Ondrej Holzman According to many, life with the new 2015-inch MacBook should be all about compromises. This year's novelty from Apple is supposed to demonstrate what a laptop will look like in two or three years. But on the other hand, this is definitely not a machine only for ardent enthusiasts, so-called early adopters, or those who do not have deep pockets. The incredibly thin and mobile MacBook with Retina display is already today, in XNUMX, the ideal computer for many users.
When Apple presented its new gem among portable computers at the beginning of March, many remembered 2008. That was when Steve Jobs pulled something out of a thin paper envelope that would flood the world and become mainstream in the next few years. This thing was called MacBook Air, and although it looked futuristic and "unusable" at the time, today it is one of the best-selling laptops in the world.
We can find just such a parallel in the newly introduced MacBook, a laptop without adjectives and without compromises. That is, if we are talking about zero compromises in terms of execution. What could not fit into the very thin and small body of the MacBook, Apple did not put there. In 2008 it removed the CD drive, in 2015 it went even further and removed virtually all ports.
Many were knocking on the forehead that today it is still not possible to get rid of all classic ports and work only with the completely new USB-C standard; that the Intel Core M processor is just at the beginning and is far too weak to work well with it; that the Czech price attacking the forty thousand mark is overshot.
Yes, the new MacBook isn't for everyone. Many will find themselves in all three arguments mentioned above, for some only one of them will be essential. However, our three-week intensive coexistence with the silver MacBook showed that there are many users for whom it is not a problem to take a step towards the "new generation" of laptops already in 2015.
Not a laptop like a laptop
I have been using a MacBook Air as my main and only computer for many years. For my needs, its performance is completely sufficient, its dimensions are excellently mobile, and it still has a sufficiently large display. But after years in the same chassis, it can no longer amaze you every day like it used to. That's why I was tempted to try something new - a new MacBook, where you can be sure that you will be fascinated by its design, at least in the first days of mutual coexistence.
I was wondering if a MacBook with a smaller display, lower performance and significantly fewer ports than my current MacBook Air could be used as my number one workstation. But the three-week test showed that we can no longer look at the MacBook as a laptop-computer; the whole philosophy of this perfectly engineered machine moves somewhere on the border between a laptop and a tablet.
The original plan was that I would lock the MacBook Air in a drawer for three weeks and try to push the capabilities of the new MacBook to the maximum. In fact, during those three weeks, to my surprise, the two laptops became unexpectedly well-matched partners, when it was no problem to work with both machines at the same time. It is definitely not a generally valid dogma. Many people can easily replace an entire computer with an iPad, I can't, but maybe that's why I started to look at the MacBook a little differently.
The body approaches the tablet, hiding the laptop inside
When you pick up a new MacBook, you can't always be completely sure if you're still holding a laptop or if you're already holding a tablet. In terms of dimensions, the 12-inch MacBook fits almost exactly between the iPad Air and the MacBook Air by a millimeter, i.e. the larger of the two iPads and the MacBook Air. That says a lot.
One thing is absolutely clear: the MacBook is an absolutely perfectly engineered machine that towers above Apple's current laptop portfolio. Although the MacBook Air remains one of the thinnest laptops on the market, the 12-inch MacBook shows that it can go even further. It never ceases to amaze you that while it looks like you're holding an iPad in your hand, when you open it, the endless possibilities of a full-fledged computer open up.
Apple decided to cut the notebook to the core in every way. It removes all the ports that do not fit into the slim body, removes the excess space around the keyboard and touchpad, changes the display technology and uses the remaining space to the absolute maximum. At the moment, it is impossible to imagine whether it is even possible to go much further, so we can state that this is what a modern laptop looks like according to Apple, for now with all its advantages and compromises.
But compromises can wait a while, as a whole range of engineering and design specialties, including various never-before-seen novelties, demand priority.
When we return to the body of the MacBook itself, it may seem like a small thing to introduce three color variants. In addition to traditional silver, the offer also includes gold and space gray colors, both popularized by iPhones. Both new colors look really good on the MacBook and many will welcome a certain amount of personalization. It's a detail, but gold is simply trendy, and space gray looks very elegant. And the MacBook is trendy and elegant after all.
