Apple Event 2016-10-27 -- New Macs finally

[JAG87]

The Kaby equivalent chips aren't available. Apple could of course stealth bump the MBP once they do become available.

TBH, I really don't give three shits if it's available or not.

I can go out and buy a device equipped with a Kabylake U chip from another vendor, that will play 4K HDR video flawlessly and with plenty of battery life for far less money than what Apple is asking. The 15" machine saves itself thanks to Polaris, the 13" machines are as good as DOA to me.

There is no reason for Apple not to present a refreshed MB with Kabylake core-M, or even pack the Kabylake U chip in the new entry level MBP, since you know, it's supposed to be the MBA replacement.... which it's not.

 

[Suspicious-Teach8788]

the top end Dell XPS 13 is only like 50$ more then this and its got an I7, 16 gigs of ram and a touch screen. and is all around a very nice device. tough competition

The other thing is that you can start off with an $1149 device that's fine for most people already. 256gb storage, 8gb of RAM is more than enough for most users. The problem is you can't even get that unless you shell out significantly more for the Touch Bar... that's not even a touch screen. Most people will settle for 1080p though.

But even if you wanted the high resolution version, that starts at $1399. Apple's $1799 is a huge stretch considering just a few years ago the 15" MBP was starting at $1799. Ever since they went Retina the prices have massively inflated. Considering now non-retina has gone out the door they really should consider bringing the prices back down. Isn't retina supposed to be the norm anyway?

 

[MovingTarget]

This was...a bit underwhelming. The hardware they presented is about what I expected, but the prospect for using dongles for my peripherals combined with the price increase kinda soured me on the whole thing. My old mid-2010 MBP 13" is starting to feel a little long in the tooth, but it looks like I may be keeping it around for a bit longer. $1000-ish for the base MBP model is something I would've jumped on.

 

[Kazukian]

IMO I think the new MacBook looks pretty awesome.

I don't have an Apple TV but I would definitely consider getting one just to get SSO.

When they released the phone/iPad apps that at least had a keyboard, it was a great day. The virtual keyboard was awful.

 

[jpiniero]

There is no reason for Apple not to present a refreshed MB with Kabylake core-M, or even pack the Kabylake U chip in the new entry level MBP, since you know, it's supposed to be the MBA replacement.... which it's not.

The entry level 13" isn't really a replacement for the Air; the rMB is. Apple doesn't care about 4K video so that's not a big deal to them.

 

[Kaido]

I thought Microsoft's presentation was a Me Too affaire, but Apple's is really underwhelming.

tbh, I really like the Surface Studio computer. It's basically a jumbo Wacom Cintiq plus a wireless Logitech Nulooq.

imo there are no more barriers between Windows & Mac in terms of being a creative tool. Sure, Apple has Final Cut, but a lot of the industry has moved to Adobe Premiere (since the FCPX debacle). Everything else is cross-platform these days...Lightroom, DaVinci, Photoshop, Nuke, Painter, etc. Smoke is the only major Mac-only exception I can think of off the top of my head. With OSX, you can a more stable operating system that is safer on the Internet, but with Windows, you get far more hardware options. Like, I just built a 44-core Windows desktop workstation using an Asus board & other parts off Amazon, which will be upgraded to the new 3,500 Mbps 960 Pro NVMe SSD in a couple weeks when it's released. You can add an 8-gig GTX1080, a 24-gig M6000 GPU, whatever you'd like. Aside from a stable, polished OS, I don't feel like Apple has very strong hardware offerings anymore. Which makes me sad

 

[jpiniero]

I'm assuming the Mac Pro is going to be discontinued. It almost has to be given it's still using Ivy Bridge-E and it's going to be hard to get chips soon.

 

[manly]

Based on just the comments here, my next (long overdue) system will be a Linux laptop. Any great options for a 15" MBP replacement? Dell Precision 5510 is on the table once it gets a Kaby Lake refresh, and if Dell squashes a lot of the bugs.

Thankfully I was too busy here to watch the event live.

I'm assuming the Mac Pro is going to be discontinued. It almost has to be given it's still using Ivy Bridge-E and it's going to be hard to get chips soon.

Oh easy solution for that problem. The Mac Pro sells in such low quantities that Apple could just stockpile components for it. Some people have hypothesized that Apple built way too many of the last 13" cMBP and that's the reason you can still buy a 5 year old machine for $1100. Wait, they finally discontinued the cMBP today lol.

 

[sxr7171]

The other thing is that you can start off with an $1149 device that's fine for most people already. 256gb storage, 8gb of RAM is more than enough for most users. The problem is you can't even get that unless you shell out significantly more for the Touch Bar... that's not even a touch screen. Most people will settle for 1080p though.

But even if you wanted the high resolution version, that starts at $1399. Apple's $1799 is a huge stretch considering just a few years ago the 15" MBP was starting at $1799. Ever since they went Retina the prices have massively inflated. Considering now non-retina has gone out the door they really should consider bringing the prices back down. Isn't retina supposed to be the norm anyway?

No $1050 with the 3200x1800. Check Amazon. This floor pricing for Apple stuff is ridiculous.

