2018 13-inch MacBook Pro review: Apple's lofty promises are finally realized

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Comments

  • Reply 41 of 56
    sflocal said:
    bkkcanuck said:
    wizard69 said:
    I understand your point of view and i do believe Apple castrates the base models to force upgrades.   However the 8/256 config still allows many users to solve their needs.   I actually ran on 256 GB for awhile.   It was tight for my needs but totally usable.   

    Now would i buy such a machine today - nope!    Sadly ive given up on Apple and their quest to become a trillion dollar company. At least for my laptop needs.  It is hard to justify the extremely high prices when you run cross platform apps.   

    Pretty well all of my billable work is cross-platform and does not "require" me to have a Mac, but then I actually am "a professional" (not a creative professional) so I make money with the computer... so even with the cost of the computer is a bit more - it works out to about 2% of my billables goes to buying my computer equipment (which is the bulk of my "tools" cost).  It is something I don't lose sleep over.  I am pretty frugal everywhere else, but not with my "tools".  It is not worth my sanity to use something like Windows again...
    My MBP is my revenue-generating tool while on the road, and my iMac is my revenue-generating too at home.

    I could have went with cheaper Windows alternatives, and I did for years, then the reliability issues with those "cheaper" machines started to impact my billable time so I went with Macs.  Best decision ever.  They are rock-solid reliable, built well, and also happens to run (via virtual machine) any platform I need.

    It may not serve needs of some, but it serves needs for most.  People complaining about the price of a MBP aren't in any "pro" position.
    How about relatively low paid graduate students doing scientific research in engineering, physics, computational finance, etc?
  • Reply 42 of 56
    asciiascii Posts: 5,936member
    With the full-speed TB3 ports and the 4-core CPU its tempting to say this is the year of the 13"laptop. But GPU is so important these days (not just for games but for any form of batch, parallel processing) that we should probably wait 1 or 2 more years. The 15" is still the way to go for video editors editors or other big data people for a couple more years at least, just because of that GPU space.
  • Reply 43 of 56
    nhughesnhughes Posts: 770editor
    flydog said:
    flydog said:
    Good review!  Accurate, complete and fairminded....

    Based on AI's afiliate advertising at the bottom of the review?

    Do you think this is a hobby?
     I don’t. I think it’s a biased review of a product to maximize advertising revenue. 
    I don’t even work here full time anymore and I make zero dollars, personally, from this review. Your interpretation could not be more incorrect. But whatever. 
    watto_cobrafrankeed
  • Reply 44 of 56
    bkkcanuckbkkcanuck Posts: 864member
    flydog said:
    wizard69 said:

    flydog said:
    Good review!  Accurate, complete and fairminded....

    Based on AI's afiliate advertising at the bottom of the review?
    Are you suggesting affiliate referral links make a source biased and unfair in their reviews?

    If so there are a whole lot of web sources you’re going to have to stop visiting. 
    It is the tone of the article that is the problem!   
    Exactly. Obviously news outlets rely on advertising to make money, but making the advertising part of a glowing review wreaks of bias. 
    There are subjective and objective points of view with laptops.  A review (fair) should focus more on the objective - does this laptop live up to the promise of the target audience that it is aimed at ... I would argue yes, and a rating based on the objective is appropriate.  It is a solid laptop that does exactly what it promises.

    There is the subjective, things like the low travel keyboard which can be very divisive... Some people love it, some people like it, and some people loathe it.  It, however, does exactly what it is designed to do and the people who loathe it already know it... so focusing on it (which is old news) would not be doing the review justice.  

    The review has to focus on for those people that may be interested in buying or upgrading to this line... is it worth it... 

    The review seems to be fair, it covers what this laptop is and some use cases.  Advertising and affiliate links are a fact of life for media these days -- if you cannot monetize it -- you are out of business.
    pascal007watto_cobrafrankeed
  • Reply 45 of 56
    I don’t know if this also applies to the 13” but the SSD read/write speeds are insane.

    The APFS clone feature theory was false. These are really the read/write numbers using BlackMagic speed test.

    Plus, you won’t find this on any PC since this speed comes from a custom SSD configuration: two raw SSD chips (no on board controller) with the T-2 chip providing all i/o functions and on-the-fly encryption instead of taxing the CPU.

    The same custom setup that’s in the iMacPro.


    edited July 2018 irelandpascal007watto_cobra
  • Reply 46 of 56
    flydog said:
    Good review!  Accurate, complete and fairminded....

