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Review's embargo
- Thread starter tx26257
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It's not about embargo, it's when they are going to receive their test units. And this will probably the same day we all receive them.
That'd be unusual.
Seems like the reviewers almost always get the new products in advance, write the reviews, then hold off publishing them until the embargo is lifted.
AFAIK, MacGeneration, the biggest French Apple Website receives Mac the same day customers get them. Maybe it's different in the US?
Sounds like it might be.
The Verge, USA Today, David Pogue, Engadget, Walt Mossberg, etc almost always get review units in advance and have their reviews posted right before a new product goes on sale.
agree, no review so far is not a good sign, the new Macbook is already getting some negative articles about lack of port and keyboard. if the performance and battery life is not up to expectation. This would be the first "bad" Mac in a very long time
If it's like a normal launch, the reviews will start popping up later the Wednesday night/Thursday before the Friday launch.
I'm not sure where you all are getting this "review unit" info. That might be something they've done for iPhones in the past, but not with MacBooks.
The last new MacBook model was the 13" MacBook Pro with Retina Display. It was released on October 23, 2012. The major reviews were published on:
Engadget: October 29, 2012.
The Verge: November 1, 2012.
CNet: October 24, 2012.
AnandTech: November 13, 2012.
The original 15" Macbook Pro with Retina Display was released on June 11, 2012. The major reviews were published on:
Engadget: June 13, 2012.
The Verge: June 13, 2012.
AnandTech: June 23, 2012.
CNet: June 11, 2012.
These might be slightly different scenarios, because in those cases the rMBP began shipping on the day it was announced. But still, I haven't known of Apple to give out review units ahead of time for a new MacBook. They did for the Mac Pro, but they publicly talked about that, giving it to some video and animation pros to get early feedback. Never heard of them doing it for a MacBook.
I fully expect we will see our first hands-on full reviews on April 10, the day the MacBook launches.
The last new MacBook model was the 13" MacBook Pro with Retina Display. It was released on October 23, 2012. The major reviews were published on:
Engadget: October 29, 2012.
The Verge: November 1, 2012.
CNet: October 24, 2012.
AnandTech: November 13, 2012.
The original 15" Macbook Pro with Retina Display was released on June 11, 2012. The major reviews were published on:
Engadget: June 13, 2012.
The Verge: June 13, 2012.
AnandTech: June 23, 2012.
CNet: June 11, 2012.
These might be slightly different scenarios, because in those cases the rMBP began shipping on the day it was announced. But still, I haven't known of Apple to give out review units ahead of time for a new MacBook. They did for the Mac Pro, but they publicly talked about that, giving it to some video and animation pros to get early feedback. Never heard of them doing it for a MacBook.
I fully expect we will see our first hands-on full reviews on April 10, the day the MacBook launches.
My friend, who works at a software company, has had the prototype for 3 months before the official unveiling.
I'd reckon the reviewers might get their units a bit earlier too, since there's definitely a healthy batch already made.
IMHO only the design has a wow-factor to it, otherwise it's the same underpowered Core M processor all the new PCs have as well (Yoga 3 Pro, and the new Asus).
I'd reckon the reviewers might get their units a bit earlier too, since there's definitely a healthy batch already made.
IMHO only the design has a wow-factor to it, otherwise it's the same underpowered Core M processor all the new PCs have as well (Yoga 3 Pro, and the new Asus).
i'd wait for the actual reviews (rather than making assumptions). it's less then 2 weeks away people! 
I think they did it for the Air. Googling on iPhone before a flight here, but it looks like that MacBook was announced on 01/15/08, availabile for purchase on 01/29/08. Looks like some reviews were published on/around 01/24/08.
That was awhile ago, be interesting to see how it goes with this.
As your friend had the prototype for 3 months what was his/her basic opinion of it?
Q-6
Underpowered in relation to the rest of the Intel Core family of processors.
Sure, it's going to do all that you ask of it and more, but there's going to be some serious thermal throttling going on to achieve that 4,5W TDP.
