tmiw

I tried the MacBook again at the Apple Store and the keyboard and trackpad really bugged me this time. I was able to bump up the "click" force in the settings but it still felt weak even at maximum compared to my 2013 MBP. I went to the Microsoft Store next door and felt like I was more accurate with the Surface 3's Type Cover than with the MacBook too. Hopefully Apple at least increases the key travel on the MacBook's keyboard or something.

(Weirdly enough I didn't have much trouble with the MacBook the first time I looked at it in store. Or don't remember so, at least.)

skofarrell

You wont notice they keyboard difference after a day or so.

ScottC

Please tell me how you did this, because I find the keyboard on my SP3 insufferable.

tmiw

It was weird. Usually I'm horrible with the Surface keyboards so yesterday could have been a fluke.

JClishe

This guy wrote an interesting blog post claiming that the Windows 10 beta performs better on the Macbook than OS X does.

http://www.alexvking.com/12_inch_mac...indows_10.html

nkedel

Mini-review of the Venue 11:
Overall, for a ~$500 refurb machine, I really like it. At full price over $1000 for this model, I wouldn't buy it.

I mostly have used it with the Windows 8.1 Pro it came with, but yesterday night upgraded it to Windows 10 Pro build 10074, and everything went smoothly.

The Y processor is fine for about 90% of what I expected it to do, and then there will be little corners where I need more performance and it gets painful for those. There's also some tearing on some of the most-highly compressed videos I threw at it with VLC.

The screen is the best I've seen on a non-workstation Dell model; it's not superb by Apple standards, but it's very good. I expected 1080p on a screen that small (a slightly-nonstandard 10.8") to be a semi-problem, but scaling has improved enough on 8.1 (and even more on 10) to be pretty good for most things.

The keyboard is surprisingly heavy, and while it's enviably compact put together, for folks concerned about weight rather than just space, it's probably going to be unacceptable. For a tiny system, the keyboard is surprisingly good -- it's the first sub-12" system I've actually been able to type on with reasonable accuracy. OTOH, it's quite wide for 10.8", and differs from my last 12.1" system (an X201) mostly in depth and thickness.

Battery life with the keyboard dock attached is great under light use, I made it through about 7 hours of intermittent use with sleep (intentionally) disabled although allowing the screen to go off when I wasn't using it, and I had around 30% battery remaining.

It certainly outperforms Windows 8.1 on the same hardware (not that that's hard ) and it's an easy in-place upgrade if your hardware supports it.

planemechanic

A small multiport extension for the Macbook USB-C connector.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects...book-essential

deniah

a month long assessment of the book:

-starting to get a little creak in the chassis similar to the 2 11" airs ive had. guess its impossible to make it super stiff like the thick Pro model. probably just need to tighten the torx screws.

-95% do not notice any performance issues. would say it performs similar to current or recent air models... as benchmark confirms. in the 5% of the time it inexplicably pegs the cpu to stutter HD youtube streams.... i assume is due to heating issues... i shut down all other apps, restart the browser, goes back to being okay.

its at the edge of what i consider acceptable performance. doesnt feel like a step forward, but not enough of a hindrance for my usage. (photoshop composites, stitching, etc)

-1 key went sticky... popped the key, cleaned the contact, and everything was alright

-single usb port still hasnt become an issue


would i purchase again? absolutely. it was exactly what i wanted: essentially the 11" air that i was using, but with retina screen instead.

for most people, of course, the 13" retina pro, is the value purchase with better longevity

tmiw

I'm actually considering going back to the 15" from the 13". VMware and Flash seem to make my 13" rMBP's fan go full throttle, for one thing. I kinda get why for the former, but watching videos should not cause that to happen for the latter. It'd also be nice to have a separate GPU for games again. I'm not sure if I want those enough to deal with the weight penalty though, which is why I went to the 13" in the first place.

WIRunner

I played around with one today at Best Buy. (they had the MB, Air, and MBP 13 and 15 right in a row.) I'm going to be needing (wanting actually) a travel computer to replace my Chromebook next year. I'm leaning to getting the Air (provided it has a Retina screen) next year, the hangup is still the lack of ports. In the past week I've needed to use both USB ports, the HDMI port, and the card reader on my computer, and that is pretty typical. If they add a traditional USB port next year I might consider it. The haptics on the trackpad is pretty slick, I really couldn't tell the difference between the Air and the Macbook.

nkedel

I suspect that's an issue with Flash on OS X, not the machine. As for VMWare, it should depend on what you're running on it, but two extra cores usually helps quite a bit with virtualization.

The Geforce 750M in last year's MBP 15 was disappointing for gaming (judging from PC laptops with the same GPU) but the series of AMD chips which the current one comes out of is getting better reviews (the exact model number used in the new MBP 15 is not yet available in any PCs, though.)

A bit surprising that Apple released that now, rather than in June/July for the quad-core Broadwells; I wonder if Intel's changed plans again and only told top-tier partners.

tmiw

There was an app that I used to run on my last 15" to force use of the integrated GPU until Apple killed its functionality. That was a shame because it actually did help with battery and heat.

The AMD GPU sounds promising. I was hoping the 15" would have Broadwell but I'm hearing rumors that quad-core Broadwell isn't going to happen. The next CPU upgrade for the MBP is likely going to be Skylake.

nkedel

I haven't heard those rumors, but I've lost my Lenovo and Dell contacts since switching jobs; I haven't heard anything definite about which set of Skylake processors will come out at once, and if the higher-power ones of those are delayed, no new higher-end mobile CPUs for over two years is pretty crappy of Intel.

Not that they have any competition in that space, so why not?

The BGA Broadwell chips were supposed to be pin-compatible with Haswell, and at least in a few cases on the PC side some of the 2nd-gen chassis Haswell models that came out early this year probably were designed with Broadwell in mind and could get mid-year refresh (as we last saw with some of the models that came out as Sandy Bridge when Ivy Bridge was delayed a couple years ago.)

Whether Broadwell or Skylake, I'm really looking forward to being able to get 32gb of memory in a laptop smaller than a W540 or similar tank-like workstation replacement...

elleana

I purchased one to replace an aging (well not really, still functions perfectly fine) 2012 15" MBP. My work laptop is locked down so I have to lug two laptops when I travel, with the personal one for after hours use. 15" is/was nice but a pain in the shoulder. Had been thinking about downgrading to an Air (resisting due to lack of Retina) then the 12" MB came along. My only concern was the keyboard, so I had to wait until it was available in my local Apple store before ordering one online.

Totally checks the boxes for me as well since all I intend to use it for is surfing, writing and the occassional TV show / movie - no video editing or whatnot for me. In the 3 years I've had my MBP I can't remember any time I had to plug in more than 1 USB device so lack of ports does not bother me at all.

richard

what is the typical battery life you find? This is very important to me if I get this. Thanks