Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
I have a 2014 MBA and this is light and thin enough for traveling and working everywhere. There is no need for anything thinner, it is just madness.
That is just your opinion. I would've definitely chosen the Macbook 12 if I wasn't a bit weary about the processor being too slow for some stuff. For me the Macbook Pro is still a bit heavy and big if you're on the road all the time..
 
Exactly. And Apple used to have different products to appeal to different users.

Macbook Air: thin and light... but still rather powerful with an available dual-core i7.

Macbook Pro: a littler thicker and heavier... but with even more power and capability.

But that's all gone now.

Now it's the new Macbook which is the thin and light model... yet its processors aren't very powerful compared to the old Macbook Air.

And then there's the new Macbook Pro which has its capability neutered by the excessive thinness. The old Macbook Pro didn't have these problems.

There has never been a "perfect" Mac laptop... but you could get close before.

Now it's very difficult to find what you're looking for.

Thin, thinner, thinnest.....
Very useful, useful, obsolete......
 
I'm not sure I want apple to care for this....
If it took them that long to release an update without paying attention to quality details and customers needs, imagine how long it will take for the next release if they do...
 
Not saying the battery isn't crap but CR is notorious for making crap up....... Check out Suzuki Samurai review and consequent legal battle.
I stopped "checking it out" when I read it was twenty years ago.
 
Those proud appleheads may think they look cool in the starbucks with their apple watches and cripppled 2016 macbook pros
That is why they changed their wording to phrases like "all-day battery life", or "up to 13,6 times faster than the first iPhone".

When your change your reference point to garbage, you can claim anything.
And they constantly tell you specs don't matter, the "whole package" does.
This is marketing, if you sell great technological advances you don't need that.

And they went from "thinner" to "volume". Watch the last keynote carefully.
Why would anyone care the new MacBooks have less "volume".

The numbers are getting so small anyway, that everyone would see that 1.2mm thinner in an already thin design has no meaning at all.

Every time I think about this, I could write another two pages here.
It is so detached from any teal world use.

"The display is brighter than ever but DO NOT turn brightness above 50%, because your battery life will suck."

That is NOT the Apple I loved in 2006. OSX Tiger and the 2006 MacBookPro with an Express Card 3G Modem was the best hardware I ever owned. It was worth every penny.

I have a real question. If the TB3 specs requires that devices can draw more power, why shrink the battery?

A standard USB port could draw 1000 mA, now any stupidly designed TB3 device can simply drain your laptop and you can't limit anything.
 
That is just your opinion. I would've definitely chosen the Macbook 12 if I wasn't a bit weary about the processor being too slow for some stuff. For me the Macbook Pro is still a bit heavy and big if you're on the road all the time..

If you are on the road all the time, you should consider a tablet, don't use laptop (my opinion again).
 
If you are on the road all the time, you should consider a tablet, don't use laptop (my opinion again).
Ok, I exaggerated with all the time, but enough that I want my backpack to be as light and small as possible. Have you tried being productive on a tablet? lol..

I guess the current macbook pro is great for me (and maybe they should rebrand it to just macbook), for people with your requirements they should prob make a thicker one.
 
  • Like
Reactions: JGRE
This seems pretty clearly a software issue since the report claims the battery issue doesn't seem to appear when using Chrome instead of Safari. Still they decided it was correct to rate the machine according to the performance of its first-party browser, which is understandable.

Basically, (and ironically) until Apple fixes Safari, if you want high, consistent battery life try to use Chrome...

Once our official testing was done, we experimented by conducting the same battery tests using a Chrome browser, rather than Safari. For this exercise, we ran two trials on each of the laptops, and found battery life to be consistently high on all six runs. That’s not enough data for us to draw a conclusion, and in any case a test using Chrome wouldn’t affect our ratings, since we only use the default browser to calculate our scores for all laptops. But it’s something that a MacBook Pro owner might choose to try.
 
  • Like
Reactions: DJ_S and Weaselboy
I know his was due to the issues with the new battery design, but I hope it does something to wake Apple up. They need to stop putting the design team first, they seem extremely arrogant.