The processor might turbo to 2.4 or even 2.9 GHz for short bursts of intensive activity but the baseline is 1.1GHz, which is extremely underwhelming comparing to the Macbook Air. The GPU is also on the slow side of the MacBook spectrum.
This is still OS X we're talking about, not iOS, so this hardware needs to drive a very advanced set of processes.
It's good Apple opted to include 8GB of RAM standard since this device will rely on it heavily.
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He loves the look and feel, but finds the USB-C impractical, mainly because they do iOS development and the team found it cumbersome to use with the rest of the devices and it was more of an attraction then a computer that would get much use. Mind you, if I could lay my hands on it, I'd play with it all day.
I never asked for any benchmarks etc. since they're under an NDA and I could only blurt it out after the product was unveiled
He loves the look and feel, but finds the USB-C impractical, mainly because they do iOS development and the team found it cumbersome to use with the rest of the devices and it was more of an attraction then a computer that would get much use. Mind you, if I could lay my hands on it, I'd play with it all day.
I never asked for any benchmarks etc. since they're under an NDA and I could only blurt it out after the product was unveiled
Sounds impractical for development use ...which doesn't appear to be the use-case apple designed this macbook for.
For what Apple has explicitly stated it's designed for ("Fully equipped for a wireless world." <- Big Text on their site) it looks to be one hell of an engineering feat.
I'd get one on launch day for my mother, who loves the 2011 MBA she has but finds the display too small and the internals are getting a bit long in the tooth, but I'll stick it out until I can actually lay my hands on one and get some reviews.
I already love the ForceTouch trackpad, but I can't justify buying a new 13" rMBP, at least not in this revision - mine's a late-2013.
I just got the new 13" myself, though I can't wait to check out the new MacBooks in stores. I'm really interested in the keyboard.
He loves the look and feel, but finds the USB-C impractical, mainly because they do iOS development and the team found it cumbersome to use with the rest of the devices and it was more of an attraction then a computer that would get much use. Mind you, if I could lay my hands on it, I'd play with it all day.
I never asked for any benchmarks etc. since they're under an NDA and I could only blurt it out after the product was unveiled
Thx, I would have thought one of the adaptors would solve that issue with a USB 3 hub, no doubt docking stations will be rolling out soon enough. The performance will be ok, as long as people have the right expectations. I expect no more or less than any of the other Core M machines I have looked at.
Q-6
The Core-M in the new MacBook will be customized to 5W TDP, not the 4.5 off-the-shelf standard.
I'm not sure why anyone would need another review of this.
I usually am into the reviews but in this case I'm not at all.
As a matter of fact, I won't read them as I pretty much know exactly what it will be like, and would need to try the keyboard myself anyway as that's highly personal, and anyone else's view would just confuse the issue.
Now the Watch, is a different thing. There's something i'm really interested in reviews for as I haven't the foggiest idea WTF that thing is (I mean I know it's a watch of course, but still it's pretty weird)
I usually am into the reviews but in this case I'm not at all.
As a matter of fact, I won't read them as I pretty much know exactly what it will be like, and would need to try the keyboard myself anyway as that's highly personal, and anyone else's view would just confuse the issue.
Now the Watch, is a different thing. There's something i'm really interested in reviews for as I haven't the foggiest idea WTF that thing is
(I mean I know it's a watch of course, but still it's pretty weird)
You're jumping the gun by a good 10 days. I wouldn't expect anything from the preferred press contacts like Mossberg, Pogue etc until the day before at the earliest.
I think that's probably right. The reviewer can tell you what he or she thinks about the keyboard - that doesn't tell you how you're going to feel about it. The reviewer can run a lot of benchmarks to tell you how it compares running benchmarks, but even the best-designed benchmarks aren't really going to tell you whether it works, and works fast enough, for your needs. There's really only one test that matters: your own real life road test. That's what the return period is for.
that's exactly what benchmarks' are for.
if it's below 40% the speed of current rMBP, then I'm not getting it.
same goes for battery life, if it's below currently MBA 11. that's disappointing.
I don't need to try it for 2 weeks to know, that's why reviewers get paid to report them