Well atleast the MacBook starts with a 256GB SSD option on the base model.
I dont know how likely it is, but they should DEFINITELY add a 128GB SSD option for the base MacBook. Decreases the price by around $200 too. Is that unprecedented?
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New Macbook in 2018?
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Well atleast the MacBook starts with a 256GB SSD option on the base model.
I dont know how likely it is, but they should DEFINITELY add a 128GB SSD option for the base MacBook. Decreases the price by around $200 too. Is that unprecedented?
No it is not unprecedented, partially. They did that with the MBP but only dropped the price by $100 IIRC. So, you can get a MBP with less storage than a MacBook.
EDIT:
Nope. They did drop the price by $200 when they added the 128 GB SSD option.
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I just checked, and yeah they did drop the price by $200! So contrary to popular opinion, Apple does listen! Hopefully they have heard about the MacBook being slightly overpriced for the money, and introduce a cheaper option.
iPads have advantages that you missed, and i think for content creators, portability isn’t their priority. But for some/many business users, portability is far, far more important than performance.
For one, iPads are instant on.
Also iPads have cellular connectivity. With a Mac it will take you at least a minute to connect to WiFi and only then you can get on going.
Plus, iPads have NOTIFICATION! You get notified for emails/texts/other stuff.
These are things Macs can’t do.
For many business users, emails, web surfing and work on some basic word/excel/ppt is all they need.
My iPad Pro 10.5 have been my main working device ever since it came out.
However, have all those said, i still want an ultra portable Mac....
iPad is instant on, but when Apple put SSD on Macs, Macs are practically instant on as well, especially if you have the Macbook Pro with Touch ID (faster login)
LTE on iPad is optional. But connecting to hotspot from an iPhone is super easy on Macs as it is auto-configure (even if you turn off hotspot on the iPhone). So ease of connecting to the net imo is not that big of a deal. Obviously the iPad is easier to hold on the go.
Macs do have notifications as well. This is not new.
I don't deny the usefulness of an iPad, buy you can come up with better examples than these.
I have spent 3-4 years being iPad only because I have been doing iPad training for schools. In the last 12 months I have put all my materials online and therefore been doing web editing and video editing. I simply cannot do the web editing and run a small business from an iPad. iPads are great for teachers, to annotate materials in front of a class etc as a companion device to a laptop/pc but are limited.
My wife has recently purchased an 11 inch MacBook Air off eBay. She loves it and has not touched her iPad mini since. I've been using a Mac mini at a desk but after using her MacBook Air quite a few times and loving it, I am now looking at the 12 inch MacBook, although I would probably upgrade to the i7 and 16gb memory. WWDC is 8 weeks away so I am just seeing if I can hold out until then in the hope of updates/price drops.
My wife has recently purchased an 11 inch MacBook Air off eBay. She loves it and has not touched her iPad mini since. I've been using a Mac mini at a desk but after using her MacBook Air quite a few times and loving it, I am now looking at the 12 inch MacBook, although I would probably upgrade to the i7 and 16gb memory. WWDC is 8 weeks away so I am just seeing if I can hold out until then in the hope of updates/price drops.
The MacBook is the one product where it makes the most sense to eliminate bezels. Why haven't they done anything like that? After my 2011 rMBP just broke I'm looking for a new laptop to replace it. Currently using my work laptop and I hate it, but will make do until there comes a new model that entice me. 12" is a bit too small for me, but I want a really portable one and I love that there are no moving parts in the MacBooks.
Apple, please please please make a new MacBook with two USB-C-ports and a 13+ inch screen and reduced bezels. I would probably be willing to pay way too much for it.
Apple, please please please make a new MacBook with two USB-C-ports and a 13+ inch screen and reduced bezels. I would probably be willing to pay way too much for it.
I just purchased the base model MacBook 12 (2017). I was holding out for WWDC but there was a new one on eBay for £880. I am a teacher so would have to pay £1124 from Apple normally. The £244 saving was a difficult to refuse but it doesn't arrive until Wednesday so proof will be in the pudding. My plan is to see how I get on with it for a few months then see what happens at WWDC. Later in the year I will then stick with the one I got, upgrade to the 16gb i7 or go for the MacBook Pro.
I'm sure that you'll love it! The M3 base model for 2017 is superb and 8GB of RAM should be fine.
ENJOY!
Hope so, thanks. I was torn between the MacBook and MacBook Pro but I am coming from an iPad so it needs to go everywhere with me. Portability won out.
