“The results aren’t pretty. After falling from first place to fifth place in Laptop Mag’s Best and Worst Laptop Brands survey last year, the company has dropped even further, to 7th place out of 10 brands in this year’s report,” Mark Spoonauer writes for Tom’s Guide. “Lenovo, HP, Dell, Acer, Asus and Microsoft all finished ahead of Apple.”
“Yup, the MacBook line is in serious need of a reboot,” Spoonauer writes. “Why did Apple score so poorly? The brand simply hasn’t innovated enough, using the past year to trot out minor spec bumps to existing designs. And these designs continue to be polarizing, with the dearth of ports on the MacBook and MacBook Pro forcing owners to schlep around dongles if they want to plug in peripherals. In addition, the flat butterfly keyboards on these systems offer less travel and comfort than the Windows competition.”
“There’s a reason Apple has been keeping its classic 3-year-old 15-inch MacBook Pro around. That $1,999 machine has a cushy keyboard, plenty of full-size USB ports and an SD Card slot, as well as the clever MagSafe power adapter the company has since abandoned,” Spoonauer writes. “There could be hope on the immediate horizon, as Apple is rumored to be launching a 13-inch MacBook with a Retina display at around the same price as the Air this June. But will it be more of the same or a true leap forward?”
My wife and I both have 15” MBPros with Touchbars and love them.
The keyboard is so responsive it’s a joy to use.
The touchbar makes filing e-mail even easier than doing so on your iPhone (only one tap instead of two).
The screen is amazing.
The 1 TB solid state drive is a luxury.
The massive trackpad is also a joy to use. Never will I use a mouse again.
I am forced to use a Windows 10 machine for work. It is true torture.
Apple has no competition in the laptop space. There’s just Apple and all the rest of the junk trying to offer a weak alternative.
When your strategy is ‘let’s take away things people actually use, underpower the machines (including some with a dual core processor – in 2018 – really?) and limit the RAM capability to 16gb. And while we’re at it let’s make the keyboard as much of a piece of garbage as is Siri – and let’s call it a Pro machine so we can charge a high price for it! Yeah – let’s do that!!!!!!’
Well, it’s only a matter of time before the world figures you out.
Apple needs a CEO – not a Compaq parts-orderer. To some extent I wish the stock price would tank so the f’ing board finally figures this out. Problem is, who would they bring in? Another Gil?
Even the iPhones have more than two cores now. How does Cook think a Mac only needs two cores?
Personally, I think this is a premeditated Tim Cook plan to underpower/starve Mac performance in an effort to make iOS devices look acceptable.
Speaking of keyboards, three of the newer style of Apple keyboards have failed me during the last 3 years. The earlier ones went on forever. I have switched from buying Apple keyboards for my several Macs to other makes. It’s a crying shame. As I said a few days ago, my MacBook Pro with Touch Bar screen failed completely–unheard of. It is costing me almost $600 to replace with a completely new screen. This is not the Apple our company converted to 29 years ago.
My wife and I both have 15” MBPros with Touchbars and love them.
The keyboard is so responsive it’s a joy to use.
The touchbar makes filing e-mail even easier than doing so on your iPhone (only one tap instead of two).
The screen is amazing.
The 1 TB solid state drive is a luxury.
The massive trackpad is also a joy to use. Never will I use a mouse again.
I am forced to use a Windows 10 machine for work. It is true torture.
Apple has no competition in the laptop space. There’s just Apple and all the rest of the junk trying to offer a weak alternative.
When your strategy is ‘let’s take away things people actually use, underpower the machines (including some with a dual core processor – in 2018 – really?) and limit the RAM capability to 16gb. And while we’re at it let’s make the keyboard as much of a piece of garbage as is Siri – and let’s call it a Pro machine so we can charge a high price for it! Yeah – let’s do that!!!!!!’
Well, it’s only a matter of time before the world figures you out.
Apple needs a CEO – not a Compaq parts-orderer. To some extent I wish the stock price would tank so the f’ing board finally figures this out. Problem is, who would they bring in? Another Gil?
Even the iPhones have more than two cores now. How does Cook think a Mac only needs two cores?
Personally, I think this is a premeditated Tim Cook plan to underpower/starve Mac performance in an effort to make iOS devices look acceptable.
Speaking of keyboards, three of the newer style of Apple keyboards have failed me during the last 3 years. The earlier ones went on forever. I have switched from buying Apple keyboards for my several Macs to other makes. It’s a crying shame. As I said a few days ago, my MacBook Pro with Touch Bar screen failed completely–unheard of. It is costing me almost $600 to replace with a completely new screen. This is not the Apple our company converted to 29 years ago.