How great is the Macbook?

[gbederson]

Well, after reading countless threads critical of the Macbook I finally bought it and wanted to confirm what I had suspected: the computer is far superior for me to both the 13" and 11" Macbook Air that I have owned previously for several years. The screen size and quality, the keyboard size and quality, the trackpad size and quality, the computer size and quality - just about everything design-wise - is a dramatic improvement over the Air. Personally, I see the fact that it only has a single USB port as an advantage, not a disadvantage, from the point of view of simplicity, which I consider to be of the utmost importance when it comes to electronics.

Of course there are other perspectives - but for someone like me, who does all my personal work and business in cafes and libraries, and appreciates the beauty and quality of the device above all - it is phenomenal.

Geoff

 

[freitz]

This is why Jony Ive was just promoted lol

 

[daanodinot]

Agree with everyhing you said, except size. I'd love to see the same exact Macbook, just in a 13-14" size.

 

[Ghost31]

Agree with everyhing you said, except size. I'd love to see the same exact Macbook, just in a 13-14" size.

Wouldn't we all

 

[Asthmatic Kitty]

Insanely Great!

 

[gbederson]

Well, after 1 1/2 months of use I realized that I was a little excessive in my praise of one area of the Macbook: the keyboard. I love the idea that much more in the way of engineering went into it, but I just can't use it as well as the old one. After trying out the Macbook Air keyboard again I found myself being able to tell exactly what each keystroke was going to be before pressing the key. This is partly because of the looseness of the keys. With the shallow depth, large size, and stability of the keys on the Macbook it is much harder to ensure that your fingers are in the right place.... So I guess that I'll have to wait another few years before the right combination of features arrives. I still prefer the Macbook, but the keyboard is absolutely disadvantageous.

 

[jmikhail490]

Well, after 1 1/2 months of use I realized that I was a little excessive in my praise of one area of the Macbook: the keyboard. I love the idea that much more in the way of engineering went into it, but I just can't use it as well as the old one. After trying out the Macbook Air keyboard again I found myself being able to tell exactly what each keystroke was going to be before pressing the key. This is partly because of the looseness of the keys. With the shallow depth, large size, and stability of the keys on the Macbook it is much harder to ensure that your fingers are in the right place.... So I guess that I'll have to wait another few years before the right combination of features arrives. I still prefer the Macbook, but the keyboard is absolutely disadvantageous.

So did you sell it or return it or you kept it?

The two features I loved most about the rMB were the keyboard and the size. After having it for 13 days I exchanged it for the rMBP 13' because its speed was lagging a little and I needed something a little more future proof and to be honest I completely agree with what you are saying and I am realizing and experiencing the same exact thing now that i have the old one again. The size was definitely better and the portability but the speed I needed made me switch so now I am realizing again how much the traditional keyboards are great and why they've been praised so much

 

[gbederson]

So did you sell it or return it or you kept it?

The two features I loved most about the rMB were the keyboard and the size. After having it for 13 days I exchanged it for the rMBP 13' because its speed was lagging a little and I needed something a little more future proof and to be honest I completely agree with what you are saying and I am realizing and experiencing the same exact thing now that i have the old one again. The size was definitely better and the portability but the speed I needed made me switch so now I am realizing again how much the traditional keyboards are great and why they've been praised so much

 

[gbederson]

I am keeping the Macbook but may actually switch back to the Air if I can't get a bit more used to the keyboard.... Guess I may never be really satisfied! I really do prefer the Macbook otherwise.

 

[Hook85]

I am keeping the Macbook but may actually switch back to the Air if I can't get a bit more used to the keyboard.... Guess I may never be really satisfied! I really do prefer the Macbook otherwise.

I've been using the rMB now for 3 weeks, in that time I've probably typed in excess of 50 000 words on it. While it does take some getting used to, and sometimes my fingers miss keys, I much prefer it over the old one. I find that I can type much faster on it, and that the fact it is quieter is a big advantage in many places.

