page because its the only one I experience that problem on and I always experience the problem on that page. I did not experience that problem on my MBA with that page, but nor do I experience the problem on my much less powerful Android phone on that page. So I realize its not processor related. Perhaps you happen to surf a lot of pages that that manifest whatever the particular issue is, but as you can see from this thread or others, there are lots of folks that don't. So implying its a widespread well known issue is misleading.
• Not sure what you mean about "using flash" but I frequently stream HD video through flash and it performs fine for me, and appears no different than with my MBA. Again, I don't see widespread complaints about this and do see folks saying its not a problem for them so again its misleading to imply this is a widespread, well documented issue.
• My email experience with the rMB is no different than with my MBA. Its usually fast and glitch free, but sometimes an email will load slowly or very slowly (regardless of its content). As I experienced the same thing on other Macs, I know its not the rMB but rather the email program, or periodic poor connections with the servers etc. And again I don't see widespread complaints, and do see people saying they do not have this issue, so again its misleading to imply this is a widespread well known problem.
• I'm not sure what you mean by loading image previews. This works fine in Photo's for me. I don't see any issues in web pages in this respect. I don't see any issues with thumbnails in finder in this respect. Maybe you can describe your issue in a bit more detail. Again I don't see widespread complaints about this, and I do see people saying they don't have the issue so its misleading to imply this is a widespread well documented issue.

If you are having all these issues (and the many others you've posted), there may be something wrong with your rMB as I've suggested before. Your experiences don't seem to be common ones given the most frequent replies to your posts by others.

I haven't used it in years, and don't know if it still exists, but there used to be a feature on this forum where you could add a member to a list and you wouldn't see any of their posts anymore (except sadly where someone else quoted them) so I think it's time I find that feature again so I don't have to read any more of your drivel.

Best of luck in correcting your issues. Cheers!

If you say so! It's well documented by almost every review, and even those who love the product have said the same thing about the issues, and say it's to be expected from the processor concession. But hey, you've now discredited yourself fully to claim to be exempt from all of the above known issues.

 

[shenan1982]

Sorry no, as my own 1.2 has no issue, equally as stated initially setting up "mail" was a PIA, and what issue I observe is mirrored on all my other Mac`s, with one account being unreasonably slow to sync, respond etc.

It`s not blind defence, that`s not my style, I have voiced more than enough on the poor thermal management of the 15" MBP over the years, it`s rather differing circumstance; providers, accounts, content, location etc.in this case.

Dont jump to conclusions so rapidly, you may be able to work it out, nor is there any derogatory implication, by openly & honestly discussing the rMB we will all benefit from the communities experience.

Q-6

You're not getting it. It's not an issue with the mail or the application. It's the slow processor. Pressing the down arrow and experiencing a delay compared to the rest of the line is a PERFORMANCE issue. You act like everyone who feels the drag of this processor is delusional just because you are happy because you don't expect much. Sorry to burst your bubble. Go play with any other current Mac laptop or desktop and then go back to the rMB. You'll feel the drag instantly.

 

[shenan1982]

Wow, you who frequently states as facts, things that, well, aren't factually correct. You who who frequently states things as absolute, things that are self evidently not. You who frequently attacks others calling them defective or delusional when they point out your facts aren't facts or your absolutes aren't absolute, or who's opinions happen to disagree with yours are talking about the credibility of others? All folks have to do is read your posts in this thread alone to see examples of these things.

Maybe I'm not as well read as I think or am having memory problems, but I've read and watched a lot of rMB reviews and can't remember any of them pointing out your four "known issues". Why don't you post links to a handful of reviews that mention all these things as "known issues"?

• I do a lot of web surfing and have one page I frequent that exhibits "jerkiness". Its really annoying but I know its something to do with that page because its the only one I experience that problem on and I always experience the problem on that page. I did not experience that problem on my MBA with that page, but nor do I experience the problem on my much less powerful Android phone on that page. So I realize its not processor related. Perhaps you happen to surf a lot of pages that that manifest whatever the particular issue is, but as you can see from this thread or others, there are lots of folks that don't. So implying its a widespread well known issue is misleading.
• Not sure what you mean about "using flash" but I frequently stream HD video through flash and it performs fine for me, and appears no different than with my MBA. Again, I don't see widespread complaints about this and do see folks saying its not a problem for them so again its misleading to imply this is a widespread, well documented issue.
• My email experience with the rMB is no different than with my MBA. Its usually fast and glitch free, but sometimes an email will load slowly or very slowly (regardless of its content). As I experienced the same thing on other Macs, I know its not the rMB but rather the email program, or periodic poor connections with the servers etc. And again I don't see widespread complaints, and do see people saying they do not have this issue, so again its misleading to imply this is a widespread well known problem.
• I'm not sure what you mean by loading image previews. This works fine in Photo's for me. I don't see any issues in web pages in this respect. I don't see any issues with thumbnails in finder in this respect. Maybe you can describe your issue in a bit more detail. Again I don't see widespread complaints about this, and I do see people saying they don't have the issue so its misleading to imply this is a widespread well documented issue.