And I love the way they quoted Apples response :D

There was a report a few days ago that they had a new design of battery which failed a key test, so Apple used an old battery design. I don't think the problem is thinness over battery life, but rather "we've got to ship this product before the holiday" rather than perfecting the new batteries.
[doublepost=1482490109][/doublepost]
Interesting, so the consumer testing team claim the exact OPPOSITE to what people on here say and they recommend Chrome. I would even say Chrone is a resource hog, it uses the discrete GPU on my Mac. It's certainly a turnaround if Chrome uses less resources then Safari. Not very good Apple.

Still sad the battery life is so unbalanced. But this report will only make a difference in America.

I use Chrome over Safari because Safari often just wouldn't load websites. Chrome never fails.

Also Chrome pretends to be Safari and will handoff to Safari on my iPhone, or vice-versa.
 
No issues here, I think it's a great notebook, really happy with it... only annoyance is the hollow tinny sound of the trackpad click. Hardly a deal breaker though.

Agreed. I'd also like to soften the keyboard clicks too. Sounds too loud when I type.
 
Form over function

This is what happens when you have a ceo with the creative abilities of a gas pump in charge and puts jony ive run out of new ideas in charge of EVERYTHING
 
Tim: Oops guys, our MacBook Pro had a terrible review by CR.
Phil: Hell. What's up with those guys ?
Greg: Battery problems. Good that Joni is not in today. So we can talk freely.
Tim: Then what's the problem ?
Phil: Dunno. At launch, I proclaimed the machine the best laptop on the planet.
Well, then it IS the best laptop on the planet.
Tim: But what can we do to improve battery time ? Time remaining goes down so fast.
Greg: Well, there is no time remaining anymore. I had to remove that from the menubar.
Phil: And it’s not our problem. It's the lazy people that don't switch off.
Greg: But switching off doesn't matter. The system hibernating takes 0,0003% of the capacity.
Tim: But we have hundreds of millions of customers. So it adds up fast.
Phil: Yeah, the machine was sold out during the first weekend.
Greg: But that was due to inadequate production ramp-up.
Anyway, we need to put better batteries in it, as originally planned.
Tim: So what happened with the original plan ?
Greg: Joni wanted to save space for the forthcoming headphone port removal.
Tim: Euumhh ? You'd say that would just allow more space for a bigger battery !
Greg: No, it got all denied by Phil. So Joni wanted to remove the port at a later stage. Secretly. And the machine is so packed with stuff, which is all soldered and glued, he needed to get access. And Joni has big fingers...
Phil: Then why didn't we shave those off, in the first place ??
Tim: Don't get mad with Joni. He's one of the best we have.
Phil: Says enough about the rest. Well, at last we could only fit 4 button cell batteries in the machine.
Tim: What are you saying ??
Phil: I said hearing aid batteries. One is popping out of ears now, coincidentally.
Greg: I got hammered with 2500 memo's from Joni (he's never in his office) to improve MacOS standby time. So, I did ultra-hibernation which reduced standby load from 0,006% to 0,0003%. It got a 2000% better !!!
Tim: Wauw. Our shareholders will LOVE that.
So fax CR that they should educate their customers and adapt their test methods to typical office use. My machine sleeps 18 hours a day.
Phil: No... permanently, Tim. Your MacBook was removed. You have an iPad now.
Tim: Rightly so. Same use case, same office hours.
Problem solved. Let's go for lunch...
 
Last edited:
This seems pretty clearly a software issue since the report claims the battery issue doesn't seem to appear when using Chrome instead of Safari. Still they decided it was correct to rate the machine according to the performance of its first-party browser, which is understandable.

Basically, (and ironically) until Apple fixes Safari, if you want high, consistent battery life try to use Chrome...

I wonder if the fact that Chrome doesn't support the touch bar plays a part in this? Maybe displaying those little tiny screenshots of websites is the real battery killer...
 
There was a report a few days ago that they had a new design of battery which failed a key test, so Apple used an old battery design. I don't think the problem is thinness over battery life, but rather "we've got to ship this product before the holiday" rather than perfecting the new batteries.
[doublepost=1482490109][/doublepost]

Engineer #1: "****, the formfit batteries are flawed"
Sales guy: "We need this out NOW"
Engineer #2: "Get the super glue! Place a huge blob of glue and push these square batteries into it! Just sell it as lightest ever laptop or something, we'll figure out how to replace them later."
 
And you know it's software because? Enlighten us please. I don't see that anything has been proven here.

The only thing that is clear to me is that this battery has had issues since day 1. First the limitation on memory, now the limitation on what apps you use? PLEASE!