I suspect the reason I occasionally miss keys is because I'm typing faster and my fingers haven't yet caught up with my brain telling them what to do. When I deliberately slow down I rarely miss a key out.

Maybe I just need to work on my hand muscles and eventually I'll be able to type at a continually faster speed. I'm hoping the new bluetooth v4 keyboards that Apple are launching soon will feature the new design, because I do find it difficult switching from the old style to the new style.

I can see though how somebody could get really annoyed by the design.

 

[Gav2k]

I'll chime in and say I'm really loving mine, it hasn't missed a beat and from a productivity standpoint it's great.

I haven't given it an easy time either. It's done everything from basic tasks, downloading my whole iTunes Match library to create a new local backup, handbrake encoding, some plex transcoding to gaming.

The keyboard I'm now 110% converted. I actually struggle with my other machines now.

The biggest positive to me is having OS X on something that's not much more heavy that an iPad.

As for the biggest bug bear for most people, the infamous single port... Well let me say it's bloody great! I can dock with 1 cable. Not 5 like before. Yes it's costly but hey that's Apple and honestly it's not an issue as long as it works and hell it works perfectly.

 

[thadoggfather]

I'd say rMB is the underdog of apples lineup

Parts of the design are foreshadowing what the next rMBP will be like. Not one port but trimmed bezel maybe scattered battery cells and wedged air design, the keyboard mechanism will be adopted too even if it has more travel, and a narrower bezel.

 

[gbederson]

Hmmm, I'll keep working on the keyboard. My real issue is that I have a hard time telling where my fingers are when they are just resting on the keyboard and I'm not looking at it, as the keys are so large and low. I suppose that if I develop more sensitivity to that I could be more accurate.... Anyway it's good to know that for some people it really can work well.

 

[kwiiboy]

I'll chime in and say I'm really loving mine, it hasn't missed a beat and from a productivity standpoint it's great.

I haven't given it an easy time either. It's done everything from basic tasks, downloading my whole iTunes Match library to create a new local backup, handbrake encoding, some plex transcoding to gaming.

The keyboard I'm now 110% converted. I actually struggle with my other machines now.

The biggest positive to me is having OS X on something that's not much more heavy that an iPad.

As for the biggest bug bear for most people, the infamous single port... Well let me say it's bloody great! I can dock with 1 cable. Not 5 like before. Yes it's costly but hey that's Apple and honestly it's not an issue as long as it works and hell it works perfectly.

I think my use case may be similar. I am looking to buy either the base model MacBook or the base rMBP 13. How is the battery and performance when you're doing the mildly heavy tasks? I just wonder how it fairs with many tabs open and a word doc or two altogether.

 

[tbirdparis]

Performance is pretty great for general tasks, and it also jumps up to handle mildly heavy stuff pretty nicely. What doesn't fare so well is battery life when you are doing CPU-intensive things. While the rMB only barely sips from the battery during regular tasks like a bit of safari browsing or email, it definitely starts to gulp it down when you make the machine work a bit harder. So if you're planning to go out for a day's work and do more than just general light stuff, you might want to have the charger with you.

 

[zhenya]

I think my use case may be similar. I am looking to buy either the base model MacBook or the base rMBP 13. How is the battery and performance when you're doing the mildly heavy tasks? I just wonder how it fairs with many tabs open and a word doc or two altogether.

For that kind of use the largest determinant is going to be the screen brightness - at least so long as you don't have any web pages with scripts going crazy. A plugin like ClickToFlash or ClickToPlugin will make sure that nothing like that runs without your permission. Otherwise, the rMB does better than most laptops with battery life

Performance is pretty great for general tasks, and it also jumps up to handle mildly heavy stuff pretty nicely. What doesn't fare so well is battery life when you are doing CPU-intensive things. While the rMB only barely sips from the battery during regular tasks like a bit of safari browsing or email, it definitely starts to gulp it down when you make the machine work a bit harder. So if you're planning to go out for a day's work and do more than just general light stuff, you might want to have the charger with you.