 

[sxr7171]

tbh, I really like the Surface Studio computer. It's basically a jumbo Wacom Cintiq plus a wireless Logitech Nulooq.

imo there are no more barriers between Windows & Mac in terms of being a creative tool. Sure, Apple has Final Cut, but a lot of the industry has moved to Adobe Premiere (since the FCPX debacle). Everything else is cross-platform these days...Lightroom, DaVinci, Photoshop, Nuke, Painter, etc. Smoke is the only major Mac-only exception I can think of off the top of my head. With OSX, you can a more stable operating system that is safer on the Internet, but with Windows, you get far more hardware options. Like, I just built a 44-core Windows desktop workstation using an Asus board & other parts off Amazon, which will be upgraded to the new 3,500 Mbps 960 Pro NVMe SSD in a couple weeks when it's released. You can add an 8-gig GTX1080, a 24-gig M6000 GPU, whatever you'd like. Aside from a stable, polished OS, I don't feel like Apple has very strong hardware offerings anymore. Which makes me sad

I disagree that MacOS is more stable. Safer on the internet maybe. But outside of gaming computer overclocking hijinks I can't remember the last time a Windows 10 machine of mine crashed and I use 3 of them pretty regularly.

My single iMac crashes every now and then. Maybe it needs to be reimaged. FWIW two of those Windows 10 machines were upgraded from 8.1.

As for safety on the internet. Probably Mac is safer simply due to security by obscurity. But I haven't seen a virus on any of my machines and use the built in anti virus - Security essentials.

That the hardware was nothing to write home about was a forgone conclusion even years ago. But the software at this point is just like iOS. Just piling on useless (imho) features which I never use onto an aging code base. There has been no work to make it faster or more stable. At this point I consider iOS to be almost as buggy as Windows 98 was. MacOS is better but it has just gotten bloated with add ons. Even if I got a retina MacBook which is the only Apple machine I like, I would still dual boot it.

What's great about MacOS is just that music and photo management is built in for free. That part is what makes it great for a home computer to give to computer illiterates and grandparents etc. I don't see much of the benefit for power users. Is the file system better? I don't really know anymore. Is Apple file sharing better? What arguments can be made about the OS being superior in pure technical terms?

 

[fr]

I am disappointed that they got rid of MagSafe.

 

[Kazukian]

Anyone else catch that they doubled the size of the touchpad?

 

[ultimatebob]

You gotta love it... You can't charge Apple's latest iPhone with Apple's latest Macbook Pro without an additional cable or adapter

I love the idea of moving to USB-C eventually, but forcing the switchover in one generation and making everyone's USB thumb drives and devices basically obsolete overnight is insanity.

 

[sxr7171]

Anyone else catch that they doubled the size of the touchpad?

Yeah I don't understand it. Maybe one day they'll run iOS on it. However I will have to say I use a third party paid program to increase the acceleration of the cursor so I never hit the edges on any Mac trackpad. But the real reason is to have control over the cursor with minimal finger movement.

I'm sure doubling the size makes it so nobody even with the slowest cursor hits the edge.

 

[obidamnkenobi]

wait, the 13" Pro has TWO ports? Including charging and display out?! Are you serious? Need to get my wife a new mac, but goddamn it's painful how crippled these things are, and it's getting worse.

So if she want's to plug in power, USB stick and a mouse? Out of ports. Mouse+kb? Sorry, no charging. Display and power? Sorry no USB stick. How the hell do you work with this thing? What the heck is the point of this? The whole side of the PC is empty space, there's nothing there. Why can't you put some ports there?!

And the only alternative is previous gen. A $2k PC with a processor from 2014! great.

 

[Rubycon]

I am disappointed that they got rid of MagSafe.

Definitely this!

 

[Eug]

Hmmmm... Skylake doesn't have on-board Thunderbolt 3 AFAIK. So I guess that means there is a separate Thunderbolt 3 chip in this machine.

More importantly though, I believe Kaby Lake has built-in Thunderbolt 3.0 support. Thus, this makes me wonder if the 2017 MacBook 12" Retina will support Thunderbolt 3.

That would be a nice bonus.

wait, the 13" Pro has TWO ports? Including charging and display out?! Are you serious? Need to get my wife a new mac, but goddamn it's painful how crippled these things are, and it's getting worse.

So if she want's to plug in power, USB stick and a mouse? Out of ports. Mouse+kb? Sorry, no charging. Display and power? Sorry no USB stick. How the hell do you work with this thing? What the heck is the point of this? The whole side of the PC is empty space, there's nothing there. Why can't you put some ports there?!

And the only alternative is previous gen. A $2k PC with a processor from 2014! great.

The base model Pro has 2 ports. The ones with the Touch Bar have 4 ports.

 

[obidamnkenobi]

Hmmmm... Skylake doesn't have on-board Thunderbolt 3 AFAIK. So I guess that means there is a separate Thunderbolt 3 chip in this machine.

More importantly though, I believe Kaby Lake has built-in Thunderbolt 3.0 support. Thus, this makes me wonder if the 2017 MacBook 12" Retina will support Thunderbolt 3.