    Based on AI's afiliate advertising at the bottom of the review?

    I don't understand why you are so upset about the affiliate links. This review is fair and balanced, overall (and it even had a couple of points that I disagreed with). No AI reader needs to actually use those links if they don't want to.

    How else do you expect AI to sustain itself? Move behind a pay wall? Would you pay for reading AI, if it did? If not, why keep badgering them about these links, when the overall review was fairly comprehensive and balanced? 
    edited July 2018 irelandwatto_cobrafrankeed
  • Reply 47 of 56
    irelandireland Posts: 17,798member
    sflocal said:
    The new 13" MBP is at the same level as my 2017 MBP.  I bought the 15" version because of the extra horsepower.  In all practicality, I'd rather go back to the 13" as I use it truly as a portable machine, and plug it into an external monitor and keyboard at the office anyways.

    It was tempting, but I'm going to stay with my MBP for at least the next refresh cycle.  I want LPDDR4 (at the minimum) and am in no rush.

    I'm pretty excited to see what Apple does with the next iMacs.  These new processors are sweet.  It's time that Apple includes 6,8 or more cores on their iMacs.

    Later this year.
  • Reply 48 of 56
    irelandireland Posts: 17,798member
    If your thing is video editing and you must have a laptop instead of an iMac or the upcoming MP, I would think a 15” is the only sensible way to go.
    edited July 2018
  • Reply 49 of 56
    bkkcanuckbkkcanuck Posts: 864member
    sflocal said:
    bkkcanuck said:
    wizard69 said:
    I understand your point of view and i do believe Apple castrates the base models to force upgrades.   However the 8/256 config still allows many users to solve their needs.   I actually ran on 256 GB for awhile.   It was tight for my needs but totally usable.   

    Now would i buy such a machine today - nope!    Sadly ive given up on Apple and their quest to become a trillion dollar company. At least for my laptop needs.  It is hard to justify the extremely high prices when you run cross platform apps.   

    Pretty well all of my billable work is cross-platform and does not "require" me to have a Mac, but then I actually am "a professional" (not a creative professional) so I make money with the computer... so even with the cost of the computer is a bit more - it works out to about 2% of my billables goes to buying my computer equipment (which is the bulk of my "tools" cost).  It is something I don't lose sleep over.  I am pretty frugal everywhere else, but not with my "tools".  It is not worth my sanity to use something like Windows again...
    My MBP is my revenue-generating tool while on the road, and my iMac is my revenue-generating too at home.

    I could have went with cheaper Windows alternatives, and I did for years, then the reliability issues with those "cheaper" machines started to impact my billable time so I went with Macs.  Best decision ever.  They are rock-solid reliable, built well, and also happens to run (via virtual machine) any platform I need.

    It may not serve needs of some, but it serves needs for most.  People complaining about the price of a MBP aren't in any "pro" position.
    How about relatively low paid graduate students doing scientific research in engineering, physics, computational finance, etc?
    Are you talking about the United States?  How much did that same student pay for their education (4 years + graduate)?  How much is spent on books a year (unfortunately I don't think all the textbooks have been replaced with creative commons free textbooks yet)?  What percentage overall of these expenses -- does that "overpriced" laptop cost?
  • Reply 50 of 56
    Mike WuertheleMike Wuerthele Posts: 6,858administrator
    flydog said:
    flydog said:
    Good review!  Accurate, complete and fairminded....

    Based on AI's afiliate advertising at the bottom of the review?

    Do you think this is a hobby?
     I don’t. I think it’s a biased review of a product to maximize advertising revenue. 
    This is a laughable assertion, because of an opinion you don’t like. When Apple does dumb crap, we talk about it all the time. We were among the first to talk about the thermal problem pre-patch, and more.

    Editorial staff, like Neil and myself, have precisely zero to do with any deals or affiliate links and we are never instructed to alter content accordingly. Nor, is our compensation altered by any affiliate links in any of our articles, at all. We do this for a reason.

    This topic of conversation is over. Re-read the commenting guidelines. You've been here long enough to know where they are and that they exist.

    If you can’t abide by them, let me know and I will take care of that problem for you.
    edited July 2018 dewmenhughespscooter63watto_cobraspheric
  • Reply 51 of 56
    pascal007pascal007 Posts: 118member
    flydog said:
    Good review!  Accurate, complete and fairminded....

