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Played with a display unit - first impressions ?

pasadena

pasadena

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Sep 12, 2012
828
185
Seattle, WA
So I went and tried the MB in store. Everybody was so focused on the watch that there was only a couple other people looking at the MB.

And, damn, it's gorgeous. The tables were right next to the MBA's and looking over at the 11" MBA, it looked so incredibly bulky. Especially the screen looked so small with those bezels ! I use my 11" MBA every day, and it's awesome, but seeing it right next to the MB... wow.

So, the MB. The space grey relatively dark - probably very close to the iPad's, when the iPhone is a couple of shades lighter. I would have liked it one or two shades lighter too, but it's still beautiful. The gold is pretty, even though I don't like gold. It's much closer to the color of champagne or white wine than gold, and pretty muted. I took a pic, but it almost looks silver on it :(

The silver looks... Apple Silver. Nothing new here.

The screen is gorgeous. And I mean, gorgeous. The increased height is a game changer, seriously. I didn't have time to play with the resolutions.

The trackpad... what on Earth is this, dark magic ? :eek:. It doesn't click, yet it clicks. Disabling the hard click is the first thing I do on my macs, yet I can see myself using this one. And you don't have to press like crazy either. It's easy to use, and clicking is SMOOTH. Loved it.

Last, the keyboard. The display tables are very low for me, so the position of my hands wasn't very good, but I liked it. Yes, it's surprising. But it works. I realize that I often orient myself without looking at the KB by feel, using the space between the keys, and that I tend to keep my fingers very very close to the keys and keep movements to a minimum, so I know I will type just as fast on this as I do on a regular Apple keyboard. Maybe faster. It also feels just as sturdy. So if you're a chiclet fan like I am, it probably won't be a problem.

I can't say anything about performance, as I didn't do anything special, just some browsing and typing, and awe-ing on the trackpad. All the units were 1.1 models.

I spent like 15 minutes with it, and I'm in love.
 
Last edited:
Thanks a lot for writing this. Love to hear the impressions of people that are not reviewers in the first place. Now the 5 week wait begins...
 
I had the same experience with not being able to accurately test the keyboard because of the table height. Everything else was great and as expected. The employees seemed to be very ready to give the "you can order online" speech when I asked and when another woman was ready to buy her daughter one.
 
Great first impressions, pasadena. Glad to hear you think the display being 16:10 really changes things.
 
Thanks for sharing your impressions. Mine pretty much mirrored yours. I also thought the table was a little low so I had to push the screen way back to see it. But oh, when you do, it is just stunning.
 
I'm glad to hear your impression of the space grey. I was hoping it would be darker than the iphone. It's hard to tell in pictures how dark it really is. I was going to get the gold if the space grey wasn't dark enough. I'll probably check it out in the store sometime next week after the initial watch crowd has dispersed a bit.
 
squirrrl said:
I'm glad to hear your impression of the space grey. I was hoping it would be darker than the iphone. It's hard to tell in pictures how dark it really is. I was going to get the gold if the space grey wasn't dark enough. I'll probably check it out in the store sometime next week after the initial watch crowd has dispersed a bit.
Click to expand...

DSC00436-980x653.jpg


Like pasadena said, it's pretty much the same as the iPad but the iPhone is a couple shades lighter.
 
squirrrl said:
I'm glad to hear your impression of the space grey. I was hoping it would be darker than the iphone. It's hard to tell in pictures how dark it really is. I was going to get the gold if the space grey wasn't dark enough. I'll probably check it out in the store sometime next week after the initial watch crowd has dispersed a bit.
Click to expand...

I took a picture but it looks much lighter than it really is. If you've seen a space grey iPad, that's roughly the same shade. My iPhone 5S is much lighter.

----------
PDFierro said:
Like pasadena said, it's pretty much the same as the iPad but the iPhone is a couple shades lighter.
Click to expand...

Yes, this pic is really close to what it looks like.
 
Thanks for posting this! I was beginning to second guess my order, but now I'm excited all over again! I can't wait to get mine. :)
 
pasadena said:
So I went and tried the MB in store. Everybody was so focused on the watch that there was only a couple other people looking at the MB.

And, damn, it's gorgeous. The tables were right next to the MBA's and looking over at the 11" MBA, it looked so incredibly bulky. Especially the screen looked so small with those bezels ! I use my 11" MBA every day, and it's awesome, but seeing it right next to the MB... wow.

