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It's the sort of thing they have to eventually go all in on or else drop entirely imo

Agreed. I have to give them credit for having the courage to try new things. Nobody else is doing that anymore. But really, at this point they should either put it on every Mac, or remove it from every Mac. And as much as they appear to have the courage to take a step forward, they lack the courage to take a step back.
 
Agreed. I have to give them credit for having the courage to try new things. Nobody else is doing that anymore. But really, at this point they should either put it on every Mac, or remove it from every Mac. And as much as they appear to have the courage to take a step forward, they lack the courage to take a step back.
Apple don't like to admit mistakes. That's why it won't ever be optional, because they'd then not be able to hide if most opted to save some money rather than choose it.

But the trouble is, as innovations go it's more gimmick than game changer for me. Although Apple tell me I am wrong, I would genuinely have more use for a touchscreen. And as someone who uses an external keyboard and monitor when in the office any TB customisations for particular apps would just be extra things to learn that are not conveniently available to me half of the time - a set of function keys gives me a more consistent interface and experience. If Apple were serious about this they'd be trying to sell me a TB-enabled external keyboard to resolve that problem, but they don't appear to be serious.
 
Damn, just stumbled across Dell's website, and that new XPS 13 is much thinner, smaller, lighter, faster and offers a larger battery compared to a TB 13" MBP - and that at just a little over half the price for the 512GB / 16GB configuration. Not that I'm going to buy that thing, but no matter which PC brand website I look at, it makes waiting for Apple's MacBook Pro update harder and harder.
I am very tempted by the 13" XPS too, but I have been scared off by reports of poor quality control and customer service. Things like coil whine, wifi dropping and battery swelling, and then having to mail your laptop off for weeks to get it repaired.
 
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The 13” XPS with upgraded display (4K vs :eek:1080p) cost $400 extra. This brings the price to around $1600. I rather wait and buy from Apple.
 
There's also the HP Spectre x360, or the Envy 13t. It's a fantastic laptop, pretty thin while keeping a traditional keyboard, solid aluminum like the MBP. You can find the Envy 13t with a Nvidia MX150 in stores, although you apparently can't build it with that option on HP's site. The 4k upgrade is $150 more. A 4k screen @ 13.3" is 331 DPI while the 13 MBP is 227 DPI @ 2560x1600 resolution. IMO, with these other options, this 2018 update will make or break my decision for a MBP at this point, I'm just hoping Apple does something about the keyboard.
 
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Got tired of seeing the same arguments about RAM over and over again in this thread, so now whenever I see posts about RAM, I start singing a slightly modified version of Monty Python's Spam Song in my head.

RAM, RAM, RAM, RAM!
RAM, RAM, RAM, RAM!
Lovely RAM! Wonderful RAM!

Not going to derail this thread with another RAM discussion if you've already had several. Obviously, having a little more RAM than you need is definitely better than not having enough. For most people, though, $1,299.00 plus tax is a substantial bit of change, and if the tradeoff is more RAM or Apple Care, for a lot of people the latter might be the better option. I'm just mentioning this because I've seen some non-professional users being told on these forums that down the road they'll regret not having 16GB, that they need to get it or they're just plain stupid. But what they might end up regretting even more is not having Apple Care, i.e., not having a computer at all. It's not like my mid-2010 MB slowed to a crawl on High Sierra with only 4GB.
 
I am very tempted by the 13" XPS too, but I have been scared off by reports of poor quality control and customer service. Things like coil whine, wifi dropping and battery swelling, and then having to mail your laptop off for weeks to get it repaired.

I can only speak personally obviously, I purchased an XPS 9360 last year, lovely little device, if it wasn't for the astonishing coil whine (including the replacement from Dell) and the truly horrific touchpad it would have been great. I found the touchpad to be hugely erratic on both of them, gestures and two finger scrolling had a mind of it's own which was particularly surprising as they had precision drivers.

I've owned several XPS and Precision workstations, the problem I have with Dell is that you have to wait 6-12 months for any new device before they iron out the driver issues.
 
