Tempted by the 16-inch MacBook Pro?

[NiwPix]

Puuuh, I have a huge problem that it "only" has the .ac wireless networking option. The iPhone11 already comes with the newest version .ax

Yes, ac is still plenty but not quite future proof. I am guessing in about 2 years ax will be the norm and I wouldnt want to upgrade my entire laptop just to get the advanced wireless networking. Having the best possible internet connection is very important to me.

 

This is why 802.11ax would be a must for me:
 

Quote

 

In a crowded stadium, a busy airport or a packed train with hundreds, even thousands, of end users attempting to stream video at the same time, the system loses efficiency and performance suffers.

The good news is that 802.11ax promises improved performance, extended coverage and longer battery life.  802.11ax can deliver a single stream at 3.5Gbps, and with new multiplexing technology borrowed from the world of LTE cellular, can deliver four simultaneous streams to a single endpoint for a total theoretical bandwidth of an astounding 14Gbps.

 

 

So, huuuuge drawback for me that it only has 802.11ac. Maybe they will "refresh" the lineup in ~6 months or so. But at the moment it is no go for me...unfortunately ????

[Lammbock]

14 hours ago, atyclb said:

 

 

well said fanboy

 

 

 

You are just another "Keyboard-Rambo" . 

[atyclb]

6 hours ago, NiwPix said:

Puuuh, I have a huge problem that it "only" has the .ac wireless networking option. The iPhone11 already comes with the newest version .ax

Yes, ac is still plenty but not quite future proof. I am guessing in about 2 years ax will be the norm and I wouldnt want to upgrade my entire laptop just to get the advanced wireless networking. Having the best possible internet connection is very important to me.

 

This is why 802.11ax would be a must for me:
 

 

So, huuuuge drawback for me that it only has 802.11ac. Maybe they will "refresh" the lineup in ~6 months or so. But at the moment it is no go for me...unfortunately ????

 

 

apple uses broadcom chips for wifi and seems broadcom has yet to make an ax chip whereas intel does. apple would be hesitant to use the intel ax wifi since they would likely need to give a user upgradeable slot inside the macbook for the intel ax wifi

 

 

 

 

[phetpeter]

On 11/14/2019 at 8:59 AM, richard_smith237 said:

there's nothing worse than being in a remote location with no support when your PC craps out (it happened with my two PC laptops before I went Mac).

I think you have got that round the wrong way! Everywhere you can get PC parts even the smallest village store, lots of new and second hand parts at a faction of the price than MAC, my friend crack his screen and can only really get the whole top for his MAC and the price wow! ask a shop just to change the screen and he refused to do it or would have the company take him to court. watch a video and you have to take the whole computer to pieces just to change the top half! A dozen screws and two cables and clip clip you take a cracked screen out of most other makes and a 10 dollar screen pops back in!

[atyclb]

21 minutes ago, phetpeter said:

On 11/14/2019 at 12:59 PM, richard_smith237 said:

there's nothing worse than being in a remote location with no support when your PC craps out (it happened with my two PC laptops before I went Mac).

I think you have got that round the wrong way! Everywhere you can get PC parts even the smallest village store, lots of new and second hand parts at a faction of the price than MAC, my friend crack his screen and can only really get the whole top for his MAC and the price wow! ask a shop just to change the screen and he refused to do it or would have the company take him to court. watch a video and you have to take the whole computer to pieces just to change the top half! A dozen screws and two cables and clip clip you take a cracked screen out of most other makes and a 10 dollar screen pops back in!

 

pc parts are generally much more available and less costly but if the model you have is not commonly sold then parts must be ordered but just abount any pc part can be obtained. parts for my lanovo x1 carbon are not routinely available in thailand because they hardly sell any. anyone can order parts on lenovos website though

[Thainesss]

I just got a new 13.3" Pro 16GB RAM and 1 TB SSD and love it. Upgraded from an early 2015 Pro and its great. I could have waited a little longer to upgrade but I was in the states and sent my old 2015 MacBook in for trade in value. 

