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cursedearth

macrumors member
Original poster
Sep 13, 2011
86
125
I was in the market for a new laptop for a good couple months as my previous laptop HP dv5 (RIP 2008-2015) died on me.

I had decided to never go with an HP product again because the laptop cost me $1,200.00 and i've spent approx. $500.00 on repairs (battery, thermal paste, fan, vents, mother board). The battery died within the first 6 months of me purchasing it .

Fast forward to 2016 and I was looking for something that would have excellent build quality, reliability and something I could use as a daily driver; which is why I started looking into the rMB. I was put off by the price for what I was getting with the laptop at $1,400.00 where I live. I could've got a rMB Pro for the same price but 128 gb was too big of a trade off for the extra power. I wanted something on which I could run daily tasks such as emails, composing documents, movies, surfing etc. I just wished the price was lower. Luckily, after Apple upgraded the rMB, the price for the 2015 model fell to $1,150.00 for brand new basic M 256 GB variant and that's when I decided to get one.

Long story short, I've made the right decision thus far. I've read about a lot of people nagging about the lack of power, ports, keyboard etc. but I've enjoyed the transition from Windows to Mac over the past week. Here's a lowdown of what I think about the rMB 2015:

Power - Might not look like too much on paper, but I've had a seamless experience so far and I've put this thing through a considerable amount of stress with various apps open in the background.

Keyboard - Felt weird at the beginning but I'm loving the quality/feel of it now.

USB-C Port - I thought it would be a bit of a hassle in the beginning. Would've loved to have another port though.

Battery - I can easily make it through the day and charge it at night given the amount of work I can get done with the laptop as a daily driver.

Screen - Weird experience at first coming from a 15" laptop to a 12" laptop, but the retina display more than makes up for that.

Compatibility (For first time Mac users) - I've been able to transfer all my things from my Windows PC such as important files, documents and even export 7 years worth of MS Outlook data to my new laptop without any problems. Sort of enjoying the whole experience If I might add even though I felt this would've been a pain to handle.

All in all, really happy with my purchase. I knew I had 14 days to test out the device and I could return it if I wanted to, that definitely contributed to me taking a plunge into unchartered Macbook territory but I'm quite positive I'll be keeping this.
 

Queen6

macrumors G4
Good to see that your enjoying your new Mac and the transition from Windows went smoothly. The rMB has some compromises, equally it performs far better than many of the "nay sayers" would have you believe. I am coming up for 12 months on mine, with the notebook being used in a professional environment (Heavy Engineering) at times the 1.2 2015 rMB has struggled in comparison to my 13" & 15" rMBP`s, it does have to be said for the vast majority of the time the rMB has performed seamlessly.

Q-6
 

deivydas

macrumors member
Sep 28, 2014
79
123
Vilnius, Lithuania
Before rMB 2015 512gb i was using Macbook pro 13 (2014) and for my tasks (office, browsing, video streaming, light photo editing) i can't even tell the difference between those two laptops :) So yes, rMB has more than enough power to work fluently :)
 

izzyfanto

macrumors regular
Nov 22, 2011
233
102
Always glad to see someone enjoying their first Mac. It'll surprise you how fast you acclimate to everything. I came to Mac 4 years ago after the W8 debacle. Haven't looked back. Everything I use is Apple, except my $30 Timex watch LOL! Apple is pricier than the competition, but the quality, design, reliability (probably my favorite benefit) and software functionality has never failed to impress and remind me why I paid more money. Also, Apple's support is second to none. Cheers!
 

Emergo

macrumors member
Mar 20, 2016
61
9
Good to see that your enjoying your new Mac and the transition from Windows went smoothly. The rMB has some compromises, equally it performs far better than many of the "nay sayers" would have you believe. I am coming up for 12 months on mine, with the notebook being used in a professional environment (Heavy Engineering) at times the 1.2 2015 rMB has struggled in comparison to my 13" & 15" rMBP`s, it does have to be said for the vast majority of the time the rMB has performed seamlessly.

