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Retina Macbook V.2 Wishlist?

Psyfuzz

Psyfuzz

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Dec 5, 2014
296
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I've had a look and can't seem to find anything. I'm wondering what current users who have experience with the current MB would like to see improved and what prospective users would like to see to encourage them to upgrade.

I love the look of these new MBs and portability is a huge bonus for my University/work requirements, the beautiful screen is also a fantastic addition. I'm sticking with my 2012 MBP at the moment though.

That said things I'd like to see in future editions:
  • 720p front camera - while this isn't going to benefit most people I do use Skype a fair bit and a stronger camera would be welcome.
  • 2 total Thunderbolt 3 ports instead of 1 USB C, both on the left. It'd solve a lot of IO problems as well as including a...
  • Packaged dongle/hub in the box. It's not a huge amount of money from third parties, but I'd love to see one Thunderbolt 3 > 2x USB 3, Ethernet & HDMI hub-dongle included with each unit. It'd definitely sweeten the pill moving from traditional USB to TB3. Big dreams but hey, it's my wishlist.
  • Naturally a bit of a spec bump, I'm not downing on the current performance at all and I expect to see the Core M processors take big leaps with iteration (similar to Apple's performance jumps with their A6/7/8 iPhone processors etc). A little more oomph wouldn't go amiss.
While the spec and camera boost are expected, more IO would be a huge incentive to upgrade for my users. The current MB is a great step forward in laptop design in many ways, but knowing Apple - generation 2 will have a wealth of upgrades.

What are your guys wishes?
 
Realistically Skylake, with CPU bump & improved GPU, TB-3 over USB C, 720p camera, hour more battery runtime As for a second USB C port would be useful for ergonomics/usability etc. Much will depend on how Skylake delivers.

A hub for the MacBook would solve a lot users concerns over the lack of ports, equally knowing Apple that will in in the form of a 27" display o_O

Like as not there will be a lot of "under the hood" changes as Apple gets real world feedback on the Retina MacBook. As a secondary/backup system in the field, the current MacBook works for me, as the 12" evolves I have no issue in upgrading.

Q-6
 
I dont think there will be more ports. It's a "simple" MacBook. Apple tried the 1port-using with MBA and now they really can do it.

TB3 will be for MPB, in my opinion.

I wish : 1080p camera, +2hours battery life, and a better OS without any wifi issues or lags in simple tasks.
 
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Pretty certain the next rev will get a much better FaceTime camera. I think it's clear that they weren't able to make anything better than a 480p work in this first model, for design constraint reasons or economics... And I'm sure it's a little point of chipped pride that they are none too happy about, since they clearly wanted this machine to be an expression of the best tech you can squeeze into the sleekest form factor today. I wouldn't be surprised if they overcompensate for this shortcoming next time round by surprising everyone with a 1080p camera (or something even shockingly better than that) which they can really talk up, as they like to do..

As for the more than one port thing, I seriously doubt the MacBook line will go down that path ever again..not since they've made such a statement about it now. MacBook Pro, different story. But if the next rev of the MacBook had multiple ports, it would be a retroactive way of saying one port on Rev 1 was a mistake. Don't see them doing that, regardless of my own personal opinion on the matter. If nobody bought the things then that could be a different story, but that doesn't seem to be the case. And even if I agree that it wouldn't kill them to bundle some kind of hub - even for this first Rev they could have bundled the simple C to A adaptor to not freak people out so much. But again, including it in the box makes the statement that they acknowledge something is missing in the hardware, and their entire message (whether we agree with it or not) is the opposite of that. If you want to deliver such a bold message with hardware, you can't do it in half measures...or at least, Apple doesn't. They launched a couple of adaptors to make the point that if you still want physical connectivity you can add it, but I suspect it was more of a symbolic gesture to third party manufacturers to say have at it, make whatever you want.

As for switching to thunderbolt on the next rev.. Not sure either. I detect a line being drawn I the sand, and it feels like Apple are intending to bet the farm on USB-C being _the_ standard going forward for some time for everything consumer level. Not just MacBooks but I suspect the iPhone and iPad will follow, as android and other competitors also get on board. IMO, the MacBook Pro will have both USB-C and thunderbolt 3, possibly combined in this upcoming single port type being discussed. It will probably also retain multiple ports for quite some time. But adding an extra port to rev 2 of the MacBook would be like saying, ok finally we got it right, couldn't figure out how to fit two ports in the first gen and now we fixed it. If they hadn't made such a big fuss about the sleek, almost entirely physical port-free future they see for this kind of ultralight laptop, then sure maybe a rev two would go there. But they've so loudly proclaimed that the least number of physical ports possible is the way forward for consumer laptops, so it's hard to imagine them seeing adding more again as their idea of progress.

From what I've seen of how the core M actually performs compared to what you'd expect from the pretty lame numbers, I'm definitely confident that the next revs going forward will stick with future iterations of this design which should do pretty well at getting faster over the next few years. My wish list would be for a quad core core M some day, but who knows if this will ever be possible for heat and battery life reasons..