 

I use my Pro as a "desktop" computer when I'm at home with 2 large external monitors & keyboard. Then unplug it all for traveling. Perfect and for almost 12 years of owning Apple products I have not once had a problem. I can't say the same for the windows PC's I've had previously. 

 

One thing I CAN NOT STAND is the Catalina upgrade. Anyone thinking about the upgrade should wait. Its buggy as hell. 

[Thainesss]

49 minutes ago, phetpeter said:

I think you have got that round the wrong way! Everywhere you can get PC parts even the smallest village store, lots of new and second hand parts at a faction of the price than MAC, my friend crack his screen and can only really get the whole top for his MAC and the price wow! ask a shop just to change the screen and he refused to do it or would have the company take him to court. watch a video and you have to take the whole computer to pieces just to change the top half! A dozen screws and two cables and clip clip you take a cracked screen out of most other makes and a 10 dollar screen pops back in!

 

The argument isn't really about availability of replacement parts, its the frequency of stuff breaking and rendering the unit a brick until repairs can be made. Especially for people like me who travel a lot to remote areas and rely on the device as their primary mode of communication/entertainment/work. 

[atyclb]

16 minutes ago, Thainesss said:

 

The argument isn't really about availability of replacement parts, its the frequency of stuff breaking and rendering the unit a brick until repairs can be made. Especially for people like me who travel a lot to remote areas and rely on the device as their primary mode of communication/entertainment/work. 

the hardware is basically the same nowadays as mac runs on pc(intel) cpu's/hardware and mtbf is about he same also. likely mac owners take better care of their macs since they cost so much.

 

imo mac os is better than windows

[atyclb]

even apple loyalists are unhappy about the "999usd optional stand" for their 5000 usd monitor.  actual ad from msi

 

 

[NiwPix]

8 hours ago, atyclb said:

 

 

apple uses broadcom chips for wifi and seems broadcom has yet to make an ax chip whereas intel does. apple would be hesitant to use the intel ax wifi since they would likely need to give a user upgradeable slot inside the macbook for the intel ax wifi

 

 

 

 

Interesting point, but how can the iphone already have the ax chips ( not sure who the maker of the adapter is though )

[atyclb]

34 minutes ago, NiwPix said:

Interesting point, but how can the iphone already have the ax chips ( not sure who the maker of the adapter is though )

 

didnt know that. murata but looks like their ax chipset only supports sdio arm style cpu

 

macbook pro is intel x86 . complex instruction set.  iphone is different architecture

 

 

[NiwPix]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=1&v=ZTrU9n5o0zk&feature=emb_logo

 

 

 

Quote

 

Final Thoughts

• The trackpad can be removed and replaced with very little drama.
• The processor, RAM, and flash memory are soldered to the logic board. Repairs and upgrades will be impractical at best.
• The top case assembly, including the keyboard, battery, speakers, and Touch Bar, is glued together—making all those components impractical to replace separately.
• The Touch ID sensor doubles as the power switch, and is paired with the T2 chip on the logic board. Fixing a broken power switch may require help from Apple, or a new logic board.

 

•  

so, there are some reports /reviews starting to surface that lead me to NOT upgrade to this macbook.

Reasons:

- only a 802.11ac network chip...not the ax. So not future proof

- RAM and SSD are soldered on ( probably very difficult to upgrade or replace )

- nothing really new / intuitive with the release except spec upgrade and more screen space

 

I do want to upgrade my 2013 macbook pro and have been waiting for apples latest release, but just feel like it is not future proof enough....so I will skip this one. And since the next upgrade probably will be another year, I will actually look into hackintosh laptops. I havent given it any time or thought yet, but wanting to upgrade and this not being viable, maybe i can find something suitable there.