Q-6

Im an engineer too. Just wondering what type of heavy engineering do you do on this machine?
 

Emergo

macrumors member
Mar 20, 2016
61
9
Energy - Oil & Gas - E&P, nothing strenuous on the 12" rMB, have 15" rMBP for any heavy lifting on the go e remote into a desktop solution.

Q-6

Those are apps? Just wondering because im just starting out my career and looking for tools i can learn to give me any kind of advantage over my peers.
 

cognitivefun

macrumors newbie
Dec 6, 2008
29
7
I have 1.3 M7 that I just got. It is at least as fast as my last high end MBA which was I believe quad core. When I run a video, and also do other things, or when I'm on a call with it on slack, and do other things, it tends to be laggy. I use Dragon Dictate which is very CPU intensive, and when this is running and other stuff going on, it can slow down.

It's completely acceptable due to the ultraportability of it, and I love it. There is something so neat about a Mac about the size of the iPad.

But I will keep my main machine as the fastest MBP I can get. I certainly don't mind using the rMB. I'm glad I got the fastest one possible though. I'm not sure if I'll install Virus Scanner Plus on it, although I should...not sure if all the things that I do, and this one, will be overwhelming.
 

Queen6

macrumors G4
Those are apps? Just wondering because im just starting out my career and looking for tools i can learn to give me any kind of advantage over my peers.

No thats my line of work E&P = Exploration & Production, applications in this field are generally proprietary, free apps do exist and are solid equally if your not involved in this line of work not necessarily useful. I mostly focus on Drilling & Completions.

Q-6
 
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SteveJUAE

macrumors 601
Aug 14, 2015
4,416
4,624
Land of Smiles
Those are apps? Just wondering because im just starting out my career and looking for tools i can learn to give me any kind of advantage over my peers.
Unless your very experienced eng I doubt that you will be able to find the exploits or advantages of using OSX over a windows dominated sector or even be allowed to in such a structured environment.

Mastering core enterprise software (ie MS Office) and being adept in dealing with structured data from varied analytical, CAD and document control sources and manipulating them to improve productivity in your chosen discipline or passing data for others to use in more down stream activities , procurement, fabrication etc etc will prove challenging enough in addition to your core activities.

Most good companies run annual incentive schemes to step outside the box and improve productivity within the group and across all sectors of the business including safety and environment etc
 
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KPOM

macrumors P6
Oct 23, 2010
18,031
7,872
I have 1.3 M7 that I just got. It is at least as fast as my last high end MBA which was I believe quad core. When I run a video, and also do other things, or when I'm on a call with it on slack, and do other things, it tends to be laggy. I use Dragon Dictate which is very CPU intensive, and when this is running and other stuff going on, it can slow down.

All MacBook Airs are dual-core. You might have had an i7, though. They have faster clock speeds and a bit more cache than the i5s. They, like the MacBook, appear to the OS to have 4 cores, but that's because of a feature called Hyper Threading.
 

Queen6

macrumors G4
Unless your very experienced eng I doubt that you will be able to find the exploits or advantages of using OSX over a windows dominated sector or even be allowed to in such a structured environment.

Mastering core enterprise software (ie MS Office) and being adept in dealing with structured data from varies analytical, CAD and document control sources and manipulating them to improve productivity in your chosen discipline or passing data for others to use in more down stream activities , procurement, fabrication etc etc will prove challenging enough in addition to your core activities.

Most good companies run annual incentive schemes to step outside the box and improve productivity within the group and across all sectors of the business including safety and environment etc

@ Emergo Absolutely valid, OS X in general is not straight forward, requiring duel booting, emulation, compatibly layers to do what Windows based PC`s can do natively, nor is all software equal across the platforms.

I also have windows systems for this very reason, certainly in my roles OS X is very much the exception, rather than the rule. My own opinion is simple, if your spending the vast majority of time in "Windows" then a Windows based machine makes for more sense, as opposed to a more complex OS X notebook set up to deal with Windows applications.

Realistically unless your at the consulting level, you generally have to run with what your given...

Q-6
 
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