OK, my macbook pro came today, and now I can give a better opinion then the 30 minutes I got to play around with my uncle's one last week.
Even though I'm annoyed I bought the i7 upgrade (before the benchmarks were out), as there's only a 500 point score difference on average. And I was planning to return it, and save the money on that upgrade, or choose a 1TB hard drive instead (which would have cost around the same price when combined with the base cpu). I think I've decided to keep it. I honestly can't be bothered to wait another week, and I doubt I'll ever fill up my 512GB SSD, because I have 2 external drives anyway with a combined total of 6TB's.
So here is my short review on the laptop:
Pros:
1. The keyboard is decent, I have no problem typing on this keyboard, but I can't compare it to the macbook retina butterfly because I never used it.
2. The speakers are by one of the best things about this laptop. They are loud and clear, one of the best things I must say. You won't need external speakers, unless you prefer them.
3. Speedy. This laptop is very speedy. I think this is due to the stupidly fast SSD drive in the laptop. Fastest SSD in any laptop, and it makes a difference.
4. I'm not experiencing that touchpad gritty feeling as I did with my uncles model anymore. Maybe I'm use to it now, or his was slightly more resistant to movement.
Cons:
1. Yes the laptop is really loud. I didn't notice it last time (because I was in a room filled with people and the TV on). But I can see this getting very annoying very fast, especially if you have to type a lot, like a document, programming, or even this forum post.
2. I don't like the display as much as the Asus 4k screen I returned. I can notice the difference. I like my text to be crystal clear, even when using the native (non scaled resolution). And you just don't get that with this resolution and having the laptop on your lap.
3. I also find the colours on the display a bit oversaturated. I was watching the angry birds trailer, and the red on the Red bird was a bit too much. I couldn't distinguish the shades of red as I can on other high quality screens. However the colours in general are much more vivid and brighter.
4. There have been a few times when typing this post, that my trackpad has moved and clicked somewhere else in the text box, and I've had to backtrack and fix it.
5. The battery life is a bit of a disappointment. I have to have the brightness 3 or 4 less than the highest setting, otherwise the screen becomes too dark. And battery is only lasting around 6 hours.
The good thing about point 5, was I was thinking about getting the touchbar model recently since it would cost me the same price as this model (due to the stupid cpu upgrade), while giving me practically the same CPU, but with a better GPU, and the same 512GB SSD; oh and of course that stupid touch bar. But with it being a smaller battery and less energy efficient CPU, plus a touch bar to power, I can't even imagine the battery life on that model. Though all those upgrade are tempting for the same price as this model.
Anyway that's it for now. Anyone thinking of upgrading to the touchbar model at all? I might test this for another 12 days, and decide whether to return it or not (backing it up at the same time via time machine).
