HP Claims Innovation Over Apple With 'World's Thinnest Laptop'

[shyam09]

Did you notice the part where it weighs more than the Retina MacBook and has a 1080p screen? Yeah, really blowing it away

Given that the Retina Macbook is 12" and has an under powered processor and one frickin' USB C port so you have to decide whether to charge or connect one peripheral device ... yep, Retina Macbook for the win.

/sarcasm smh

 

[RedOrchestra]

"Early indications are that the SSD and memory are soldered onto the mainboard, suggesting HP sacrificed repairability for thinness. "

Yeah, Apple is moving off solder and going with the glue.

 

[teslo]

...Meanwhile, my MacBook Pro from 2012 is slowing down to a crawl, ridden with bugs and I wish to hurl it through a window. So frustrating.

yeah, from my anecdotal experience and others' around me, macbook (pros at least) from 2010-2012 have held up extremely poorly, if making it this far at all. the GPU/logicboard problems are legendary as far as i'm concerned. went through 2 returned/dying laptops in that period and the third one that remained is, as of last month, completely useless. a 3-4 year lifespan on a mac isn't cool.

 

[apolloa]

Not bad for an attempt at a luxury laptop. Not sure about the copper? The hinge looks very nice though. Not bad specs but I do so very hope this is not a representation of the next MacBook Pro, 3 measly USB ports and no DGPU.

 

[jonnysods]

Is thin innovative?

 

[kazmac]

Copper finish is lovely, rather nice specs and prices are similar to Apple. I may have to check one of these out* (despite not being in my budget or needs.)

I'd certainly like Apple to release a copper finish.

 

[JackANSI]

I'd have to say that Apple is in serious trouble internally if they don't have a MBA, MBP, or nMB that can compete with this (at least performance wise) to show off and ship by July. With HP (HP!!!) dropping something like this....

If they don't get skylake into the entire line by the holidays this year, Apple, as a leader, is dead.

 

[Bug-Creator]

There is now no excuse for Apple to sell any Mac that uses Core M or fails to have multiple I/O ports capable of Thunderbolt.

The MacBook is a different category when it comes to speed, heat, batterylife and weight (+1 year old), so I see no problem with a CoreM notebook. While there was a reason to only have that one USB-C port (see the teardown by ifixit or elswwhere) I still consider that a design fault.

 

[KPOM]

Given that the Retina Macbook is 12" and has an under powered processor and one frickin' USB C port so you have to decide whether to charge or connect one peripheral device ... yep, Retina Macbook for the win.

/sarcasm smh

It depends on priorities. Both devices make compromises. With an adapter it's possible to charge a MacBook and have a display and peripheral connected. I'm not surprised HP put 2 ports in but am surprised they put in a 3rd. It seems superfluous since the 2nd allows one to charge the device and also plug in a hub or adapter for as many devices as needed. That's kind of the point of Thunberbolt 3.

 

[shyam09]

This thing and the Surface Book have impressed me, I'll admit. It's the inclusion of Windows that still gets me. Hardware isn't much of a differentiator anymore. But Win10 is... well, better, but still miles off what I want.

Out of genuine curiosity, what are you looking for in an OS. You said that Windows is "miles off what [you] want", so I'm just wondering if you can expand a bit more.

 

[apolloa]

yeah, from my anecdotal experience and others' around me, macbook (pros at least) from 2010-2012 have held up extremely poorly, if making it this far at all. the GPU/logicboard problems are legendary as far as i'm concerned. went through 2 returned/dying laptops in that period and the third one that remained is, as of last month, completely useless. a 3-4 year lifespan on a mac isn't cool.

My 2010 is hanging on in there It had the motherboard replaced for the faulty Nvidia GPU though but so far that's it. Touch wood. one of it's fans is a bit knackered though and rather than buy a fan at a silly price, which they are, I will weigh my options in the year, may buy a new Mac and if so may be a Mac Pro, iMac, MacBook Pro etc.

 

[0007776]

It looks good, but thinner is not innovation. It is nice to see a windows laptop that looks good and isn't a blatant copy of Apple's design though.

