1 Month In - Thinking of going MBP

[Dark Void]

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.

I will.

It's not my style or something I could use personally but I love to hear about people enjoying their purchases re computers, particularly notebooks. People typically just come here to complain - make a positive thread about yours and your experience!

 

[JoePa2624]

I will.

It's not my style or something I could use personally but I love to hear about people enjoying their purchases re computers, particularly notebooks. People typically just come here to complain - make a positive thread about yours and your experience!

I think this little guy is a fantastic computer. I fully understand some of the frustrations that other users are having, but this computer is absolutely perfect for what I need it for. It's speed is a non-issue for me 95% of the time, and the other 5% is hardly noticeable anyways.

The portability and build quality is absolutely amazing! I still just set it on my desk and stare at it because of what Apple was able to accomplish in such a small chassis. Makes me even more excited for V2!

Believe it or not, the only thing I would change at this point my color choice. I went with space grey to match every other Apple product I own, but have found that I really love the way the gold looks. It's not gaudy at all, and the contrasting black keys and bezel really stand out. Space grey looks great too, but I should've gone gold.

I think I'm even more excited to get my Dbrand leather skin installed on it too. It'll really make it look great.

 

[Dark Void]

I think I'm even more excited to get my Dbrand leather skin installed on it too. It'll really make it look great.

Just ordered it then I take it? I too can share in this excitement as I have a hard case for my 13'' 2010 MBP on the way.

I can relate to what you're saying about the color choices also. I remember when (not to talk about Android) Samsung started releasing their tablets in Gold, and I really think that the color looks great on electronics - especially if it's more brown than yellowish. In any case, your color choice won't matter too much with a skin on it.

 

[shenan1982]

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!

It's not name calling, it's an analogy. So many people drink the apple kool-aid and try to justify their purchase or justify bad decisions Apple makes in products by saying it's amazing. The product is definitely not amazing. If your uses are that which can be accomplished by a computer from 2005, sure it's a great computer, but by no means is it amazing. Products are compared against their peers, both in cost, aesthetics, and function. Apple hit this out of the park with aesthetics, and I think the cost is fair given it's relatively unique, but from a functionality\performance perspective, anyone who thinks is a great computer clearly has needs that can be accomplished by ANY computer made in the past 10 years. It's not name calling, it's a term used to refer to people beating the company drum without thinking outside of the tunnel they're looking into.

 

[shenan1982]

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.

Car analogies, or any other product analogies are fair examples. They just demonstrate the point, sorry you disagree.

How is it arrogant to respond to people's defense of complacency? When someone says "the computer is super fast" ... "the rMB is as fast as a 2014 Macbook Air" .... "There's no slowness in mail" ... "Something is wrong with your computer because mine doesn't have those issues" is utter absurdity. The product is well-known to have these issues.... it had the issues from the very first reviews to reviews of even the first beta of 10.11.

If you are looking for a threat where someone isn't complaining, why did you even bother coming in and joining the conversation here? I'm not going to say "oh thank you for the good advice in telling me that it meets your needs" ... that's irrelevant to me if your expectations are lower, and your tolerance for Apple to deliver a sub-par experience is higher. I have a right to complain, I have a right to post my experiences, and if you don't like it, maybe it's because subliminally it causes readers to question their own purchases, too bad. Move on and don't read any forums except those who bought a rMB coming from a 2005 Macbook and who think the rMB is the greatest thing since sliced bread.

 

[shenan1982]

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

It's definitely not defective. It's well documented by many reputable sources that it's significantly underpowered compared to other ultrabooks in the industry. If you came from very slow computers, of course it'll seem faster. If my computer was a 2006 Macbook, I'd feel like it was a big step forward too. I went from a 2014 Macbook Air to a 2015 rMB. It was a big (huge!) step backwards.

I do agree Windows 8.1 doesn't have the lag issues. This just demonstrates how sad it is that Apple releases a computer to run their own OS, and Windows runs cleaner on it than Apple's own OS.

 

[Dark Void]

How is it arrogant to respond to people's defense of complacency?

It's because you started your thread with asking people not to "jump on you" and that's all you've proceeded to do to those offering their opinions in order to try to help you.

 

[shenan1982]

It's because you started your thread with asking people not to "jump on you" and that's all you've proceeded to do to those offering their opinions in order to try to help you.

I haven't jumped on anyone. If it's raining out and someone says the sky is blue, I'm going to correct them. If they say my computer is defective, and every review points to performance shortcomings (show me a review that doesn't), it's irrational to blame it on the user, or the specific unit.

