Apple has all day battery - and the inside is practically all battery, because Apple cares about it. The MacBook is thin, light, and actually runs all day. How could they make it smaller - take out the only thing left, give us less battery?
I'd love to see the comparisons on that.
Yes battery life was the main target for sure. People want horsepower out the yin yang: get a Mac Pro and an extension cord (and a handcart).
I've been thinking about the single USB-C port and charging vs other needs.
The new MacBook is not meant to be sat at all day working. So most likely you don't NEED to plug it in while working most of the time. Which allows you to plug in other things. And the charger is a small USB charge (with USB-C port instead) rated at 29W which can also be used to charge your iPhone or iPad. You don't need to plug your iPhone in to the MacBook to charge while working. You use the MacBook charger to charge your phone while working.
For the typical uses cases for this device, the single port is not as great a problem as we may think it to be in actual use. The single port was a big turn off for me during the keynote, but the more I think about it and learn about it, for what it is designed for, it should be enough. If it is not enough, then you probably are not the use case for which it is envisioned.
I have a few mice gathering dust in a drawer, and I can't even remember the last time that I touched any of them.
I don't even use a mouse any more on my Mac Pro or any other desktop use of my work MBP. I have the Apple Trackpad. Far superior in my experience, for my usage (as an iOS developer and side hobby as system manager on some servers I have).
I understand that Apple is pushing everyone to the cloud, but there are still people, like myself, that wish to stay grounded to a certain degree. ...Now with a laptop that has one port to satisfy power, storage and other devices, will it be a mess of adapters and hubs that I need to carry with me?
Bottom line is this ... it isn't the only laptop they offer.
I for one LOVE it for a certain kind of use -- one cord to hook it into a fully functional dock with all of my stuff connected at work, and a different dock for home. It's perfect and a long time coming -- I'm a former Duo user and I kept mine alive until it was beyond life support.
However, if you do a lot of "pro" activities in the field, then this is absolutely NOT the laptop for you. Thank goodness, Apple still offers a wide selection of laptops for everyone else's needs.
What's sad is that Asus, Lenovo, and Dell are trying to scam consumers into thinking that all laptops are created equal. Let's put the new Macbook next to any of these machines and see show well a finely crafted aluminum, hi-res, no-fan Macbook with high-bandwidth SSD's and OS X, along with the best customer-service in the industry compares to these (predominantly) chinese crap, built out of plastic - as they like to say - "polycarbonate", with a joke of a warranty and sketchy reliability.
And for those clowns that preach "but..but.. I can buy THREE shitty laptops for the price of ONE Macbook??!!", I say... go right ahead since that's how you value your downtime.
Worse, they're bringing specs to a design war. Which really means they've already lost.
After pretending that good design wasn't worth paying for, they're left flat footed. As the PC market shrinks, Apple will scoop up more and more of what's left of it.
Apple has all day battery - and the inside is practically all battery, because Apple cares about it. The MacBook is thin, light, and actually runs all day. How could they make it smaller - take out the only thing left, give us less battery?
I'd love to see the comparisons on that.
I just checked and the new MB beats all three of those models. The Asus comes closet at 9 hours with Lenovo the worst at 6.6.
The Dell XPS 13 is actually a really nice laptop if you don't mind using windows.
I have a previous version of a Dell XPS 13" bought end 2012, preinstalled with Ubuntu and it is an amazing machine. When I bought it I had the power of a Macbook Pro for the price of a Macbook Air. It is superfast: a cold boot to login screen in 5 seconds.
I had much more issues with Yosemite on my Mac mini than I ever experienced with Ubuntu on my Dell
Specs are important, it is just that you have to focus on the right specs. This is perhaps Apples greatest failing with the Mac Book, they don't seem to realize that ports (a spec) are important to many. So are things like processor performance which in this case is totally unknown.
If I were Lenovo, I would not do a side by side picture of the new MacBook and the Yoga. The former brings a dolphin to mind, the latter, a crab. Can't really explain why that imagery popped up.
Comments
What about battery life?
Apple has all day battery - and the inside is practically all battery, because Apple cares about it. The MacBook is thin, light, and actually runs all day. How could they make it smaller - take out the only thing left, give us less battery?
I'd love to see the comparisons on that.
Yes battery life was the main target for sure. People want horsepower out the yin yang: get a Mac Pro and an extension cord (and a handcart).
The Dell XPS 13 is actually a really nice laptop if you don't mind using windows.
