Did I came to the party 10 years to late? A Macbook pro story.
I finally bought a MacBook Pro but for completely different reasons people normally buy a MacBook for. Personally, I have never been a fan of Apple.
The reason I bought one is that I’m working together with a big consultant in the Apple community and when we visit clients it’s just impossible for me to put a Windows laptop on the table. It’s just one of them things you can’t get around.
So, I bought a Macbook Pro. It’s from late 2013 but it’s still decent. It has a 1TB SSD and it’s an I7 and a retina screen.
Working on a project
My user experience so far.
I have been using it for about 3 weeks now just to get into it and I hate to say it but....I like it....a lot. I'm not talking about the hardware (wich is decent but it's 2017 now). I'm talking more about the user experience.
First of all, I have not turned off the machine since I got it. I just open and close the lid as I go and it's always instantly ready.
The battery is still insane. (for a 3-year-old laptop). An easy 8 hours.
I am not being nagged by irritating things like user notifications all the time.
It asks me if I want to install updates now or later, not when I just want to do a fast reboot. (damn you Windows anniversary update!)
I can make screenshots of open windows/programs by pressing (command shift 4) or the whole screen without having to press PrtScn and paste them into paint and crop them!
I can Airdrop any file or photo to the Macbook Pro from my iPhone without emailing them.
I like it when I take pictures it syncs them over all my devices with iCloud without me having to install any apps to do it for me.
I like it that it just makes a perfect backup with Timemachine and I don't have to think about it.
I can go on but you get the gist. Lately, I just prefer user experience over hardware specs. It's a change in myself.
I want it to just work
When I was younger I loved benchmarking my computer trying to make it faster and all that.
I loved the technical aspect of it and could live with the user experience shortcoming. Not anymore. It just needs to work well.
It's a lesson I'm also going to apply in my business. I want to sell more solutions. Whole packagings.
My clients need to feel how I feel when using that Mac. Wow, this just works and it was totally worth the money.
Sadly the future is less rosy.
I came to the party 10 years to late.
Am I that 30 years old trying to be hip.
So is the Macbook the holy grail of computers? No. The new Macbook Pro's are worse than mine (from 2013). My friend has one and it irritates him. I worked with it as well and I agree.
The trackpad is far to big and it's difficult to find a way to rest your hand (even with palm detection). The keyboard makes too much noise. (it's so loud!)
Also, the new touch bar is overrated and he would rather have normal buttons there. It takes to much effort (click 2-3 buttons) to mute your sound for instance. Also, he has to carry around a bunch of converter cables because there are only USB-c ports on it.
MacOs still is fantastic but no way Steve Jobs would have let the hardware changes above pass if he still was around according to my friend. I have to agree. What were they thinking....
I now feel like I came to the party 10 years to late. No way would I want to spend +$2000 now on a new Macbook Pro if mine breaks. Let's hope they get there act together next time round.
I would hate this to be a one-time thing for me.
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I personally believe that the new touch bar is ridiculous and certainly nothing a power user likes to have. It forces you to look back from the monitor down to the keyboard to find the location of the fn-key which is totally non-ergonomic. Users who like to work a lot with keyboard-shortcuts (many of which are including the fn-keys) will not like it. I´m curious to see how well it will sell. I love my 2013 Macbook Pro but I will certainly not upgrade to the new one.
Thanks for the post!
I totally agree. I have been a Mac user for the last 10 years but I don't like the new directions the company is heading, for instance, I am no longer a iPhone user, Android is cheaper and in most areas as good as an IPhone. In relation to the MacBook on which I am writing this comment (4 years old) it will reach a point that I will be faced with the buying a replacement and I don't want to buy the new line of Macs, perhaps I will go for an old one refurbished like you are suggesting @shake. Thanks for the really good post @shaka.
Thank you. I am sure many users will agree with us about the touch bar (in its current state). I also like my Macbook Pro now but I got one 10 years too late if they keep this course...I missed all the fun.
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Hey my bro! So sorry I was a bit late replying!
Man, after reading your article, I may decided to give Apple a go too. Never thought I'd hear myself say that, lol.