[Thainesss]

1 hour ago, NiwPix said:

there are some reports /reviews starting to surface that lead me to NOT upgrade to this macbook.

the 2013 pro is also soldered 

[NiwPix]

As far as I remember, the Rams were soldered ( usually dont go bad or need more than 16gb for several years ) and the SSD was removable ( didnt need to, but was at the limit for quite some time and an upgrade from 512gb to 1tb would be called for if I were to keep the 2013 )

[atyclb]

i choose to own a 2012 macbook pro even though it is heavier than newer ones because hard disk/ssd is standard sata interface. if ssd fails i can just throw a new one in. conversely if macbook dies i can easily unplug ssd and have all me data intact. i also can easily swap current ssd for a larger capacity should i need  in future. on newer macbooks the ssd is soldered on so if it dies must take it to apple to try to recover data if even possible. apple is known to tell customer untruths as it it more profitable for them. example; recover data from dead ipad is impossible per apple BUT ipadrehab etc etc does it 7 days a week with a very high success rate. apple forum moderators delete posts that point this out.

 

another issue is ram failure, not uncommon. if a component of ram fails usually the screen is black; wont post/boot.  have had ram fail twice in a x99 high end system and it was high end ram.

 

lets say you have 64 gig ram macbook pro and one 16 gigabyte chip fails but the the other 48 are fine. macbook can be bricked and the ram cannot just be removed and replaced with a working stick as in older macbooks and most other company laptops.

 

when i bought my 2012 macbook pro it had 4 gigs ram and 320 gigs hard disk.  i replaced to 16 gigs ram and 1 terabyte ssd and given its i7 cpu it flies but cannot edit 8k video.

 

the lg gram 17 has a bigger screen, very thin and light 2.95 lbs opposed to macbook 16" 4.3 lbs, battery lasts just as long or longer, standard ram slots and standard ssd slots

https://www.lg.com/us/laptops/lg-17Z990-RAAS8U1-ultra-slim-laptop .   many expansion slots and thunderbolt 3 so you can use an egpu and edit 8k video.

 

the macbook 16" does have a discreet gpu to its advantage but  multiple other disadvantages.

 

if i were in the market for a larger screen macbook i would likely use an lg gram and install mac os on it and/or dual boot windows/linux/mac

 

• HDMI (Standard) 

  Yes

  USB 3.0

  3

• Micro-SD

  Yes

  Headphone Out

  Yes

• RJ45 Ethernet

  Yes (USB Type C port with RJ45 gender)

  DC-In

  Yes

 

[atyclb]

22 hours ago, Thainesss said:

I just got a new 13.3" Pro 16GB RAM and 1 TB SSD and love it. Upgraded from an early 2015 Pro and its great. I could have waited a little longer to upgrade but I was in the states and sent my old 2015 MacBook in for trade in value. 

 

I use my Pro as a "desktop" computer when I'm at home with 2 large external monitors & keyboard. Then unplug it all for traveling. Perfect and for almost 12 years of owning Apple products I have not once had a problem. I can't say the same for the windows PC's I've had previously. 

 

One thing I CAN NOT STAND is the Catalina upgrade. Anyone thinking about the upgrade should wait. Its buggy as hell. 

 

 

i routinely use a 2012 13" macbook pro i7 that i upped to 16 gigs ram and 1 terabyte ssd. also connect to external monitor and good sound system. it flies.  had a power chip replaced on logic board.

 

should be noted due to thailand hot climate electronics can have a higher failure rate

[atyclb]

15 hours ago, NiwPix said:

Interesting point, but how can the iphone already have the ax chips ( not sure who the maker of the adapter is though )

 

heres is a screenshot from the company (murata) that makes the ax wifi chip for the iphone. can see they dont have ax that would work in a macbook

 

 

[lemonjelly]

Still using my MacBook Pro 2012. It hasn’t crashed or needed fixing once. Dropped it one time, ding on corner of lid, still working fine.

[dimitriv]

11 hours ago, NiwPix said:

And since the next upgrade probably will be another year, I will actually look into hackintosh laptops.

 

Some people have bad memories of Windows. And now think that the Apple operating system is better. It was certainly a long time more stable than Windows.

 

I went back to Windows a few years ago. Windows 10 is very stable. I spend 60-70 hours a week at my computer. In recent years it has never stuck, it is super stable and nice to work with.

 

People who say that Macs are better live in the past.

 

Don't be afraid ????

 

 

[toke182]

Does someone know when is expected to be released in thailand?

