12-Inch Retina MacBook Receives Mixed Reviews From Early Adopters

[Michael Goff]

Well the problem there is many in that crowd still want the touch screen and form factor of an iPad.

That is true, but I'm sure many in that crowd would also get used to just having a laptop instead. Just as people have gotten conditioned to touch the screen, a good laptop conditions you not to (unless it has a touch screen, but that's not happening with a Mac). OS X just needs to do everything iOS does as easily without touching the screen.

 

[HenryDJP]

When this thing is 999$... That will solve 99% of the problems with it.

Doesn't sound like price so far is a problem for the people who bought one.

 

[Michael Goff]

Doesn't sound like price so far is a problem for the people who bought one.

The idea that any perceived flaws will be less important when it's 300$ cheaper is... kind of real. People just care less when they spend less. "Hey, I might have to spend money on adapters... but at least I spend 300$ less on it". >_>

 

[Bigsk8r]

Being a large person with large hands, the 13" mbp is as small as I can go. The Air and this new MacBook do absolutely nothing for me.

 

[26139]

HUh?

Being a large person with large hands, the 13" mbp is as small as I can go. The Air and this new MacBook do absolutely nothing for me.

Pretty sure the keyboard on the MBP and MBA are the same size. Not sure what thinness and large hands have to do with each other in regards to laptops with regular-sized keyboards, but to each his own.

 

[newellj]

As someone who owned a rMB for two weeks and used it every day, I'd like to comment a little.

The design and engineering vision and talent that went into the rMB is really amazing.

People may not feel that it suits their needs, but that's ok - there are other computers in the Mac lineup.

People may disagree with the direction the vision is headed, and that's ok, too - see the Jobs quote below.

Everyone also needs to remember that Rome was not built in a day. The current MBA did not really reach its development peak until 2012, and it was introduced in 2008. Expect the rMB to go through a similar process, and give it the time to do so.

People also need to remember that in 2008 the first MBA was breathtakingly expensive, even by today's standards, for what it offered, and was highly controversial. Go back and read some of the 2008 reviews - they were a lot more negative than the rMB reviews.

Even if you hate everything the rMB represents, you should be glad that people at Apple can still sit down with a blank piece of paper and come up with a product like this that has been thoroughly re-thought and re-designed from the ground up.

Read the following from Jobs to Mossberg after the iPad was introduced - it's still relevant:

“Number one, things are packages of emphasis. Some things are emphasized in a product, some things are not done as well in product. Some things are chosen not to be done at all in a product.

And so different people make different choices, and if the market tells us we’re making the wrong choices we listen to the market. We’re just people running this company. We’re trying to make great products for people, and so what we have, at least, is the courage of our convictions to say, “We don’t think this is part of what makes a great product, we’re gonna leave it out.”

Some people aren’t going to like that. They’re gonna call us names. It’s not going to be in certain companies’ interests that we do that but we’re gonna take the heat because we want to make the best product in the world for customers.

We’re gonna instead focus our energy on these technologies which we think are in their ascendancy and we think are gonna be the right technologies for customers and, you know what, they’re paying us to make those choices. That’s what a lot of customers pay us to do, is to try to make the best products we can. And if we succeed, they’ll buy them. And if we don’t, they won’t. And it’ll all work itself out.”

 

[brdeveloper]

Keep whining and belly-aching -- on the next rev Ive will take away the shift key.

It will be replaced with a single Force Caps key.

 

[26139]

Nope

The idea that any perceived flaws will be less important when it's 300$ cheaper is... kind of real. People just care less when they spend less. "Hey, I might have to spend money on adapters... but at least I spend 300$ less on it". >_>

No they won't, those same people will disregard the starting price and complain about the current price. They'll still want the adapters for free.

 

[Kojemica]

Doesn't sound like price so far is a problem for the people who bought one.

correct. the price is a problem for the people who haven't bought one, because of the price.

apple needs to reach those people, not the people who already bought one.

get it?

