Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

bobtrotter

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Sep 23, 2014
28
13
Hey. I currently have a MacBook Air 2014 model. I'm an iOS developer. Have loved using this machine but looking for something faster. Have put off buying a MacBook Pro but feel like I need an upgrade now. Is anyone actually happy with their machine? Here is what I hear I get for £3600 odd:

(2.6 GHZ i7 15", 32GB, 1TB)

1.) Speakers that crackle
2. ) A keyboard that is rendered useless by dust
3.) Light bleed around the casing of the screen
4.) Uneven color balance on the screen (pink on the LHS)
5.) A machine that runs much hotter and will make more noise than my current one
6.) Random OS bridge crashes

Have I missed anything?
 
Remember people come here to complain about all their faults, you don’t hear from all the people who are happy with their macs.

I have a 2016 15” MacBook Pro 2.7/560pro/16gb/1tb. Although I am not a fan of the new keyboard he machine has been flawless since I received it in feb 17.

Ultimately you may get unlucky and have an issue but you have 14 days to return it if you are not happy. Also it is a very expensive purchase and not easily repaired so I would recommend AppleCare
 
Hey. I currently have a MacBook Air 2014 model. I'm an iOS developer. Have loved using this machine but looking for something faster. Have put off buying a MacBook Pro but feel like I need an upgrade now. Is anyone actually happy with their machine? Here is what I hear I get for £3600 odd:

(2.6 GHZ i7 15", 32GB, 1TB)

1.) Speakers that crackle
2. ) A keyboard that is rendered useless by dust
3.) Light bleed around the casing of the screen
4.) Uneven color balance on the screen (pink on the LHS)
5.) A machine that runs much hotter and will make more noise than my current one
6.) Random OS bridge crashes

Have I missed anything?

Take it with a pinch of salt, but i suspect you're seeing small scale reports of most of the problems; the keyboard is the big one and is rumoured to be fixed in the new 2018 ones. I'm looking to upgrade my 2015 Pro when they're refreshed or if it dies before that so there's enough time for the keyboard fix to be confirmed.

The screen is night and day better than the TN p.o.s. on the macbook air and the pros have better cooling than the air does.

If you're rocking an air though, i'd go for the 13" quad core, not the 15. It will still be a big upgrade in performance and tbh i think discrete GPUs inside notebooks are a waste of time.
 
To be honest my 2016 machine from 12/2016 has never had a single problem. A 2018 MBP with those specs will make your MBA seem like an ancient machine. Just the PCIe 3.0 nVME SSD alone will destroy it. There have been many people over exaggerating about the Touch Bar MBPs. The 2018 keyboard has no issues and the rubber will prevent any debris from causing the switches to fail. The speakers are the best I've heard on any notebook and I believe the 2018s are somewhat improved. The display quality is just excellent and much better than the 1st gen retina MBPs and they default to 1680x1050 on the 15" unlike the 1440x900 of the 2012-2015. Apple changed something and no artifacts are visible giving you much more real estate than before.

Remember that you have 14 days to change your mind and return it if you're not happy no questions asked. You know what? I would wait until the last week of November. Apple usually extends the return period until almost the second week of January for holiday purchases. Buy one around November 20th or so and use it for over a month. You really have nothing to lose!
 
  • Like
Reactions: marmiteturkey
Take it with a pinch of salt, but i suspect you're seeing small scale reports of most of the problems; the keyboard is the big one and is rumoured to be fixed in the new 2018 ones. I'm looking to upgrade my 2015 Pro when they're refreshed or if it dies before that so there's enough time for the keyboard fix to be confirmed.

The screen is night and day better than the TN p.o.s. on the macbook air and the pros have better cooling than the air does.

If you're rocking an air though, i'd go for the 13" quad core, not the 15. It will still be a big upgrade in performance and tbh i think discrete GPUs inside notebooks are a waste of time.

Yeh was thinking it was just the voices of the complaints being louder than the good comments. I wanna go for 15" for the extra screen estate and the 2 extra cores that can be put to use in Xcode. If I can reduce the time of the feedback loop of compiling code, reviewing it and compiling again then the extra power is worth it to me.
[doublepost=1538119780][/doublepost]
To be honest my 2016 machine from 12/2016 has never had a single problem. A 2018 MBP with those specs will make your MBA seem like an ancient machine. Just the PCIe 3.0 nVME SSD alone will destroy it. There have been many people over exaggerating about the Touch Bar MBPs. The 2018 keyboard has no issues and the rubber will prevent any debris from causing the switches to fail. The speakers are the best I've heard on any notebook and I believe the 2018s are somewhat improved. The display quality is just excellent and much better than the 1st gen retina MBPs and they default to 1680x1050 on the 15" unlike the 1440x900 of the 2012-2015. Apple changed something and no artifacts are visible giving you much more real estate than before.