To be fair, every computer's battery life takes a dive when doing processor intensive work. The Macbook is actually better than most in that respect.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/9136/the-2015-macbook-review/11

 

[barbu]

As for the biggest bug bear for most people, the infamous single port... Well let me say it's bloody great! I can dock with 1 cable. Not 5 like before. Yes it's costly but hey that's Apple and honestly it's not an issue as long as it works and hell it works perfectly.

I can't wait to see one of these beauties with the new Skylake chipset and the Thunderbolt/USB-C combo port. At that point, the single port will be all anyone needs.

 

[bradl]

I can't wait to see one of these beauties with the new Skylake chipset and the Thunderbolt/USB-C combo port. At that point, the single port will be all anyone needs.

Except for one small problem: power and connectivity. Obviously, you'd have to buy the right adapter to have multiple peripherals connected through the single port, but currently without thinking about it, unless all of the other devices go USB-C, you're buying the adapter to plug it into the port, then the cord into the adapter. That means charging only, or peripheral only.. and that's a $70 price jump between the adapters (charge cord comes with the Mac; USB-C to USB is $29, and USB-C to HDMI/USB/charge or USB-C to VGA/USB/charge is $98).

So unless Apple decides to include a multiport adapter, we're stuck with either/or.

BL.

 

[Gav2k]

I think my use case may be similar. I am looking to buy either the base model MacBook or the base rMBP 13. How is the battery and performance when you're doing the mildly heavy tasks? I just wonder how it fairs with many tabs open and a word doc or two altogether.

Multi pages documents plus numbers with 10 tabs and iTunes running I see 7 plus hours

 

[kwiiboy]

Multi pages documents plus numbers with 10 tabs and iTunes running I see 7 plus hours

Oh interesting. That's with brightness at 75%?

 

[kwiiboy]

Very interesting hearing all the opinions and user experiences here so far. Still on the edge, might just have to buy and test within those two weeks to see if it's right for me. Biggest thing is whether or not it can last multiple years.

 

[jmikhail490]

Very interesting hearing all the opinions and user experiences here so far. Still on the edge, might just have to buy and test within those two weeks to see if it's right for me. Biggest thing is whether or not it can last multiple years.

That's exactly why I exchanged it for the rMBP last week. I absolutely did not feel that it could last me more than maybe 2 years at most, which is nothing for the 1599$ price tag I paid.

Maybe other people feel differently but I couldn't take the chance at that price point. Especially since I just started using Xcode.

 

[dugbug]

Id wish for more GPU power, enough to airplay the desktop while safari plays a video. Then I'd trash the headset for an additional USB C. But yeah this is a fantastic little kit isn't it.

 

[Gav2k]

Oh interesting. That's with brightness at 75%?

I never run my brightness at above 50% unless I'm outside really

 

[Admiral]

It's pretty damn great, to be honest. And while it doesn't quite meet my needs, personally, that's not a knock on the Retina MacBook but rather is a product of my needs. I am in love with the reduced weight and long battery life. After a month with the Retina display I had occasion to open up my old MacBook Air and now I wonder how I ever endured that horrible piece of crap which I happily used just a month before. The silence of working without a fan is quite a relief.

The real Retina MacBook I want, of course, is the next one. If Apple released a higher-spec model of these in the spring with a 14" Retina display, 16GB of RAM, and Thunderbolt 3 (or at least USB 3.1 Gen 2 for 10GBps so it could drive a QHD monitor), I would so be there. It would probably come in around 2.5~3.0 pounds.

Skylake processors are said to be about a 15% performance improvement over the Broadwell Core M at the same clock speed, and the 1.3GHz CPU is supposed to be about 15% faster than my 1.1GHz. When the Skylake machine is released, going for the then-current 1.3 GHZ model will be a remarkable performance improvement.