Macbook Pro- What is your review?

[ZapNZs]

I wear a watch I prefer to the Rolex, but I have yet to visit the Rolex forums.

You can't keep watch fans in suspense like that! What is it? I'm a (brushed) Breitling Chronomat 44 man myself. Although the ceramic/liquid metal Planet Oceans make me pretty giddy, and if I made more I'd just call it a day and buy a Patek MoonPhase.

 

[Merkava_4]

I wish Apple would make the MacBook Pro more durable like an automotive scan tool.

As it is now, it's got to be the most expensive fragile device you can buy.

 

[dyn]

LOL, you just said it means NOTHING that an industry uses a system, only to refute that statement by stating that it actually DOES mean something and citing examples.

Nope, you just fail to understand that you can't use 1 particular industry (or even a particular part of an industry) as an example for all industries. The fact that 1 particular industry uses Macs only says something about that particular industry, not about all industries nor Macs.

So those seeking to work in photography, film, video, post production etc. are best served by using Mac, which is what we all do.

Sadly the numbers do not support your story. I've had clients in those industries you name and a very high number uses Windows. In fact, at university they even went from Mac to Windows.

BTW, do you OWN a new MBP? If not, why are you here?

I migrated from Linux to Mac 11 years ago and haven't looked back because Linux still hasn't made that much progress when it comes to notebooks. Windows, Linux and Mac have been the systems I've used for quite some time both personally and professionally. And being a sysadmin, I've also had to manage those systems.

 

[Pangalactic]

I think they are very good laptops, but for different "PRO"s. Writing emails, communicating, watching videos, playing music, productivity work - simple tasks that don't require processing power or external connections. this is what I think the current generation does best.

For photography and videography however - hell no Dell XPS and the others have overtaken the market, because I CAN ACTUALLY RUN PREMIERE PRO in 4K ON IT! AND AFTER EFFECTS! AND STICK MY ... SD CARDS IN IT! AND COPY FILES ON THEM WITHOUT DONGLES!


And I'll stick to my opinion that apart from the base 13'' non-touchbar all the other models are grossly overpriced for what they do.

 

[jackoatmon]

11/10

best computer ever made
best piece of technology i've ever owned
performs incredibly well under extremely high strain in 4k video, motion graphics, photo manipulation and design
cool and quiet
first time i've ever used a laptop as my workstation
this thing is a monster

use case:
senior creative professional
CC (Ps, Ai, Lr, Ae, Id)
FCPX (4k)

i literally can't believe how good this machine is
i've got the one with all the upgrades

 

[aevan]

I think they are very good laptops, but for different "PRO"s. Writing emails, communicating, watching videos, playing music, productivity work - simple tasks that don't require processing power or external connections. this is what I think the current generation does best.

And yet I use it for Zbrush and render in Keyshot and for some reason, my 15" Skylake always renders a bit faster than my colleagues Kaby Lake Dell XPS 15".

That doesn't matter, because his is also a powerful computer. Just crappy looking and running Windows

As for "simple tasks only" - I honestly don't know what you're talking about. You know that MBP 15 is one of the faster notebooks on the market, right? Not that speed is everything....

For photography and videography however - hell no Dell XPS and the others have overtaken the market, because I CAN ACTUALLY RUN PREMIERE PRO in 4K ON IT! AND AFTER EFFECTS! AND STICK MY ... SD CARDS IN IT! AND COPY FILES ON THEM WITHOUT DONGLES!

Because there are only two type of professionals in the world: those that surf and type emails and those that use Nvidia-favoring Adobe Premiere Pro.

And I'll stick to my opinion that apart from the base 13'' non-touchbar all the other models are grossly overpriced for what they do.

In other words, you're looking for the best deal, not the best quality. Perfectly fine, but not everyone is.

 

[The Mercurian]

In other words, you're looking for the best deal, not the best quality. Perfectly fine, but not everyone is.

Gotta respond to this. Just yesterday I decided to prive side by side matching spec MBP vs XPS. Here is my analysis from another thread:

They should probably pay more mind to competitors prices.
Right now these are prices of similarly specced Dell vs MBP for me:

15" 2017 MBP Kabylake 2.8Ghz 16GB 512GB SSD = € 3,139
15" 2017 Dell XPS Kabylake 2.8Ghz 16GB 512GB SSD = € 1,799

So about €1,340 in the difference - the price of a higher spec MBA is € 1,379 or of the entry Dell 13" XPS is € 1,349.

