I remember how things were without the internet. It’s a lot more convenient now. But old habits die hard. I still like to have local backups/copies of all my stuff.
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Resolved MacBook Air - real world experience
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I remember how things were without the internet. It’s a lot more convenient now. But old habits die hard. I still like to have local backups/copies of all my stuff.
The issue of power comes down time to export in Final Cut or other similar tasks. Doing actual edits and during use all these new computers should work relatively the same.
But anytime you just have to throw a ton of cpu at a task...basically anything with a progress bar more power will help.
If you have to ask, you really don’t need the better cpu.
But anytime you just have to throw a ton of cpu at a task...basically anything with a progress bar more power will help.
If you have to ask, you really don’t need the better cpu.
Precisely. As a computer professional I spend nearly 100% of my time reading email, running stuff on servers in iTerm2 and sometimes compiling some code or writing python scripts.
The 2018 MBA is a big step up for me from my 2013 MBA which is still perfectly usable. If I need to mess with video I do it on my iMac.
Today's test: watching 4k video at full screen.
Today I went into a store and found a 2018 MacBook Air base model display unit. I wanted to see how this machine handles watching a 4k video at full screen because I have seen some YouTube videos suggesting that this model doesn't perform well with 4k video at full screen.
I watched a 4k video at full screen and noticed that the video seemed lesser quality for the first 5 or so seconds, then the video changed to a very nice and crisp resolution. This is similar to what I see when doing the same thing on my 2014 Mac mini base model at home.
I have no idea of the bandwidth used in the WiFi connection that the store was using.. just wanted to post my findings.
Today I went into a store and found a 2018 MacBook Air base model display unit. I wanted to see how this machine handles watching a 4k video at full screen because I have seen some YouTube videos suggesting that this model doesn't perform well with 4k video at full screen.
I watched a 4k video at full screen and noticed that the video seemed lesser quality for the first 5 or so seconds, then the video changed to a very nice and crisp resolution. This is similar to what I see when doing the same thing on my 2014 Mac mini base model at home.
I have no idea of the bandwidth used in the WiFi connection that the store was using.. just wanted to post my findings.
Yea, I think this has more to do with the connection speed than the computer. I have a 1000MBs fiber optic connection so when I get my MBA I'll do a test on wifi and ethernet and report back here.
Ah, yeah, I thought the connection speed might have something to do with it. Will be interested in seeing your findings.
I have a 256/8 MBA and 300mbps fibre. I have no issue on WiFi watching 4K videos on YouTube. They look the same as they do on my 2015MBP (or did until my 3yr old spilled juice on it, causing the need to buy a MBA! 
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Right, Therefore I got myself a used Macbook Pro 2015. Better screen, camera seems to be better, usb and hdmi ports, lower price, the rest is on par with the Macbook Air.
It’s not a pro, of course the machine is going to work like butter the first few days of ownership, as time goes on, the infirior Y series chip will not hold up at what gets thrown at it.
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If your workload increases and becomes more demanding, a processor isn't going to go "Ah.. this is the point where I add the secret 400MHz because this laptop I'm in cost $1,200." A processor is a processor, is a processor. If someone needs the most powerful processor possible, you buy the most powerful laptop, obviously the most powerful laptop isn't a 2018 MBA. Just because the MBA doesn't have a pro moniker doesn't mean it can't get certain things done. I've run a VM instance, compiled code, exported 4K video, played a few basic games, had a handful of apps running simultaneously (without slow down), etc. Aside from running 2-4 VM's and exporting very large 4K projects, the 2018 MBA is more than powerful enough for most people.
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That is totally OK if this thing doesn't cost $2000 for an appropriate setup. You can get a Dell XPS 13 with a quad core i7, 16 GB RAM and 512 GB SSD for a third less. The price/performance ratio does not fit here....
There is simply no way you can know that for certain.. or that it applies to anyone except you.
"Revealed your opinion is" - Yoda
True. But, all of that wonderful hardware is crippled by the operating system wannabe that it ships with. It's like buying a Porsche and replacing the stock engine with a hamster wheel.
Will a stock Dell XPS 13 be able to use iCloud, Continuity and Handoff to integrate seamlessly with my iPhone, iPod, Apple Watch and Mac computers?
A chain is only as strong as its weakest link.
That is definitely true and I am also no fan of Windows systems, but that is no excuse for Apple to sell mediocre hardware for excessive prices....
https://www.dict.cc/englisch-deutsch/excessive.html
A 256GB/8GB 2018 MBA can be had for $1,199 at a MicroCenter or $1,249 at BHPhoto. Everyone knows you don't buy stuff directly from Apple. They will charge you more. It's no different than the Microsoft Store with the Surface devices, its the same with Dell. Things are always cheaper at other stores. Apple has always charged a lot more for their devices because they can. No one else makes Apple devices, only Apple does. But the benefit of that is quality. The OS feels like it was made exactly for the hardware it runs on. So it runs smooth, things work "just like that", its pretty, other Apple products work along with it "just like that", etc. You're paying for the ecosystem of all that is Apple, that is what you're paying that extra money for.
