I don't question the lack of replaceability, I question the very specific claim that SSDs having limited write counts is a problem. In practice, actually, it's not.
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
16-Inch MacBook Pro Returns to Pre-2016 Arrow Key Layout, Sticks With 720p Webcam and 802.11ac Wi-Fi
- Thread starter MacRumors
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
It depends which ac: if he upgraded devices he might have switched from ac wave 1. Even by "still" using wifi 5, if it's now wave 2 it will perform much better.
USB-C-Safe is the best way to prevent theft from snatching your MBP through the charging cable and many people view it as a way to protect its device and the customer can be assured that any pets or person tripped over the power cable won't cause severe damage to the Mac.
However, Apple is hesitated to provide such a safeguard feature and everyone knows it was a graved mistake from day one.
However, Apple is hesitated to provide such a safeguard feature and everyone knows it was a graved mistake from day one.
Last edited:
The Razer Blade 17 has a 17.3” display. I’m going to pause to make it sound like that is better...
Than I’ll remind everyone that’s it is a 1080p touchscreen. If fingerprints don’t make it blurry than being blurry will. It’s a high-end PC no doubt, but why they sourced their panel from Office Depot, I’ll never know.
How many 144Hz screens do Office Depot sell?
Even Razer list the RBP 17 as a "Gaming Laptop" - and for games, smoother motion is probably a bigger deal than higher resolution (given that most 3D games are still marginal at 4K on any mobile GPU, even at 60 FPS - and forget it at 120 FPS).
The MacBook Pro is not a gaming laptop, so the extra resolution is more useful for "real estate" and showing fine detail that you're not going to shoot at. Not saying 120Hz+ wouldn't be desirable, but its less important for the sort of work done on MacBooks.
He's not talking about the write counts he talking about the fact that it can [and they have in the past] fail suddenly, thus rendering the ENTIRE computer useless unless the customer pays for a whole logic board replacement outside of the warranty period, which is ridiculously more expensive than replacing an SSD.
I can confirm they can make exceptions. I took my new/old Pro into the store and asked for a manager override for the return. After explaining my situation they didn't even bat and eye; they just processed the return and refund. I then proceeded to order the replacement with express delivery and it should be here between tomorrow and Monday.
Of course he is, he explicitly mentioned write counts being an issue, which is just not the case even in extreme usage scenarios.
Nobody questions SSDs can fail at any time for whatever reason and lack of replaceability would make the problem even worse, but this has nothing to do with write count limits.
Clap hands for the old style keyboard, extra 1” screen room and the ESC key
But
Wfi 6 and Face ID would add real new things of improve workflow
they are very clever as this 16” MBP is majing a lot of noise for things people is asking since 3 years ago, but they are holding real improvements forthe day they need to make noise again as Apple is doing since SJ left us, just waiting what the people want, far ago was the “people doesnt know what they need” from where iMac, iPhone, iPod came, we just have refined versions of android and 3 years old style keyboard.
hope next year they will implemented F keys again to close the circle.
But
Wfi 6 and Face ID would add real new things of improve workflow
they are very clever as this 16” MBP is majing a lot of noise for things people is asking since 3 years ago, but they are holding real improvements forthe day they need to make noise again as Apple is doing since SJ left us, just waiting what the people want, far ago was the “people doesnt know what they need” from where iMac, iPhone, iPod came, we just have refined versions of android and 3 years old style keyboard.
hope next year they will implemented F keys again to close the circle.
Just like a display...or motherboard...or any other non-user replaceable component. Reliability of the SSD has reached the point where it's not an issue.
I suspect the real driver here is a desire to use cheaper, non-Apple storage products. That's legit, but it's a different argument entirely. Now that there's new options (which are prices similarly to the market for a premium SSD) it falls a bit by the wayside.
Darth Tulhu
macrumors 68020
Agreed. Wholeheartedly.
But like I said: Windows. It is better, no doubt. It has come a LONG way. But it's still behind macOS in my opinion.
In reality, given that I've been making do with my beat up, hacked (for GPU issues), obsolete 17 for years now, it may be that this machine is too late for me. I needed this machine in 2014 (with better ports, of course).
But today, I feel the post-pc era is truly a reality for many, including me. The infrastructure is there for me to use a mini ( with external GPU and storage) and an iPad, although I think the iPad is still not there yet (for what I want). But it's close.
So when my 17 truly dies, I'll REALLY have to think about what to replace it with.
This 16 MBP is just one option of MANY, and not just Apple ones. But it is a tempting option for us long-time fans that miss the SJ era. If a machine was ever to bring people that left in 2016 back, this is it. Maybe.