 

[aront]

My hubby ordered the 512GB version the day they went on sale to replace his 2 year old MBA (I think he just wanted a gold laptop).

He used it for a few days and asked me to check if something was wrong with it. He said it seemed slow for a new computer. I did a little work with it and he's right.

Suspecting some sort of misconfiguration I reinstalled the OS and it was still slow. Ran Geekbench3 on the thing and it has pretty much the same numbers as our iPad Air 2s. Which is a shame at $1600.

He went back to his old MBA and listed the shiny gold MB on Craigslist yesterday.

This new Macbook may be a miss for Apple if it can't outperform a tablet.

But it has a high profit margin and that's all that seems to matter to Tim Cook.

 

[26139]

Ugh...

But it has a high profit margin and that's all that seems to matter to Tim Cook.

I know, right? Terrible that a business makes money selling things people want.

 

[maflynn]

I'm not surprised by the mixed reviews. too many compromises, for form over function, yet you're paying a premium for the computer

 

[Kojemica]

I'm not surprised by the mixed reviews. too many compromises, for form over function, yet you're paying a premium for the computer

also paying a premium for the brand new adapters that are required to make use of the device...

 

[citysnaps]

"The other thing that pushed me over the line when I was thinking about returning it was managing two laptops (in addition to my Mac Mini). Not so much keeping files current, but license management issues."

Huh? And that wouldn't have happened with a different 2nd laptop?

As an aside, I think the new keyboard is great. Took a minute or two typing and all was well. Hope other Apple keyboards go this direction!

 

[subjonas]

The one problem I have with this thing is (besides the need to buy a $80 adapter just to use your USB) the price.

This Macbook is certainly not worth the $1299 for what it does. I can get the current gen Macbook Pro for the same price and I dont need to buy an adapter for my USB and it can do 3x as much. Just saying.

Keep in mind the 13" MBP you refer to is 75% heavier and has half the storage (for the same price), so it's not so easy to compare. For the same price you could also get an amazing desktop setup that would run circles around a mbp. Portability always costs more, whether it's a feature you want or not.

 

[KPOM]

Well... we're still waiting affordable Thunderbolt docks and external drives. They're still treated as premium accessories. Firewire 800 became affordable only when it was discontinued.

The difference is that it's a USB standard and there are already devices from others that use the port. FireWire and Thunderbolt were competitors to USB and viewed as "Apple" connectors, even though Thunderbolt was intended as an open standard. Thunderbolt, in particular, required expensive controllers, and so PC makers with razor-thin margins balked at spending another $20 for the hardware necessary to power a Thunderbolt port. Intel screwed up by not building support into the earlier Core chipsets.

 

[bobob]

Does every other front page post story to be formatted as a troll?

 

[garylapointe]

The one problem I have with this thing is (besides the need to buy a $80 adapter just to use your USB) the price.

This Macbook is certainly not worth the $1299 for what it does. I can get the current gen Macbook Pro for the same price and I dont need to buy an adapter for my USB and it can do 3x as much. Just saying.

Comparing Apples to Apples (literally), you'd really have to compare it to the $1499 due to the storage 128GB vs. 256GB.

But I need my ports! And my SD slot.

The problem for me is I want a 1TB of storage plus 16GB (since you can't upgrade RAM that later) and if I'm spending $2499 on all that I might as well as spend the $200 more on the i7 (right?!?) and now I'm up to $2699. That $1299 starting price gets up there pretty quick...

Oops, $249 for AppleCare! And $40 for four MagSafe I to II convertors (car charger, portable battery, backpack charger and home charger).

Sorry, way off topic now. But I'm dreaming....
Gary

 

[etrinh]

Of course someone needs to be the test user / first adopters. Not everyone is going to jump on the same bandwagon all at once. Someone has to start it all and the lucky few with deep pockets don't mind starting this trend for the rest of the people. They get to play and own a shiny "new toy" first. That is a perfectly acceptable tradeoff. But if you have patience, just wait until Apple updates it 2-3 years from now.

