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A bit lost and need some advice

macbrooke

macbrooke

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jun 21, 2006
138
0
Toronto, Ontario!
My signature hasn't been updated in years, and well... I purchased a late 2017 air after my 2011 11 inch air just couldn't cope.

Clearly I'm used to my apple products lasting the race.

I liked the 2017 air and used it happily the past year or so but I gave it to my kid this May, because he needed it for school (covid online) I bought myself the new air.. wowzers, no USB, questionable battery life... no glowing apple, no startup chime... wtf is this?

The aluminum housing sustained a dent and I can't even place how or why.. this usbc charging compared to MagSafe seems like a disaster waiting to happen. I can't even charge my iPhone 8 on this.. had to buy an adaptor.
This computer runs hot as well, and even with all updates often freezes up with simple web browsing.

Macbook air retina 2020
1.1 GHz Quad-Core Intel Core i5


I'm also ready to upgrade my phone too, 11 pro (from an 8, I've had every phone since 3G-8) I'm worried about that now as well :( iPhone 6-6s were awful!

Can someone talk me out of jumping ship and learning an operating system I don't know? (windows) a colleague suggested to get the quality I was used to I need to buy a MacBook Pro (that's a considerable price jump)

Or can someone suggest the highest spec mac (before all these changes) I can buy gently used? or am I missing something or got a dud (I have apple care)

Change is good, improvements are great! Making me question why I am bothering spending this money when I can have something equally questionable at a much cheaper price point...yeah

Is apple just in a quality slump? is it expected to improve? As a long term user (17 years) The past 5-6 years have been challenging from a quality standpoint.

I'd appreciate input from fellow long term users if there's still any here ha ha :)
 
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The 2017 MBA has been produced and sold at least until 2019. Here in Germany, you can still get it as a new (and discounted) product at some dealers. How about getting again the device you liked, use it for some times and wait how the new Apple Silicon machines evolve?
 
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nothingtoseehere said:
The 2017 MBA has been produced and sold at least until 2019. Here in Germany, you can still get it as a new (and discounted) product at some dealers. How about getting again the device you liked, use it for some times and wait how the new Apple Silicon machines evolve?
Click to expand...

I purchased it new here in Canada at Best Buy in May 2019! It's no longer available :( and I purchased this new 2020 model at Costco (my return time frame is running out) Also the new machines won't have dual boot capability correct? something that my high school student son utilizes on a daily basis (don't want to take it back from him as he's definitely using the computer to its capacity) He requires the dual boot.
 
macbrooke said:
I've been away from these forums for many years, may I ask what the general consensus is about this? is it generally accepted?
Click to expand...
It's not accepted by all, much (all) of it is speculation. We know dual boot is out, but we don't know that that means they haven't been working on an alternative. There has been a hint that Apple may offer something similar but different to dual boot.

The following was stated from in this interview with Craig Federighi....

"While avoiding direct mention of Windows, Federighi acknowledges that you won't be able to boot directly into x86 operating systems on these Macs. As it stands, Windows can't be directly supported on the Arm-based chips of ‌Apple Silicon‌ via virtualization, but Federighi made clear that Apple is well aware of the situation, without tipping his hand on what developments may appear on that front in the coming months."

For now, I would suggest waiting. It's September next month (how did that happen so quickly?) and more details will come out soon. If even you wait until October, that's better than living with regret for the next 'x' years.

As someone who's been in the Apple bubble about the same amount of time as you, I'd certainly agree that the quality is not what it used to be. However, I do feel like the pendulum is starting to swing back the other way and at the very least a couple of months is nothing given how long you keep your devices.
 
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Moakesy said:
It's not accepted by all, much (all) of it is speculation. We know dual boot is out, but we don't know that that means they haven't been working on an alternative. There has been a hint that Apple may offer something similar but different to dual boot.

The following was stated from in this interview with Craig Federighi....

"While avoiding direct mention of Windows, Federighi acknowledges that you won't be able to boot directly into x86 operating systems on these Macs. As it stands, Windows can't be directly supported on the Arm-based chips of ‌Apple Silicon‌ via virtualization, but Federighi made clear that Apple is well aware of the situation, without tipping his hand on what developments may appear on that front in the coming months."

For now, I would suggest waiting. It's September next month (how did that happen so quickly?) and more details will come out soon. If even you wait until October, that's better than living with regret for the next 'x' years.

As someone who's been in the Apple bubble about the same amount of time as you, I'd certainly agree that the quality is not what it used to be. However, I do feel like the pendulum is starting to swing back the other way and at the very least a couple of months is nothing given how long you keep your devices.
Click to expand...