Just a note on the ports. I'm no fan of dongles, but I'm more and more seeing that as a temporary situation. We're not quite at cheap USB-C external drives, but they are on the horizon. Displays are a different story, and tend to be a many-year replacement strategy...but they're also something I don't swap around a lot, so the dongle stays attached to the monitor. And to be fair, I've come to love being able to plug in anything to any port.
I recently added a Caldigit T3 dock, which pretty much solved the problem at home. On the road, I still carry my adapter bundle - and to be honest, I wouldn't want a VGA port on a modern mac, even if I do have to plug into one pretty regularly.
The bigger problem is USB-C on the ipad and Lightning on the phone...that's becoming a nightmare of multiple cable sets in multiple places.
That's possible, but IMHO the main issue is having to purchase upfront the capacity which one might actually need only after a few years.
Darth Tulhu
macrumors 68020
Agreed. Apple was TOO EARLY on this, but now it is much less of an issue.
And yes, their JACKASSERY with Lightning is frustrating. But it'll work itself out in a few more years.
I've been waiting for Apple to start making the changes their doing now since SJ died, so my patience muscles are good.
And given that during that wait I became independent of their ecosystem, it means that I now have the flexibility to leave whenever I want.
I'm with Apple because I used to like their style, but since Tim took over I've been nothing but at odds with them. Seems like things are turning around, though.
Unfortunately for Apple, Microsoft has turned around too, so once my current Mac hardware dies (2011 iMac 27, 2011 17", 2012 15" cMBP) I could realistically move away and never come back. That's Apple's fault for the last 8-9 years of Timmy decisions.
My work setup (PC) involves a pair of Lenovo ThinkVision screens (on a single arm), a ThinkPad dock, and a ThinkPad T470s laptop that plugs into the dock via a single USB-C. I LOVE this setup.
A NAND based SSD has a limited life time. All SSDs have a Terabyte(s) written (TBW) value, but macOS doesn't allow you to read it.
Todays SSDs are quite good, the smaller ones (128/256GB) allow about 150TBW during their lifetime, guarantee is between 5/10 years when you look at Samsungs Evo/Pro models.
But: My last 256GB MBP SSD failed after 6 years. Two years the MBP was just used as a backup solution and four years of heavy usage. The MBP itself was in perfect condition and is good for another 4 years, or good enough to sell it on ebay.
Todays SSDs are quite good, the smaller ones (128/256GB) allow about 150TBW during their lifetime, guarantee is between 5/10 years when you look at Samsungs Evo/Pro models.
But: My last 256GB MBP SSD failed after 6 years. Two years the MBP was just used as a backup solution and four years of heavy usage. The MBP itself was in perfect condition and is good for another 4 years, or good enough to sell it on ebay.
Exactly: if you do the math 150TBW are over 40GB being written every single day for 10 years... furthermore under independent stress-testing SSDs have been found to actually last much longer.
This doesn't mean SSDs cannot break earlier, for whatever reason.
No I totally agree, innovation is only good when it's needed. I'm very happy with the way they went about the new MBP. It's just that I think Apple did some silly things with the previous generation, so right now we're just happy that they went back to how things used to be. Which is nice, but also kind of a shame, since all they're doing is correcting a bunch of mistakes that they should have avoided making in the first place (the touchbar, the removal of the ESC key and the butterfly keyboard were all things no one asked for, and were, in my opinion, unnecessary innovation).
Office Depot sells eight 144Hz displays, although in their defense one of them is a 144Hz 4K display.
I don’t disagree with you that the blade is a gaming laptop, but that doesn’t change the fact that a 17.3” display at 1080 looks terrible. High refresh rates doesn’t fix that. They are promoting the 2080 which could easily drive high refresh rate games at 1440.
My point remains that when comparing a laptop to a MBP a 1080 display is not a strength, especially if it’s almost 2” larger.
My point still stands - I said it's likely from improved devices, firmware, antennas. That includes wave 1 which is really daft standard vs wave 2.
I’m shocked people are still talking about the headphone jack. That was one of my favorite apple decisions. Somebody had to teach the gullible society that cords aren’t needed and to force us into a better way. Would’ve taken a decade otherwise. I went wireless early on and haven’t missed the headphone jack since that day. Cords are lame.
[automerge]1573751106[/automerge]
Would buy it if it had Face ID and Wi-Fi 6. Guess I’m waiting another year or two.
Fire up GarageBand, pop up a piano keyboard and tap a few notes via your wonderful wireless headphones, then explain how having an audible lag between hitting a key and hearing a note is "a better way". Video/Audio playback, even video calling can delay the video to compensate, but for music, detailed audio editing or any other application that makes noises in response to user interaction, wireless headphones are a non-starter.
Yep, just like a motherboard, display, etc. Independent testing is well into petabytes before there's serious wear on a modern SSD.
[automerge]1573753110[/automerge]
It's not a wireless world - until we have tiny batteries that can last through a transoceanic flight, it won't be.