So for the price of a MBP I could buy two Dells, or a Dell and a MBA. Or take a ten day holiday. Or buy a small car.

I cannot tell you what the MBP should cost - but I can tell you it should not have that much opportunity cost. One would be absolutely mad to pay that kind of premium.

So I realise that the pricing are different by country and by currency, and that maybe there is less differential in the US. But that price difference right there is freaking ridiculous.

 

[Pangalactic]

And yet I use it for Zbrush and render in Keyshot and for some reason, my 15" Skylake always renders a bit faster than my colleagues Kaby Lake Dell XPS 15".

That doesn't matter, because his is also a powerful computer. Just crappy looking and running Windows

As for "simple tasks only" - I honestly don't know what you're talking about. You know that MBP 15 is one of the faster notebooks on the market, right? Not that speed is everything....

By simple I mean everything not graphic intensive + Final Cut. Try After Effects, it's like going to your Macbook's funeral looks are of course subjective, but no one will ever call an XPS crappy looking as for Windows - there are A LOT of things I prefer about it, just as there are things I prefer about Mac OS. Right now they are approximately on the same level.

Because there are only two type of professionals in the world: those that surf and type emails and those that use Nvidia-favoring Adobe Premiere Pro.

Yes, there are
1) people who surf and type emails who don't need proper I/O and graphic cards
2) people who do photo/video who NEED the SD slot as there is no replacement for it, generally use the old USB devices and need proper graphics and laptops that allow 32 gigs of RAM.

In other words, you're looking for the best deal, not the best quality. Perfectly fine, but not everyone is.

Well, I'm glad to know you're running a three way SLI Nvidia GeForce Titan X Pascals with a 10-core Core i7-6950X for $30,000

So I realise that the pricing are different by country and by currency, and that maybe there is less differential in the US. But that price difference right there is freaking ridiculous.

Yes, that is absolutely true. I live in Russia, and the prices are approximately 25% higher here then in the US. So flying to NY, buying a Macbook there and flying back is actually cheaper than buying it here.

 

[aevan]

So I realise that the pricing are different by country and by currency, and that maybe there is less differential in the US. But that price difference right there is freaking ridiculous.

I agree, the difference is quite a bit. But, when you do work on your computer and that computer is your primary means of getting things done, that difference doesn't seem that much in the long term. To answer the person you quoted - sure, I could take a 10 day holiday, but then work on a computer I like less for the rest of the 355 days.

But, it's perfectly fine to spend less on a computer, especially if you like Dell.

 

[meme1255]

I agree, the difference is quite a bit.

As you live/come from Serbia, I would expect that you understand that paying 3000 € is quite different with "Western" and "Eastern" salaries. :/

 

[aevan]

By simple I mean everything not graphic intensive + Final Cut. Try After Effects, it's like going to your Macbook's funeral looks are of course subjective, but no one will ever call an XPS crappy looking as for Windows - there are A LOT of things I prefer about it, just as there are things I prefer about Mac OS. Right now they are approximately on the same level.

Again the video stuff. After Effects works fine, no it will not send my MacBook to its funeral, and not everyone works in After Effects and not everyone is into video production. What I do care are graphical apps, 2D, 3D - they all work great, in a better enviroment on a more reliable computer. So, just stop with that silly "it's for writing emails" rhetoric, it's transparently wrong.

Yes, there are
1) people who surf and type emails who don't need proper I/O and graphic cards
2) people who do photo/video who NEED the SD slot as there is no replacement for it, generally use the old USB devices and need proper graphics and laptops that allow 32 gigs of RAM.