You either love the keyboard or you hate it
But what kind of novelty the user will 100% feel on the new MacBook from the first seconds and practically constantly since then is the keyboard. In order to create such a thin device, Apple had to completely redesign its current keyboard used in all laptops and came up with something it called a "butterfly mechanism".
The result is a keyboard that causes a lot of controversy. Some fell in love with it after a while, others still hate the engineers from Cupertino. Thanks to the butterfly mechanism, the individual keys are much less raised, so when you press them you get a much smaller physical response than you were used to from any Apple computer. And it really takes practice. It is not only about the "shallowness" of the keys, but also their layout.
Even the significantly reduced body of the MacBook was able to fit a full-sized keyboard, but Apple changed the dimensions of the individual buttons and their spacing. The keys are larger, the spacing smaller, which paradoxically can be a bigger problem than the keys not fitting as well against your fingers. The new keyboard takes a while to get used to, but after a few days I subjectively typed on it with all ten of them just as fast.
The truth is that the keyboard is the alpha and omega of any laptop, the thing you use most of the time you have the computer on; that's why such a fundamental change can be drastic at first impressions, but you definitely need to give the butterfly mechanism and other novelties a chance. A bit of a problem might arise if you would often commute between the new and old keyboard, because the movement is simply different, but otherwise it shouldn't be a problem to get used to.
That trackpad can't click
If we talked about the keyboard in the new MacBook as an innovation and a kind of radical change that needs to get used to, we also have to stop at the so-called Force Touch trackpad. On the one hand, it has been enlarged for the benefit of the cause, but above all, there is a brand new mechanism under the glass plate, thanks to which your mind will stop every time you examine the trackpad more closely.
At first glance, not much has changed except for the size. You might not feel anything new when you tap the trackpad for the first time, but the change inside the MacBook is quite significant. The glass plate does not actually move at all when pressed. While you'll see a physical downward movement on other MacBooks, the new MacBook's trackpad does respond to pressure, even making the same sound you'd expect, but it doesn't move a millimeter.
The trick lies in pressure sensors, distributed evenly under the glass, and a vibration motor that simulates the feeling of squeezing the trackpad. In addition, the pressure sensors recognize the intensity of the pressure, so we can now use two pressing positions on the MacBook. When you press harder, you use the so-called Force Touch, which allows you to bring up a preview of a file or look up a definition in a dictionary, for example. For now, however, only a few Apple applications are optimized for Force Touch, and many times the user does not even know that he has the option to use Force Touch at all. This it is obvious only music of the future.
The fact that, compared to previous trackpads, the one on the new MacBook can be pressed anywhere is already positive. So you don't have to go all the way to the middle with your finger, but you can click right below the top edge under the keyboard. You can confirm that this is really the work of a vibration motor that simulates a physical click by clicking on the trackpad when the computer is turned off. Nothing is heard.
The display is of first-class quality
In addition to the keyboard and trackpad, there is one more thing that is absolutely essential for a laptop – it is the display. If there was anything we could criticize the MacBook Air for in 2015, it was the absence of a Retina display, but fortunately for the 12-inch MacBook, Apple left us in no doubt that Retina in its computers is the new standard, and the Air now seems a bit like an elephant in china.
The new MacBook has a 12-inch Retina display with a resolution of 2304 x 1440 pixels, which makes 236 pixels per inch. And that's not the only improvement, thanks to an overhauled manufacturing process and improved component design, the display on the MacBook is the thinnest Retina ever and is slightly brighter than the MacBook Pro. The display here has perhaps (for some) only one negative: the iconic apple has stopped shining, the body is already too thin for it.
Otherwise, one can only talk about the MacBook display in superlatives. It is sharp, perfectly legible and Apple's decision to bet on black edges around the display is also positive. They optically enlarge the entire display and make it easier to look at. The MacBook Air fundamentally lacks these two aspects, i.e. at least Retina, and Apple has finally offered users at least an option with the finest display if they don't want to reach for the more robust MacBook Pro.
