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2016 MacBook Review Roundup: SSD Performance is Much Improved, Lack of Ports and 480p Camera Are Still Negatives
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Define "value". The PowerBook Duo was a huge seller in the 1990s because it was the lightest, most portable laptop around, and it had exactly one Serial port in the base model. And this was an even bigger deal in the '90s because people really needed ports in those days. Yet the lure for ultimate portability was such that people paid top dollar for a laptop with one port, but ultimate expandability.
I keep bringing this example up because it mirrors this argument so well -- USB-C brings the prospect of ultimate expandability closer to fruition than ever before. The Duo did it with a proprietary dock connector that took up a lot of room, and was essentially unusable with out a proprietary dock attached. USB-C does it in a very small space, and one can attach any number of industry standard devices to it, including a dock/port replicator. Add to that the wireless capabilities which eliminate much of what a customer needs ports for to begin with, something that was optional in the Duo, and then only possible with a 14.4 fax modem -- also an expensive add-on many customers opted for.
In the end the rMB is still a massive value to those who value ultimate portability and battery life, without sacrificing connectivity. The trade off? One port for those times when the capabilities of the rMB must be expanded. It was true in the 1990s for Apple and the Duo, and it remans true today with the rMB.
Great! For sure you are Apple's target, since they have been presenting products full of quality lately, please let me congratulate you, and even thank you, for all the advice we have received lately from proud consumers, stating that we complain because we don't know how to shop for our products properly, for influencing Apple to keep their standards this high! It wouldn't be possible without consumers like yourself!
Also apart from admitting it's just envy on my end for not being able to cash out $1300 to surf the internet and write docs, wish I could afford all that power, it must feel great to own such quality device which other can't afford, aside from looking cool people will assume you are very successful economically too, thats great! also can I hold it? it looks very thin.
Cheers and enjoy!
Massive value? lol portability is the same carrying-wise except for weight, battery-life? 1 port.. 75% chassis occupied on battery, skylake 5W processor, mediocre hardware overall except for audio, they didn't even remove bezels!! looks promising as if you would get a full day on battery? no, 10 hours.. impressive.. please ignore Apple's new MB forums plagued with battery drain issues and complains about not lasting as advertised. Also note I didn't even mention the keys coat coming off, other keys unresponsive or sticked after 6+ months use.
Again, if there are quality issues, that's a completely different issue than the most ultra portable MacBook available being worth the price they're asking in concept.
Its funny how people keep tearing down the Core M line as if its some re-birth of the Atom chipset that can't keep up with Core-I... Its just the old "Y" series Core i line with a new name for their mobility and some differentiation put back in between "3" "5" and "7" (starting this year with SkyLake) tiers based on architectural features. Last years 1.1, 1.2 and 1.3s were just CoreM3,5,7 variants on broad well without that designation (thankfully Intel decided to bring it back).
Based on GeekBench, this thing in the CoreM5 variant just about met the XPS13 Core "I" 5 counterpart toe-to-toe... Save for what I'm sure is thermal throttling from the 5w part... But going fanless isn't paying the price it was a few years ago, even last year with Broadwell-Y... Heck this isn't performance of a few years ago, Its performance of THIS YEAR in a VERY SMALL package and with NO ACTIVE COOLING!
Every tech journalist says "like an Air from 2-3 years ago" just like the last... Its just not true anymore... These are full-fledged Intel Core Powered notebooks and they aren't slouches... The CoreM7 bests most U-Series i5s, even on Skylake/Gen6, and some of the slower i7s on Broadwell/Haswell. And those chips used the same levels of HD graphics as their CoreM/Y-Series counterparts so the boosts to graphics put this on top! Why are we all kvetching?? Is someone really butthurt that eventually its going to be this vs the Pro? Apple isn't abandoning ports (yet) but this will come down in price and the Airs will go away in place of this. There will be MacBook and MacBook pro offerings, I suspect in 12,13,15 sizes, or maybe (as speculated) 12, 14, 16 which would get really interesting if the footprints didn't change and the bezels went away.
Then we can all talk about how Tim Cook's Apple has no innovation left because all they did was copy Dell.
I can't wait!