3) People who use graphic design software and love the Mac ecosystem
4) People who use illustration software and want to use Astropad with that software
5) People who start their drawings on iPad Pro and Procreate and want to paste directly into Photoshop to continue work
6) While we're at it - people who use Photoshop and love macOS
7) People who want a fast, reliable Zbrush and 3D Coat computer
8) People who want a fast, reliable Modo, Blender and Maya computer

Need I go on? Do you still claim these are good for just writing emails and surfing? And that everyone needs Adobe Premiere and After Effects? These do work, by the way, quite nicely, just not as fast as an Nvidia equipped notebook.
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As you live/come from Serbia, I would expect that you understand that paying 3000 € is quite different with "Western" and "Eastern" salaries. :/

Sure it is. This computer is ridiculously expensive for 99% people here. It's expensive for me too. However, I do make my living working on it and it's one of the several most important tools for me. This is one of the few things where I don't compromise - because after my family, my work is the most important thing to me. I live in relatively modest conditions otherwise, and when I do buy something expensive - it's for work.

And it's possible I made a wrong choice - I mean, it's all relative. But all I'm saying is - I wasn't looking for the best deal, I was looking for the computer that would allow me to do my work the best way possible.

But yeah, it's &^*&%*% expensive, it is. That's why I 100% understand anyone who doesn't want to spend that much money on it. Just, I don't like these "you could've bought a car for it" arguments - because not everyone wants 2 laptops, or a laptop and a used car, or a laptop and a holiday - etc.

 

[The Mercurian]

I agree, the difference is quite a bit. But, when you do work on your computer and that computer is your primary means of getting things done, that difference doesn't seem that much in the long term. To answer the person you quoted - sure, I could take a 10 day holiday, but then work on a computer I like less for the rest of the 355 days.

But, it's perfectly fine to spend less on a computer, especially if you like Dell.

I quoted myself from another tread
But you kinda missed the point. I could buy the Dell as a workhorse, and still buy a Macbook Air for the joy of MacOS/travel/second computer whilst DEll is crunhcing for the same price as the MBP alone.

The pricing in Euro its literally insane - no way this won't affect sales figures in Europe (these prices jsut went up with announcement of 2017 MBP). They are pricing themselves out of the market here.

 

[aevan]

The pricing in Euro its literally insane - no way this won't affect sales figures in Europe (these prices jsut went up with announcement of 2017 MBP). They are pricing themselves out of the market here.

The prices went up in euros? Seriously? Omg, ok, forget what I said - that's just not right.

EDIT: Just checked the prices. I can't remember how much was the maxed out MBP in Germany, but I think it was 3000 or 3100e. Now it's 3300!

I don't get it. How do they justify this? I mean, it makes no sense.

 

[Karnicopia]

That's strange because it seems like there was a price drop in the US. So for example the 2.9 processor comes on the off the shelf version not the built to order and the GFX card seemed to drop a level so you get the 560 at the off the shelf version as well. So basically the top built to order from 2016 is now the off the shelf higher end version and has a price drop of a few hundred. Even if I max out the processor that's cheaper than the version I bought. That's how it looks to me at least but maybe I'm missing something. I didn't max out the SSD though so maybe that's the difference. Basically I had to pay for the 460 upgrade and people don't have to anymore and the processors all dropped a level which is a savings.

 

[Pangalactic]

in a better enviroment on a more reliable computer

AKA on far inferior hardware for a lot more money. And it's not windows vista anymore, windows 10 just is as stable as Sierra.


I'm not saying that Mac is a bad machine, I'm saying that is it vastly overpriced for what it does, and Apple's decision to stick with AMD (at least until the VEGA release) is questionable at least.
And overall it is quickly turning into a shameless cashgrab - like soldered SSD, RAM upgrades for $200 when you can get it for $100 on Amazon and keep the old one, irreplaceable battery, non-upgradable EVERYTHING, "cheap" dongles that Apple for some reason doesn't want to put alongside their $4000 machines. The I/O, of course, is horrendous, not a single person's life has been made better by the removal of the SD card slot.

And, of course, the headphone jack so you can listen to music on Macbook Pro but not on Iphone as you need lighting headphones for it so that you can listen to music on Iphone but not on Macbook Pro as it doesn't support lightning

 

[The Mercurian]

The prices went up in euros? Seriously? Omg, ok, forgot what I said - that's just not right.

Not every model in every country but there are numerous posts from people in different countries saying such'n'such a model increased by €50 or so. I think its on the upgrades not the base options. I wasn't watching prices closely enough before the announcement to know the specifics.

