Apple: You're Doing It Right With Laptops

[GWestphal]

I just received a new Lenovo W530 today. Totally tricked out. But to my dismay, the experience of using it is marred by the atrocious keyboard. Gone are the textured keys and great travel distance. That stupid trackpoint is still there, sweet jesus, that needed to go ages ago. The touchpad is pretty meh. The screen seems off, I don't know how to explain it, but it just doesn't seem right. Maybe I'm used to IPS screens and this one is TN? Why do I have 2 left and right mouse click buttons on top and bottom? That's just wasteful.

We primarily interact with the display, keyboard and trackpad or mouse? Make sure those things don't suck manufacturers.

I think Apple has the trackpad spot on. Their keyboard is great too, I think the layout works better and has some texture vs. the slick feel on the lenovo. Apple has been nailing screens with Retina as well and soon IGZO. Their batteries have almost always been top notch.

Those are really the most important things in a laptop: screen, battery, trackpad and keyboard. And Apples been pretty much nailing it while everyone else has been cutting corners and dropping in quality.

Good on you Apple, keep improving the experience for us and setting a good example for the rest of the industry.

 

[Koing]

How much was the W530?

To be fair if the W530 has the trackpoint thing it'll have the 2 sets of mouse buttons for when you are using trackpoint.

And regards to battery, apple has optimised OS X for battery life. It is comparable under windows from the battery benchmarks.

The keyboard is a joy to type on even on my 2008 Macbook. The trackpad is also good.

Koing

 

[amyklai]

I just received a new Lenovo W530 today. Totally tricked out. But to my dismay, the experience of using it is marred by the atrocious keyboard. Gone are the textured keys and great travel distance. That stupid trackpoint is still there, sweet jesus, that needed to go ages ago. The touchpad is pretty meh. The screen seems off, I don't know how to explain it, but it just doesn't seem right. Maybe I'm used to IPS screens and this one is TN? Why do I have 2 left and right mouse click buttons on top and bottom? That's just wasteful.

We primarily interact with the display, keyboard and trackpad or mouse? Make sure those things don't suck manufacturers.

I think Apple has the trackpad spot on. Their keyboard is great too, I think the layout works better and has some texture vs. the slick feel on the lenovo. Apple has been nailing screens with Retina as well and soon IGZO. Their batteries have almost always been top notch.

Those are really the most important things in a laptop: screen, battery, trackpad and keyboard. And Apples been pretty much nailing it while everyone else has been cutting corners and dropping in quality.

Good on you Apple, keep improving the experience for us and setting a good example for the rest of the industry.

For some people (like me) the trackpoint is much better than the trackpad, because you don't have to take your hands away from the keyboard.

Other than that, yeah, I think Lenovo's been losing it as far as the Thinkpads are concerned. IMO, their design direction is going towards the Apple design, with the result that the current machines are neither "real Thinkpads" anymore (6-row keyboard layout, no physical trackpoint buttons, island style keyboard) nor are they something that the Apple crowd would buy. It's almost like they try to turn all the Thinkpads into some consumerized pseudo-Thinkpad like their Edge line. Too bad, really.

 

[smackababy]

We primarily interact with the display, keyboard and trackpad or mouse? Make sure those things don't suck manufacturers.

This right here. What people don't understand is that while on a pure bare parts and specs perspective, the Apple laptops might be more than other brands (which isn't really the case in the higher up stuff), their input devices and screen are simply amazing. I am not even a fan of the chiclet style keyboard, but the MBP still feels good to type on.


And, if someone can find me a laptop with 8GB of RAM, an SSD, and a decent screen for less than the price of a 13" rMBP, please link away. And yes, I need more than 4GB of RAM because I do actual work (and Java and WebSphere are incredible resource hogs).

 

[Joe1987]

We primarily interact with the display, keyboard and trackpad or mouse? Make sure those things don't suck manufacturers.

I get so frustrated with PC manufacturers, it's been years since Apple just kicked their asses with laptops, what do they not understand about this?

Getting the keyboard and trackpad right would just cost a few $, WTH?

 

[TheStu]

I get so frustrated with PC manufacturers, it's been years since Apple just kicked their asses with laptops, what do they not understand about this?

Getting the keyboard and trackpad right would just cost a few $, WTH?

It has to cost more than that, otherwise high end Windows laptops would be roughly equal to a Mac, but that isn't the case.

It has to be a software factor as well, and quite frankly most companies that make computers are pretty awful at writing software.

 

[Zaap]

Hard to beat Apple's laptop lineup, that's for sure.

Disagree on the battery part. Non-removable batteries suuuuuuck. I mean sure, it's fine now while a laptop is new, but eventually it'll either be an expensive repair job to replace, or sticking someone else with the problem if you sell it on the verge of battery death.

If the MacBooks had some reasonable level of end user-serviceability (normal level of RAM, SSD and battery replacement) along with all the other pluses, I'd call them pretty much the perfect laptop. Well, to be fair, I do think they are pretty much the perfect laptops... just serviceability would put them well over the top.

 

[Tegeril]

Why is it an expensive job to replace? Apple isn't charging thousands of dollars to do it and you'd just be front loading that cost by having two. And this way you get better battery capacity than you would otherwise.

 

[scannall]

Hard to beat Apple's laptop lineup, that's for sure.

Disagree on the battery part. Non-removable batteries suuuuuuck. I mean sure, it's fine now while a laptop is new, but eventually it'll either be an expensive repair job to replace, or sticking someone else with the problem if you sell it on the verge of battery death.

If the MacBooks had some reasonable level of end user-serviceability (normal level of RAM, SSD and battery replacement) along with all the other pluses, I'd call them pretty much the perfect laptop. Well, to be fair, I do think they are pretty much the perfect laptops... just serviceability would put them well over the top.

Apple charges $95 to put in a new battery if you are out of AppleCare. That doesn't seem bad to me.

 

[Hugo Drax]

I get so frustrated with PC manufacturers, it's been years since Apple just kicked their asses with laptops, what do they not understand about this?

Getting the keyboard and trackpad right would just cost a few $, WTH?

Because people would complain about the price.

People what cheap prices for laptops in general, so they get what they ask for.

 

[Hugo Drax]

Apple charges $95 to put in a new battery if you are out of AppleCare. That doesn't seem bad to me.

Most people are bad at math.

 

[MrX8503]

Hard to beat Apple's laptop lineup, that's for sure.

Disagree on the battery part. Non-removable batteries suuuuuuck. I mean sure, it's fine now while a laptop is new, but eventually it'll either be an expensive repair job to replace, or sticking someone else with the problem if you sell it on the verge of battery death.

If the MacBooks had some reasonable level of end user-serviceability (normal level of RAM, SSD and battery replacement) along with all the other pluses, I'd call them pretty much the perfect laptop. Well, to be fair, I do think they are pretty much the perfect laptops... just serviceability would put them well over the top.

The battery door on the 2008 MBPs was sweet.

 

[Zaap]

Apple charges $95 to put in a new battery if you are out of AppleCare. That doesn't seem bad to me.

Yeah, you're probably right. It's why I can't bring myself to be too down on what I consider the few downsides of Apple's laptops. I'd still rather just be able to swap out a battery quickly myself- more convenient, less expense. (Used to cost about half as much for a replacement battery for previous PowerBooks/MacBooks I've owned)

But it's not like it's a deal-killer or anything. I currently wouldn't want any other laptop other than my 15" rMPB- except the latest 15" rMPB.

The battery door on the 2008 MBPs was sweet.

Form > function!

 

[MrX8503]

It is cheaper to replace the battery yourself, but $95 ain't bad especially if it ensures you get an OEM battery.