 

[Laserducky]

It's not name calling, it's an analogy. So many people drink the apple kool-aid and try to justify their purchase or justify bad decisions Apple makes in products by saying it's amazing. The product is definitely not amazing. If your uses are that which can be accomplished by a computer from 2005, sure it's a great computer, but by no means is it amazing. Products are compared against their peers, both in cost, aesthetics, and function. Apple hit this out of the park with aesthetics, and I think the cost is fair given it's relatively unique, but from a functionality\performance perspective, anyone who thinks is a great computer clearly has needs that can be accomplished by ANY computer made in the past 10 years. It's not name calling, it's a term used to refer to people beating the company drum without thinking outside of the tunnel they're looking into.

Sure, you aren't calling people names : just comparing them to kool- aid drinking folks. The language or medium you use is different but your intentions are the same.

I don't know you but you seem hell bent on demonizing this product and all the good folks here who seem to like it.

Cheers mate!

 

[Dark Void]

I haven't jumped on anyone. If it's raining out and someone says the sky is blue, I'm going to correct them. If they say my computer is defective, and every review points to performance shortcomings (show me a review that doesn't), it's irrational to blame it on the user, or the specific unit.

I don't need to show you a review. This thread and many others are filled with positive experiences regarding the rMB. You continue to blame this on the fact that they must be coming from a much older notebook, and that is why they believe the rMB to be viable in terms of speed and fluidity.

These users purchased the correct machine for what they do. That's the bottom line. Your experience is not any more valid then theirs because yours is negative and you feel their usage doesn't justify what you're talking about. You purchased the wrong notebook. Period.

 

[shenan1982]

I don't need to show you a review. This thread and many others are filled with positive experiences regarding the rMB.

You purchased the wrong notebook. Period.

People tend to defend their purchases of large-ticket items, it's human nature. I'm perfectly happy with "It works for what I need it for, and I accept the sacrifices" ... but when people start saying there is no lag, there are no issues, everything is amazing, it shows bias.

I can agree with you that I purchased the wrong notebook ... I wish I had stuck it out with the Air for another 6-12 months until Apple updated either the processor, or OS X with the functionality that provided a reasonable user experience to those switching from older models like me.

 

[bwb]

People tend to defend their purchases of large-ticket items, it's human nature. I'm perfectly happy with "It works for what I need it for, and I accept the sacrifices" ... but when people start saying there is no lag, there are no issues, everything is amazing, it shows bias.

I can agree with you that I purchased the wrong notebook ... I wish I had stuck it out with the Air for another 6-12 months until Apple updated either the processor, or OS X with the functionality that provided a reasonable user experience to those switching from older models like me.

An important point to remember is that performance is always workload dependent, so others could very possibly have no issues with lag and comparable performance to a 2014 MBA. Some workloads I require run on 128GB server machines, capable of running 10's of threads concurrently. Thus, even a top-of-the-line Mac Pro would be viewed as slow and laggy for those workloads, though of course it isn't slow for almost any reasonable workload.

I believe people are taking issue with how you are responding, since effectively you are implying their observations are fundamentally invalid ("drinking the kool-aid" to "defend their purchase" of a "complacent" laptop) while your use case is objectively true for how to determine the greatness of a product. It's very possible that both viewpoints are equally valid because of different workloads being applied to the system. Additionally, there are plenty of use cases that are real work and not just using it as a "toy" or an "iPad with a keyboard". It is dangerous to pick a small set of metrics in which to judge the greatness of a product on, and marginalize the metrics you do not value.

Do keep in mind that even though this processor is 1.1-1.3GHz, it is absolutely cutting-edge using Intel's latest CMOS fabrication technology. None of this would have been achievable in the same power envelope just a year or two back, so this is not complacency but far from it. Instead of marginally improving size/weight and marginally improving processor performance (as is normal with year-to-year upgrades of their laptop/desktop products), they've kept performance the same and significantly decreased weight/size. This is Apple's first foray into a 5W TDP processor, I personally think they did a great job targeting the machine (within the bounds of today's technology, they are not magicians and there are many many tradeoffs in system design, along with hardware/software co-optimization that they can iterate on), and they will certainly learn from version 1 to improve version 2.

 

[Queen6]

An important point to remember is that performance is always workload dependent, so others could very possibly have no issues with lag and comparable performance to a 2014 MBA. Some workloads I require run on 128GB server machines, capable of running 10's of threads concurrently. Thus, even a top-of-the-line Mac Pro would be viewed as slow and laggy for those workloads, though of course it isn't slow for almost any reasonable workload.

I believe people are taking issue with how you are responding, since effectively you are implying their observations are fundamentally invalid ("drinking the kool-aid" to "defend their purchase" of a "complacent" laptop) while your use case is objectively true for how to determine the greatness of a product. It's very possible that both viewpoints are equally valid because of different workloads being applied to the system. Additionally, there are plenty of use cases that are real work and not just using it as a "toy" or an "iPad with a keyboard". It is dangerous to pick a small set of metrics in which to judge the greatness of a product on, and marginalize the metrics you do not value.