That would be a nice bonus.


The base model Pro has 2 ports. The ones with the Touch Bar have 4 ports.

nevermind, I forgot they refuse to give you a quad core in the 13 inch model. Because who would want a powerful 13 inch laptop? Nobody, that's who!

Sent from my Nexus 5X using Tapatalk

 

[JAG87]

The entry level 13" isn't really a replacement for the Air; the rMB is. Apple doesn't care about 4K video so that's not a big deal to them.

Hmm let's see: https://youtu.be/gkp__bUoNaw?t=5147

I don't know man, that sounds exactly like Apple's 2016 version of a 13" MBA. Plus it comes with a 6360U 15W Skylake chip. Why that instead of the 7200U Kabylake chip, only Apple can answer that.

 

[sxr7171]

wait, the 13" Pro has TWO ports? Including charging and display out?! Are you serious? Need to get my wife a new mac, but goddamn it's painful how crippled these things are, and it's getting worse.

So if she want's to plug in power, USB stick and a mouse? Out of ports. Mouse+kb? Sorry, no charging. Display and power? Sorry no USB stick. How the hell do you work with this thing? What the heck is the point of this? The whole side of the PC is empty space, there's nothing there. Why can't you put some ports there?!

And the only alternative is previous gen. A $2k PC with a processor from 2014! great.

The point is to preen oneself at the coffee shop. Obviously.

 

[slashbinslashbash]

Yeah, disappointing. Disappointed no quad core in the 13". Disappointed base is 256GB SSD and 8GB/16GB of RAM. (I've had Quad Core and 16GB of RAM in my 2011 MBP since 2011!) Disappointed they decided to make it even thinner (who really needs thinner?) and compromise the keyboard. Rather have it a quarter inch thicker and double the battery size. Disappointed no MagSafe (although it shouldn't be that hard to have a MagSafe adapter that plugs into the USB3 port, sticks out a tiny bit, and provides the breakaway benefit of MagSafe). The screen looks great, and the Touch Bar thing is a big maybe. Yet again, I don't see a reason to upgrade.

 

[manly]

I am disappointed that they got rid of MagSafe.

True, but you can kind of replace it with a cord:
http://www.theverge.com/2016/1/4/10712044/usb-c-magsafe-macbook-apple-watch-battery-griffin

Also worth mentioning is that with ship times 3-4 weeks away, Apple is missing Kaby Lake H procs by a mere 2 months.

I honestly have no idea what I'll end up doing, but Amazon currently has a price error on MNQF2LL/A:
http://slickdeals.net/f/9232707

They probably won't ship at this price, but if you want a well-configured 13" MBP, this would ease some of the pain.

 

[asendra]

Gotta say, I feel extremely validated having bought my rMBP 13 (Broadwell) last year when they launched instead of waiting (rumors where another update was coming at the end of 2015).
I would have needed to buy 3 different adapters at least for when Im working (ethernet, display port for my 4k Dell, and USB hub) and possibly an HDMI for presentations from time to time. Not to mention the loss off the Magsafe, and the loss of the SD reader (I own a DSLR), so buying one of that too...

All in exchange for 5% more CPU perf, 30-40% GPU at best (and mine already does what I want, drive 4k displays), and the touch bar. God, I hope the touch bar really justifies itself over the next 2-3 years, or I don't know what will my next purchase will be.

PD: Also, they increased the prices a lot. the base 13" is 200 more, but with a joke of a CPU and 2 ports only. The real comparison would be the new base 13" with touch bar, and that has gone up from 1449 to 1999 euros. With 8gb of ram. What the actual fuck Apple. this is a sad joke.

The 13" rMBP I got, with the same BTO upgrades (16gb of ram, i5 CPU upgrade) costs now 650 euro more 550 euros more (I forgot I used a students discount).

 

[Spicedaddy]

They can't be bothered to design a MBA replacement. Let's just take the 3lb MBP and neuter it with a crappy CPU and only 2 ports. (one port if your charger is plugged in)

The design is alright, 1/2lb lighter but still huge bezels. It really needs Kaby Lake and 4 USB-C ports on the model without the 300$ OLED add bar on top of the keyboard.

It used to be "One more thing", now it's "maybe next year".

 

[ControlD]

wait, the 13" Pro has TWO ports? Including charging and display out?! Are you serious? Need to get my wife a new mac, but goddamn it's painful how crippled these things are, and it's getting worse.

So if she want's to plug in power, USB stick and a mouse? Out of ports. Mouse+kb? Sorry, no charging. Display and power? Sorry no USB stick. How the hell do you work with this thing? What the heck is the point of this? The whole side of the PC is empty space, there's nothing there. Why can't you put some ports there?!

That's pretty much where I am is well. My wife is due for an upgrade and she was really hoping for a new Air. With the prices and so-so hardware I think she will be moving back to the Windows world this next time around. Which is fine with me, We have never been that thrilled with OSX (MacOS, whatever they choose to call it). I can't quite get her talked into Linux yet but I have some time to work on that it seems.