At the end of the day your argument is just the OS X is better. While I don't disagree, my comment was about the hardware, the hardware is better in the XPS. That I am sure you agree. Hence it being a better value. The Dell you don't have to spend 2 days to configure...while I didn't. I am a video editor by trade so my requirements are different than yours. Basically I was trying to figure out which applications your using that make PC not usable for you. I guess in the end you will choose what you want, but really the XPS is top notch. The mac while yes their OS X is great, its not a huge game changer with the release of windows 8 and 10. Yes it takes some time getting used to but its very stable. My OS X crashes apps all the time and I'm using the newest Mac Pro with top notch software...so like i said every computer has it qwerks..but the XPS is really a better deal, hardware wise.
Being able to charge it while connected to an external display, or anything for that matter, would be nice (yes I know they have splitters/adapters, but that's just one more thing to lug around... and this thing is supposed to be about portability, right?).
I'm not saying there is no value, there are some people that really value them, but they aren't exactly flying off the shelves (happen to catch Apple's earning release yesterday?); Apple really makes you pay for portability with this machine. Outside of portability and the display, the rMB is pretty underwhelming.
With the larger machines you are always 'lugging around' ports that I bet don't get used 99% of the time.
Asanine
A device can have more ports inside it that doesn't equate to "lugging around those ports".
If you have two device that are physically the same weight / size. One has 1 port, one has 3. are you going to opt for the device with 1 port cause of "lugging around 2 additional ports"
No. But you might chose NOT to use the device with 1 port because yuo WILL have to carry around adapters outside of your computer should you need those ports, even in remote cases.
at the end of the day, if the technology is pheasible, removing functionality and features removes options. Removing options from consumers because ... well, We don't knwo WHY other than "profit" is a bad idea and I think it will bite them in the butt.
I truly believe if Apple wanted to, they could have designed the rMB with 2 USB-C ports. But they chose not to. They have purposely designed a laptop that you require additional purchases and devices to fully take advantage of.
Apple is known for removing functionality to "condition" or "train" its customers to believing in their ideology. It is totally feasible to have 2 ports on this machine. You're an ignorant fanboi if you believe otherwise. Before you start calling me and android windows lover, I have been using macs and iphones for 7 years now.
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100% agreed. Apple has always been good at telling its consumers what they need, rather than the other way around. Having said that, I still prefer their products (mainly OS X and iOS) over their competitors, so I remain a customer.
Every part added to a computer adds weight and volume, and in the case of USB ports, increases power consumption. There is no way around this despite the 'magic' that you seem to be incarnating to think otherwise.
I've had my MacBook for nearly a year. Number of times I've needed to use more than 1 port on the go? Zero.
You make some good points, but do you think that calling anyone a "fanboi" somehow establishes you as more credible or more sensible in this discussion? We have enough of that name calling here as it is. Stick to facts.
Says the person who actually believes you can add physical hardware to a device without it adding to the overall weight and volume...
While you definitely have a point there, I'd hate being in a Skype call with people who know you spent a crap-tonne on a shiny Mac and their £299 pcworld laptops have better call picture
Of course they could have. In fact there's room for one now where the 3.5mm jack is, but it was far more important for this market that they keep the single function 3.5mm headphone jack.
But don't worry, when Apple drops the 3.5mm headphone jack from the iPhone, they'll replace the 3.5mm jack on the rMB with a Lightning 2 port.
Yes, you will need an adapter to use it with almost anything, but you likely need an adapter to use the USB-C port with any devices you previously owned prior to the rMB anyway. Dongles are going to be around for several years until customers replace all of their legacy USB equipment with native USB-C. I have at least 6 different USB connectors on devices I regularly use sitting on my desk right now ... one port is not as big an issue as is being made out of it -- at least right now.
It's rated at 6.2 hour battery life. It weighs 5% more but has 17% less battery capacity. And it runs Windows as you pointed out.
It actually weighs about 3% more (2.09 vs 2.03 lbs).
And for that 0.06 lbs you get ports that are useful in the real world and a real keyboard. I'd say Apple has made a bad trade-off here.Which is probably the main reason why the battery life is proportionally worse than the difference in raw battery capacity (running Windows instead of OS X on the Macbook also cuts the battery life down significantly). As usual, Apple can optimize the OS more because they know exactly what hardware it will run on.
It actually weighs about 3% more (2.09 vs 2.03 lbs).
Which is probably the main reason why the battery life is proportionally worse than the difference in raw battery capacity (running Windows instead of OS X on the Macbook also cuts the battery life down significantly). As usual, Apple can optimize the OS more because they know exactly what hardware it will run on.
The size is not nearly so close as the numbers may make it appear. http://www.cnet.com/products/samsung-ativ-book-9-2015/
And 6 hours of claimed battery life in Windows equates to 3-4 real world.