The (loaded, ~$2K after taxes) MacBook isn't so bad.

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SuperSubZero

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Had one of these fall into my possession on long-term loan (cuz I ain't paying for one lol). It's the m7/512GB config.

These things get knocked on for the price, and yeah, it's totally insane. However, getting it for $0 definitely changes things. It's amazingly usable, even upping the scaling to "like 1440x900" the text is clear, and the Intel iGPU keeps up on regular use without any real slowness. My daily commute driver is a 15" Retina, I decided to forego it and use the MacBook for a day. It handled my workflow without issue. The small 12" screen took some adjustment, but the high res Retina display helps a lot. I'm probably Apple's key demographic for these things; No external display, bountiful wifi, all cloud storage, light workload. I run a browser, mail, IRC client, Messages, some Word 2016. The single USB-C port is fine for me, all I do is charge the battery (cuz I'm OCD about battery charge). As a mobile device in a desk-less environment it's very easy to use on any marginally flat surface or even.. a lap!

With the 11" Air decom'd, and the 13" Air assumed to be on the endangered list, Apple's "thin/light/low workload" space has an awkward lineup. The MacBook, base 13" MBP, and the 12.9" iPad Pro(?) are here, but their pricing vs. size/specs doesn't make a lot of sense. This little MacBook is cool, but there's no way I'd recommend one over a base 13" MBP. The MBP is cheaper, would run circles around it and is only one pound heavier and slightly larger.

So yeah, don't buy one. But if your work offers one or one falls out the back of a truck cheap, check it out. It's enough power for light/moderate use stuff, and weighs less than many PC laptop power bricks.
 
Even at retail, I think it makes sense. I get longevity out of my MBP. Something I couldn't from non Apple computers.

Expensive up front and reasonable over time.
 
Liver said:
Even at retail, I think it makes sense. I get longevity out of my MBP. Something I couldn't from non Apple computers.
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I don't think that's the case anymore, perhaps even ever, with PC laptops at MBP prices. Particularly in the last few years where I think many PC makers finally woke up and started to substantially improve quality above the low end. That's not to take anything away from Apple, indeed they were the main reason why I think PC laptop quality had improved. PC makers have caught up is all.
 
It wasn't just build quality. Apple controls just about every aspect of tech and software that the machines seem speedy even after a few years.

I've never needed to do a clean install. Runs great. No driver conflicts. No fuss.

Before anyone digs up a question I asked about doing a clean install because of permissions, it's not my computer. It's my wife's, and it's not entirely her fault. Some of the errors were mine.
 
If Apple fits your usage then Apple so great. Hard to kill. Like mentioned above stay snappy. You know you're going to get something pretty solid.

If you like gaming and are an engineer like me not so much...
 
If you need a UNIX-like environment, Apple is the way to go in my opinion. Have been using their products for 7 years now and have never looked back. Windows is not suited for the work I do, and Linux require too much maintenance and configuration to make sense.
 
AVT said:
If you need a UNIX-like environment, Apple is the way to go in my opinion. Have been using their products for 7 years now and have never looked back. Windows is not suited for the work I do, and Linux require too much maintenance and configuration to make sense.
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Have you checked out Fedora lately? 25 is a great OS, I'm using it at work for interfacing with all of my networking gear and it's been incredibly fast, stable, usable, well supported, I was shocked how much I'm liking it. I've got it on W510 with 12GB RAM and a 128GB SSD and it actually just flies.. But yeah, the hardware on Apple's side is top notch if you can spring for it.
 
After selling my 2012 rMBP I decided to get into some gaming but still wanted macOS. I ended up building a hackintosh and dual booting into Win 10. best decision ever! while its a pain to get it all working well and updates can mess things up, its totally worth it.
 
Yea, the price of apple laptops is quickly out weighted by the life span. I'm still on a late 2013 rMBP15, i7, 16gb, 512, 750m. The thing is smokin fast and the battery lasts longer than brand new of pc laptops of equal specs.not to mention of vendors are just not catching up my the rMPB. In specs, size, weight and quality. Guess what, there charging almost as much money too now.

The MacBook with that m7 is damm nice and runs anything a user buying an ultra book would want.

So many diehard of people don't get this and rip apple for their prices, think longer term people!
 
Still not sold on the keyboard on the early 2015 one I have but it's not a bad machine otherwise.
 
Yea it's good, better than most. But not as good as the unibody. I have been on my 2013 since it was new so I'm used to it. But whenever I touch my old (still in use) unibody my heart melts typing on it. :)

I have used the new MacBook and the new wireless keyboard enough to be worried about butterfly keys.
 
Just picked up a barely used 2016 rMB with the m7, 8gb and 512gb for $1150. Came with an extra charger and some dongles. Not bad IMO.
 
I've been kicking around the idea of a maxed out MacBook but can't decided if I that or a base model MacBook Pro. I think the M7 processor would be fine, but the memory is still a concern. If the MacBook had 16gb of memory I would probably buy one today. I feel that 8gb would become a big bottleneck for me. I usually run one or two VM's here and there, and I feel that 8gb wouldn't be enough.
 
acascianelli said:
I've been kicking around the idea of a maxed out MacBook but can't decided if I that or a base model MacBook Pro. I think the M7 processor would be fine, but the memory is still a concern. If the MacBook had 16gb of memory I would probably buy one today. I feel that 8gb would become a big bottleneck for me. I usually run one or two VM's here and there, and I feel that 8gb wouldn't be enough.
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The MacBook isn't being targetted to the power segment. If you need 16GB, you're a Pro and you should get a MacBook Pro. The MacBook is more geared towards soccer moms who just need to do some web and light app stuff. In those categories it does really well.
 