    Based on AI's afiliate advertising at the bottom of the review?

    Affiliate links like this are blatant advertising and thus honest. Wrong advertising would be to write a fluff piece and make it look like a real article. 
    watto_cobra
  • Reply 52 of 56
    pascal007pascal007 Posts: 118member
    sflocal said:
    bkkcanuck said:
    wizard69 said:
    I understand your point of view and i do believe Apple castrates the base models to force upgrades.   However the 8/256 config still allows many users to solve their needs.   I actually ran on 256 GB for awhile.   It was tight for my needs but totally usable.   

    Now would i buy such a machine today - nope!    Sadly ive given up on Apple and their quest to become a trillion dollar company. At least for my laptop needs.  It is hard to justify the extremely high prices when you run cross platform apps.   

    Pretty well all of my billable work is cross-platform and does not "require" me to have a Mac, but then I actually am "a professional" (not a creative professional) so I make money with the computer... so even with the cost of the computer is a bit more - it works out to about 2% of my billables goes to buying my computer equipment (which is the bulk of my "tools" cost).  It is something I don't lose sleep over.  I am pretty frugal everywhere else, but not with my "tools".  It is not worth my sanity to use something like Windows again...
    My MBP is my revenue-generating tool while on the road, and my iMac is my revenue-generating too at home.

    I could have went with cheaper Windows alternatives, and I did for years, then the reliability issues with those "cheaper" machines started to impact my billable time so I went with Macs.  Best decision ever.  They are rock-solid reliable, built well, and also happens to run (via virtual machine) any platform I need.

    It may not serve needs of some, but it serves needs for most.  People complaining about the price of a MBP aren't in any "pro" position.
    How about relatively low paid graduate students doing scientific research in engineering, physics, computational finance, etc?
    Then you’re not pro : you’re a student!
    spheric
  • Reply 53 of 56
    I don’t know if this also applies to the 13” but the SSD read/write speeds are insane.

    The APFS clone feature theory was false. These are really the read/write numbers using BlackMagic speed test.

    Plus, you won’t find this on any PC since this speed comes from a custom SSD configuration: two raw SSD chips (no on board controller) with the T-2 chip providing all i/o functions and on-the-fly encryption instead of taxing the CPU.

    The same custom setup that’s in the iMacPro.


    Our 2017 512GB SSD went from 2000 Write / 2700 Read to 2000 write 2100 Read while FileVault was enabled.
    It went down to around 1300/1300 while encrypting the very first time. We even had to plug in the power adapter for 20 hours while it finished encrypting.

    Literally no difference in speeds on a 2018 MBP, even right after turning FileVault on. (didn't have to plug it in or anything)
    T2 completely takes care of encryption.
    watto_cobra
  • Reply 54 of 56
    19831983 Posts: 1,225member
    Very nice laptop, but as said in the article, too expensive. Apple should at least offer minimum 1TB SSD storage by now, anything less is inadequate nowadays with the size of data files. And in my part of the world anyway, upgrading from 512GB to 1TB storage when specifying one’s Mac online is ridiculously expensive, when you can buy external 1TB SSD drives for considerably less. I’d prefer my main drive to be inside my laptop like it should be, instead of dangling onto it working at a slower speed and gathering dust.
  • Reply 55 of 56
    macguimacgui Posts: 2,350member
    mike54 said:
    . I would prefer to have bigger cut-outs, nicely designed and engineered (they have the expertise) that has a removable washable filter... maybe have one strip per side... maybe some sort of fine mesh, smart engineers could no doubt design something.


    You're high. Not for preferring what your prefer but for expecting that in an Apple notebook. No doubt the competition has this, though.


    This this 13" MBP looks like it might be my next MB. Quad-core is very satisfactory for me. That means I don't have to spend extra money to step up to a 15" machine.

    I've had to use 15" laptops forever at work, and don't like schlepping them around. For the last 15yrs my personal portables have been 12-13" notebooks starting with the white 'plastic' iBook.

    Now I use a 2015 MacBook. But the Retina screen leaves me feeling a little cramped on the 12" display, A bigger display and four ports, not to mention significantly better performance gets me in the door and a comfortable seat with no need or desire to upgrade for a good long while.

    It will be my most expensive Mac ever, and probably the most powerful. I also like that it has Touch ID. So I think I'm about to get onboard.
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