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notebook review up.."Apple MacBook Pro Review (2016): Touch of Class and Not Much Else"
- Thread starter magbarn
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Yes, and I like how the OP presented the review as if it was something relevant.
The only review that might be, like, considered semi-important is the one from Anandtech. And even though they said they are working on it - who knows if they actually do it in the end.
Man! The no fun police (mods) deleted a bunch of juvenile posts between me and this "professional". I assume this was directed at me, but can't know for sure. Step away from MR for a few hours to do work and this is what happens!
The haters love stuff like this. Owners with actual experience know what this machine does better.
And the haters also like to pretend that there's some sort of consensus that supports their mostly fabricated negative views.
As a working professional using the new tMBP for photography, I can say without qualification that these new machines have clear improvements everywhere and work beautifully.
My 13" is running with a Dell 4K 27" monitor and is ULTRA fast. Keyboard and new screen are stunning. USB-C ports work with everything I throw at them. After update battery life is great.
I even tried it with LR and PS and Elements open while pushing 4K video! No slow down even with massive files and layers.
It's a total home run!
Robert
And the haters also like to pretend that there's some sort of consensus that supports their mostly fabricated negative views.
As a working professional using the new tMBP for photography, I can say without qualification that these new machines have clear improvements everywhere and work beautifully.
My 13" is running with a Dell 4K 27" monitor and is ULTRA fast. Keyboard and new screen are stunning. USB-C ports work with everything I throw at them. After update battery life is great.
I even tried it with LR and PS and Elements open while pushing 4K video! No slow down even with massive files and layers.
It's a total home run!
Robert
So in other words you're saying that only people who haven't owned the machine are the only ones who are criticizing it? I mean the machine is so perfect that why would anyone not like anything about it?
Below is over $8000 I've spent on Apple MacBook Pro. That's not counting the other $10000+ I've spent on Apple equipment over the last 10 years. My opinion counts just as much as yours.
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Jesus, I don't understand this need for self-exposing. Better don't say, what I'am actually thinking about you…
I 'showed off' the new Pro at post production studios for the last month. We did real world tests, not benchmarks. We connected every kind of peripheral wired and wireless. We compared against Mac Pros and older MBPs.
The new machines are great and forward looking. It normally takes a few software updates to optimise for new hardware on ANY OS platform. Or have complacent people forgotten that because they need attention?
The main fault I have found is the belief you can use these 'wide gamut' screens for colour grading or retouching. Forget about it. We did a side by side test against Eizo monitors. You can't compare any tablet, phone or laptop screen against a professional monitor. The screens are too bright and contrast too high simply because of their slimness and glass covering. You won't be able to see the same details and gradations even if you calibrate. Be weary about what marketing claims - even professional creatives. They're not always clued up on every technical aspect.
The new machines are great and forward looking. It normally takes a few software updates to optimise for new hardware on ANY OS platform. Or have complacent people forgotten that because they need attention?
The main fault I have found is the belief you can use these 'wide gamut' screens for colour grading or retouching. Forget about it. We did a side by side test against Eizo monitors. You can't compare any tablet, phone or laptop screen against a professional monitor. The screens are too bright and contrast too high simply because of their slimness and glass covering. You won't be able to see the same details and gradations even if you calibrate. Be weary about what marketing claims - even professional creatives. They're not always clued up on every technical aspect.
Agree on the monitors I have a NEC wide gamut 27 inch. But on the road it's nice to have the MBP at least a better monitor than my 2013. It's gotten a lot closer to our external monitors. Before on the road it was a lot more guess work processing files and working in PS. I did calibrate my MBP and it did come up pretty nicely.
Nobody is saying that you cannot do any of the things you mentioned on 13 MBP. It's just all of those things can be done on a PC laptop with MUCH better specs and for a THOUSAND dollars less!
You could get 32Gb RAM in a notebook since 2010, e.g. Dell. Also the NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M was available in notebooks from other manufactures like Lenovo, Asus, Acer, HP and Samsung.