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I can only speak personally obviously, I purchased an XPS 9360 last year, lovely little device, if it wasn't for the astonishing coil whine (including the replacement from Dell) and the truly horrific touchpad it would have been great. I found the touchpad to be hugely erratic on both of them, gestures and two finger scrolling had a mind of it's own which was particularly surprising as they had precision drivers.

I've owned several XPS and Precision workstations, the problem I have with Dell is that you have to wait 6-12 months for any new device before they iron out the driver issues.
The Dell trackpads SUCK. At Work we have ONLY Dell machines. From Inspirion to Precision. They are all completely horrible.

The only trackpad on any non-Apple machine I have ever experienced to be okay was on Microsoft's Surface Book. But that is it.
 
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So I haven't followed the discussion for a while. And I am sorry to say, but I will not be reading 150+ pages.
Can any of you lovely people give a short list of what is expected, theorised and so on for the 2018 update?
 
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Can you really see a big difference between 1080p and 4K on a 13" screen? Anyone know what the DPI is and how it compares to MBP?

as a Chinese native speaker, yes massively ...

although to be fair, 4K on 13" is overkill, but there is no option in between from Windows laptop lines, which is weird.
 
as a Chinese native speaker, yes massively ...

although to be fair, 4K on 13" is overkill, 2K is good enough, but there is no such option in between from Windows laptop lines, which is weird.
There is, you can configure the XPS 13 with a QHD+ display at the very least (which they define as 3200x1800)
 
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So I haven't followed the discussion for a while. And I am sorry to say, but I will not be reading 150+ pages.
Can any of you lovely people give a short list of what is expected, theorised and so on for the 2018 update?

  • Each model gets another 2 CPU cores
  • The 15" moves to Vega Mobile graphics
Beyond that, there are all kinds of wish lists that are more or less disconnected from reality. The more reasonable ones are better keyboard, 32 GB RAM, and lower price. I suppose any of them could happen, though I'd hold it fairly unlikely and a pleasant surprise if it does. Some also expect the nTB 13" to be discontinued. I hope not, but who knows.
 
The Dell trackpads SUCK. At Work we have ONLY Dell machines. From Inspirion to Precision. They are all completely horrible.

The only trackpad on any non-Apple machine I have ever experienced was on Microsoft's Surface Book. But that is it.
So you experienced any other trackpad than surfacebook or not?
 
  • Each model gets another 2 CPU cores
  • The 15" moves to Vega Mobile graphics
Beyond that, there are all kinds of wish lists that are more or less disconnected from reality. The more reasonable ones are better keyboard, 32 GB RAM, and lower price. I suppose any of them could happen, though I'd hold it fairly unlikely and a pleasant surprise if it does. Some also expect the nTB 13" to be discontinued. I hope not, but who knows.
Thanks, that was a pretty short and informative post :D
Does not seams like a significant upgrade compared to my timeframe and usage. I am in the need a new machine so just wanted to have an idea of what could be expected
 
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The best trackpads for feel are the pre-ForceTouch MacBook Pro no-button trackpads.
Really? For me the switch from the pre-ForceTouch trackpads to ForceTouch trackpads was maybe the biggest improvement in Apple's trackpad technology thus far (except maybe the introduction of multitouch).

Not only does the click from the Taptic Engine feel (at least to me) much better than the old clunky mechanical click, but I never liked how you had to press down much harder on the higher portions of the trackpad than on the lower portions, which made essentially only the very bottom of the trackpad comfortable to click. That was one thing I always hated about the MacBook trackpads (and about trackpads in general), it was one of the reasons why I preferred mouses for my workflows even though trackpads had the larger amount of gestures. Being able to click anywhere with the same pressure and same haptic feedback was an enormous step-up in terms of how good the trackpad feels.

And that's without even accounting for the Force Touch features and for the fact that you can now customize how hard you have to press down for a click and how strong the haptic feedback is and even if it plays an audible clicking sound or not (all of which naturally wasn't possible with the old mechanically clicking trackpads).
 