Ordered mine a month ago, but getting it in my hands just tonight. Pretty excited. 8gb base version. Got it for 1150 on Amazon USA, so will give it a shot, and if not adequate then, Ill get a faster one, and pass this on to my wife, who is currently on a 2011 Air. I am on a 2015 Pro, but I do the occasional video editing, and other than that, it's run of the mill stuff for me.
Regarding warranty. I presume it is from the day that I login with it?
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Something you failed to recognize
1. TouchID is only available on MacBook pros. And MacBook Pro is way less portable comparing to iPad, without doubt.
2. LTE is optional on iPad, but flat out unavailable on Macs. Yes you can use ‘instant hotspot’, but the experience is.. it usually will NOT connect on first try, and it will usually take 30s-1m to connect.
So yes, MacBooks are portable, you can use them on the go. Same goes to Alienwares. However the difference is experience. With iPad one can be online literally within 3 seconds. But with a MacBook/pro, to get online you will need at least a minute to set up.
I’m willing to pull out and use my iPad literally anywhere, even while walking. But i cannot say the same to MacBooks.
True. It takes 30-60 secs to connect to internet with MBP.
But to use iPad for most of work scenarios, it takes ages what can be accomplished on MB/MBP in matter of minutes.
iPad is great. For some light photo/video editing, drawing, and some light office tasks. Other then that, it's a full blown consumption device. It can't even compare to MB/MBP in any way.
You want to develop some apps/games for that iPad? Well, purchase a MBP or a MB, because iPad can't do that.
iPad is great. But not comparable to a full blown laptops, so I simply don't understand why you guys are even comparing them. iPhone SE is way more portable then iPad. Should we compare those as well?
True. It takes 30-60 secs to connect to internet with MBP.
But to use iPad for most of work scenarios, it takes ages what can be accomplished on MB/MBP in matter of minutes.
iPad is great. For some light photo/video editing, drawing, and some light office tasks. Other then that, it's a full blown consumption device. It can't even compare to MB/MBP in any way.
You want to develop some apps/games for that iPad? Well, purchase a MBP or a MB, because iPad can't do that.
iPad is great. But not comparable to a full blown laptops, so I simply don't understand why you guys are even comparing them. iPhone SE is way more portable then iPad. Should we compare those as well?
Because people have different needs. I doubt anyone is buying a MacBook for video editing or game development. People buy MacBooks for document processing, emailing and web browsing. All those can be done on an iPad. That is why people compare MacBooks and iPads. No one is comparing an iPad and a Mac Pro.
One way to look at it is to look at ‘business laptops’ vs ‘regular workhorse laptops’. Usually the best business laptops, e.g, thinkpad x1, don’t have very powerful hardware, they don’t even have dedicate graphics, they don’t have 32gb memory. What they have is great battery life, unbeatable reliability, ease of use, and often LTE connection. iPads have them all.
MS Office is utterly painful on an iPad.
Performance is fine. Interface is not.
Couldn't agree more
I use my MB for game/app development. Nobody would use it for a AAA title development, but for simple mobile games, and any kind of mobile app, well, MB can handle it without any problems.
As far as document processing, emailing and similar stuff... Well, MB wins in that department easily as well. Web browsing is subjective thing, I enjoy it more on my MB then I do on my iMP, but my wife loves iPad more then anything else.
You simply can't compare iPads to MB in almost any regard. One has full blown and powerful OS, while second one has limited mobile OS. Only thing productivity wise that iPad wins is drawing.
Of course, everyones needs are different. But having desktop apps with trackpad and keyboard wins easily for most people. For those who want something different, iPad is a great solution.
Couldn't agree more
I use my MB for game/app development. Nobody would use it for a AAA title development, but for simple mobile games, and any kind of mobile app, well, MB can handle it without any problems.
As far as document processing, emailing and similar stuff... Well, MB wins in that department easily as well. Web browsing is subjective thing, I enjoy it more on my MB then I do on my iMP, but my wife loves iPad more then anything else.
You simply can't compare iPads to MB in almost any regard. One has full blown and powerful OS, while second one has limited mobile OS. Only thing productivity wise that iPad wins is drawing.
Of course, everyones needs are different. But having desktop apps with trackpad and keyboard wins easily for most people. For those who want something different, iPad is a great solution.
Ahhh. I see the difference. You are comparing apps on iPad and apps on Macs directly.