SuperSubZero said:
The MacBook isn't being targetted to the power segment. If you need 16GB, you're a Pro and you should get a MacBook Pro. The MacBook is more geared towards soccer moms who just need to do some web and light app stuff. In those categories it does really well.
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I don't know if I necessarily need the 16gb of RAM, I'm also concerned about the performance of the m7 processor. I also started looking at a i7 equipped MacBook Air too.
 
Love my macbook. Great for day to day stuff and still can do light adobe suite work (illustrator and lightroom for me)
 
SuperSubZero said:
The MacBook is more geared towards soccer moms
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Um, no... lol. It's a very capable ultrabook with an excellent portability, build quality and battery life. The m7 & 8gb of ram is plenty for most users - not just soccer moms. Yes, if you're a power user grab a MBP.
 
Etherton said:
Um, no... lol. It's a very capable ultrabook with an excellent portability, build quality and battery life. The m7 & 8gb of ram is plenty for most users - not just soccer moms. Yes, if you're a power user grab a MBP.
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How would an m7 equipped MacBook compare to an i7 equipped MacBook Air or an i5 equipped MacBook Pro.
 
Etherton said:
Um, no... lol. It's a very capable ultrabook with an excellent portability, build quality and battery life. The m7 & 8gb of ram is plenty for most users - not just soccer moms. Yes, if you're a power user grab a MBP.
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I'm not saying what it's capable of. It's capable of alot. It's TARGETTED at soccer moms. It's also keen at a particular level in the executive order when you're not the one pouring over spreadsheets and large volumes of information. It's a "Starbucks" machine.
 
It's targeted at anyone that wants Needs an ultra light and a full os. It will do plenty of real work, Lightroom, photoshop, video editing, anything. Maybe not as fast but not every needs it to be the fastest machine. Options and trade it's.

I also know plenty professsonials that get a lot of work done in coffee shops. Really a Starbucks machine is any computer you take to Starbucks no?
 
s10010001 said:
It's targeted at anyone that wants Needs an ultra light and a full os. It will do plenty of real work, Lightroom, photoshop, video editing, anything. Maybe not as fast but not every needs it to be the fastest machine. Options and trade it's.

I also know plenty professsonials that get a lot of work done in coffee shops. Really a Starbucks machine is any computer you take to Starbucks no?
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I ended up with mine because the person it was originally issued to complained it was too slow, and ended up with a new 13" Retina instead. They are high enough up the chain that the decision was made to immediately mothball the rest of the 12" MB's.

Where I live, it's generally not recommended to do sensitive work on a laptop in a public place. IP blah blah blah.
 
SuperSubZero said:
I ended up with mine because the person it was originally issued to complained it was too slow, and ended up with a new 13" Retina instead. They are high enough up the chain that the decision was made to immediately mothball the rest of the 12" MB's.

Where I live, it's generally not recommended to do sensitive work on a laptop in a public place. IP blah blah blah.
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Ohh I totally understand that... I see it all the time as well. Corporate waste is crazy. We have 2-3 year old Macs and PC piling up because of this same crap.
 
I used to be a pretty hardcore windows user, gaming college and work. And I always hated macs, saw windows as way superior as far as performance. What made me begin to change my mind was getting stuck using a Mac Pro in college for 2 semesters at a lab. Then, all of the kids were working on their MacBook pros using a touchpad where I lugged a big ass mouse with me all over the place and needed an outlet just about always on my super beefy hp envy 17.

When I needed an upgrade I bought an Mbp and haven't looked back since. In fact, it's hard for me to use a windows on the regular basis now. It just isn't as intuitive and even on a high end rig it's hard to match mbp performance for most tasks I do. Plus, design language is great and consistent.

I have a small design business and I did most work on a early 2013 mbp 15 while my business partner had a mid 2014 mbp 15. Late 2015 he ended up in a wreck with his laptop getting destroyed by impact. We had a contract with a firm on a fairly large project that included some tech expense. Since they had a contract with microsoft, we ended up getting him a dell xps 15 9550 with infinity display and it was fully maxed out on specs. A year later, that thing was a total piece of shit. Amazing display and good design. But so many bugs, needed a few clean installs. Trackpad is good for a windows, but doesn't work well with adobe suite apps gestures. Also, not as many gestures. Some apps have inconsistent gestures. Such as scrolling on chrome vs edge. Inconsistent battery life, reflective screen. He spent a considerable amount of time finding third party apps that worked well, where on Mac OS just about every stock app for the job done rather well for what was needed. Many windows updates caused issues, list goes on.

All while my mbp is fine. I can't really attribute this incident as isolated to this model as we've dealt with many clients and firms we partner with that have all kinds of windows 10 stories.

So for me, even if I didn't use an iPhone these days where handoff is so convinient, I'm still pretty much only interested in Mac OS. Granted, I'm not closed minded enough to rule out windows or android for that matter though. i constantly use both for business and pleasure, but have yet to want to migrate back.
 
I just bought a 13" MacBook Pro w/ Touch Bar and I'm super happy with the laptop. These things are super expensive at like $1800. Thankfully one of my friends works for Apple and one of her perks is a 25% discount on a Mac computer. So what should have cost me like $1900 actually ran me like $1445 after taxes.

Needless to say my friend hooked me up!
 
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