So, the MB. The space grey relatively dark - probably very close to the iPad's, when the iPhone is a couple of shades lighter. I would have liked it one or two shades lighter too, but it's still beautiful. The gold is pretty, even though I don't like gold. It's much closer to the color of champagne or white wine than gold, and pretty muted. I took a pic, but it almost looks silver on it :(

The silver looks... Apple Silver. Nothing new here.

The screen is gorgeous. And I mean, gorgeous. The increased height is a game changer, seriously. I didn't have time to play with the resolutions.

The trackpad... what on Earth is this, dark magic ? :eek:. It doesn't click, yet it clicks. Disabling the hard click is the first thing I do on my macs, yet I can see myself using this one. And you don't have to press like crazy either. It's easy to use, and clicking is SMOOTH. Loved it.

Last, the keyboard. The display tables are very low for me, so the position of my hands wasn't very good, but I liked it. Yes, it's surprising. But it works. I realize that I often orient myself without looking at the KB by feel, using the space between the keys, and that I tend to keep my fingers very very close to the keys and keep movements to a minimum, so I know I will type just as fast on this as I do on a regular Apple keyboard. Maybe faster. It also feels just as sturdy. So if you're a chiclet fan like I am, it probably won't be a problem.

I can't say anything about performance, as I didn't do anything special, just some browsing and typing, and awe-ing on the trackpad. All the units were 1.1 models.

I spent like 15 minutes with it, and I'm in love.
Click to expand...

Very useful feedback. Very tempting, too! :D
 
Played with a display unit - first impressions ?

It's incredibly thin, small, and light compared to the 13" rMBP I'm used to. For a keyboard with so little key travel it's actually not bad, and the Space Gray looks great (certainly better than the gray case on my rMBP).

Of course that doesn't change the fact that it is underpowered and only has one port, but in terms of portability and looks it's a nice machine. The display also isn't bad and is certainly much better than the Airs.
 
If you look at the the line drawings of the older and newer key mechanisms you can get an idea of how the rMB's keyboard works. The rMB seems like it either has stronger key pad rebound springs, or maybe its the mechanism that has a more direct connection to the front and back edge of each key pad.

The older keyboard action lends itself easily to soft floating taps, whereas with the rMB you feel as if you have to tap it a bit harder, and it will take *time* to avoid bottoming it out. Ymmv, of course.

As mentioned the new retina screen is gorgeous. I'll say this, big manly hands will find it a bit dainty opening up the screen--there's the tab cut out in the front-bottom and very little else. The front is so thin and light. You basically have to stick your finger in there and because the MB is so light, the top half initially doesn't want to separate.
 
PDFierro said:
Image

Like pasadena said, it's pretty much the same as the iPad but the iPhone is a couple shades lighter.
Click to expand...

I'm shocked to see that the space gray rMB is as dark as the old space gray Air 1. I thought for sure it would be the light space gray as seen on the iPhone 6 and Air 2.

Interesting.
 
The Keyboard was AMAZING! I love it way more than my current rMBP model's keyboard. I had already purchased the gold model as I was in the market for a new machine. I like not having to type so hard to get the keys to react.
 
PDFierro said:
Really?
Click to expand...

Yep. I will misspell words many times because I am typing too fast and not pressing hard enough. It feels like work on my rMBP. On this rMB it just takes my keypresses so I'm not pressing down so hard on the machine.
 
Cheers for the review and photos. Definitely want one and I prefer the gold model as I've a gold iPhone and iPad. :D

I'd like to know what the "Retina" resolution, is it something like 1280x800? Or lower?
 
AdonisSMU said:
Yep. I will misspell words many times because I am typing too fast and not pressing hard enough. It feels like work on my rMBP. On this rMB it just takes my keypresses so I'm not pressing down so hard on the machine.
Click to expand...

I wish you hadn't said that. Now I have to try one because I feel the same way about my rMBP.
 
klover said:
I wish you hadn't said that. Now I have to try one because I feel the same way about my rMBP.
Click to expand...

I have kind of the same problem. The MB's keyboard's requires very little press, it's more like you can just touch the key, but you still get feedback. And the keys being bigger and closer together only reinforces. I had the feeling that my fingers could just "fly" accross the keyboard.

It will take a few days to get used to the different feel. The feedback isn't what we're used to, but it's there. Someone said in another thread that the keys don't depress, but they click. That's spot-on.
 
I appreciate these reviews over the "professional" ones most of the time. Can't wait to try it out in-store next week.
 
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