Really? For me the switch from the pre-ForceTouch trackpads to ForceTouch trackpads was maybe the biggest improvement in Apple's trackpad technology thus far (except maybe the introduction of multitouch).

Not only does the click from the Taptic Engine feel (at least to me) much better than the old clunky mechanical click, but I never liked how you had to press down much harder on the higher portions of the trackpad than on the lower portions, which made essentially only the very bottom of the trackpad comfortable to click. That was one thing I always hated about the MacBook trackpads (and about trackpads in general), it was one of the reasons why I preferred mouses for my workflows even though trackpads had the larger amount of gestures. Being able to click anywhere with the same pressure and same haptic feedback was an enormous step-up in terms of how good the trackpad feels.

And that's without even accounting for the Force Touch features and for the fact that you can now customize how hard you have to press down for a click and how strong the haptic feedback is and even if it plays an audible clicking sound or not (all of which naturally wasn't possible with the old mechanically clicking trackpads).
The current MacBook Pro trackpads are decent as well but I still like the old ones better. The mechanical click just feels more natural to me. Noticeably worse though are the MacBook ForceTouch trackpads. The force of the feedback on the 12” MacBook just isn’t as clear, even when set to maximum.

Yes, a drawback of the old ones is the harder click at the top but I never click at the top anyway. I always click in the bottom half.
 
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The current MacBook Pro trackpads are decent as well but I still like the old ones better. The mechanical click just feels more natural to me. Noticeably worse though are the MacBook ForceTouch trackpads. The force of the feedback on the 12” MacBook just isn’t as clear, even when set to maximum.

Yes, a drawback of the old ones is the harder click at the top but I never click at the top anyway. I always click in the bottom half.
I always used tap to click pre Force Touch, but I actually do a physical click with it - I like that it's less noisy and easier to actuate, I almost felt like you had to stop, lift your finger and click and start again with the mechanical ones, whereas the force touch ones it is more of a fluid sequence
 
I always used tap to click pre Force Touch, but I actually do a physical click with it - I like that it's less noisy and easier to actuate, I almost felt like you had to stop, lift your finger and click and start again with the mechanical ones, whereas the force touch ones it is more of a fluid sequence
Maybe it is because I use the old ones daily on my secondary machines. However, I’d be totally fine with the current ones.

Fine with the current MacBook Pro trackpad that is. After almost a year the 12” MacBook trackpad still feels inferior. Same with the keyboard. It’s way better than the 2015 12” keyboard but only just mediocre now. Prior to 2017 the 12” MacBook keyboard was downright bad.
 
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Maybe it is because I use the old ones daily on my secondary machines. However, I’d be totally fine with the current ones.

Fine with the current MacBook Pro trackpad that is. After almost a year the 12” MacBook trackpad still feels inferior. Same with the keyboard. It’s way better than the 2015 12” keyboard but only just mediocre now. Prior to 2017 the 12” MacBook keyboard was downright bad.
Interesting, I've not noticed the 12" MacBook being different, but then I have only used them briefly in store. I guess just a side effect of having less space underneath so having to use a smaller taptic engine?

I feel the same way about the keyboard, the current one is usable if not actually the most comfortable for longer typing sessions, but the first gen didn't have the feedback to give you confidence the key had actually registered your press. I don't think I ever could have gotten used to that.
 
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The best trackpads for feel are the pre-ForceTouch MacBook Pro no-button trackpads.

It also has to do with software. With Chrome on Macs, the trackpad feel is noticeably worse.

So far, the only thing I don't like about the new trackpad is that I can hear my finger sliding over it whereas the surface of my old trackpad seemed glassier and smoother and, as far as I remember, my finger tips didn't make a sliding noise.

One reviewer complained that the new trackpad was too big and that his palms would accidentally rest on the edges and throw his work off, but I have not encountered that problem.
 
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Why does Apple keep using AMD graphics?

Gotta have cuda cores. Guess I'll stick with my older rMBP for now :(
 
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