 

[CaptRB]

I'm sorry. I don't want to call people here liars, so let I'm left with nothing else to say beyond that they are ignorant or agenda driven.

I use the new MBP for photography. The HIGH end of photography. That means tethered cameras, both DSLR and medium format. And I have a client who is using these with FCP to edit feature films.

I have no idea what people are talking about when the #1 post production house in NYC is running these machines to cut commercials. We're talking top level high budget stuff.

Did someone just say that PC's have taken over photography and video? I live and work in Hollywood and was working in NYC a year ago, so PLEASE shown me high level photographers using PC's. Please show me people cutting movies on PC's. I'm sure they're out there, but I have yet to visit a SINGLE studio of ANY type using a PC for anything but the reception desk.

There are plenty of PC's out there that can do the work, some as well or better than a MBP. But those industries prefer the Mac OS and it's imbedded. When I attended a screening of "It Comes at Night" not a single member of the press was using a PC.

And let's stop with the nonsense about how the Mac is a niche machine,. The Media industry is the #1 business in America. It connects and encompasses all other business interests.

If you need the best specs or horsepower for your dollar, don't buy a Mac or a Porsche. If you want the best laptop or sports car, pony up for the Mac or Porsche.


R.

 

[IllIllIll]

And let's stop with the nonsense about how the Mac is a niche machine,. The Media industry is the #1 business in America. It connects and encompasses all other business interests.

"#1 business in America"? Based on what? Contribution to this country's GDP? Revenue dollars generated? Number of people working in the field? A bit hyperbolic, don't you think?

If you need the best specs or horsepower for your dollar, don't buy a Mac or a Porsche. If you want the best laptop or sports car, pony up for the Mac or Porsche.

Again, based on what? "Best" can mean a lot of things and is heavily dependent on what the end user needs it for. Taking your Porsche example (you seem to mention P-cars a lot in your posts), I'd happily take a Boxster Spyder out for a drive on the Mulholland Snake but if I'm going to the dragstrip, I'd bring something else.

I own and drive a GT4 myself (my 3rd Porsche), but even I know that Porsche isn't the be-all and end-all of sports cars.

 

[CaptRB]

"#1 business in America"? Based on what? Contribution to this country's GDP? Revenue dollars generated? Number of people working in the field? A bit hyperbolic, don't you think?



Again, based on what? "Best" can mean a lot of things and is heavily dependent on what the end user needs it for. Taking your Porsche example (you seem to mention P-cars a lot in your posts), I'd happily take a Boxster Spyder out for a drive on the Mulholland Snake but if I'm going to the dragstrip, I'd bring something else.

I own and drive a GT4 myself (my 3rd Porsche), but even I know that Porsche isn't the be-all and end-all of sports cars.

LOL...I own a Hellcat, so I'm with you on the drag strip bit. But I was talking to overall usage. And while my Hellcat will pull away from some Porsches on the open road, spending a few days with a Porsche Turbo made it clear that it's OVERALL a superior machine. It simply checks off more boxes, unless you need a 4 door family car like my Hellcat. But I'm not dumb enough to suggest that the Porsche is overpriced vs. my Hellcat just because I have 200 more HP.

It's impossible to aggregate the media industry into a single number, but it is generally cited at the largest in the world. We're talking about everything from the internet to newpapers, films, cable, and product marketing. It's part of EVERY business and therefor the largest in the world. I'm sure you know Mac is highly favored for these industries. Much of this is due to the OS, which is why Apple has never wasted time trying to add the most HP against machines still struggling with a weaker OS.

I'm thinking of a Porsche now myself, but I recently test drove the new Camaro ZL1 and enjoyed it just as much (and under 90K). My issue is that I'm tall, which makes buying the exotics I really want useless. But Porsche is the top machine out there (and tall people fit!), ultra capable and reliable against competition that tends to focus on niches rather than an overall machine.


R.

 

[IllIllIll]

It's impossible to aggregate the media industry into a single number, but it is generally cited at the largest in the world. We're talking about everything from the internet to newpapers, films, cable, and product marketing. It's part of EVERY business and therefor the largest in the world. I'm sure you know Mac is highly favored for these industries. Much of this is due to the OS, which is why Apple has never wasted time trying to add the most HP against machines still struggling with a weaker OS.