I've gone through many laptops in the last two years, and I keep coming back to Apple. I always have that thing in the back of my mind "Man... this laptop was pretty expensive, I could get a XPS that does all that I need and it is nearly half the cost...". And I have done just that. I had a 2017 15" MBP, had buyers remorse and took it back. Bought an open box Surface Book 2 15", had quality issues with the WiFi card constantly disappearing and the screen yellowing, took it back got a new replacement (paid more since the previous was open box), had the exact same issues, took it back. Got a XPS 15 9560 and kept it. Noticed the slow response on the screen and got annoyed, wasn't a fan of the slow WiFi performance, but I just dealt with it. It was nearly 1k cheaper than the MBP and SB2 (MicroCenter had the 9560's for $1599), and I was tired of playing the return game.
Kept the XPS 15 for a year. I had many issues with it over the year. WiFi was slow, card would disappear when waking from sleep, the crappy response time, coil whine when taxing the GPU, more than normal battery drain (random) when sleeping, pretty much every XPS 15 9560 issue that came up on forums, I experienced. I got fed up with it and sold the damn thing and went back to my mid 2012 Macbook Pro. I realized I didn't need a high end laptop for my use, everything I did was either not very taxing or server hosted based (esxi home lab), so I absolutely didn't need a powerhouse of a laptop anymore.
Long story short, the 2018 MBA is exactly what I was looking for. I wanted to be back on MacOS, I wanted a native unix/linux shell, I wanted proper window management (the trackpad gestures are so good), etc. Sure the MBA isn't cheap, but I want something that "just works". The Apple tax has always proven to be warranted after you get over the cost and get to work. You get what you pay for with Apple, its that simple. Now... if only they could fix that god damn keyboard issue we'd all be in heaven.
I can't comment on the hardware because I'm still new to some of it. But, I can comment on the excessive prices. I did months of research into Apple prior to moving over from Linux and BSD because I wanted to know more about Apple before I gave them my time and money. Most people who complain about Apple product prices fail to take into consideration that most of those products use things that Apple has to continually pay for and maintain. Do you use Siri? Siri uses apple servers in the background. Do you use iCloud? iCloud uses apple servers in the background. Do you like Activation Lock? That also uses apple servers in the background. Do you like free versions of macOS? Free classes at Apple stores? The fact that all of your Apple products work together seamlessly? There are many things that we uses on a daily basis with our Apple products that Apple has to maintain with lots of money, resources and teams of employees. Try to imagine how much server space is tied up in iCloud being used by millions of Apple devices. Server space/bandwidth isn't cheap.
If Apple sold their products and then completely cut ties with the customer, then I would never buy any Apple products. But Apple does a lot in the background that we don't ever see because our devices work so well together.
Exactly all this. Now add in how good the hardware is that they do use, and how good the build quality is (aluminium unibody designs). Apple uses very fast WiFi cards instead of crappy ones, very fast NVME drives instead of using lower end NVME drives, the displays are very crisp and basically have no light bleed (across the entire MacBook line up), the OS runs good on every single piece of hardware they make, etc. Need an example of crappy optimization in 2018/2019? Look at the the Pixel Slate and compare that to 2-3 year old iPads and how good iOS 12 runs on them. I could go on and on and on. But all of that, is why Apple devices cost more.
Not sure what referring to for optimization. Very large thread regarding T2 chip crashes that are 2018 machines.
Was referring to the years of proven optimization with OSX, MacOS and iOS. Luckily, I haven't had any issues with the two 2018 MBA's we have in our household. Maybe a patch will fix it for those effected.
I have never had one T2 chip crash, nor any of the 15 other laptops we bought at work have had any issues.
Excellent. Not all machines with the T2 are displaying the issue but some are with all different machines that have chip.
I got mine on day 1 (Nov 7th) and the keyboard went out the other day. Specifically, the spacebar keeps repeating. Took it to the apple store and it's a 7-10 day turnaround- ridiculous. They don't offer loaners, so I asked to buy another one so I can use it for 14 days and return it since I can't be without a laptop, they said there was a 30 minute in-store queue just to buy something. Double ridiculous. Apple stores are a ****ing mess. Ended up ordering one through the app and paying extra for the 2-hour courier delivery.
I should have just kept my 2015 13" MBP and dealt with the older TB2 and slower CPU. I really don't have confidence in mac laptops anymore. Desktops are still good, though. 2018 Mac mini + eGPU and iMac Pro are great whenever I get to work with them.
I should have just kept my 2015 13" MBP and dealt with the older TB2 and slower CPU. I really don't have confidence in mac laptops anymore. Desktops are still good, though. 2018 Mac mini + eGPU and iMac Pro are great whenever I get to work with them.