Do keep in mind that even though this processor is 1.1-1.3GHz, it is absolutely cutting-edge using Intel's latest CMOS fabrication technology. None of this would have been achievable in the same power envelope just a year or two back, so this is not complacency but far from it. Instead of marginally improving size/weight and marginally improving processor performance (as is normal with year-to-year upgrades of their laptop/desktop products), they've kept performance the same and significantly decreased weight/size. This is Apple's first foray into a 5W TDP processor, I personally think they did a great job targeting the machine (within the bounds of today's technology, they are not magicians and there are many many tradeoffs in system design, along with hardware/software co-optimization that they can iterate on), and they will certainly learn from version 1 to improve version 2.

Well said, for those that "do their homework" the rMB is a very solid system and performs exactly as expected. Apple can only build on what is already on offer from the current rMB. I for one will upgrade to Skylake soon as it`s released, as being one who relies on OS X and the Mac for their livelihood it`s a basic calc.

Q-6

 

[bwb]

Well said, for those that "do their homework" the rMB is a very solid system and performs exactly as expected. Apple can only build on what is already on offer from the current rMB. I for one will upgrade to Skylake soon as it`s released, as being one who relies on OS X and the Mac for their livelihood it`s a basic calc.

Q-6

Exactly, it's not like anyone is committed to their rMB for life. In my case I'll have a portable platform to do some paper revisions while I'm moving cross-country, when I receive my work laptop I won't have a redundant device (rMB will be a different OS and different form factor), and I can start transitioning in to better integration with other Apple services I already use (facetime/imessage with family, icloud photos, etc).

The rMB's drawback of poor sustained-load performance is easily balanced by its differentiation from other devices for me, especially since I am not buying it for sustained loads just as I would not buy an electric car for long cross-country road trips with no charging stations (if we are using car analogies). There is a good chance I'll upgrade once Skylake comes around, and if I do I'm happy to take the couple hundred dollar depreciation hit (if that, I'm still a student so educational discount and credit card cashback will balance that) for getting to use the first version for a year.

Shenan, this just underlines that it is a good idea to test that the rMB is suitable for your needs within the 14-day return window (even if you assume your needs to be basic, again assumptions are dangerous), or be comfortable with some depreciation from selling on the used market after a month or two if it does not work out. If you fully commit and sell your old computer before being comfortable with your new computer, then that fault is not Apple's. And, if a couple hundred dollar "restocking fee" from selling on the used market adversely affects someone's financial well-being (not in your or anyone's case in particular, just as a general rule), then it would be wise to evaluate whether any cutting-edge technology is prudent to buy as there will always be diminishing returns until yields improve and NRE costs are recouped.

 

[Elise]

Sorry (well I'm not really) but I don't see any lag or slowness in my rMB either. It's probably the best purchase I've made in a long time. It's fits me and my needs very well.

 

[zhenya]

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.

Unless you can provide some definitive proof through demonstrated tests, I'm extremely skeptical that your specific mail issue is cpu related. Your description doesn't sound like an activity that would be, and for that kind of burst, the core-m should be basically as fast as any other mobile Intel processor. It's well understood and demonstrated that the core-m is powerful under burst load and only lags when pushed for a sustained workload. Most likely you've come across a bug or some other bottleneck.

 

[lo100469]

I haven't jumped on anyone. If it's raining out and someone says the sky is blue, I'm going to correct them. If they say my computer is defective, and every review points to performance shortcomings (show me a review that doesn't), it's irrational to blame it on the user, or the specific unit.

You are confusing shortcomings with limitations, I come from a mid 2012 Air (512/8/I7) and the 1.3rMB i have now for a month is at least as fast at everything i do. No lag, no speed issue. But i do not do games, or 3D rendering, and i don't do video editing. I did my homework, the rMB is plenty fast enough for what i need (office, itunes, light photos editing, watching or steaming videos, handbrake DVD ripping from time to time, NAS management).

So, as much as i do not tell everyone that the rMB is the best computer for everyone without understanding what it is used for, you should not write that its performance are shortcoming for the exact same reason.

And correcting people really, you have that kind of authority?...

 

[palpatine]

There is a strange disconnect between many of the experiences reported on this forum and my own.

After reading these forums, I expected it would be a tough tradeoff for me: lots of limitations vs. portability. But, when I finally got to the store (expecting to pick up a 13" rmbp), I was blown away by the rmbp, and bought it (they had the one I wanted in stock). It's been a week since I purchased it and I'm enjoying the computer immensely. I've encountered no lag and no pinwheels (beyond the expected ones I get on my 15" 2013 rmbp when Spotlight is indexing or I am doing something intensive).