The MacBook's screen is slightly smaller than the 13-inch Air, but if needed, its resolution can be scaled up to 1440 x 900 pixels, so you'd be able to display the same amount of content on a 12-incher. For now, it is not at all clear how Apple will deal with the current MacBook Air range. But retina is desirable. For those who spend hours and days at the computer, such a delicate display is also very gentle on the eyes.
In terms of performance, we are only at the beginning
From the display, keyboard and trackpad, we gradually get to the components, which in part are still amazing pieces of technology, but at the same time it turns out that the development is not quite at the ideal level. Unequivocal proof of this is the performance of the new MacBook.
Apple did something unheard of for a laptop when it fit all the microchips into a motherboard that's the size of an iPhone 6, so it doesn't even need to be cooled by a fan, but on the other hand it took a toll on the processor. As small a processor as was needed, Intel offers it with the designation Core M, and it is only at the beginning of its journey.
The basic variant offers a MacBook with a 1,1GHz processor with up to twice as powerful Turbo Boost mode, and this is far below the common standard these days. The new MacBook is meant to compete with the four-year-old MacBook Air, but luckily in practice it's not always as bad as it sounds on paper. But you definitely can't work on the MacBook with the same intensity as on other Apple notebooks, unless you really only use an Internet browser or a text editor.
In basic tasks, such as just browsing the Internet or writing texts, the MacBook can easily cope, there is nothing to worry about. In this activity, however, you may experience jerks or longer loading delays when you have not only a web browser and a text editor running, but also other applications. I usually have about a dozen applications running like this (usually Mailbox, Tweetbot, Rdio/iTunes, Things, Messages, etc., so nothing that demanding) and in some places it was clear on the MacBook that it was too much for it.
On the other hand, photo editing is not necessarily a problem for an ultra-thin notebook. You just need to turn off most other applications at that moment and concentrate all the processor's power on the single, most demanding application. The new MacBook will certainly mean a limitation of work performance for many users, and it is up to everyone what they prefer to sacrifice - simply put, performance before performance, or vice versa.
We would be talking about activities like video editing, opening giant files in Photoshop or InDesign, etc., a new MacBook would be the last machine you would want to perform such processor-intensive actions on. Not that he's necessarily never dealt with them, but he's simply not built for it.
We have been used to the fact that the fan spins with MacBooks when the processor is under greater load. There is no danger of this with the MacBook, there is none in it, but still the aluminum body can heat up quite decently in exposed moments, so you can't hear anything, but your feet can feel the heat.
The miniature form of chips and processors left a lot of space for batteries inside the MacBook body. This is also essential for such a mobile laptop, which you will carry with you somewhere most of the time, rather than having it constantly connected to the network. Due to limited space, Apple had to develop a completely new battery technology, and thanks to the terraced design, it ended up filling practically every remaining millimeter under the keyboard.
The result is supposed to be up to 9 hours of endurance, which the MacBook usually can't live up to, but I was always able to get 6 to 8 hours out of it without a charger, depending on the load. But you can easily attack the nine-hour limit, so it should usually be enough for a whole day's enjoyment.
However, the internet browser can significantly affect the endurance. Just after the introduction of the MacBook, there was a big discussion about how Chrome is significantly more demanding on the battery compared to Safari. The application from Apple is perfectly optimized for Apple hardware and software, so in some tests there were differences of up to several hours when using one or the other browser. However, Google recently promised to work on this aspect of its otherwise popular browser.
One port to rule them all
Finally, we come to the last big innovation of the new MacBook and at the same time its probably most radical cut, which comes a little early; but that's a bit of a habit at Apple anyway. We are talking about the only port that remained after the necessary MacBook cuts and that has the potential to "rule them all" in the future.
The new port is called USB-C and you can forget about classic USB, MagSafe or Thunderbolt, i.e. everything that has been standard in the MacBook Air so far for charging and connecting peripherals such as a monitor, phone, camera or anything else. In a MacBook, you have to make do with a single port for everything, which creates a double problem these days: firstly, one port is not always enough, and secondly, you can practically never use USB-C as such.
