New Macbook 12"

[tut]

Anybody else bought one yet? Mine was delivered last week and I gave my 2013 Macbook Air 11" to Verian.

Lovely piece of engineering and they have improved almost every aspect of the MBA. Retina resolution at last and featherlight at .9kg, and even smaller overall than the MBA. A good discount also as a mature Uni student.

tut

[mxvx]

No, had a shot in store and decided to stick with the air. Not worth the extra cost to me.

[tut]

Need to spend money on something until I get N3 back.

tut

[mxvx]

Did they require your student ID to get the discount?

[tut]

They did on one page, but phoned instead of doing it online and she did not query it.

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[robin]

Tut, Do you still run Windows on your new MacBook - how does the CPU handle it? It's a very low power CPU and I am not sure how it compares to, say, previous gen MBA performance.

Cheers,
Robin

[BiggestNizzy]

Have heard the windows 10 tech preview run better than OS X on the 12 inch Macbook.

[tut]

Yes, running Windows7 exactly the same as I did with the MBA through VMware Fusion. I would say that the new one is quicker as in snappier, in both OS X and Windows. I have not put it through anything intensive, i.e. Photoshop or CAD, but that is not what it is designed for, with anything else that I do it is almost instantaneous. Retina resolution is a big improvement, and I like the new screen format with more vertical space for spreadsheets, tables, Quicken, etc.

Also going from one OS desktop to the other with a three finger swipe gives the best of both worlds, although there is nothing I really need to run in Windows other than Quicken, which is essential.

Verian did not have a laptop, so it made sense to me to buy the rMB which I spend a lot of time on, and and give her the MBA.

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[robin]

Interesting ... not that I run Windows much but I do need to run it sometimes ... the price tag is a bit scary, but I guess if an old war pensioner can afford one I ought to be able to do so also ...

[tut]

No brainer for me Robin, TT oil + coal = £7,000, electricity = £2,200. Tut End nil, £750.

VG Energy are doing a survey to see whether we are suitable for them to install a Wind Turbine under their free leasing agreement.

tut

[Sanjøy]

I do appreciate the Apple engineering, the 27 inch iMac with the just stonking 5k display.

[tut]

Plus the MacPro in a baked beans can........

tut

[Mikie711]

I must confess my Mac pro is a stunning piece of engineering. An object lesson on packaging. Mine is a lowly 6 core with D700's but without a supported 4k monitor in the offering from Mac it has all turned out to be pretty pointless. That said it's almost worth it just on looks alone

[robin]

There are plenty of good monitors out there ... no need to pay apple for a desktop monitor ... unless you want the apple styling, of course, in which case that's what you'll need to do. Was looking at the Dell 32" curved display to replace my triplet of desktop monitors - very nice screen and actually has colour calibration suitable for photography if you care (I don't) and Mac colour space support.

The Macbook in pov spec with educational discount (I have 3 students in my immediate family ) still comes in at 920 quid assuming you want a USB port. I think I will just get the screen replaced on the MBA13. Tom managed to crack it - was genuinely bad luck rather than the usual teenage negligence Apple want about 350 quid to replace it; a new MBA13 would cost more than twice that.

I was sorely tempted though - maybe next year!

Cheers,
Robin

[Mikie711]

I have looked at 3rd party monitors Robin, the main problem is not all of them support Apples UI elements scaling so you end up with tiny icons if you run full 4k. Build quality is extremely variable as well, not willing to splash out on a 4K monitor that looks crap even if it has a blinding picture quality. Looks like options are going to be limited as there is no sign they are going to update the current 27" display......... ever.