Anyway, am not at all taking a swipe at people's wish lists! We all have our idea of what would make the next thing better. Am just taking a guess at what I think they're likely to actually do, given the loud and clear messages they've made surrounding this new concept of what a MacBook is, and of course I could be totally wrong.

For my money, I'm much much more interested in what third party stuff will come online once the USB-C dust settles, because it's from there that I bet we'll see all the best hub/adaptor/charger combos coming out. There will probably eventually be one or two designs that pretty much make most people who were fearful or annoyed at the lack of ports in the MB forget what they were worried about. Meanwhile many other users might find that (like me), for a secondary computer, they hardly ever plug anything into it anyway. And the other very interesting thing to keep an eye on is where they go with the next MacBook Pro big rev. I honesty think that whatever they do with that line later this year will be the most telling thing about what we can expect in the next gen of MacBook... There will be plenty of clues and hints I bet.
 
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My next computer is absolutely going to be a rMB. Love my rMBP2012 but I don't use a 1/10th of the power. Ever.

Wants:
- Just a one-plug connection to a 27" external for power/peripherals/gfx.
- Also, if there was a 14" inside something close to the 13" MBA footprint, I'd pay more for that as well.
 
Mine is pretty short :

  • Better battery life
  • Possibly CPU bump, always good to take
  • A second USB-C port on the right with the same functionality (charging and data)
That's it. Maybe a slight improvement on the keyboard, like making it a tad less firm, but that's really because I'm trying to find something to say.

Oh and I do miss Magsafe, that USB-C plug is not easy to take out, you have to pull on the cord, which is probably not a good thing in the long term. If they could at least make it a bit bigger and easier to grasp ?
 
Psyfuzz said:
I've had a look and can't seem to find anything. I'm wondering what current users who have experience with the current MB would like to see improved and what prospective users would like to see to encourage them to upgrade.

I love the look of these new MBs and portability is a huge bonus for my University/work requirements, the beautiful screen is also a fantastic addition. I'm sticking with my 2012 MBP at the moment though.

That said things I'd like to see in future editions:
  • 720p front camera - while this isn't going to benefit most people I do use Skype a fair bit and a stronger camera would be welcome.
  • 2 total Thunderbolt 3 ports instead of 1 USB C, both on the left. It'd solve a lot of IO problems as well as including a...
  • Packaged dongle/hub in the box. It's not a huge amount of money from third parties, but I'd love to see one Thunderbolt 3 > 2x USB 3, Ethernet & HDMI hub-dongle included with each unit. It'd definitely sweeten the pill moving from traditional USB to TB3. Big dreams but hey, it's my wishlist.
  • Naturally a bit of a spec bump, I'm not downing on the current performance at all and I expect to see the Core M processors take big leaps with iteration (similar to Apple's performance jumps with their A6/7/8 iPhone processors etc). A little more oomph wouldn't go amiss.
While the spec and camera boost are expected, more IO would be a huge incentive to upgrade for my users. The current MB is a great step forward in laptop design in many ways, but knowing Apple - generation 2 will have a wealth of upgrades.

What are your guys wishes?
Click to expand...
Everything you said, plus an hour or two more battery life.
 
720+p Facetime camera.
Speed bump.
+2 hour battery.
One more port on the right side.
TB3 instead of USB3.

I'd snatch one up immediately.
 
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Will Skylake deliver battery life improvements, or just faster performance? It is made on the same 14nm process as the Broadwell chips. Thunderbolt 3 isn't a given, since for whatever reason Intel still isn't building it into the chipsets by default. I think we'll probably just see the Skylake chip in the next version, without any other improvements. My wish list would include Thunderbolt 3, though. Something else not likely to happen, but something I'd welcome would be a nicer looking hub with more ports (something like the Hub+ on Kickstarter, but unlike any KS project something that I could be confident would actually ship and work as advertised).
 
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You guys do realize TB3 will be using USB-C connector right?

Apple know what they were doing by switching to USB-C. All Macs from now on will be using USB-C and once Intel releases TB3 controllers for manufacturers to use, Apple will add it for all USB-C ports as much as they can fit.

Biggest benefit of TB3 is external graphics support, which means you can add something like the powerful desktop 980 Ti card to the Macbook via TB3/USB-C and use it for serious gaming.
 
KPOM said:
Will Skylake deliver battery life improvements, or just faster performance? It is made on the same 14nm process as the Broadwell chips. Thunderbolt 3 isn't a given, since for whatever reason Intel still isn't building it into the chipsets by default. I think we'll probably just see the Skylake chip in the next version, without any other improvements. My wish list would include Thunderbolt 3, though. Something else not likely to happen, but something I'd welcome would be a nicer looking hub with more ports (something like the Hub+ on Kickstarter, but unlike any KS project something that I could be confident would actually ship and work as advertised).
Click to expand...

Skylake is a tock, it's a brand new arch. Broadwell is a simple 14nm process shrink of Haswell arch, while Skylake is built specifically to take advantage of 14nm. Cannonlake will be a simple 10nm process shrink of Skylake.