Thank you for this prompt reply... It's really a confusing time. I should mention I have purchased two new iPads (non pro) for my daughters who mainly do art (also high school) and to be honest there are zero complaints about those devices from them. Perhaps I will spec up and get the iPhone 11 pro max since I really need a new phone right now, and hold off on a computing device for myself and return this laptop while I am still able. I am really really not happy with it.
 
macbrooke said:
Thank you for this prompt reply... It's really a confusing time. I should mention I have purchased two new iPads (non pro) for my daughters who mainly do art (also high school) and to be honest there are zero complaints about those devices from them. Perhaps I will spec up and get the iPhone 11 pro max since I really need a new phone right now, and hold off on a computing device for myself and return this laptop while I am still able. I am really really not happy with it.
Click to expand...

Yeah, the iPhone 11 Pro was what I was thinking of when I said about the quality returning. It's been my favourite phone for a while. Again, new phone out in a month or two but if you need one now then go for it.

Regarding the laptop, I think your plan is sound. Return something your not happy with (who needs things we don't like in our lives anyway!!) and then bide your time if you're able.

For what it's worth, I tried out a lot of top spec windows machines last year for work, as I led a project to buy new ones for the company and had supplier provide their machines on loan. Whilst they were very nice, some with B&O speakers, ultra lightweight, top quality screens etc, I wouldn't say any got close to a decent Apple device. Despite being premium devices, most of it was window dressing and the engineering quality was poor. Retail prices of what I was looking at would have been around £1,500...although we weren't paying anything like that.
 
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Sometimes change happens and you need to learn to adapt. Apple thinks USB-C is the future, so they began the rollout 5 years ago with the new MacBook, then in 2016 with the MacBook Pro lineup, then in 2018 with the MacBook Air. It's been quite some time now since you could purchase a Mac with a MagSafe charger.

As for an adapter to charge your iPhone, its not an adapter but a normal cable: USB-C to Lightning. New devices come with that cable, or you can purchase one for $10 from a retailer, or if you want you can go the adapter route with a USB-C to USB-A.

The startup chime is coming back with macOS Big Sur being released in the coming months, or there is a Terminal command you can use to bring it back today. (https://9to5mac.com/2020/02/21/bring-back-mac-startup-chime-command/)

The glowing Apple logo was also removed to prevent backlight bleed in the displays, and also has begun being removed all the way back in 2015.

As for poor performance on the i5 model, this is something you should look into via Activity Monitor to see if there is a resource pulling away CPU or GPU performance, as it should not struggled at all with basic web browsing.
 
Moakesy said:
Yeah, the iPhone 11 Pro was what I was thinking of when I said about the quality returning. It's been my favourite phone for a while. Again, new phone out in a month or two but if you need one now then go for it.

Regarding the laptop, I think your plan is sound. Return something your not happy with (who needs things we don't like in our lives anyway!!) and then bide your time if you're able.

For what it's worth, I tried out a lot of top spec windows machines last year for work, as I led a project to buy new ones for the company and had supplier provide their machines on loan. Whilst they were very nice, some with B&O speakers, ultra lightweight, top quality screens etc, I wouldn't say any got close to a decent Apple device. Despite being premium devices, most of it was window dressing and the engineering quality was poor. Retail prices of what I was looking at would have been around £1,500...although we weren't paying anything like that.
Click to expand...


This is basically what I expected to hear with respect to a windows device lol
 
macbrooke said:
Thank you for this prompt reply... It's really a confusing time. I should mention I have purchased two new iPads (non pro) for my daughters who mainly do art (also high school) and to be honest there are zero complaints about those devices from them. Perhaps I will spec up and get the iPhone 11 pro max since I really need a new phone right now, and hold off on a computing device for myself and return this laptop while I am still able. I am really really not happy with it.
Click to expand...

You should definitely return the laptop while you can. You don't have to keep it just because you like Apple :) I have almost the same conundrum that you have when I was deciding on updating my laptop because of the new work from home environment. I've only had either MacBook Air or MacBook in the past but working from home requires me to have windows. While I had bootcamp and VMware Fusion with my previous 12-inch MacBook, it really wasn't a great experience with that machine. At first, the I couldn't get over the price of a MacBook Pro since I've never paid that much for a computer. After much researching though, I decided I needed the MacBook Pro and have been happy with that decision. Here in the US, Apple has an official refurbished store. Have you checked your refurbished store? The products there will already have USB-C and not MagSafe (Apple should really bring that back!) but at least you will be able to save some money and still have the full warranty of a new computer.
 
macbrooke said:
I purchased it new here in Canada at Best Buy in May 2019! It's no longer available :( and I purchased this new 2020 model at Costco (my return time frame is running out) Also the new machines won't have dual boot capability correct? something that my high school student son utilizes on a daily basis (don't want to take it back from him as he's definitely using the computer to its capacity) He requires the dual boot.
Click to expand...
If you are asking about Arm-based Macs, the issue is with licensing.
www.theverge.com

Apple’s new ARM-based Macs won’t support Windows through Boot Camp

Microsoft has the power to change ARM-based Macs running Windows 10 on ARM.
www.theverge.com www.theverge.com
 
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