I am curious to know how many PC notebooks with 32gb RAM configuration have been sold since 2010. I'm guessing it's the 5 people on MR that complain about it all the time. I will guess <0.1% of all laptop sales? If anyone pulls that stat out, you shall have.... all my respect.
And Apple will absolutely know stats like that and I'm sure weighed them up against the number of potentially lost sales if they decided to wait until Intel had a chipset available which could support 32GB as well as everything else they wanted to cram in to the MBP form factor.
Reviews are subjective and no two people use their computer in the exact same way, so you have to just take them for what they are. Especially in this day and age where everyone seems to think they're a tech reviewer/blogger. I'm constantly amazed by some of the absolute bilge which passes for a review on Youtube and has massive amounts of views.
We were out today at a big PC store and looking at PC & Chromebook laptops which started at sub £300 and went all the way up and past MBP money. Not one of them at any price point compared, in my opinion, to the overall package that the new MBP is. Whether it was the screen quality to the feel of the keyboard, the audio quality or even the overall build quality. But that's just my opinion and I totally understand that I'm in a fortunate position to be able to afford a MBP, but some of the nonsense I read in reviews just seems to be written to provoke a reaction or flamewar in the comments.
Read lots of reviews and get out there and have a look at machines for yourself.
It certainly helps if you have actually used it since it essentially a redesign. Like you and many members here I have bought my fair share of Macs since the 90s and thought I would hate the 2016 model and return it based on specs alone. Yet when I got it, I actually liked it a lot.
My only regret was I should have sunk more cash in Apple stock and less on Macs back then. Haha
So lets break down why there are no 32 gig laptops. This comes down to chipset availability. To get 32 gigs now you need a higher than Y series processor. That is a higher base TDM and higher Watt usage. This is not something you can work around. Dell did with the latitude series this year with sky lake xenon processors which can address much higher levels of ram. They are not Y series by a long shot. They are power hungry and hot and as such require a good amount of care and feeding. So you want 32 gigs of ram your going to be in over 4 lb closer to 5. The machine is going to be mostly battery right at the 100 Watt hour limit. There is going to be serious programed throttling on battery so it does not die quickly. The machine will have 32 gigs of ram and will have serious power when plugged in. The machine will be more of a lug it though. We have one at work we bought for our CTO 64 gigs of ram xenon the works. The machine eats power like no other and gets wicked hot. So it can be done but it can not be done in a thin and light using existing chipsets.
The end intel makes a y series chip that does ddr4 lower power more than 16 gigs and you will get it from apple. This is not some mystery design decision. This is power management. They need every scrap watt to drive the display and touch bar and reduce the battery size.
I am sure there is come calculous about using ddr4 dumping the touch bar and making the machine 4.35 lb. I am sure we can arm chair the math to where it can meet the 10 hours of run time about as good as the existing model. This is simply not apples vision for this machine. They wanted to bring touch to you in a new way. Maybe that works for you maybe it doesn't but it is different. We are bashing them hardcore for making a bold choice cause we did not get a 2015 machine with sky lake guts. The counter argument would get well they sure can not innovate any more. So apple is dammed in all directions if you read the forums.
I'm so tired of people hating on this laptop. I went from a late 2013 13" retina to the 13" with TB and I couldn't be happier. My only complaint is the high price and even that didn't stop me from purchasing.
IMO, Apple has produced a great laptop that balances between: Battery Life, Power and Portability. The Touchbar will get better with time and if you install Better Touch Tools, it can actually be useful for "Pro" task (I'm personally using it for 3D modeling and rendering). USB-C will also get better with time. I'm sure CES next month will be filled with USB-C and TB3 accessories. The screen is one of the best laptops screens in the industry, the sound quality is amazing and of course, in typical apple fashion, the build quality is outstanding and unmatched by any other laptop.
I'm pretty confident that Apple made the best MacBook Pro they could make with the current technology limitations. Now they just need to officially support external GPUs (maybe make their own enclosure).