[metempsychotic]

On 11/14/2019 at 2:39 PM, Pedrogaz said:

I have seriously gone off Apple of late. I have bought Apple products exclusively since about 2002 (3 iPods, 3 iPads, 2 desktops and 4 laptops....plus I don't know how many phones). To be honest, in 2002 Apple products were by far the best and had advantages over the competition. Now, the innovation simply is not there any more, and you are pay through the nose for the brand....and a heck of a lot for the same you can get half or a third the price with other systems. Also in places like Thailand having Safari is a bit of a pain....none of the government websites seem to accept you filling out forms with this browser...like the 90 day report or the TM 30. 

 

I have come to dislike Apple as a company. They pay the folk who make the phones next to nothing, despite earning the biggest profits of any public company in the world and charging an arm and leg for their products. I also dislike Apple not paying their fair share of taxes. 

 

I have decided my next phone will be Huawei. I am using my computers less and less these days as phones do more and more. I will likely but no more computers but buy an Android or similar tablet instead.

Rather amusing to claim dislike for Apple as a company then endorse Huawei in the same breath. 

 

I'm very pro android and pc VS apple products, but of all the choices why Huawei given their track record?

 

That said this is written on a Huawei tablet but I claim no scruples. 

[atyclb]

17 hours ago, dimitriv said:

 

Some people have bad memories of Windows. And now think that the Apple operating system is better. It was certainly a long time more stable than Windows.

 

I went back to Windows a few years ago. Windows 10 is very stable. I spend 60-70 hours a week at my computer. In recent years it has never stuck, it is super stable and nice to work with.

 

People who say that Macs are better live in the past.

 

Don't be afraid ????

 

 

 

yes latest windows is a lot more stable than some older versions. i have windows 10 on a lenovo carbon x1 that i ofen use for travel (3 lbs) . mac os was made to only support a relatively tiny amount of hardware as opposed to windows support all hardware under the sun though the spinning beachball blue screen of death equivalent can happen. mac os i find a lot more intuitive and easier when it comes to system settings

[atyclb]

On 11/16/2019 at 9:50 PM, dimitriv said:

 

Some people have bad memories of Windows. And now think that the Apple operating system is better. It was certainly a long time more stable than Windows.

 

I went back to Windows a few years ago. Windows 10 is very stable. I spend 60-70 hours a week at my computer. In recent years it has never stuck, it is super stable and nice to work with.

 

People who say that Macs are better live in the past.

 

Don't be afraid ????

 

 

 

 

nowadays macs are actually hyped up (designer) pc's since they run on the same hardware pc's run on but have different designs and some are quite nice, some are quite nice but have technical problems also.

[Tonytawny]

On 11/14/2019 at 2:13 PM, atyclb said:

 

my 13 inch 2012 macbook pro had a power problem and apple support wanted 21000 baht as they said the logic board died. walked to an independant apple repair shop also at fortune praram 9 plaza and they replaced a logic chip on my board for 2500 baht. has worked great since (2 years) . luis rossman (guy in video above) is well known by the thai mac repair shops and is a hero for them.

the 2012 macbook pro is easy to repair, easy to upgrade unlike newer models that force you to but ram / ssd from apple at crazy high prices. nothing special or different about apple ram or ssd's 

Where did you fix it for cheap , I’m in phuket and I wonder if there is the same . Thanks 

[jaffas21]

On 11/14/2019 at 10:02 AM, OneMoreFarang said:

 

i've got to agree with this video, you either like apple or you don't. I don't.

[atyclb]

1 hour ago, Tonytawny said:

On 11/14/2019 at 2:13 PM, atyclb said:

 

my 13 inch 2012 macbook pro had a power problem and apple support wanted 21000 baht as they said the logic board died. walked to an independant apple repair shop also at fortune praram 9 plaza and they replaced a logic chip on my board for 2500 baht. has worked great since (2 years) . luis rossman (guy in video above) is well known by the thai mac repair shops and is a hero for them.

the 2012 macbook pro is easy to repair, easy to upgrade unlike newer models that force you to but ram / ssd from apple at crazy high prices. nothing special or different about apple ram or ssd's 

Where did you fix it for cheap , I’m in phuket and I wonder if there is the same . Thanks 

 

fortune it mall bangkok.   goe to an it mall in phuket and look around for independant mac repair shops

[Thainesss]

Thought I would interject here and repeat again that anyone who hasn't yet upgraded to Catalina - Dont. 