Yes other commenters, I know, this is 2008 all over again and we the MacBook haters will be eating our words in two or three years. I get it and I completely agree with you. After all, history does repeat itself and even the tech industry cannot be immune to that, for better or worse. However, I offer my word of caution to the purchasers of this new Mac:

While I can get behind your free radicalism and rebellion in buying this to say three years from now to the doubters, "Seeeee! Didn't we tell you?", just remember that you'll be doing so with three year-old hardware... And yes everyone will have eaten their words and jumped on the bandwagon, but at least they did so with the newest possible machinery...

 

[TechZeke]

The 13"rMBP is essentially the Retina MacBook Air. It actually has a smaller footprint than the 13" MBA. Why is this so hard to grasp? Apple couldn't add a Retina display to the Air without making the battery thicker, in which case they'd have ended up pretty much where the 13" rMBP is today.

The thickness is comparable is well. Give the 13" rMBP a wedge design and presto! You have a retina MBA.

It's not as like the 13" rMBP is thick and heavy, for goodness sake. It's thinner than some of the PC "ultra books" I've seen.

 

[PittAir]

My hubby ordered the 512GB version the day they went on sale to replace his 2 year old MBA (I think he just wanted a gold laptop).

He used it for a few days and asked me to check if something was wrong with it. He said it seemed slow for a new computer. I did a little work with it and he's right.

Suspecting some sort of misconfiguration I reinstalled the OS and it was still slow. Ran Geekbench3 on the thing and it has pretty much the same numbers as our iPad Air 2s. Which is a shame at $1600.

He went back to his old MBA and listed the shiny gold MB on Craigslist yesterday.

This new Macbook may be a miss for Apple if it can't outperform a tablet.

I usually don't call out people like this but...the Macbooks started arriving on 4/15. There is a 14 day return policy. Hence, no need to sell it on Craigslist, right? Unless there is some fabrication here...just saying.

If your going to troll, at least be realistic. Again, not saying you're trolling, but...

 

[APlotdevice]

That is true, but I'm sure many in that crowd would also get used to just having a laptop instead. Just as people have gotten conditioned to touch the screen, a good laptop conditions you not to (unless it has a touch screen, but that's not happening with a Mac). OS X just needs to do everything iOS does as easily without touching the screen.

Except that one the major uses some of those people had for this "iPad plus" was to run graphics programs like Photoshop. Using the touchscreen to directly manipulate the image.

And it's not just how you interact. A tablet can held in your hands while standing up, cradled like a book while slouching on the sofa, or held up while you're laying in bed. All of which is a bit awkward with a laptop.

 

[KPOM]

I'm not surprised by the mixed reviews. too many compromises, for form over function, yet you're paying a premium for the computer

Most other Core M notebooks have comparable prices. Asus has one starting at $699,but given that the CPU alone is almost $300 I doubt they are making any money selling it. It's also heavier than the MacBook.

 

[brdeveloper]

My hubby ordered the 512GB version the day they went on sale to replace his 2 year old MBA (I think he just wanted a gold laptop).

He used it for a few days and asked me to check if something was wrong with it. He said it seemed slow for a new computer. I did a little work with it and he's right.

Suspecting some sort of misconfiguration I reinstalled the OS and it was still slow. Ran Geekbench3 on the thing and it has pretty much the same numbers as our iPad Air 2s. Which is a shame at $1600.

He went back to his old MBA and listed the shiny gold MB on Craigslist yesterday.

This new Macbook may be a miss for Apple if it can't outperform a tablet.

Try disabling translucency. There is a lot of alpha blending and gaussian blur on Yosemite and the Intel HD 5xxx seems to be weak for driving the retina display.
-------
I did it on my 15" rMBP and it looks faster with the bonus of reminding Mavericks in some way.

 

[cfedu]

Comparing Apples to Apples (literally), you'd really have to compare it to the $1499 due to the storage 128GB vs. 256GB.

Then you should also compare it to the $1550 MB since the processing power should also be brought to a more even playing field. Might as well also add another 80$ for the adapter so that you can use USB ports.