The baseline is excellent.....For me

[darkgremio]

Hey, I just got the newly released baseline MacBook Pro and it's amazing! Here's why.

I fly a lot, so portability is quite an important factor. I decided. to tread with the MacBook Retina, it seemed perfect in terms of portability. One thing it lacked was definite power when being over utilized CPU wise. When I travel I use my computer largely for work and playing World of Warcraft, so I needed that extra capability. The MacBook ran WOW fine, but it looked horrible quality wise.

I decided to return the MacBook and exchange it for a MacBook Pro retina. The MacBook Pro Retina ran WOW great, but still there was a great graphics degradation. Unfortunately it felt bulky compared to the MacBook, so I had to return the MacBook Pro and get a MacBook.

This brings me to today and the reason for my post. The newly released MacBook Pro baseline is excellent, it meet the portability factor and definitely hits the mark on performance. I am able to run WOW at the base retina resolution with fairly nice graphical settings.

I think the Touch Bar is cool and everything, but I don't think it's worth the extra hundreds of dollars. The slight performance bump is nice, but still not interesting for $1799.

Well that's my two cents I think the baseline is great and an excellent option if you just want practical functionality

 

[sinoka56]

last year's version was already portable and powerful .... making it thinner was unnecessary

 

[PieTunes]

Hey, I just got the newly released baseline MacBook Pro and it's amazing! Here's why.

I fly a lot, so portability is quite an important factor. I decided. to tread with the MacBook Retina, it seemed perfect in terms of portability. One thing it lacked was definite power when being over utilized CPU wise. When I travel I use my computer largely for work and playing World of Warcraft, so I needed that extra capability. The MacBook ran WOW fine, but it looked horrible quality wise.

I decided to return the MacBook and exchange it for a MacBook Pro retina. The MacBook Pro Retina ran WOW great, but still there was a great graphics degradation. Unfortunately it felt bulky compared to the MacBook, so I had to return the MacBook Pro and get a MacBook.

This brings me to today and the reason for my post. The newly released MacBook Pro baseline is excellent, it meet the portability factor and definitely hits the mark on performance. I am able to run WOW at the base retina resolution with fairly nice graphical settings.

I think the Touch Bar is cool and everything, but I don't think it's worth the extra hundreds of dollars. The slight performance bump is nice, but still not interesting for $1799.

Well that's my two cents I think the baseline is great and an excellent option if you just want practical functionality

I'm completely with you. I totally understand how people are upset that the machine isn't what should be considered "pro" especially the base model, but like you, my needs are relatively.... meager? Casual? My desktop is my daily driver. My first Mac notebook was the 13" 2015 MacBook Air base model I got last year and I love it. Suits my needs well enough for basic daily tasks, browsing, movie watching, taking on travel, has great battery life, etc. But what I wouldn't have given for a similar form factor notebook with a gorgeous retina screen that weighs the same as my Air.

Then this beautiful piece of machinery comes along. Smaller footprint than the Air, beautiful retina screen, doesn't feel like a toy that the MacBook feels like, etc. And it has double the RAM and storage capacity. I have no interest in the Touch Bar model so I picked up the base model earlier tonight.

I *know* it's not a beast of a machine. I *know* it's expensive. I *know* it's not the latest and greatest and fastest of technologies. But I also *know* that I will personally be happy with it based on my needs and use cases. I'm writing this on my desktop while I wait for Migration Assistant to finish and I can't wait. I too play WoW and I'm curious to see how it will perform. I have no problem turning settings down, it'll just be nice to knock out some dailies or world quests when I fly up to visit my parents or go out of town.

 

[Altis]

Congrats on the purchase to you both.

Be sure to share your thoughts when you get a chance to try them out as I'm sure many others are curious at this point.

 

[asoksevil]

Good to know it handles some gaming!

 

[PieTunes]

Hopefully this Migration Assistant finishes up before I get to bed soon, haha! It's been sitting at 20m remaining for about 20m!

From what little I've used so far, my initial trepidations about the keyboard are unfounded. It doesn't feel anything like the old school notebook keyboards, but it's noticeably different than the keyboards in the 12" MacBook. I spent a relatively extensive time playing on them whenever I went to Apple Store which is only a 10 minute drive from me. Anytime I would go to the shopping center for dinner or shopping I always stopped in and tried out the 12" MacBooks. I would open up Pages or whatever and just randomly type stuff out. Pages and pages of stuff. I had so many mixed feelings about the keyboard and I wasn't sure I could get used to it.

Tonight when I went to the Apple Store they had the new ones in stock but nothing on display to see and try out but I was confident enough to believe they'd be better, based on reviews. Sure enough, it was noticeable right off the bat. Not as much key travel as the Air, but not as "stiff" as the MacBook. It has a great tactile feel as you type on it, at least for me. If you could think of it as a scale of sorts, if the 12" MacBook keyboard is a 1 and the Air keyboard is a 10, this keyboard is around a 3-4. So not exactly halfway but better, but many people might still take some getting used to it.