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Would the 1.3ghz CPU upgrade be worth $250? About 15% or so performance boost for 15% price increase?
 
Is...this considered a meaningful upgrade? Serious question.

It's a spec bump, that's it.. It's significant, in line with what Intel has achieved in this form factor. The memory bandwidth and SSD performance are really improved.
 
The best form factor of an Apple laptop for its purpose in years.. continues to shine. I take mine with me and really, a lunch weighs more/takes more room, sometimes. I won't upgrade for this speed bump--no need, really. Same price? Nicely done, Apple.
 
i talked with someone who is an engineer , and said that apple macbook don't have a 720p its because the weight and thin lid. Until apple don't find a way for the hinge to perfectly balance the lid , they will not put into the macbook. He said probably next year since the front facing camera will be thinner and they are adopting new hinge design
 
I just struggle to see where I would recommend this over the cheaper Air. Retina display but weaker graphics, slower CPU, less battery life and the 12" Macbook costs $100 more than the 13" Air with the same RAM and Flash Storage...what's to like?

Considering the screen is the only part of a laptop that you interact with 100% of the time you are using it, I'd say it's pretty damn important, especially compared to marginal differences in CPU and GPU speeds that most users will never notice.
 
i talked with someone who is an engineer , and said that apple don't have a 720p its because the weight and thin lid. Until apple don't find a way for the hinge to perfectly balance the lid , they will not put into the macbook. He said probably next year since the front facing camera will be thinner and they are adopting new hinge design

Then make the lid thicker? Wait, it's not possible because that would be obscene to look at. Designers at Apple must have some kind of mental disease. It's exactly like how the modeling industry fat shames 105 lb models.
 
When you look at the guts of it, I think Apple has a lot of gall charging what they do; it should really go for about 40% less. Really, when you consider that it has a Retina display (who cares?), one port, and a motherboard the size of an iPhone, it's a laughable product.
 
I am honestly confused by people complaining about the 480p camera like that's a big deal. Who is seriously using their Macs camera for anything other than simple business meetings or family chats? Is that really the big thing people complain about?
I agree. I'm much more likely to use my iPhone for FaceTime anyways because I can switch the camera and point things out to people. For basic calls people just need to be able to see my face.
 
Then make the lid thicker? Wait, it's not possible because that would be obscene to look at. Designers at Apple must have some kind of mental disease. It's exactly like how the modeling industry fat shames 105 lb models.
if the lid would be thicker at some travel point it would fall and close the macbook. you cant understand
 
Doesn't make it any less mind boggling that it doesn't have TB3. And FWIW HP's new Spectre laptop -- allegedly the thinnest in the world does have TB 3 so there is that. I'm no HP fan, but from an engineering perspective don't say it's not possible because HP did, albeit with a different CPU. Yes, Apple never designed for TB3 with this iteration. Again, $1600 is a lot of money for a computer with a lot of other things missing. It's got panache, but in a Porsche 944 kind of way.

Well, I gave you a way in which it is possible: By reengineering the motherboard to fit an additional controller.

But that would require significant effort across more than just the board and this is a quiet refresh to update the internals to the most modern chipset and nothing more - that's what I was implying. Since the update to Skylake didn't bring that natively, Apple themselves would have to go out of their way to add it in - and why would they do that when the next iteration will have support native?

It wasn't included, but it wasn't missing. If Skylake supported it natively and Apple didn't make the appropriate move, then yes, it'd be missing.
 
I agree. I'm much more likely to use my iPhone for FaceTime anyways because I can switch the camera and point things out to people. For basic calls people just need to be able to see my face.

That's most likely the user base Apple built this MacBook for:

People who have a money tree in the back yard and who doesn't care to FaceTime in high resolution in 2016. I guess making an autofocus front camera, supporting at least 720p would be too difficult for Apple engineers. Instead coloring it pink and making it thinner would make more sense and definitely pricing it at what it is now makes even more sense :confused:
 
I feel this upgrade didn't make my current last generation obsolete. It wasn't worth waiting for this Skylake update in my opinion.
Having a single USB port isn't too bad since it is still 1 more more than the iPad Pro.
 
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I agree. I'm much more likely to use my iPhone for FaceTime anyways because I can switch the camera and point things out to people. For basic calls people just need to be able to see my face.
Maybe some people really do take selfies with their MacBooks o_O
 

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I am struggling to believe that some people are so naive as to think that Apple would update this with TB and another USB port on it's first refresh. I'd be surprised if they ever add another port to it. The lack of ports is a clear statement of intent for this thing. If you need ports buy a MacBook Pro.
 
When you look at the guts of it, I think Apple has a lot of gall charging what they do; it should really go for about 40% less. Really, when you consider that it has a Retina display (who cares?), one port, and a motherboard the size of an iPhone, it's a laughable product.

Again, making highest profitable margins is what matters most. This is post-Job's era. Why make products people can use but let's make pink laptops for fashion and no one cares about how big the motherboard is. They only care that it's expensive because it has an apple logo and it's exclusive because it's expensive.
 
Apple is being quite stingy. Just add that extra usb port and I might buy it

Changes in port layout usually don't occur until redesigns, and thats probably going to be in 2-3 years. Even then, I absolutely do not see Apple back pedaling on their one port philosophy. It's their envisioned future. Embrace it or buy something else.
 
"disk-write speeds using Blackmagic saw bigger improvements, as much as 80 or 90 percent faster (reading speeds look like smaller, incremental improvements)"
NUMBERS PLEASE. Or are they embargoed until Thursday? :p
 
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