Slashdot Mirror
No New MacBook Airs as Apple Instead Makes Lower-End, $1,500 MacBook Pro (arstechnica.com)
Alongside the two new MacBook Pros, Apple also unveiled a refresh for its popular MacBook Air lineup. The company is calling this: the MacBook Pro, same branding as the other two MacBook Pros. It's a lower-end version of the new MacBook Pros, with no "Touch Bar" (or the Touch ID) and is powered by a slightly slower processor. Starting at $1,499, this MacBook Pro model is slightly cheaper too, though. From an ArsTechnica report:Apple said it will continue selling the existing 13" MacBook Air, but the company made a point of comparing that model to this new lower-end Pro, putting it somewhere between the Air and the other Pros in the lineup. The new 13" MacBook Pro starts at $1,499 and will begin shipping today. The new higher-end Pros will start at $1,799 for the 13" model and $2,399 for the 15" model while shipping in two to three weeks. If you don't select any hardware upgrades, the low-end 13" Pro has a sixth-generation Intel Core i5 processor with dual cores clocked at 2.0GHz, Intel Iris Graphics 540, 8GB memory, and 256GB SSD. It is available in space grey and silver, and it can cost up to $2,599 if you select the highest CPU, memory, and storage upgrades. Those available upgrades include a 2.4GHz Core i7 processor, 16GB of memory, and 512GB or 1TB of SSD storage. The new 13" laptop has a 2560x1600 Retina display, two Thunderbolt 3/USB-C ports, and a headphone jack. It has the same Force Touch trackpad and redesigned keyboard as the higher-end models despite not integrating the Touch Bar and Touch ID.
Holy fuck. I can get a decent Windows laptop for 1/3 of that and it won't be obsolete in two years. I swear to god Apple is like a "stupid" tax.
That doesn't matter at all. The vast majority of people don't buy electronics based on the hardware. The Surface is DOA. They are on version 4 and LITERALLY no one is buying them. Even the NFL doesn't want them, and they are getting $100 of millions to use them.
is a $1500 notebook considered "lower end."
they removed one of the biggest selling features for me: MagSafe. That one connector has saved my notebook's ass many times, and it's a sad day to see it disappear off notebooks until Apple's magsafe patent expire someday. PreviouslyApple claimed the macbook air was too light for the magnets to separate, but i don't think that argument applies for the heavier macbook pro.
jerks.
I like MagSafe too. Looks like Griffin (and others?) are selling magnetic couplers for USB-c ports:
https://griffintechnology.com/...
^This.
Any new computer hardware on the market these days is plenty powerful enough to handle anything a typical user might ever want to do.
That means that unless you're a power user (or video game or VR enthusiast), there's going to be very little difference between your experiences using a modern low-end vs a modern high-end system; either one will work just fine for you.
So the remaining criterion (other than purchase price) is the quality of the user-experience -- i.e. how much of your time at the computer is spent getting accomplished the things you want to accomplish, and how much is spent dealing with computer problems?
Minimizing the latter is what Mac users are willing to pay extra for.
I don't care if it's 90,000 hectares. That lake was not my doing.
I've got a mid-2012 13" MacBook Pro that's been my workhorse. Between media files and virtual machines, I'm using about 850 GB of a 1 TB hard drive. At my current rate of data expansion, I'll probably break the 1 TB barrier in the next year or so.
After seeing today's product announcements, it looks like I'll be buying a Samsung 2 TB SSD for my current machine instead, given that the cheapest 2 TB configured MacBook Pro would be a 15" edition at $3800. There is no longer a 13" model to replace what I have.
I've been a loyal Apple laptop buyer for 15+ years, but the wheels have finally fallen off the wagon for me. I don't need a laptop thin enough to shave with. I want something that will allow me to upgrade the SSD at the very least. And no more Magsafe adapter? I can't count the number of times the Magsafe has saved me from damaging my laptop, not to mention the insanity of having only USB-C on a supposedly professional model.
So what's the alternative? A Dell? An HP? A Surface? Every bit as bad, or worse. Who would have ever imagined that the entire laptop market would have either cost-cut or over-specialize itself into irrelevance for professional users?
All I can do is wait and hope that the next iteration of MacBooks will provide a return to sanity.
NFL is using a shity web app over wifi in a poor environment for 100% uptime must work wifi. I hope the servers are local and are not being held back by web traffic getting in the way.
It makes sense for Apple: one MacBook saved is one less sale for them.
And I'm not even joking - I would not put this past them.
"The agriculture ministry is not in charge of Gundam" - Japanese ministry official.
I get it that some people do need the extra ports.
Yes. They're called "Pros."
But truthfully most people don't and can work fine without it.
Most people aren't "Pros." For those people, there are options like the MacBook and MacBook Air.
If Apple wants to sell to "Pros," they need to have a MacBook that does what a Pro wants to do. That means performance--I'm fine with an extra pound of weight if it's 50% faster at rendering images, compiles, etc. I need to be able to charge it while attaching a camera and a USB dongle or external hard drive. That's the sort of thing a "Pro" might do.
I agree that my Mom isn't going to be doing something like that and there are a lot more people like my Mom than there are people like me. But taking a laptop designed for my Mom and sticking the word "Pro" at the end doesn't suddenly make it a Pro laptop.
Look, if the "Pro" market isn't big enough for Apple anymore, that's fine. Go out with your head held high and make computers for my Mom. I'm sure she'll love them.