 

Ive never, in over a decade of macs, seen the spinning beachball as much as I have with this stupid 'upgrade'.

 

Weird, buggy garbage. 

 

Was in a hotel the other day and I COULD NOT log into the hotel wifi because due to a bug in the OS, it would not allow the captive portal to open. So after spending my entire morning on my phone googling the problem, I had to start the mac in safe mode to get the window to open. 

 

Im not the most advanced user but I have no doubt a new mac user would never have managed to get around this problem. 

I hope they get all this sh*t work out and im confident they will but damn. 

 

All that said, I still wouldn't ever get a windows computer. They are exhausting machines that constantly try and trick you into allowing bloatware to infiltrate your machine and require constant monitoring. 

[Thainesss]

On 11/18/2019 at 3:15 PM, atyclb said:

nowadays macs are actually hyped up (designer) pc's since they run on the same hardware pc's run on but have different designs and some are quite nice, some are quite nice but have technical problems also.

 

Sort of true if you ignore the quality of the build and the simplicity of the OS. 

 

On 11/17/2019 at 3:03 PM, atyclb said:

mac os i find a lot more intuitive and easier when it comes to system settings

 

And that's the crux of it all for me. Everything is 'simpler' on a mac. The apps for creating documents are like $20 and you pay once and they work flawlessly with all the bloat removed. There is plenty of stuff to like about macs, and just focusing on the hardware is an unfair comparison. 

 

You can get a PC with 16 gig ram and 1 tb ssd cheaper than a Mac but its not a mac. Its not just the hardware. Its the ease of use and lack of macro transactions. 

[atyclb]

3 hours ago, Thainesss said:

Thought I would interject here and repeat again that anyone who hasn't yet upgraded to Catalina - Dont. 

 

Ive never, in over a decade of macs, seen the spinning beachball as much as I have with this stupid 'upgrade'.

 

Weird, buggy garbage. 

 

Was in a hotel the other day and I COULD NOT log into the hotel wifi because due to a bug in the OS, it would not allow the captive portal to open. So after spending my entire morning on my phone googling the problem, I had to start the mac in safe mode to get the window to open. 

 

Im not the most advanced user but I have no doubt a new mac user would never have managed to get around this problem. 

I hope they get all this sh*t work out and im confident they will but damn. 

 

All that said, I still wouldn't ever get a windows computer. They are exhausting machines that constantly try and trick you into allowing bloatware to infiltrate your machine and require constant monitoring. 

 

buggy yes. i am never in a rush to upgrade os when i let others suffer the issues and jump through hoops. another big issue especially for creative pro's using grater mac pros and hackintosh is apple dropped support for most nvidia gpu's since mojave.

[atyclb]

3 hours ago, Thainesss said:

 

Sort of true if you ignore the quality of the build and the simplicity of the OS. 

 

 

And that's the crux of it all for me. Everything is 'simpler' on a mac. The apps for creating documents are like $20 and you pay once and they work flawlessly with all the bloat removed. There is plenty of stuff to like about macs, and just focusing on the hardware is an unfair comparison. 

 

You can get a PC with 16 gig ram and 1 tb ssd cheaper than a Mac but its not a mac. Its not just the hardware. Its the ease of use and lack of macro transactions. 

 

build quality and design is not a non issue. apple has screwed up numerous hardware. from poor logic board design, poor hinge design, <deleted> poor thermal cooling design, poor keyboard design, and list goes on and on.  apple owner class action lawsuits, mass recalls.  the trash can mac pro was great engineering, size and weight but creative pros were screwed.

 

on mac i use apache open office, is free, does the same windows office does. 

since i prefer mac os over windows i would add there are lots of beautiful ultrabooks that can be hackintoshed and have slotted internal components and have a high build quality.

i have built desktop hackintoshes that are faster than real macs at a fraction of the cost with premiere quality components.