Hi, I just thought I would write something regards the new MacBook, I have been reading these forums ever since the new MacBook was announced. I kinda wish I didn't as I have spent hours looking at the battery meter, checking the chaise of the Mac for manufacturing scratches etc rather than just using the machine.
My background, I work in IT, trained in Microsoft, last laptop was an 11" Alienware, so its safe to say I'm not a fan boy when it comes to one company or another. I would have a caveat that I have had an iPhone since the 3g and I would say I am biased to apple when it comes to phones and tablets.
I've now had the MacBook since the first week in January, a fair time to garner an opinion of it. First of all, this is by far the most aesthetically pleasing laptop I have ever seen, it makes my Alienware look like something from the 90's (yes I appreciate the fact it houses a powerful graphics card). I got the nTB version, I do kinda wish it had Touch ID but hey ho. In my work there are a lot of XPS dells, they do not come close to the build quality or premium look. Also, the OS is so smooth compared to windows (windows 10 is a an improvement but some of the changes especially on server version just annoy me), no waiting for applications to load at start up, log in and you are good to go instantly. The screen and speakers are amazing for a machine of this size, thats not hyperbole, I was dismissive of Macs and thought they were dumbed down machines, I admit I was very wrong in this regard.
I see a lot of comments on here bemoaning the fact this machine isn't pro, but I really dont understand that term, a professional writer could see a Chromebook as pro machine just using a word processor, if the machine does the job you need it to then its a pro machine to you.
The battery... now this has been the biggest negative pointed at this machine, if you use it to watch Netflix or Kodi, you will get 10 hours at least, web browsing that means loading pages and not just reading one page will give you about 8, the only game I play is Football Manager (thats soccer for the people in the states) it doesn't do well, about 2 hours, however this games CPU intensive, its the only thing I do that makes the fans go, other than that the machine is silent.
USB C is a non issue for me as I didn't have any peripherals apart from iPhone and a USB drive, I got a £9 adaptor from apple, no big deal. The keyboard... well as you can see from the length of this, I love typing on it, it really is a pleasure.
I got the laptop for £1300 on Amazon, so slightly cheaper than the apple price, I do feel its true value would be £1100 but I don't feel cheated. Basically if you are undecided and are reading the negative comments and being put off, I would just go for it, I have been converted to MacOS and the trackpad gestures, prob the biggest plus re the OS over windows.
I have had one kernel panic, but I was pressing lots of key combos trying to put the Mac to sleep, so I may of confused it, apart from that I've had no freezes, graphic glitches or any of the horror stories I see on this forum.
*any typos are due to a few after work beers...
My background, I work in IT, trained in Microsoft, last laptop was an 11" Alienware, so its safe to say I'm not a fan boy when it comes to one company or another. I would have a caveat that I have had an iPhone since the 3g and I would say I am biased to apple when it comes to phones and tablets.
I've now had the MacBook since the first week in January, a fair time to garner an opinion of it. First of all, this is by far the most aesthetically pleasing laptop I have ever seen, it makes my Alienware look like something from the 90's (yes I appreciate the fact it houses a powerful graphics card). I got the nTB version, I do kinda wish it had Touch ID but hey ho. In my work there are a lot of XPS dells, they do not come close to the build quality or premium look. Also, the OS is so smooth compared to windows (windows 10 is a an improvement but some of the changes especially on server version just annoy me), no waiting for applications to load at start up, log in and you are good to go instantly. The screen and speakers are amazing for a machine of this size, thats not hyperbole, I was dismissive of Macs and thought they were dumbed down machines, I admit I was very wrong in this regard.
I see a lot of comments on here bemoaning the fact this machine isn't pro, but I really dont understand that term, a professional writer could see a Chromebook as pro machine just using a word processor, if the machine does the job you need it to then its a pro machine to you.
The battery... now this has been the biggest negative pointed at this machine, if you use it to watch Netflix or Kodi, you will get 10 hours at least, web browsing that means loading pages and not just reading one page will give you about 8, the only game I play is Football Manager (thats soccer for the people in the states) it doesn't do well, about 2 hours, however this games CPU intensive, its the only thing I do that makes the fans go, other than that the machine is silent.
USB C is a non issue for me as I didn't have any peripherals apart from iPhone and a USB drive, I got a £9 adaptor from apple, no big deal. The keyboard... well as you can see from the length of this, I love typing on it, it really is a pleasure.
I got the laptop for £1300 on Amazon, so slightly cheaper than the apple price, I do feel its true value would be £1100 but I don't feel cheated. Basically if you are undecided and are reading the negative comments and being put off, I would just go for it, I have been converted to MacOS and the trackpad gestures, prob the biggest plus re the OS over windows.
I have had one kernel panic, but I was pressing lots of key combos trying to put the Mac to sleep, so I may of confused it, apart from that I've had no freezes, graphic glitches or any of the horror stories I see on this forum.
*any typos are due to a few after work beers...
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