You are counting how many different features does word for iOS has vs how many different features does word for mac has. No doubt Mac wins, can’t argue with that.
However, when we compare the results, a lot a comparable.
I myself (along with some other people) run a small bio-tech company, and one thing i notice is, the higher up in the management chain, the less function one needs from a computer. There are tasks in our company that REQUIRES very powerful workstations/servers, but I don’t need any of those. I don’t need to analysis data, I don’t need to draft a super complex spreadsheet/word document. When i work on spreadsheet and other documents (PDF/word, etc), portrait mode and Apple Pencil is a godsend. Also i can easily sign any document right on my iPad wherever i am.
A lot times we need to read and ‘process’ PDF/word documents what are 30, 50 pages long, with a MacBook, i will have to sit right up in my chair, put my MacBook on the desk because you can’t just hold the MacBook for an hour and the ‘lapping’ angle isn’t the best. Overall it’s just not the best experience. Also though the trackpad on Macs are THE best, annotating with a cursor is still painful. So what some of my colleagues (older generations who have past the age to adapt to new technologies) do is to print all 50 pages out, sit on the couch and read them with a pen. Then have someone scan it back to computer (now two different files and the scanned file size is huge) and email it. However with an Apple Pencil i can just sit relaxed anywhere and do the same thing with my Apple Pencil, or even just fingers. The added benefit is that i only have to deal with one single file and the file size is much, much smaller.
Some added bonus for iPads: reliability, it pretty much NEVER crashes and never needs any repair. Safety, everything is easily backed up with iCloud. Battery life, it can run though my entire day non stop without paying any attention to battery saving, and you can ALWAYS easily find an lightning charger around.
If i have use a MacBook as main device, there wont be any major improvements to my work, so you tell me if they are comparable.
Well, in some rare occasion when i really really really need the full blown OS, just like in cases you really have to edit 4K videos on a MacBook, i can always Remote Desktop into my full blown quad-core iMac or our servers, but it only happened to me like once or twice a year.
Yes. But not just that. Let me put it this way, if I had to write 50+ emails in a day, and a lot of word documents, or work in excel, well, I wouldn't even consider an iPad.
Sure, you can use physical keyboard on iPad. But then it's not more portable then a MB. And even then, it isn't as easy as with MB keyboard + trackpad.
Biggest faults are in user interface and inputs. Any laptop wins vs iPad easily.
Of course, there will be some examples that prove otherwise. But those are really hard to find.
And this is the biggest reason most of the people see iPad as just pure and great consumption device.
Absolutely, but having said that, I have given up my ipad, and use my phone instead for when on the move. I think there is a trend too, with large screen phones. I have a Note 8 and the screen is brilliant. And of course a laptop for more serious stuff.
You are not giving any support to your own arguments. All you say is ‘laptop wins easily’. How? Why?
Isn’t touching a bottom easier and quicker than moving the cursor to a bottom and then click on it? You tell me how laptops win?
You can’t give out one reason to support your argument ‘laptop wins easily’.
Like i mentioned, i run a multi million dollar company and i do a lot of emailing, work a lot on word/excel/pdf. Whenever i receive an email and if i get to choose, i will use my iPad 99% of the time. By the time you start your MacBook, type in password, launch mail app, connect to WiFi, click refresh, wait for it to download the email, then start reading it, i may already be typing my reply on my iPad, or maybe it’s already been done. ‘Then why don’t you use your iPhone to do the same thing?’. Because iPhones have very narrow screen, most of the time it will mess up the formatting.
You can say you like traditional laptops better, you can say you are, like many people, too used to this old habit and don’t want to adapt to new workflows. But you really failed to support ‘laptop wins easily’.
In your words, iPads win easily, without doubt, you simply can’t argue with that. iPads can do EVERYTHING a MacBook can, but there are things iPads can do but MacBooks can’t.
See you just ruined it with that statement, i'm an iPad Pro user and don't get me wrong i love it, i use my Pro for a number of things and with the Apple Pencil it is a brilliant device (drawing, editing photos and so on it just brilliant) BUT it can't do EVERYTHING that a Mac can do, i edit in Final Cut Pro X and the iPad Pro can't run that.
I still use a Mac as i love MacOS as well a IOS, i'm fine with them being separate operating systems and have no desire to see Apple make a hybrid like the Surface, BUT the iPad Pro has it's limits just like the Mac also has it's limits (you can't use the Apple Pencil and draw with it for example) both are great for doing different tasks.
