I still get 7 hours battery life from a 2012 rMBP, working in Xojo, Photoshop, iTunes, Safari and Mail.
I’ve seen a posts on Reddit from a person who included photos of their machine when it’s fully charged and 3 hours later when it’s on 10% already. He’s a very disappointed iOS developer using Xcode.
Even that’s up for debate. The processors used in the tbMBP are slower than what Apple used in the 2015 models, you can check the numbers yourself on GeekBench and other benchmarking sites. The main difference is that they sustain their speed, where as 2015 models would throttle down to save on energy.
I read an article about how Apple’s TB3 implementation is not 100% compatible with the TB3 spec, so not all devices will work. They showed some external HDDs which refuse to work on a TB3 Mac, but are fine with a TB3 Windows PC.
The screen is gorgeous; I’m working on making my latest app P3 compatible, but the documentation is a little sketchy and I don’t have a machine with a P3 screen to test on.
From what I’ve been reading, the major issues appear to be.
Some people are getting really poor battery life.
GPU dies when it’s taxed too hard, appears to be across the board, although more prominent in the BTO graphics cards.
Speakers can blow up (Samsung eat your heart out) when using Boot Camp.
As you mention, people complaining that the Trackpad palm rejection doesn’t work as reliably as it should.
Display incompatibilities with HDMI connected displays (although this may be Sierra)…
Incompatible with ultra widescreen displays 21:9 (although this may be Sierra).
Touchbar graphics sometimes appears on the main screen.
Touchbar stops responding.
Hey man, I’m really happy for you, there are some really happy MacBook Pro users out there, I would say that there’s about 50/50.
HDMI and the C connector don’t seem to always go well together. My 2015 MacBook when connected to XDC giant screen ruined my demo of RubberViews because it froze all resizing features. Sure enough, once the connection to the big screen was unplugged, everything worked as expected. Hope it is not the same for the MacBook Pro which will much more often works that way for presentations.
All that said, there are now enough adaptors to deal with most situations.
As said, I get pretty good battery life here (for now).
I do remember users do complain about battery life with every new MBP Apple released. It is for sure not new that such complaints popup.
This one is something I did test thoroughly because thats my playfield.
I really tried very hard to reproduce this using VideoTools (hardware accelerated encoding). I converted long movies with hardware accelerated encoded like Adobe products do. I even encoded a movie that took +1hour (with hardware accelerated encoding!). The fans went nuts for 1 hour, laptop was very hot, … but no crashes here.
That said, I feel Apple should stick with Nvidia. AMD has a notorious history of flaky GPUs. Mostly overclocked and unstable at times. So it may be the case some AMD GPUs in the new MBP are unstable.
Not yet installed Windows with Bootcamp. Cannot verify this. I read it will be fixed by Apple soon.
Today I did noticed the 3 finger dragging is more difficult on the left side of the big trackpad. Sometimes it needs a second try. But it works fine on the right side - which I always do nevertheless.
[quote=301431:@Sam Rowlands] Display incompatibilities with HDMI connected displays (although this may be Sierra)…
Incompatible with ultra widescreen displays 21:9 (although this may be Sierra).[/quote]
I don’t have a 21:9 display. But I did read about this too. But one guy got it working because he used a bad HDMI cable in the first place.
Not seen this yet.
Not seen this either.
Maybe it is noteworthy that I do not have a ‘batch-one’ MBPrtb. Maybe the issues only happen with the first production batch. Who knows.
There are things I dislike about the new MBS:
No Magsafe. The USB-C connector clicks in place firmly but I can imagine it can brake or damage the port when someone pulls the cord. There are 3th party solution for this - I am looking into this
The keyboard is a step backwards for me - it is too loudly and it feels odd to me. Maybe I just have to get used to it.
Charging is done blindly. I mean, if the laptop is closed, there is no way to check if it is charging or not. No led on the connector to show the status.
I am a bit worried the spacegray color will come of at some point by wear. I did read about this for the MacBook. Maybe I had to choose for the standard silver edition instead.
The headphone socket Is on the other side (right side) compared to all previous MBPs. In my case it is troublesome.
The irony being that if they went back to the pre-Retina MBP case, which was still incredibly thin and light, and made use of the SuperDrive bay for a 2nd LiPo, you really wouldn’t need swappable batteries. You would probably be looking at 16 hours of heavy use.
Speaking of which, they didn’t just drop their 1U server line, they all but abandoned quality control on their server software. A highly secure, easy to use, UNIX based OS should beat the pants off Windows in the server space. Yet I have a client ready to throw every Mac server in the trash and start over with Windows.
I still think they could get swappable HD and upgradeable RAM and have a nice rMBP
I guess the thing is how many people actually ever do that - outside of developers ?
We’re not an “average” user group by any stretch.
[quote=301493:@Norman Palardy]I still think they could get swappable HD and upgradeable RAM and have a nice rMBP
I guess the thing is how many people actually ever do that - outside of developers ?[/quote]
To be clear, I think any new MacBook should (obviously) have a retina screen. I just want ports and the ability to remove the bottom plate for upgrades and servicing. You’re probably right that they could keep the rMBP’s body and give us that. Though the classic MBP’s thickness should allow for longer battery life and possibly better cooling.
I don’t know if they could fit an Ethernet port on a rMBP either. I still regularly run into situations where I use that. (I know, I know…dongles…but they get lost right when you need them.)
You’re absolutely right that most people just replace their computers rather than upgrade their components. But isn’t a “Pro” line supposed to be for those of us that do? (I know I’m preaching to the choir. Any way to get Tim Cook to understand?)