If Steve Jobs were alive, he'd be throwing furniture around the office right now and heads would roll.
Tim Cook is probably mildly flustered at most.

The criticisms are mounting on this release. You can attack the various messengers or you can solve the problem. The first option is the option of ultimately failed companies. Tim Cook better start watching his back AND fixing these problems.
I would have thought the very inconsistency CR mentions shows it's software. How could hardware behave so inconsistently? Battery size, capacity etc are all fixed. Don't CPU and GPU power draws operate in a fixed range and at fixed levels for given work? And this is being called a battery issue, not a CPU or GPU issue. I do not see what battery flaw could be inconsistent. At least, not one that isn't terrifyingly unsafe!
 
Apple is in so much trouble now. The decline is evident. I guess they just don't care anymore. They care about the profits but not making great products anymore. It's sad.
 
  • Like
Reactions: clauzzz203
Dang, Consumer reports words are LAW!
Please return your MacBook Pro immediately, they can't recommend it, and if they can't recommend it, you shouldn't own it.
These few millions MacBook Pro users out there don't know what they are dealing with, listen to the lords and avoid or return, halleluja!

Btw. please trash,return,avoid immediately any other battery powered computer related hardware that last less than the MacBook Pro, too. Go to your parents, friends, employer and ask for max battery time, if its equally or less than the MacBook Pro, do them a favour, put it over your knee and break it apart instantly. They will thank you!
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: Trigosl
Best laptop in the world...in the galaxy...in the universe...

Seriously, I cant recall an Apple product with so many problems and bad news in the last 10 years.
 
I hope Elon Musk or Peter Thiel can take over soon. Even Bezos would be better.
 
Apple once did go thicker, with the iPad 3 just to get the retina display in there.

Any way I hope Apple is smart enough to realize if the macbook does not meet expected sales its because their half-way designed model, not because the market no longer exists and they just quit building laptops altogether.
 
The funny thing is how a lot of people on here were clamoring for a new MacBook Pro, and now that Apple released one, a lot of people are clamoring for the old/"stale" MacBook Pro.

It's completely understandable though. And I think this reaction just sort of cements further the idea that this notebook wasn't particularly designed for the audiences of the 2012-2015 MBPs, that it's not really "Pro."

The problem is that people naturally expected a significant update to the existing systems. And waited for the new and significantly updated version of the MacBook Pro.

Unfortunately, what Apple released was a problematic and underwhelming machine. It isn't a successor to the MacBook Pro of years past. It's an enhanced MacBook Air with the Pro name attached to it.

Kind of like when Ford released the new Mustang in the 1980's. it had the Mustang name, but it was a 2 door Ford Escort with a small V8 and a spoiler.

You got the prestige of saying you had a Mustang. But when you showed it to your friends, suddenly you were the butt of every joke.

I did own one for about a week. Unfortunately, it proved to be exactly what it looked like. An econobox with a horse emblem and a spoiler. I especially loved the finger tap wimpy beeping horn that you activated by pressing a button on the turn signal lever. No road rage there... just let me find that button, there it is.

The only thing worse than the awkward horn button was the wimpy beep that made a LeCar seem fierce by comparison. Well, ok, actually... being left in the dust by a LeCar was slightly more embarrassing.

With Apple, we're seeing a similar parallel.

We should have expected this, after seeing how the downgraded 2014 Mac Mini suddenly made the 2012 Mini more attractive.

We can expect that the eventual release of the Updated Mac Pro will be more of the same. It'll be the equivalent of going from an aging and tiring Corvette, to a rebadged Chevy Sonic. But at least we'll have the Pro badge to save our pride.
 
Btw. please trash,return,avoid immediately any other battery powered computer related hardware that last less than the MacBook Pro, too. Go to your parents, friends, employer and ask for max battery time, if its equally or less than the MacBook Pro, do them a favour, put it over your knee and break it apart instantly. They will thank you!
The greatest issue is not that it lasts less, it's that it lasts wildly inconsistently from test to test. According to the report typical variations between test to test are around 5% but the Macbook Pro doesn't test anywhere near this figure and experiences much higher variation. Since these wild variations happen only when using Safari and the machine itself according to the report performs well with Chrome, it's clearly a software issue in Safari.

Basically I you don't need to return the hardware, you need Apple to fix its software.
 
  • Like
Reactions: radgar
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.