In the first case - when one port is not enough - we are talking about the classic case where you open the laptop, stick it in the charger, connect it to an external monitor and let your iPhone charge in it. This is impossible with a MacBook unless you use a reducer. USB-C can do everything: charge a laptop and mobile phone and connect to a monitor, but most do not yet go via USB-C.
This brings us to the second problem mentioned above; that USB-C cannot be used. Apple does not yet have a Lightning cable for iPhones and iPads with this connector, so the only thing you connect directly is the power cable to the MacBook itself. On the iPhone you need a reduction to classic USB, on the monitor you need a DisplayPort or something similar. Apple offers a reduction exactly for this case, but on the one hand it costs more than two thousand and, above all, it is limiting when you know that you must not forget such a small thing.
But in short, Apple showed here where it sees the future and goes after corpses. MagSafe, whose magnetic connection was very popular and saved more than one MacBook from falling, can be regretted, but such is life. The problem at the moment is that there aren't too many USB-C accessories on the market. But that will probably change soon.
In addition, other manufacturers are also starting to implement this new standard, so we should soon be able to see, for example, USB-C keys, but also uniform chargers that can be used to charge practically any device. In addition, the MacBook can now also be charged from external batteries, if they are powerful enough, which until now have only been used for mobile devices.
In addition to USB-C, the new MacBook has only one jack, which is the headphone jack on the other side of the device. The presence of a single connector will clearly be a reason for many to reject the MacBook, although the idea may be scarier than the reality.
If your main goal is to find a perfectly mobile laptop that will accompany you on the go, it's probably not your daily routine to connect it to an external monitor and regularly connect other peripherals to it. Apple's philosophy here is that all data will soon be in the cloud, so there will be no need to constantly connect external drives or USB sticks
This vision was indeed confirmed for me when I encountered the problem of the only available connector, which is USB-C, only once, right after unpacking the MacBook. I was planning to drag some large data from the external drive, but since I didn't have a reducer, in the end I found out that I practically didn't even need any. I already keep most of my data that I work with on a daily basis somewhere in the cloud, so the transition was relatively smooth.
In the end, I probably wouldn't miss buying a reducer anyway. After all, dragging files of several gigabytes over the network is not always optimal, or it is still not possible to restore a backup from an external disk without a classic USB, but these are still rather isolated actions than having the need to constantly connect something and running into difficulties that it is not possible. But it is a fact that when you simply need it and you don't have a reduction, it can be precarious.
The future is here. Are you ready?
The 12-inch MacBook is definitely the call of the future. In addition to technologies that we haven't been able to see in any other notebook so far, it also comes with some compromises that will not be acceptable to everyone. On the other hand, an absolutely perfect body, promising the maximum possible mobility of the computer, complemented by a great display and the included practically all-day endurance will already be attractive enough attributes for many customers today.
To the new wave of notebooks, which we can expect that Apple, like years ago with the Air and now with the MacBook, will certainly not all switch immediately, but in a few years most notebooks will probably look very similar. If the starting price of 40 crowns is an obstacle today, in two years it may be a more acceptable XNUMX, in addition with a much more powerful processor and also a whole host of USB-C accessories.
But to return to my original point and placing the MacBook somewhere between the current tablets and laptops - even after three weeks I could not quite identify it. In the end, "iPad with a full-fledged desktop operating system" seems to me to be a more inaccurate designation.
Until I tried the 12-inch MacBook, my MacBook Air appeared to me to be a very portable, light and above all modern laptop. When I returned to it after three weeks with the same silver MacBook from 2015, all this left me. The MacBook beats the Air in every way: it's mobile like an iPad, the lighter weight is much more noticeable than you might think, and it literally oozes modernity.
It really isn't a laptop as we've known it, and by moving towards a tablet from a mobility perspective, while still keeping a well-trodden computer operating system inside, it points to the future, at least among computers. iPads, i.e. tablets, are still completely different devices, focusing on different needs and uses.