 

[KPOM]

I'd have to say that Apple is in serious trouble internally if they don't have a MBA, MBP, or nMB that can compete with this (at least performance wise) to show off and ship by July. With HP (HP!!!) dropping something like this....

If they don't get skylake into the entire line by the holidays this year, Apple, as a leader, is dead.

Unless they are planning to skip Skylake and go right to Kaby Lake. My guess is that there is a very good reason they have not just done a simple refresh of the rMBP. They may do a silent update of the 12" MacBook as early as this month.

 

[MLMcMillion]

Headphone jack on the back? Really?

 

[Gameboy70]

Windows 10 isn't bad

Agreed. As someone who rage quit Windows for OS X once Windows 8 replaced 7 on all the new laptops for sale, I'm stunned by how much I like Windows 10. It'll get even better when it gets the Linux subsystem this summer. I'm not leaving OS X, but I still have to use Windows at work, and 10 actually makes it palatable.

 

[revjoel]

Apple, please, don't try to compete on the 'thinness', we don't care. But please note that HP manage to fit 3 (three) USB-C ports into that machine. Try to compete on that level and throw in an SD card reader for good measure into the updated MacBook.

Pretty soon we'll see a laptop with a "Peel and Stick" screen that's so thin and flexible that you'll be able to peel it off the keyboard and stick it to a wall.

 

[coolfactor]

Put Linux on there and it would be a bad-ass machine. Window ruins it.

 

[JackANSI]

Unless they are planning to skip Skylake and go right to Kaby Lake. My guess is that there is a very good reason they have not just done a simple refresh of the rMBP. They may do a silent update of the 12" MacBook as early as this month.

Frankly I don't think Apple could pull that off at this point. Look at the Mac Pro for evidence (edging up on 3 years old. Can't call that "pro" by any stretch).

The MacBook was Apple's biggest computer fumble in at least a decade, if not more. The resources put in there could have probably updated the entire line two times. Thinness wouldn't have been on HP's mind then, so this laptop wouldn't exist and Apple would be able to skate a bit longer. They could have sold as many units in existing lines as they did MacBooks if they kept the existing lines up to date. Right now only a brain dead person would buy a MBP, MBA, nMB, and/or MP.

 

[alienegra]

Has anyone noticed it say it can come with EITHER 'Windows or OSX' in the small print??

 

[coolfactor]

Headphone jack on the back? Really?

That feels like jumping back to the dark ages of laptops.

 

[djcerla]

Thickness is measured at it's thickest point. Measuring any other way would be disingenuous. Kind of like when Apple points out the thinness of the edge of an iMac while ignoring the thickness of the bulge behind that edge.

Exactly right.

Just like in your iMac example, the average thickness of the Macbook is lower, the total volume is lower, and so is the weight, substantially.

So, technically the HP is thinner, but once in a bag it's a much bulkier laptop, and that's not surprising as it packs fans and a more powerful processor.

 

[tampageek]

This proves that it's possible to make a thin, powerful laptop with MORE THAN 1 PORT. I don't know what  was thinking with the 12''MB. It defeats the purpose of portability when you have to drag around a bag full of dongles to make it work with peripherals.

On the other hand, HP will be hearing the complaints of customers when their glued in hard drive fails and they have to throw out the entire computer and lose all their data if they weren't smart enough to keep backups. Talk about planned obsolescence...

And yes, it is quite ugly - and running Windows latest spyware OS Windows 10.

 

[bladerunner2000]

LMAO, reading the comments here. So many angry fanboys. My god! As if only Apple could make a good laptop... Now that's some serious bias.

 

[PinkyMacGodess]

But thin, not done well, is just thin crap.

Time will tell, but it looks, from the pictures, that they cut too many corners.

And, damn, the best notebooks I have are HP, and are three years old. The fall is sad...

 

[applezulu]

I dunno what the rest of you are chattering on about, but I couldn't get myself to keep reading beyond "luxury and artisinal craftsmanship."

I was confident that the whole 'artisinal' thing had completely jumped the shark when my spouse brought home a loaf of artisinal bread that was quite literally mass-produced wonder bread in a fancy wrapper.