
2015 MacBook Review - zdw
http://www.anandtech.com/show/9136/the-2015-macbook-review
======
FreakyT
This review seems to indicate that the 2015 MacBook has similar issues to the
original 2008-era MacBook air: lots of potential, but still worth waiting for
a 2nd generation product to work out some of the issues.

Personally, though, I'm just excited that Apple finally offers a laptop in
multiple colors. (And without a price premium, for anyone who remembers the
"black tax"[1])

[1] [http://www.512pixels.net/blog/2015/2/future-classics-the-
bla...](http://www.512pixels.net/blog/2015/2/future-classics-the-black-
macbook)

~~~
mfunke
Moore's law always works. So if you don't need to buy one now, the next gen is
might be the better choice.

~~~
Someone1234
True. But in this specific case the whole concept doesn't seem "fully baked"
yet. The USB-C was a great idea, but just a single USB port on the entire
machine that worse still will be in-use by the charger? And $80 adapters if
you want a second usable port?

This line of machine has potential. But it needed minimum a second USB port
for mice/keyboards/hubs/USB keys/etc. The Surface Pro 3 only has a single USB
port, but in that case that single port isn't also used for charging so it is
"workable" (and it has a second Display Port also, which this also lacks).

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Someone1234
I liked the Windows performance page. Very useful. I'd love a Windows battery
life page.

Macs running OS X get very solid battery life (8-12 hrs). Running Parallels
they get "aright" battery life. Running bootcamp with any version of Windows
tanks them into the ground (2-3 hrs) due to Apple's poorly optimised Windows
drivers and bugs (e.g. running the cooling fan at max constantly).

Microsoft has done a lot to improve Windows' battery consumption (with the
Surface Pro 2 & 3 getting around 8-9 hrs depending on who you believe), so
Apple cannot continue to claim that Windows itself is the problem. Dell,
Lenovo, and others have all been able to produce Windows-based laptops and
tablets with decent battery life, why can't Apple?

~~~
jasonpbecker
Why would they? They are making hardware to work with their operating system.
Do you blame PC makers who have bad battery life on Linux because there are
bad open source drivers? Or PC makers that don't run well as a Hackintosh?

~~~
Someone1234
> Why would they?

Then why provide Bootcamp at all?

> Do you blame PC makers who have bad battery life on Linux because there are
> bad open source drivers?

In a word, yes. I do.

But the reality on the ground is that a lot of those hardware manufacturers
aren't advertising Linux support as a "feature." Apple does advertise Windows
support as one.

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brianolson
New thing here: NVMe SSD! I've read a bunch of other reviews and none
mentioned that. Kudos to AnandTech for thinking about that detail. Thinking
about that in conjunction with the storage benchmarks is interesting, faster
in most tests but a little slower in random-write. Now I want that in the next
-Pro version to be my next development machine.

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GreaterFool
It looks like a perfect laptop for programming (tinkering).

Most of the time I just ssh to a remote server or keep a window with
persistent mosh connection. All my stuff on the server is only tmux attach -d
away!

I suppose I could compile small to mid sized programs on the Macbook itself.
Benchmarks indicate it has enough power for that. Compiling something like
boost or linux kernel might take a while but I don't do that very often.

In the end, I don't know. I'm keen to give it a go. I switched to 13" rMBP
from Air for the retina screen and I still remember how clunky it felt.

Probably not enough to be my only laptop but wouldn't mind swapping my 13"
rMBP for 12" Macbook + 15" rMBP (when quad core Broadwell or Skylake comes
out).

~~~
nfoz
It looks like the keyboard is terrible, which rules out programming for me.

~~~
nsxwolf
I spent some time with the keyboard. It's not terrible. It's very different in
feel from the Air/Pro, especially when typing fast. It takes some getting used
to but I would not complain if this keyboard made its way to the MacBook Pro.

~~~
eropple
Sort-of-agreed. I like the corner stability, but I think I'd be unhappy if the
key travel was this poor on the MacBook Pro.