But those who, for example, the closedness and limitations of iOS in the iPad would have discouraged similar devices, can now get a full-fledged computer in a very similar guise, which may look futuristic to some, but in a few years everyone will have one. Whether it will be the one from Apple or in various forms from other manufacturers, which - it seems - the Californian company will once again show the way.
Ad USBC: ... and at the same time such nonsense as a USB-CMagsafe reduction on the cable from the charger would be enough. OK - it wouldn't be as spectacular, but it would definitely be effective.
The Mac ook Air started to be interesting only when the ports returned to it after the facelift. In the original version, it overheated and was not commercially successful.
Thanks for the interesting article. I'm currently looking for a replacement for my Air and, like everyone else, I'm looking for a MacBook or a MacBook Pro.
Unfortunately, the article did not help me in this dilemma ;-)
I also dealt with it some time ago. I wanted Retina and Air is just weak at this. I had already practically made up my mind about the Pro, but then I picked it up again and it's already too robust a machine for me. The new MacBook isn't for me yet (in the end, the more than an inch smaller screen probably bothers me the most), so I stayed with the Air with the ugly display and am waiting for autumn.
It looks interesting and I'm looking forward to the wine getting a more powerful processor. I can deal with a lot of ports, in the end I only use USB and headphones anyway, I also need to virtualize anyway, because SAP has not yet reached the 21st century and still uses ActiveX elements.
On the other hand, if it is as powerful as the MBA Mid 2011, then it might be enough for my work, I still work with this machine and even though it is sometimes slower (you have to close applications and 4GB of ram is damn low), you can work with it even for what I described...
It's not about how much it costs in absolute numbers, but whether the price is adequate for what I get for it. Is the price for a computer that crashes with a few open applications in this case adequate?
Something like my review after a week of use: https://toastmaker.wordpress.com/2015/07/07/novy-macbook/
Heh, now that someone has accused us of copying from each other :)
I myself was surprised that we each describe it quite differently, even if the result is similar in many ways :-) You also write about more general things, I rather write about direct experience. Maybe it will help the undecided to stay undecided for a while :-)
The original MacBook Air was introduced in 2008 and not 2007
Thanks, I mistook it for the iPhone.
is this a PR article?
So many words to defend the indefensible. Pity "paper"
The MacBook is just a step in the ****. Yes, iOvce will be enthusiastic and advocate, a reasonable user will choose MBA (if he wants OS X), or choose from a plethora of competitors on the NTB, UTB or T/PC platform with widlema.
Or when design and the "need for uniqueness" is superior to users. I can't imagine opening an excel file with a few thousand rows and working with it. And iPad is always better for browsing the web.
that's what everyone said to themselves years ago when the Mac mechanics were thrown out, and where are we today?
But I'm not only criticizing the lack of connectivity, but overall it's just a design product with no meaningful use. Weaker than MBA and more expensive than MBP. What is supposed to be added value, what is supposed to be better than MBA or MBP? Design, very little.
The bottleneck is clearly the CPU, not the RAM or even the disk, which is, on the contrary, good. Opening a large file is not too demanding for the CPU. But calculating some more complicated function on it is stepping into ..
It isn't. CPU is fine. I have an MBP from 2009, which has around 2500 points in geekbench. And I still have 8GB of RAM and an SSD drive. But this new macbook is definitely more powerful. Has more than 5000 points. The latest 13″ Retina MacBook Pros have a maximum of 6500 points. I tried this macbook in the store and it is definitely more powerful than my old mbp.
For everyday activities such as the Internet, e-mails, office programs and watching videos, this new MacBook is perfectly fine. I edit videos on mine and I have no doubt that the new one would be more efficient.
Its problem is only the price, but I expect that in 2 years there will be no macbook air and this one will cost 999 USD in the base. As in the past, the price of mba has fallen.
These benchmarks just amaze me, I also read the benchmark results and made decisions based on them - see. my mini review below. When I finally get to the MacBook Air, which I gave to my parents, I will paste here a screenshot with the wall time of the program that calculates random forest classification on the data in RAM.. On the MacBook Air around 29s, on the "new" MacBook 2m45s. Each benchmark probably reflects something a little different... I don't know. (The price is a chapter unto itself, and it's for getting money out of people like me, among other things.)