Remember that you have 14 days to change your mind and return it if you're not happy no questions asked. You know what? I would wait until the last week of November. Apple usually extends the return period until almost the second week of January for holiday purchases. Buy one around November 20th or so and use it for over a month. You really have nothing to lose!

Thanks for your reply. Haha I can't wait that long, need a new machine for work ASAP. I'm not that bothered about the touch bar, can just ignore it if I don't like it.
 
  • Like
Reactions: lec0rsaire
Remember people come here to complain about all their faults, you don’t hear from all the people who are happy with their macs.

I have a 2016 15” MacBook Pro 2.7/560pro/16gb/1tb. Although I am not a fan of the new keyboard he machine has been flawless since I received it in feb 17.

Ultimately you may get unlucky and have an issue but you have 14 days to return it if you are not happy. Also it is a very expensive purchase and not easily repaired so I would recommend AppleCare

You can't add more here.
 
The new MBPs will be much better for iOS development than your existing Air. Yes, there's a chance that you'll be hit by one of these problems people have complained about, but I think the chances that you'll be happier is far higher than the reverse. Go get one and take advantage of the return period if you don't like it. I'm pretty sure you'll be pleased.
 
Yeh was thinking it was just the voices of the complaints being louder than the good comments. I wanna go for 15" for the extra screen estate and the 2 extra cores that can be put to use in Xcode. If I can reduce the time of the feedback loop of compiling code, reviewing it and compiling again then the extra power is worth it to me.
[doublepost=1538119780][/doublepost]

Thanks for your reply. Haha I can't wait that long, need a new machine for work ASAP. I'm not that bothered about the touch bar, can just ignore it if I don't like it.

Lol! Just give it a shot. Also if you notice any problems at all with the first one, exchange it and the 14 day period starts again. I’m sure you will like it. Hell I like how the improved keyboard feels and would love to have 32GB ram but I can’t justify taking a $1500 loss and spending another $1800 or so when I bought mine less than 2 years ago. But I can confirm the keyboard feels much more solid than the 2016 & 2017 when typing! I think you’ll be able to type faster once you get used to it after a few weeks.
 
You're just going to have to do you. Buy it and see what happens. It's pretty much all you can do. Think about it this way. A product can have all the negative reviews in the world, everybody has problems with it and a horrible experience; and you buy it and have ZERO problems. Or a different product has all the positive reviews, nobody has any issues with it. Then you buy it and your world just falls apart on how horrible the product is. It's a risk no matter what.
 
Hey. I currently have a MacBook Air 2014 model. I'm an iOS developer. Have loved using this machine but looking for something faster. Have put off buying a MacBook Pro but feel like I need an upgrade now. Is anyone actually happy with their machine? Here is what I hear I get for £3600 odd:

(2.6 GHZ i7 15", 32GB, 1TB)

1.) Speakers that crackle
2. ) A keyboard that is rendered useless by dust
3.) Light bleed around the casing of the screen
4.) Uneven color balance on the screen (pink on the LHS)
5.) A machine that runs much hotter and will make more noise than my current one
6.) Random OS bridge crashes

Have I missed anything?

My experience.
Currently own and use a 2015 MacBook which started the new butterfly keyboard and it is still working the same as launch day 3 years ago, no issues with that machine.
Two 2016 13" MacBook Pros, both have gen2 keyboards. Again, both are still going strong, never had issues with either.
Now on a 2018 i9, 32GB, 1TB. No keyboard issues. As for a machine that runs hotter than my current one, for me, I accept a 6 core laptop is going to be warmer than a 2 to 4 core. With that said, there hasn't been a moment where I thought "Holy ****, this thing is getting hot".

So, happy? Yes. If not it would have been returned by now and I would have purchased a different laptop immediately.

For me, I normally work on my laptop so faults would show themselves well inside the 14 day return period.

Hoping if you choose to get one because you decide to get one, it is a great machine for you. Don't let some peoples exaggerations steer you away from anything. Make up your mind and choose what is right for you.
 
Hey. I currently have a MacBook Air 2014 model. I'm an iOS developer. Have loved using this machine but looking for something faster. Have put off buying a MacBook Pro but feel like I need an upgrade now. Is anyone actually happy with their machine? Here is what I hear I get for £3600 odd:

(2.6 GHZ i7 15", 32GB, 1TB)

1.) Speakers that crackle
2. ) A keyboard that is rendered useless by dust
3.) Light bleed around the casing of the screen
4.) Uneven color balance on the screen (pink on the LHS)
5.) A machine that runs much hotter and will make more noise than my current one
6.) Random OS bridge crashes

Have I missed anything?

i think the macbook air is a perfect machine, without any problem also because it's so many years in production…


i will not buy anything other

for the second generation keyboard there is already a repair program.. so why buy it? it is something that apple has recognized… 1.500 dollars of computer and then i must repair? no thanks
also making a third generation means you are recognizing that the second gen was not good
the third generation doesn't seem much different…
 
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.