If you are having all these issues (and the many others you've posted), there may be something wrong with your rMB as I've suggested before. Your experiences don't seem to be common ones given the most frequent replies to your posts by others.

I haven't used it in years, and don't know if it still exists, but there used to be a feature on this forum where you could add a member to a list and you wouldn't see any of their posts anymore (except sadly where someone else quoted them) so I think it's time I find that feature again so I don't have to read any more of your drivel.

Best of luck in correcting your issues. Cheers!

Sorry you lost credibility when you claimed to stream HD video through flash. Even the fastest macs don't play nice with HD video over flash.

 

[PDFierro]

"I love my Fiat Electric Car ... it can only go 87 miles best case scenario, and my commute is 120 miles.... but I love it. Sure it's a downside to be stranded alongside the freeway every day waiting for a rescue vehicle, but I love everything about it" - Fiat Kool-Aid Drinker.

You have the wrong person if you think I'm drinking the kool aid. The rMB does everything I need it to. Clearly that's not the case for you, but don't take it out on me.

 

[Queen6]

You're not getting it. It's not an issue with the mail or the application. It's the slow processor. Pressing the down arrow and experiencing a delay compared to the rest of the line is a PERFORMANCE issue. You act like everyone who feels the drag of this processor is delusional just because you are happy because you don't expect much. Sorry to burst your bubble. Go play with any other current Mac laptop or desktop and then go back to the rMB. You'll feel the drag instantly.

Ok, whatever, it`s you; something to do with you, your set up, your hardware period. I have two other high tier Retina MBP`s I use exclusively for work related projects (engineering), my wife has Mac`s for her business. Seriously people put out their hand out to help, or just comment on their experiences, be it positive or negative and it just simply heads downhill with you, being nothing more than a vehicle to whine & complain.

Virtually every post is negative specifically towards the rMB, and at points derogatory. if you are so unhappy with it, go change it, and stop whining about it. We get it, and we don't care. If you bought the wrong computer that`s on you, if you didn't set it up adequately that`s on you, if your not willing to engage or listen to advice to get it running better, without devolving the thread that`s on you.

The Retina MacBook is far from perfect and absolutely not a system designed for sustained heavy workloads equally it`s very far from the tragedy that you project, much of what you are doing now is simply "Trolling". If the rMB was so completely inadequate the press would be on fire, as Apple is by far an overripe target.

TL;DR Your unhappy, I don't care, nor do too many others at this point in time...


Q-6

 

[Queen6]

I haven't used it in years, and don't know if it still exists, but there used to be a feature on this forum where you could add a member to a list and you wouldn't see any of their posts anymore (except sadly where someone else quoted them) so I think it's time I find that feature again so I don't have to read any more of your drivel.

It`s still there and works perfectly, an end to the petulant whining

Q-6

 

[FoolsWisdom]

I bought the 12rMB to replace a 3-year-old 13" MBA, thinking it would meet my fairly un-intensive needs. I was especially attracted to the design, keyboard, screen and especially the lightness. But before I had a chance to get it set up the Apple Store guy talked me into exchanging it for the 13" rMBP. He said virtually everyone who bought the rMB returns it disappointed in its performance.

After using the rMBP for about a week I'm impressed with it's performance but began regretting it because of the weight and the heat it generates - so planned to take it back today and go back to my original choice of the rMB.

But now, reading all these experiences I'm pretty much convinced I should stick with the Pro after all. It sure sounds like a lot of you who gave the rMB a fair shot are disappointed. i may cancel that planned visit to the Apple Store after all.

I truly wish the rMB had higher apparent satisfaction by its early adopters, but the performance concerns voiced here have scared me off.