I compare performance very simply. In Safari, I find a Tumblr page with a lot of pictures, hundreds to several thousand, and I quickly scroll up and down. On my old mbp, it starts lagging after a few hundred and the processor is pulled to 100%. I loaded more images on the new macbook and it rendered without lags, and the processor was only pulled to about 50%.
Are the graphics cards the same? And OS X? But maybe you're right.
Of course, graphics cards are not the same. But OS X is the same. I am trying to evaluate the performance of the entire machine during idle operation/
You compare weird values in geekbench, look at everymac.com
The new macbook has about 4500, mavbook pro 13 retina around 8600 to 9100 depending on the cpu (mid14 and 15 models). Comparing it to an old macbook is nonsense. MT is clearly right when he states that the biggest bottleneck is CPU performance.
For comparison, mbp 15 and imac 5k have values of 12000 and 14300.
Basic 4core mac for about 16-17, better configuration 000 and more.
At the same time, the aluminum Mac Pro from 2009 has values of around 7000 and more.
Allow me to correct you… The Force touchpad actually moves. It's hardly noticeable, but it moves. Without movement, it would not be possible to detect the downforce. It's probably tempting to compare it to force touch on the Apple Watch. There, however, it is a somewhat different sensing technology.
It's just right, it flexes just a little less than the original touchpad, but the forcetouch illusion is excellent.
Perfect piece of hw, ladies and gentlemen, this is a ballet of technology, matched by hw and sw. The only thing that kills Apple with it is the ipad air (2). The new macbook shows how useless tablets are, a few extra grams and we have a full-fledged os and hw keyboard. This is the laptop of the future, which is already here today. Apple was ahead of its time, it killed what it created (embarrassing tablets). Well done apple
You are a total idiot who doesn't understand the difference between an iPad and a Macbook. You can work on both in different ways and both have everything. There are things you simply can't do on a Macbook, and that's because it doesn't have iOS and apps created for it. Macbook is used for something else, and if I'm going to have a computer, I'd also like to connect a great Apple monitor to it. Unfortunately, that doesn't work with the new Macbook, see? :-))) He was probably so far ahead of his time that he ran away with himself. :-)))))))))
haters are just poor people who don't have this piece. yes, it's about half of my salary too, which is still ENOUGH, but I've tried it and I'm not complaining.
Kuwa, Anton, every post of yours includes a note that the people who criticize it are not up to it. Like OK, you're doing business here in the Czech Republic, or as you idiots call it, you're earning 80k a month and you're sending money to eastern Slovakia so that the scumbags don't go there. Every employed person can simply afford 40k. He can buy it, for example, in installments without an increase. It's just not about that. But for now, considering the performance of the processor, it can really be a waste of 40k for a lot of people, especially if I buy an MBP 13 retina with that money. But yes, sex, internet, movies, office work, all without any problems. No one will probably program on it, just like editing 4k video. I am also thinking about him for my wife. But stop making yourself a Slovakian jerk here, who earns here and elevates himself above others. Be glad we're so tolerant and let you hang out here. No matter where I call, I get a Slovak, and when I hear your Slovak, it opens my pocket. At least learn the language of the country where you work.
It would be quite good to program on it, even a macbook 2009 can handle it :-)
I thought about it, but the Mac Mini maxes out at 16GB of RAM, and that's what I have in my laptop. My processor speed in the Geegbench index is 6800, although the Mac Mini could be up to 12500. But at home I have an iMac 5K with a Geekbench score of 16000 points and I don't notice a difference compared to the MacBook Pro when I work in the office. In my opinion, a MacBook Pro and an Apple monitor are currently the ideal combination for the office.
I'm interested in the real answer to this question, do you think it can handle sketch, PS, chrome with 10-20 tabs, xampp, brackets, gulp, cyberduck, player and skype at the same time? :-)
Of course it can't handle it, compared to macbook 2009 it's a cannon, but with a three generation newer version of OS X.