I do think that the iPad Pro can replace a laptop for a lot of people who just want to browse the internet, watch Netflix and Youtube videos, read and write email and so on (just like my dad who i gave my first gen iPad Pro too after updating to the 2017 version.
This topic has appeared on the iPad thread many times. I have just moved from iPad only to MacBook 12 inch only. The reason being the trackpad. I agree with you that touch is very much the future of computing. However, there are many many examples where a trackpad/mouse is required. The main one is hovering over elements. The computing world has not caught up with a touch screen only world and many websites and software still rely on a cursor.
Also, I don’t agree with Apple’s Smart Keyboard pitch. They have contradicted themselves. Many times they have said they won’t add a touch screen to a Mac because people won’t want to keep lifting they hand up to touch a vertical screen, referencing the steve jobs Keynote. However, that is exactly what people are asked to do when using the Smart Keyboard with iPad. Now if they added a trackpad to the Smart Keyboard and cursor to iOS then they would definitely sell more iPads but they don’t want to cannabalise their Mac sales.
I do all my accounts, invoicing, web design, email and video editing on a 12 inch Macbook. Many of these can be done on an iPad but take a lot longer. Lifting my hand to select cells in Numbers compared to moving my fingers a few millimetres on a trackpad is one example. There is not much difference with video editing for me, especially with apps such as LumaFusion on the iPad but it’s the assets that are easier to manage on an Mac. Even though that has improved with iOS 11.
Having experimented with iPads and Macs the past few years, I have chosen the MacBook 12 inch as the perfect device for me, as it’s under a kg then is virtually is an iPad Pro in terms of portability. The comment above about it lot waking up fast, connecting to wifi and replying to email is absolute rubbish. You seem to be comparing iPads to computers about years ago.
It’s horses for courses in many ways. Apple still want people to buy and iPhone, iPad and Mac to achieve different tasks. Personally I would like Apple to update the iPad mini as that would fit into the zip pocket of my macbooks sleeve. When it came to choosing an £850 iPad Pro or £1100 MacBook, it had to be the MacBook for me.
Why? Because of superior multitasking? Better apps? Better inputs? Want me to continue?
Or you could simply explain this:
So a laptop that can be placed on your lap, and you can use two hands to manipulate those PDF/word documents is harder to use then an iPad which demands that you take it with one hand, and use other to do the actual work?
You are really claiming that holding an iPad in the air with one hand, and typing/scrolling with other is easier then holding nothing and using two hands? Could you please explain this further? I'm curious
Well, is this a joke or? I'm serious.
My macbook starts in 1sec. It's always in standby mode. My email app is always launched, and it's always connected to wi-fi. I don't have to refresh anything, or download anything. Everything is already there when I use my MB or iMP. You are stuck in mid 90s I guess?
By the time I type out 5000 words, you couldn't do even 200 on an iPad. No touch screen device can compare to real keyboard. Neither in comfort, speed or accuracy. Not even a contest.
I do like laptops better, that is true. And it's not 'many people', it's most people. I don't see iPads around much. And I work in IT sector. It has got nothing to do with 'old habits' or adopting to anything. I will adopt to anything if it will make my work better and easier.
iPads don't do that. iPad is a consumption device mostly, and only tiny niche of users can actually use it for production. You want to type your next novel on iPad? Or develop apps/games? Or edit in Photoshop? Produce high quality videos? Produce 3D content? Develop web apps/pages?
You are really telling me that you can do all of that on an iPad? And those things that you can actually do on an iPad, like typing, you are telling me that they are easier then on any laptop? Really?
There is a reason tablets haven't took off. Android tablets are almost dead, no one is trying to produce the next 'iPad killer'. Microsoft tried with full Windows, even adapted them for touch screen. And failed. iPad is the only tablet that has some success, but even then, in enterprise segment, iPads can't compare with laptops in general. Because iPad isn't productivity device. Touch screen input isn't as accurate as trackpad/mouse, typing on a touchscreen isn't even nearly as good as typing on a real keyboard.
If it were, Apple would have killed off macs completely.
Everything you say? Most basic thing any computer can do is programming. Can you develop an iPad app on an actual iPad? Can you edit 8K raw videos on an iPad? Can you run apache on an iPad and test your php scripts? Python? Virtualisation? Run 10 apps at the same time?
Really basic stuff here. And none of them iPad can do. But sure, you can read emails/pdf/word documents. If that is all computing you do, well, iPad will do just fine.