~~~
nsxwolf
The loss of travel is the sticking point. The only reason to lose it on the
Pro would be to standardize the feel across product lines and improve
manufacturing efficiency.

I use an HHKB2 Pro and the IBM Model M on desktop computers, which are
lightyears different in travel compared to scissor switches. But I've also
become pretty comfortable touch typing on a full size iPad, and the new
MacBook keyboard feels somewhere in between typing on an Apple scissor switch
keyboard and an iPad.

~~~
eropple
Right, but you could use taller butterfly switches to retain the right kind of
travel. I wouldn't mind that.

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_asummers
The 8GB RAM is kind of a deal breaker to me. If I could up that to 16, I'd
most likely buy this. What was the reason for limiting it?

~~~
Eric_WVGG
Battery life is certainly part of it; RAM that isn’t being used still draws
power.

But isn’t the whole idea behind an ultra-portable that you make sacrifices for
greater portability? The Pro isn’t getting dropped from the lineup…

Augh why are we still having discussions about the specs on low-
end/ultraportable laptops? Why do people think that every single laptop model
should be tailored for their personal needs?

~~~
barrkel
The single biggest thing that lengthens the useful lifetime of a PC is memory
- as much as you can fit.

There's compromises, and then there's hobbling.

~~~
simonh
It depends what your priorities are. If lightness and thinnes and battery life
are top priorities, and making the RAM upgradeable or increasing the space on
the board to provide that as an option compromises those, then a machine that
makes that compromise is hobbled. The whole point of having more than one
laptop design in your lineup is that they make different design tradeoffs.

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DannyDelott
One port is a problem for me. Minimal design now meets minimal function.

~~~
kmfrk
Especially when your battery requires a power adapter to stay on three years
down the line.

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nsxwolf
Apple could have moved the Magsafe mechanism an inch or two down the line from
the USB-C connector, making it a 2-piece cable much like the safety breakaway
mechanism on wired XBox controllers.

~~~
simonh
Or put the Magsafe connector on the other end of the cable, linking from the
laptop to the power brick.

~~~
nsxwolf
That might end up pulling the laptop off before enough tension appeared on the
brick end of the cable.

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emehrkay
That very first picture looks like an iPad with a keyboard attached. I wonder
if they'll ever put the logic board in the screen housing and make the bottom
piece all battery.

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mrbonner
the keyboard is terrible. I figured it out after about 10 minutes typing on
the dang thing.

~~~
jasonargonaut
Why so nasty?

Instead of calling it a 'dang thing', which seems incredibly mean, why not
just say the keyboard wasn't right for you?

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zk00006
Before Apple shows that this issue is resolved: www.staingate.org, any new
model is just a waste of money for me.

~~~
dilap
i had this happen on a macbook i used some weird cleaning agent on the screen
with; this was maybe 3 or 4 macbook's ago -- since then i'm really picky about
what i use to clean the screen, and i haven't had the problem.

obviously it's not definitive, but i suspect cleaning products may be to
blame, or blame in a large number of cases.

edit: knock on wood.

~~~
pdiddy
When you say picky what do you use? Shouldn't you just use water?

~~~
dilap
Yeah, mostly just water. My (now ex) officemate had something else he was
using for a while without problems, so I used that sometimes, too.

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higherpurpose
I wonder if people realize Apple could've offered the _same product_ for
probably no more than $800 at most using its own next-gen A9 processor with
similar performance. All it needed to do is focus earlier on on ARM
portability for its Mac apps.

~~~
dilap
switching architectures ain't something you do just so you can get a temporary
price reduction in one product! it's kind of a big deal†. (& apple knows
exactly what's involved, since they've done it twice already. (68k => ppc =>
intel.))

i don't think we'll see arm mac's unless/until intel definitively becomes
uncompetitive.

†in an ecosystem where distributing arch-specific binaries to end-users is
still a big deal