No disrespect intended, but you're painting with a VERY broad brush if you're including the Internet and marketing in with content creation. I mean, sure - if you want to arbitrarily define it that way, then I guess you could say it's the largest industry in the world. But if you want to look at it based on revenue, it doesn't even crack the top 5 (being food/retail, alcohol, oil/gas/energy, pharmaceuticals, and telecom).

The bottom line is, people should determine what they want to use a laptop for before deciding on the model/OS. For example, if you do a lot of work in Microsoft SQL Server, MacOS will have VERY limited utility as there's no real native equivalent on the Mac platform. However, if you want to look hip while browsing the web at your local Starbucks, then a Macbook is the way to go.

I'm thinking of a Porsche now myself, but I recently test drove the new Camaro ZL1 and enjoyed it just as much (and under 90K). My issue is that I'm tall, which makes buying the exotics I really want useless. But Porsche is the top machine out there (and tall people fit!), ultra capable and reliable against competition that tends to focus on niches rather than an overall machine.

Can't disagree with you here. I'm 6' 2" and have never had a problem fitting in any Porsche, including the 918 Spyder.

Your Hellcat is an monster of a car, though...enjoy it

 

[Merackon]

I have a touch bar 15" , an upgrade from my retina 13" I am using currently, which in turn was an upgrade from a 2011 MBP. Throughout all of them the experience of the OS and the quality of that experience has most always remained the same, with features such as the retina screen and touch bar being bonuses sitting on top of what is already a brilliant experience. Unless you are obsessed with using a touch screen, and even then, I think that macOS is designed in such a way that makes it more productive and enjoyable to use as a laptop than Windows, especially 10 because of the amount of focus on touch input for parts of the OS.

I am studying architecture at university, so the majority of what I do on the laptop consists of researching and creating files using the Adobe suite, 3D modelling at various levels, and running virtual machines for smaller specialised programs that aren't otherwise supported yet on macOS.

In general, I think they are excellent computers for university, they are very portable, reliable, strong battery life and include a wide array of apps that are good for a lot of the work that research based courses will do. I have always thought that they were the most enjoyable laptops to use. The issues a lot of my peers encounter, and reasons for them disliking the products generally comes from them not having more than an hour of experience on macOS compared to thousands of hours on Windows.

 

[CaptRB]

No disrespect intended, but you're painting with a VERY broad brush if you're including the Internet and marketing in with content creation. I mean, sure - if you want to arbitrarily define it that way, then I guess you could say it's the largest industry in the world. But if you want to look at it based on revenue, it doesn't even crack the top 5 (being food/retail, alcohol, oil/gas/energy, pharmaceuticals, and telecom).

The bottom line is, people should determine what they want to use a laptop for before deciding on the model/OS. For example, if you do a lot of work in Microsoft SQL Server, MacOS will have VERY limited utility as there's no real native equivalent on the Mac platform. However, if you want to look hip while browsing the web at your local Starbucks, then a Macbook is the way to go.



Can't disagree with you here. I'm 6' 2" and have never had a problem fitting in any Porsche, including the 918 Spy. der.

Your Hellcat is an monster of a car, though...enjoy it

Yes, I am painting with a broad brush. But a client of mine handles design work for big pharm and of course even THAT is a Mac world. No matter what aspect of the media I see, it's all Mac, from design, to photography, to feature film editing and even the design offices at Tesla that I recently visited....not a PC in sight. Do we look cool with these machines? Maybe! Nothing wrong with that. You didn't buy a Porsche because it was also an ugly car, did you?

An interesting parallel might be Nikon vs. Canon. I shoot Nikon, but go to most any sporting event and you'll see a sea of white Canon lenses used by the industry. Nikon owned that market, then tossed it away over 20 years of weak products. Now they're back, but it's a tough road.
I see the windows/PC products in the same light. They're fighting back, but it'll take a LOT of hard work to capture what Apple claimed from them after years of substandard stuff from the PC world.

Yeah, the Hellcat is a monster. It's a lot of fun, but it needs room to do its thing. Still, the most fun in a family car to be sure. The only issue I have with the Porsche is that everyone in LA seems to drive one. When I went to the dealer they were more excited to see my Hellcat than I was to see the Porsche. But damn...the 911 Turbo is a glorious car even if I can't see the engine.