Of course, everyone has their own expectations and use cases. I am a historian who primarily uses Office (Word, Excel, and Power Point), DEVONthink, Scrivener, Adobe Acrobat Pro (lots of scanning, PDF OCR, etc.), Safari, Thunderbird, etc. I do not play any games on it. Having a single port is no big deal for me, though more would be appreciated (Apple sells an expensive adaptor if you use projectors or need to plug in something while charging). If you have a similar use case to mine, I think you can expect that the computer will perform wonderfully.

 

[zhenya]

That's because cpu power has been outpacing the needs of the average user for many years. Only with the core-m has Intel finally reacted to the reality of the world which is that most users have computers with far more computing power than they actually need. Their arm had to be twisted hard in order to change direction from 'power power power' to 'efficiency' but in the end it's going to provide a much better experience for most computer users.

 

[jimboutilier]

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

Q-6

It is, and the've made the ignore list much more thorough! You don't see any of a person's threads (had to get here though a link in an alert), don't see any of their posts, and don't even see their quotes where someone quoted them in a reply (which can be a little confusing). Its like someone is just GONE. What a wonderful feature.

Hope he resolves his issues, but at least I don't have to read about it if he doesn't.

 

[Queen6]

It is, and the've made the ignore list much more thorough! You don't see any of a person's threads (had to get here though a link in an alert), don't see any of their posts, and don't even see their quotes where someone quoted them in a reply (which can be a little confusing). Its like someone is just GONE. What a wonderful feature.

Hope he resolves his issues, but at least I don't have to read about it if he doesn't.

Same here, it does have it`s uses, unfortunately...

Q-6

 

[Laserducky]

Same here, it does have it`s uses, unfortunately...

Q-6

Its actually sad. This guy started this thread, was a nice thread, then he takes a very different route, smashing everyone and everything in sight like the Hulk. Don't know why but I hope he finds the peace that we all deserve

 

[JoePa2624]

There is a strange disconnect between many of the experiences reported on this forum and my own.

After reading these forums, I expected it would be a tough tradeoff for me: lots of limitations vs. portability. But, when I finally got to the store (expecting to pick up a 13" rmbp), I was blown away by the rmbp, and bought it (they had the one I wanted in stock). It's been a week since I purchased it and I'm enjoying the computer immensely. I've encountered no lag and no pinwheels (beyond the expected ones I get on my 15" 2013 rmbp when Spotlight is indexing or I am doing something intensive).

Of course, everyone has their own expectations and use cases. I am a historian who primarily uses Office (Word, Excel, and Power Point), DEVONthink, Scrivener, Adobe Acrobat Pro (lots of scanning, PDF OCR, etc.), Safari, Thunderbird, etc. I do not play any games on it. Having a single port is no big deal for me, though more would be appreciated (Apple sells an expensive adaptor if you use projectors or need to plug in something while charging). If you have a similar use case to mine, I think you can expect that the computer will perform wonderfully.

I'm in the same boat as you. I've almost been pleasantly surprised by how well it has performed. I had some slow and laggy performance the first night, but since then it's been a screamer. I'm very happy with my purchase.

 

[shenan1982]

Unless you can provide some definitive proof through demonstrated tests, I'm extremely skeptical that your specific mail issue is cpu related. Your description doesn't sound like an activity that would be, and for that kind of burst, the core-m should be basically as fast as any other mobile Intel processor. It's well understood and demonstrated that the core-m is powerful under burst load and only lags when pushed for a sustained workload. Most likely you've come across a bug or some other bottleneck.

It's not simply mail, it's all aspects of the system... opening apps... browsing web pages... the experience using web pages with flash... everything I do is slow slow slow compared to MBA or MBP.

rMBP: https://vid.me/1zjP

rMB: https://vid.me/UW3W

Even the basic scrolling is crippled. AWFUL. I'm not going to post a Mail demo because you don't need to see my emails. It's similar to this though, the processor just can't keep up with the speed I want to work\play.

I guess you'll blame me for using flash now. After all, only 20% of web sites on the internet use flash, so I'm wrong for expecting a reasonable experience out of a computer that cost me $1700.

 

[Dark Void]

After all, only 20% of web sites on the internet use flash, so I'm wrong for expecting a reasonable experience out of a computer that cost me $1700.

You are. Price =/= hardware performance. You are paying for a whole package, including both form factor and software.

Many notebooks on the market are examples of this - take the Panasonic ToughBook for example, or any of Dell's Rugged Series Latitudes. They're extremely expensive computers due to what they are, and come with lower end hardware when looking at base models.

You don't purchase a notebook like this and set your expectations high for hardware performance. You purchase a notebook like this and set your expectations high for if a truck happens to run over it. This is the MacBook on the very opposite end of that same spectrum.