 

[maryunani]

I bought the 12rMB to replace a 3-year-old 13" MBA, thinking it would meet my fairly un-intensive needs. I was especially attracted to the design, keyboard, screen and especially the lightness. But before I had a chance to get it set up the Apple Store guy talked me into exchanging it for the 13" rMBP. He said virtually everyone who bought the rMB returns it disappointed in its performance.

After using the rMBP for about a week I'm impressed with it's performance but began regretting it because of the weight and the heat it generates - so planned to take it back today and go back to my original choice of the rMB.

But now, reading all these experiences I'm pretty much convinced I should stick with the Pro after all. It sure sounds like a lot of you who gave the rMB a fair shot are disappointed. i may cancel that planned visit to the Apple Store after all.

I truly wish the rMB had higher apparent satisfaction by its early adopters, but the performance concerns voiced here have scared me off.

Don't want to beat a dead horse, but it really really sounds like you should have bought the rMB, test it out for two weeks, and then decide what you want to with it.

It's common knowledge that the rMBP is a "safe" choice and the rMB has more risks performance-wise. But I think if you're judging the rMB based off the posts here (and especially in this thread) I don't think you're going to get much accuracy.

 

[Queen6]

I bought the 12rMB to replace a 3-year-old 13" MBA, thinking it would meet my fairly un-intensive needs. I was especially attracted to the design, keyboard, screen and especially the lightness. But before I had a chance to get it set up the Apple Store guy talked me into exchanging it for the 13" rMBP. He said virtually everyone who bought the rMB returns it disappointed in its performance.

After using the rMBP for about a week I'm impressed with it's performance but began regretting it because of the weight and the heat it generates - so planned to take it back today and go back to my original choice of the rMB.

But now, reading all these experiences I'm pretty much convinced I should stick with the Pro after all. It sure sounds like a lot of you who gave the rMB a fair shot are disappointed. i may cancel that planned visit to the Apple Store after all.

I truly wish the rMB had higher apparent satisfaction by its early adopters, but the performance concerns voiced here have scared me off.

The beauty of Apple is you can try whatever system you want for 14 days and return it, as for the rMB it`s operating spectrum is far narrower than traditional a Mac portable and your individual usage will very much determine it`s value to you.

If you want to try the rMB, go ahead, you can alway go back to the 13" Retina, I also have one and by far the 13" rMBP is Apple`s most balanced portable offering strong performance in a highly portable form factor with little if any compromise (strongly recommended). The 12" rMB does bring compromise, however you will only know if it fits your usage/workflow by using it in the real-world.

Q-6

 

[boltjames]

Apple doesn't post this because it's not true. My MacBook does not behave that way.

Same here, I have no clue what he's talking about. My experience has been that the RMB is lightning-quick.

BJ

 

[boltjames]

Please link me to where Apple makes it clear that the rMB has the following performance issues:

- when loading web pages, it'll be jerky when scrolling, even basic pages.

- when using flash, it'll be jerky and borderline unusable in some cases.

- when clicking through emails, you'll have to wait while it loads even basic text emails.

- when loading image previews, it'll take 1-2 seconds to load even low-res photos.

They don't. They advertise it as a machine without and caveats that OS X won't run as quickly or as smoothly as advertised, or as delivered to the user on EVERY other current Mac model.

In fact, the largest word other than "Macbook" on the Apple product page is "Years Ahead" ... what about this Macbook is years ahead? Maybe the decision to go with just one port? If anything the performance is "Years Behind" .... They go on to say "the logic board on which the processor sits has been completely redesigned to pack all the capability you expect in a Mac into as little space as possible." Not sure they met most people's expectations, given the feedback many on here have provided.

I experience none of this, and I'm running two operating systems. Neither OSX or Windows 8.1 show any of these lags whatsoever. And compared to my work PC, my home PC, and my prior travel PC it is blazingly faster. Not marginally; blazingly.

You have unrealistic expectations and a defective product. Return it. Buy something else. Be happy.

BJ

 

[bwb]

I bought the 12rMB to replace a 3-year-old 13" MBA, thinking it would meet my fairly un-intensive needs. I was especially attracted to the design, keyboard, screen and especially the lightness. But before I had a chance to get it set up the Apple Store guy talked me into exchanging it for the 13" rMBP. He said virtually everyone who bought the rMB returns it disappointed in its performance.

After using the rMBP for about a week I'm impressed with it's performance but began regretting it because of the weight and the heat it generates - so planned to take it back today and go back to my original choice of the rMB.

But now, reading all these experiences I'm pretty much convinced I should stick with the Pro after all. It sure sounds like a lot of you who gave the rMB a fair shot are disappointed. i may cancel that planned visit to the Apple Store after all.