It will have a lot of improvements in the iGPU area, it is supposed to double the EUs of Iris Graphics but we don't know for sure how much Intel will use in Skylake-M.
 
Do any of you think that Apple will stick with 1 USB port out of the principle of it? The Macbook was clearly inspired by the ipad+bluetooth keyboard paradigm, and the iPad has one port for charging and the occasional data transfer as well.
 
Pandarama said:
I dont think there will be more ports. It's a "simple" MacBook.
Click to expand...
If you were to believe apple during their unveiling, this a laptop without wires and as such there's a desire to keep the ports down. I do think its a mistake to have single port used for both data and power.

The world is not completely wireless and in a sense may never be. I like options and unfortunately with this rMB there's less options for me. Its a beautiful laptop but I don't see apple adding any more ports to the second generation.
 
Abazigal said:
Do any of you think that Apple will stick with 1 USB port out of the principle of it? The Macbook was clearly inspired by the ipad+bluetooth keyboard paradigm, and the iPad has one port for charging and the occasional data transfer as well.
Click to expand...

I hope they do, but as previously mentioned Apple has a tendency to think with their original design ethos despite consumer demands.

I'd love an extra port though, I'm hoping they do through a Macbook Air type update in IO options.
 
maflynn said:
If you were to believe apple during their unveiling, this a laptop without wires and as such there's a desire to keep the ports down. I do think its a mistake to have single port used for both data and power.

The world is not completely wireless and in a sense may never be. I like options and unfortunately with this rMB there's less options for me. Its a beautiful laptop but I don't see apple adding any more ports to the second generation.
Click to expand...
It depends on habits. If, like me, 99% of the time, or even 90% of the time you do all wirelessC I think MB is a better device. I prefer use an adapter (and buy it so) once, and enjoy all the benefits of rMB during 6 months or a year.
But yeah, still think Apple wont add ports.
 
We don't need thunderbolt port anymore since intel release usb-c thunderbolt 3..so it will be nice just add another usb-c port and thats it+720p camera+10h battery life(with skylake will be 10h at least for sure since is so power eff) and a more capable iGPU than HD 5300..
 
Pandarama said:
It depends on habits. If, like me, 99% of the time, or even 90% of the time you do all wirelessC I think MB is a better device.
Click to expand...
True, I just hate losing the one and only port when I plug in a computer to charge it up. (yes a dongle is available but that makes a very un-apple like mess imo).
 
Psyfuzz said:
2 total Thunderbolt 3 ports instead of 1 USB C, both on the left.
Click to expand...

Wouldn't fit or else they would have. A second port would get in the way of where the keyboard is housed.

The only way they add a second port is if they remove the headphone jack, which I would be fine with. They could just include a cheap adapter.

What I want to see:

999$

Skylake (obviously)

TB3/USB-C (obviously)

720p webcam do I don't have to read more complaints about it.

It's pretty much perfect already from what I want in a notebook, it needs to hit that 999 price point though.
 
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Abazigal said:
Do any of you think that Apple will stick with 1 USB port out of the principle of it? The Macbook was clearly inspired by the ipad+bluetooth keyboard paradigm, and the iPad has one port for charging and the occasional data transfer as well.
Click to expand...
I doubt they will add a second port in the next generation, but it's possible they will upgrade it to Thunderbolt 3, which would enable more capable third-party hubs.
 
KPOM said:
I doubt they will add a second port in the next generation, but it's possible they will upgrade it to Thunderbolt 3, which would enable more capable third-party hubs.
Click to expand...
While powering a possible 5k thunderbolt display....

The macbook would make the ideal companion, being capable of driving display, data, internet and power all over one cable.
 
Better keyboard, better keyboard, better keyboard.
Either a second USB3 port or a dedicated charging port with magsafe (I don't really care which, but being able to charge and use a port at the same time is really needed).
Spec bump
Better front facing camera.

But a better keyboard is non-negotiable.
 
The Phazer said:
Better keyboard, better keyboard, better keyboard.
Either a second USB3 port or a dedicated charging port with magsafe (I don't really care which, but being able to charge and use a port at the same time is really needed).
Spec bump
Better front facing camera.

But a better keyboard is non-negotiable.
Click to expand...

Whats wrong with the keyboard ? Ok you have to adapt but then it's great, dont?
 
Pandarama said:
Whats wrong with the keyboard ? Ok you have to adapt but then it's great, dont?
Click to expand...

It's debatable, some people can get used to it, some just can't get used to the near-zero key travel. I'm fine with both designs but I understand why it's divisive.

For that reason alone I think the typical keyboard design is superior, most people are comfortable the 'normal' keyboard design without problem, even if you do get used to the new design it doesn't add or improve the typing experience in anyway - the best possible result is really a side step to the normal keyboard with the added risk of alienating some users.

I don't expect they'll implement it into future Pros etc, even with the added space saving benefits for this reason alone.
 
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