I've been thinking about the single USB-C port and charging vs other needs.
The new MacBook is not meant to be sat at all day working. So most likely you don't NEED to plug it in while working most of the time. Which allows you to plug in other things. And the charger is a small USB charge (with USB-C port instead) rated at 29W which can also be used to charge your iPhone or iPad. You don't need to plug your iPhone in to the MacBook to charge while working. You use the MacBook charger to charge your phone while working.
For the typical uses cases for this device, the single port is not as great a problem as we may think it to be in actual use. The single port was a big turn off for me during the keynote, but the more I think about it and learn about it, for what it is designed for, it should be enough. If it is not enough, then you probably are not the use case for which it is envisioned.
I have a few mice gathering dust in a drawer, and I can't even remember the last time that I touched any of them.
I don't even use a mouse any more on my Mac Pro or any other desktop use of my work MBP. I have the Apple Trackpad. Far superior in my experience, for my usage (as an iOS developer and side hobby as system manager on some servers I have).
This is like Ford saying the Fiesta is better than a BMW M3 because it has a bigger glove compartment.
I understand that Apple is pushing everyone to the cloud, but there are still people, like myself, that wish to stay grounded to a certain degree. ...Now with a laptop that has one port to satisfy power, storage and other devices, will it be a mess of adapters and hubs that I need to carry with me?
Bottom line is this ... it isn't the only laptop they offer.
I for one LOVE it for a certain kind of use -- one cord to hook it into a fully functional dock with all of my stuff connected at work, and a different dock for home. It's perfect and a long time coming -- I'm a former Duo user and I kept mine alive until it was beyond life support.
However, if you do a lot of "pro" activities in the field, then this is absolutely NOT the laptop for you. Thank goodness, Apple still offers a wide selection of laptops for everyone else's needs.
What's sad is that Asus, Lenovo, and Dell are trying to scam consumers into thinking that all laptops are created equal. Let's put the new Macbook next to any of these machines and see show well a finely crafted aluminum, hi-res, no-fan Macbook with high-bandwidth SSD's and OS X, along with the best customer-service in the industry compares to these (predominantly) chinese crap, built out of plastic - as they like to say - "polycarbonate", with a joke of a warranty and sketchy reliability.
And for those clowns that preach "but..but.. I can buy THREE shitty laptops for the price of ONE Macbook??!!", I say... go right ahead since that's how you value your downtime.
I think, but I could be wrong, that they're referring to the use of caps rather than the spelling. Even so, I don't think it needed a "[sic]".
Worse, they're bringing specs to a design war. Which really means they've already lost.
After pretending that good design wasn't worth paying for, they're left flat footed. As the PC market shrinks, Apple will scoop up more and more of what's left of it.
What about battery life?
Apple has all day battery - and the inside is practically all battery, because Apple cares about it. The MacBook is thin, light, and actually runs all day. How could they make it smaller - take out the only thing left, give us less battery?
I'd love to see the comparisons on that.
I just checked and the new MB beats all three of those models. The Asus comes closet at 9 hours with Lenovo the worst at 6.6.
Well, these are lovely and impressive, but, they're still just filling the slot
the old white MacBooks filled,which is to say, less powerful than the MBAir.
I'm looking forward to the day they magic the power of the MBPro into
something like this form factor ( not that MBPro isn't impressive already).
As for all the pretenders referred to in this article
(who can't even win their own argument, and are afraid to mention battery life),
I'd recommend including this when flogging their junk:
"Why, this is nothing but a bag of S**T!"
"But it's really GREAT s**t, Mrs. Presky!"
The Dell XPS 13 is actually a really nice laptop if you don't mind using windows.
I have a previous version of a Dell XPS 13" bought end 2012, preinstalled with Ubuntu and it is an amazing machine. When I bought it I had the power of a Macbook Pro for the price of a Macbook Air. It is superfast: a cold boot to login screen in 5 seconds.
I had much more issues with Yosemite on my Mac mini than I ever experienced with Ubuntu on my Dell
Well, there is something in common to all these "winners".
They aren't afraid of each other.
Specs are important, it is just that you have to focus on the right specs. This is perhaps Apples greatest failing with the Mac Book, they don't seem to realize that ports (a spec) are important to many. So are things like processor performance which in this case is totally unknown.
If I were Lenovo, I would not do a side by side picture of the new MacBook and the Yoga. The former brings a dolphin to mind, the latter, a crab. Can't really explain why that imagery popped up.