I truly wish the rMB had higher apparent satisfaction by its early adopters, but the performance concerns voiced here have scared me off.

Agreed with maryunani, I wouldn't base this thread with overall satisfaction. It shouldn't be any surprise a 5W TDP processor can't compete with a 28W TDP processor of the rMBP, since it quite literally is 5.6 times less powerful (but not nearly that much less performance!). For short bursts of activity it sounds like the 5W Core-M is quite close to the performance of the 15W processors used in the Macbook Air. As Queen6 mentioned it won't be good for sustained workloads (batch processing of photos, exporting video, gaming, etc), since it can only draw that 5W of power but for bursts of activity (rendering websites) it sounds quite good since it can go above that 5W power envelope.

As a disclaimer I don't have have a rMB yet (it's on order for delivery next month), or any Apple computer (other than swapping in a new SSD/RAM in a mid-2009 MBP to give to a family member) but I did play around with it quite a bit in the Apple store. The lag issues sounds like it is mostly due to some of the window management related processes running on the CPU not the GPU in Yosemite. Thus, when the CPU gets pinned for a while and has to throttle to 5W things can get laggy in the user interface, but El Capitan is suppose to move that computation back to the GPU and so won't be an issue much longer. On one hand some may view this as the rMB being underpowered, but I'd say Yosemite is poorly optimized for this balance of CPU to GPU performance/power ratio and that will be fixed with El Capitan. Making a responsive UI requires many more tricks than just a fast processor, even for the quickest systems available.

If you do end up buying and testing a rMB, be sure to wait until indexing and other background processes finish, which could be a day or two. Another example is the iCloud Photos app, since that does a bunch of machine learning in the background for the face detection. Until all of those tasks are finished, the CPU will likely keep throttled since those are sustained and not burst workloads, and won't be a good representation of the responsiveness of the system long term.

I'd still recommend another machine if you will be doing sustained workloads. Myself, I'll see how it goes (the rMB is the first step to transition back to OS X after lots of Windows machines in graduate school). I may compliment it with an iMac when Skylake is released, or may just stick with only the rMB if it's sufficient when paired with a 3rd party USB-C dock (after all of the initial kickstarters have matured, I expect there will be some excellent inexpensive options in the next few months that will alleviate any desire for more ports). I'm no longer considering any of the other Apple laptops, since I'll have a heavy Lenovo laptop through work (and an older PC at home for gaming, workstation and lots of server clusters at the office to run intense workloads). Thus, the ultraportable rMB is perfect for my use case.

 

[Dark Void]

I hate when people use car analogies when talking about computing.

Latest Post

It's extremely arrogant to start a thread and snap at people when they don't seem to agree with you. I, like many others, had patience in the beginning and tried to offer helpful information. You purchased the wrong computer for what you need. Sell it.

The people who are enjoying their rMB know what they need out of a notebook.

 

[PDFierro]

I hate when people use car analogies when talking about computing.



It's extremely arrogant to start a thread and snap at people when they don't seem to agree with you. I, like many others, had patience in the beginning and tried to offer helpful information. You purchased the wrong computer for what you need. Sell it.

The people who are enjoying their rMB know what they need out of a notebook.

Pretty much. The OP was such a good poster before, too.

 

[SlCKB0Y]

I think you and others rant and call owners of whatever Apple product you don't like stupid, mindless, delusional
Apple drones because of other reasons besides:" I rant because I really wanted this to be a machine for me, and in its current state, its not" nice try.

Can you please quote my text in which I "call owners of whatever Apple product you don't like stupid, mindless, delusional Apple drones"?

 

[Laserducky]

"I love my Fiat Electric Car ... it can only go 87 miles best case scenario, and my commute is 120 miles.... but I love it. Sure it's a downside to be stranded alongside the freeway every day waiting for a rescue vehicle, but I love everything about it" - Fiat Kool-Aid Drinker.

Hey mate, we are all here to talk about this product, its plus AND minus points as well. Why are you getting so aggressive and calling people names ? If you are frustrated with your product, return/sell it if you can : if not, cut your losses and be more careful while making your next purchase.

Venting your frustration by name calling people will not get you anywhere in this forum or in life for that matter.

Cheers!

 

[JoePa2624]

I love this little computer. Simple as that.

I wish Shenan would share in my enjoyment, but if not, hopefully you're able to get what you're looking for without losing too much money.