R.

 

[IllIllIll]

An interesting parallel might be Nikon vs. Canon. I shoot Nikon, but go to most any sporting event and you'll see a sea of white Canon lenses used by the industry. Nikon owned that market, then tossed it away over 20 years of weak products. Now they're back, but it's a tough road.
I see the windows/PC products in the same light. They're fighting back, but it'll take a LOT of hard work to capture what Apple claimed from them after years of substandard stuff from the PC world.

I think a distinction really needs to be made between the hardware platform and the OS. At the basest level, the MacBook is simply a well-built and well-packaged mid-tier Intel CPU notebook. The difference is the OS that one chooses to run on it. I don't see much of a difference between running Lightroom or Photoshop or Premiere Pro on a Windows machine versus a Mac anymore - so unless you're running something like Final Cut Pro that requires a Mac or SQL Server or Visual studio that requires Windows, future decisions made by industries to go with one platform or the other will ultimately be decided by economics.

 

[CaptRB]

I think a distinction really needs to be made between the hardware platform and the OS. At the basest level, the MacBook is simply a well-built and well-packaged mid-tier Intel CPU notebook. The difference is the OS that one chooses to run on it. I don't see much of a difference between running Lightroom or Photoshop or Premiere Pro on a Windows machine versus a Mac anymore - so unless you're running something like Final Cut Pro that requires a Mac or SQL Server or Visual studio that requires Windows, future decisions made by industries to go with one platform or the other will ultimately be decided by economics.

This makes sense technically, except we recently had two top tier Dell machines on a shoot. They out-spec'd my MacBook 15" yet both failed. One was not stable when tethered and the other kept crashing under Lightroom. We ended up using my 13" touchbar, which I had in my car. It worked perfectly.

On a totally different note, and a rather obscure one...we were working with a Celestron SCT telescope (among others) and setting them up with the GPS apps, sky portal and so on. Again, PC meltdowns, failure to connect, crashes while the Macs went on working without a glitch. It's REALLY hard to go back to PC when these things happen.

This is what makes a MBP "top tier" for many users and the PC is simply unacceptable. In a few days I'm shooting for a Tiffany designer. No way would I risk using a PC for that. The vast majority of the ginormous media industry is looking for the most seamless integration of specification and this is why Mac sits at the top still. This is also why, when visiting a big movie set, I primarily see Mac. Stability is everything for a professional.

I don't bash PC's. But they continue to get dumped on by the high end market because of 1) Windows. 2) Ongoing poor quality control for even the major brands. But just like the iPhone, I expect this will change. The iPhone is not even CLOSE to being the best phone anymore. Android is better and so are some of the phones. And I say that owning both. I think PC will catch Mac eventually, but where not there yet.


R.
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I think a distinction really needs to be made between the hardware platform and the OS. At the basest level, the MacBook is simply a well-built and well-packaged mid-tier Intel CPU notebook. The difference is the OS that one chooses to run on it. I don't see much of a difference between running Lightroom or Photoshop or Premiere Pro on a Windows machine versus a Mac anymore - so unless you're running something like Final Cut Pro that requires a Mac or SQL Server or Visual studio that requires Windows, future decisions made by industries to go with one platform or the other will ultimately be decided by economics.

You also say that "you see no difference" when running Photoshop, but have you run it tethered with a Canon 5Ds and Nikon D5 while switching between them? Have you done this while trying to output to a 4K monitor on a location shoot? As I said, the XPS 15 from Dell failed us big time. They cost over 3K each! And I know for a fact that issues like this are very common. It's not Dell's fault. It's windows. But even my MacBook Air can do this stuff without a hitch.

R

 

[vipergts2207]

On a totally different note, and a rather obscure one...we were working with a Celestron SCT telescope (among others) and setting them up with the GPS apps, sky portal and so on. Again, PC meltdowns, failure to connect, crashes while the Macs went on working without a glitch. It's REALLY hard to go back to PC when these things happen.

Whoa, a fellow amateur astronomer outside of cloudynights! I love using SkySafari with my Celestron AVX, though use it on my iPhone/iPad now instead of my MBP.