IMO, Apple has produced a great laptop that balances between: Battery Life, Power and Portability. The Touchbar will get better with time and if you install Better Touch Tools, it can actually be useful for "Pro" task (I'm personally using it for 3D modeling and rendering). USB-C will also get better with time. I'm sure CES next month will be filled with USB-C and TB3 accessories. The screen is one of the best laptops screens in the industry, the sound quality is amazing and of course, in typical apple fashion, the build quality is outstanding and unmatched by any other laptop.
I'm pretty confident that Apple made the best MacBook Pro they could make with the current technology limitations. Now they just need to officially support external GPUs (maybe make their own enclosure).
That argument is rather undermined by them simultaneously shrinking the battery.
If they hadn't done that, they could have gone with DDR4 and the required chipset.
I think the hate flows from pile on effect it is now in vogue to hate it. I think it has just enough draw backs that the device it self can not defeat the troll army. The battery life lie is the one that prevents it from standing up and thumping it s mighty chest and roaring. They messed up the math on it. They under delivered and over promised. There is no surer way in the tech industry to insure you will get rath of millions than to promise and fail.
I always under promise and over deliver. This extends to us who are tech people. We are held the very same insane standards that machines are. If we say we can do it in 10 hours it better be done in 9:59.59. If your one second over your a complete failure. This is baked in to every single thing we do at work. The job takes 5 hours we tell you it will take 10 so you feel we moved heaven and earth. The reality is we are managing your expectations so that you do not blow a head gasket when it takes 10:01.59. I have been blessed out up one side and down the other for missing a promise. There is just something about a tech promise that some how carries more weight than say a promise from a video guy or photo guy who is a few hours late on production.
Apple just bungled the promise. Smaller promise and over deliver. Then when you get found out always own it. The I am sorry train has to start. The stance of trust us we know we are right is total hog wash.
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So lets put back the battery. The machine is now wider and ticker and back to the old size. DDR4 coming right up but weight the battery life will still be less than 10 hours shucks we are back to the same battery life issue.
Wait I know lets keep everything the same and just use sky lake guts and DDR3le.
We can't innovate any more see Niley Patel.
So apple made a decision. The choice for them was clear make it thinner lighter and pack as much power in as you can.
I agreed with the decision and thus I bought two. I adore the 13 and the 15 is rather nice.
If you don't agree well I am not sure what to tell you the 2015 are still on sale.
I expected them to do exactly what they did make it smaller and lighter. This is apple mantra and has been under Tim and Jobs.
I think it was pent up dreams of what people personally thought apple should do.
The list I keep seeing
Make it thicker = more battery
Xeonons = 32 gig ram up
smaller track pad = palm rejection concerns
all the ports of the world = ports flank the sides
Longer key travel = more key travel so it must be better
Nvidia over AMD = CUDA (cause adobe refused to optimize for anything else (so lets blame apple for adobe failings))
Tech screen
These are just some of the complaints I keep seeing. I would respectfully say just get a dell latitude already. If your that big of an adobe user and need it for those reasons the dell latitude which will cost you about the same will serve you vastly better due to CUDA optimization by Adobe.
Esc key? I assume you have used that since 1990.
Function keys control fundemental functions of your laptop , hence the name, such as screen brightness , volume etc...they are not there for apps.
The key of function keys is using them without looking at the keyboard , where the TB fails from a usability point of view and passes from a gimmick point of view.
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feel free to write your own opinion and we can compare. I'm being honest, I see so many people here go into a frothing rage over negative reviews. So I ask them to do their own. Fact is , fan or not, this product has divided long term mac users so pretending it does not have some major issues is not very realistic. I own one.
Why do people keep posting this nonsense? Adobe used their own Mercury Engine which is powered by OpenGL and OpenCL frameworks. There is no CUDA support in Mercury Engine. None, zero, never was, never will be.
There are a couple of CUDA filters and Media Encoder rendering support but there's no real world advantage there over OpenCL.
Toss up to me the function row on the Mac has long been a row for used to just control the brightness and sound. I swear they could just have 4 large buttons up there and 90% of people who find it a welcome change.
So this is a toss up on if it worse to better. The ability to change them is kinda cool. I kinda wished it had been a row of OLED keys and not a bar.
Then we could have the best of both worlds.
Sigh apple decided to lena more towards the gimmick