Programming can be done in a text editor, so it is definitely enough for programming :)
However, you can try it in iStyle, it is sufficient for office use, as a portable notebook too :)
Anton, you are a talker. I'm a 'hater' of this MacBook, and I have no problem paying much more than the 40k for a Mac. You probably have a flaw in your logic somewhere.
I would just like to know: with that inconspicuous message, how many !allegedly! do you take it as you want to impress someone? Are you packing for it girls? Shall we sit on our ass? It will probably surprise you, maybe you will start urinating during the night because of it, but most of the people who discuss here are definitely taking more than you. They just write it here. Besides, honest work does not lose its honor, but that's just an aside...
It probably won't be so common for you, if you need to remind it in every post of yours and chase your shirt under every article.
You are a wretch and I regret stooping to your level.
Anyway, the article is great, even if he sees a little more positives in the new MacBook 12″ than I do.
The fact is that this new Mac is not for everyone. I think the price is disproportionate to the performance, simply put. The Air 11″ will do 2x the service for 2/3 the price. It's more of a pilot project, just like it was with the first Air. Personally, I'm really looking forward to version 2-3 and we'll see how Apple handles it, although it will certainly never be a universal laptop for everyone.
It just reminds me of the return of supposedly buried netbooks. Although here the prices and processing are quite different.
I was a little surprised that Apple didn't use its own processor. The Tri-Core A8X from the iPad Air 2 isn't that much weaker and could certainly be improved. But you can't see into that...
I have a MacBook for my wife, it will be very hard for me to say goodbye to it. I have been preparing it for her for two weeks, installing programs such as Photoshop, Parallels and other relatively high-performance programs. The battery lasts the same or slightly longer than in my MB Pro, the performance is absolutely sufficient, I don't notice any discomfort. The keyboard is great, the display is amazing.
If it weren't for the absence of thunderbold, I'll get one for myself as well. I use the MB Pro in conjunction with an Apple monitor in the office and the MacBook cannot be connected.
The MacBook is an absolutely full-fledged computer for the office.
You would be better off with a mac mini with higher ram and a full-fledged cpu. :)
I thought about it, but the Mac Mini maxes out at 16GB of RAM, and that's what I have in my laptop. My processor speed in the Geegbench index is 6800, although the Mac Mini could be up to 12500. But at home I have an iMac 5K with a Geekbench score of 16000 points and I don't notice a difference compared to the MacBook Pro when I work in the office. In my opinion, a MacBook Pro and an Apple monitor are currently the ideal combination for the office.
Great article, but I dare to disagree with the statement "it is still not possible to restore a backup from an external disk without a classic USB." What about TC directly from Apple? After all, she can do it wirelessly, yes, we can have a debate about the recovery time, but the possibility is here :)
yes, I've done it wirelessly several times via airport time capsules and it took about 20-40 minutes without any problems, depending on how full my disk was
if there was usb-c and usb 3.0, then ideal...like this
It's a beautiful thing, nice mobile, it leads in that, but otherwise all the other laptops beat it in everything. This is simply not a full-fledged computer, it's just a mobile solution. And you can't compare it with tablets - unfortunately, there is no such thing. It doesn't look like a tablet, it doesn't handle like a tablet, and it doesn't do things like a tablet, so it's completely out of the question to make it something like a tablet killer, etc. It's something like its own category, in which it's understandably the best. :-)
If you have already shelled out so much money for it, buying an appleTV for two is not such a problem. And it solves the monitor connection (AirPlay). A little delay? It's not a gaming laptop.
It is also possible to use OneDrive, Mega or VPN on a home NAS instead of a flash drive. Or you can insert a flash drive into the router instead of the stand and upload it to it via the network (AC).
Keyboard, mouse via bluetooth. Printer via AirPrint.
As for charging the iPhone, it is possible to use a macbook as a power bank, if you extend the charging cable by 15 cm, the reduction probably won't tear it as much. Anyway, if I can charge my laptop from an outlet, why can't I also charge my phone from the other one?
What would be great, convertibility with iOS and rotary touch. display, but this would reduce the solidity of the hinges and the durability of the chassis (probably).