The problem my one client is running into is bugs. A pretty severe memory leak in one of the file sharing services; sometimes changes in the server software GUI don’t “stick”; both remote desktop and VNC can have issues; and the ever present permissions issues. Not to mention that their IT Admin hates relying on the Mac mini form factor rather than a real 1U server with redundant power supplies, hot swappable drives, etc.
At the moment I have a MDD dual G4 1.42 GHz with an OS 9 partition. (The guys at Mac OS 9 Lives have hacked OS 9 to boot on some of the later G4s that originally could not support it.)
Obviously the newer GPU wins on any 3D rendering. But I wonder if OS 9 on that machine could actually beat Sierra in a 2D drawing test? I have my doubts. QuickDraw was certainly more efficient, but the hardware difference is massive. Yet I still wonder.
I think it’s getting pretty obvious; there’s a large segment of Apple customers, that Apple simply doesn’t want anymore. Photographers, Videographers, Enterprise (unless it’s iOS), Graphic designers, Musicians, Mac Developers, iOS Developers, and there’s more probably.
[quote=301554:@Daniel Taylor]To be clear, I think any new MacBook should (obviously) have a retina screen. I just want ports and the ability to remove the bottom plate for upgrades and servicing. You’re probably right that they could keep the rMBP’s body and give us that. Though the classic MBP’s thickness should allow for longer battery life and possibly better cooling.
[/quote]
Shaving a few mm off the height & a few ounces off really isnt that big a deal - certainly not ground breaking - when you consider the trade offs
Seriously who lugs around a laptop in their hand for 10 hours a day where you might actually notice its a tad heavier ?
If you are then WHY DO YOU HAVE A LAPTOP … all you’re doing is walking around
Its probably taller than the rMBP is thick now
[quote=301554:@Daniel Taylor]I still regularly run into situations where I use that. (I know, I know…dongles…but they get lost right when you need them.)
[/quote]
Hence why I often lug around 2 of everything - for when I lose the one I still have a backup
So much for “light” when you have to drag around 10 pounds of dongles
[quote=301554:@Daniel Taylor]
You’re absolutely right that most people just replace their computers rather than upgrade their components. But isn’t a “Pro” line supposed to be for those of us that do? (I know I’m preaching to the choir. Any way to get Tim Cook to understand?)
its one reason I’ve been able to keep many of my machines for so darned long
Instead of buying the most decked out machine day 1 I bought a decent config & updated it
Not to this one though - everything is glued shut
Previous machine did me for 6+ years
Bought it with 8Gb and updated it to 16
Removed old HDD and replaced with a decently fast & sizeable SSD
Removed the old DVD drive & put in an another drive
Lots of ports
This one will probably last me a while longer because it can boot 10.9 up to 10.12 so its valuable for that
And it lets me save up my pennies for a new one
Too many things to buy so little money
They were nice machines
But Apple’s a “consumer electronic company” - they really werent then either but … so the Xserve died
Not sure of this is the driver for the “Pro” languishing etc but …
Apple needs a swift kick in their billions to remember there’s still a LOT or people who really depend on this tiny little niche machine called the Mac
Don’t forget the power brick for when the battery dies (if you have one with only 3 hours battery life), and an extension cable as some people are complaining that the new charger cable is really short.
The thing is that they’re constantly being reminded about the Mac market, reviews on the new tbMBP seem to be average to poor and the noise on the internet is getting louder and louder. Mac sales have been dropping and I don’t know if the new tbMBP will really create growth or not.
A theory that I’ve come up with is that Apple are looking to move the Mac to ARM, it’s just taking them longer to get it ready than they’d like. With the all the noise they rushed out a MacBook Pro based upon the MacBook, which in all honesty probably was designed to have an ARM processor in it.
So then they support one architecture, with one core OS and simply multiple interfaces.
[quote=301562:@Norman Palardy]But Apple’s a “consumer electronic company” - they really werent then either but … so the Xserve died
Not sure of this is the driver for the “Pro” languishing etc but …
Apple needs a swift kick in their billions to remember there’s still a LOT or people who really depend on this tiny little niche machine called the Mac[/quote]
Indeed that’s what it comes to : they sell boxes, not computers. Preferably not modular, because it prevents regular upgrades.
Tim Cook’s Apple primarily sells iPhones, iPhones, iPhones (> 45 Millions a month), and on the side, many iPad (appx. 9 Millions a month) and some Macs (< 5 Millions). Let us face it, Macs are the weak link here. Unfortunately, Tim Cook is less interested in technology than number of boxes sold, and there you have it.
Related to the “gridtest16” project: I’m on a MBP of 2014 with Retina display and Sierra 10.12.1 and I can see a difference of 20 ms between Retina and non-Retina.
With the default window size you’re drawing a string 440 times. Scrolling is one thing, but moving from cell to cell is another; you should invalidate only the cell rects instead of the whole canvas. The area() parameter of the Paint method should not be ignored.
I’ve changed the font from “Arial” to “System” and “Helvetica” in the drawcontrol method, the results:
Arial -> 180 ms
System -> 80 ms (!)
Helvetica -> 95 ms
Here we have it: Arial is as bad for the speed as for the optics
with the gridtest16 I get a difference of about 6x
but I also did some fairly minor tweaks that improve performance on both that took me < 10 minutes
this is the exact same source running in the exact same version on the exact same machine
Sierra is booted from an EXTERNAL SSD so I have no idea if that plays into things and if so how much
Paint msec
unoptimized optimized
el cap 73.2 53.25
sierra 402.0 337.75
I know Joe’s looking into what, if anything, we can do or what he’s found at this point
