The unibody MBPs were solid for the most part. From 2008 to 2012 Apple actually made really good, decently priced, upgradeable, virtually indestructible Unix workstations; I’ll give them that.
Too bad they then made the Retina generation of MBPs, which dropped most of what made the unibodies great and turned them from Unix workhorses to overpriced prosumer devices. And that’s where they lived ever since.
Not in my opinion. The ports are barely adequate and I think neither RAM nor storage are user-upgradeable. The silicon is nice, yes, and they got rid of the touch bar. But I still think it’s forcing too many tradeoffs to be worth it. (And, as usual, their base storage is tiny and their SSD upgrades are way overpriced. Hence the lack of internal slots is a real pain.)
The preceding ones (iBooks, MacBooks, and aluminum MBPs) were okay for their time as well but not at the same level as the unibodies. Still, it’s been a long time since Apple hardware was worth getting excited about.
Mind you, this is purely from a computer perspective. I never cared about their phones so I don’t know how their quality holds up. I do acknowledge that they’re unbeatable in terms of duration of support, though.
those CPUs just happen to have a huge marketing budget behind and a very loyal fanbase. They aren’t anything revolutionary. Sure, more battery life. In terms of daily usage, the difference with a high end AMD or Intel CPU is unnoticeable other than having a shiny apple on the back of your laptop.
I moved from the last Intel i9 15’ mbp to a 14" m1 pro machine for work and the difference is stark. The m1 pro is significantly faster in both everyday tasks and code compile than the (now older) i9. It is also completely silent where the Intel machine will turn the fans on constantly even for light tasks. The m1 also has more than double or triple the battery life, allowing me to easily finish an entire day without plugging in, where the Intel one will doe within 2-4 hours depending on workload. I don’t even really have to think about it. Overall the m1 is a significantly better machine. Intel is just starting to catch up with their core ultra cpus but I haven’t used those yet personally.
Apple are assholes but the m1 chips turned out great.
Those AMD and Intel chips drew a lot more power though. That said, AMD’s Z1 Extreme looks very promising and shows that AMD can compete in the same ballpark or even surpass. It’s just a matter of waiting for laptops to adopt it.
I’ve got a 13" M1 MBP about 2 years ago and I wanted to test it’s power after I set it up. I loaded up Final Cut Pro, got to work editing a 15ish minute 1440p video with a lot of elements to it. The render time was about 3 minutes, which is on par or faster than my 5950x/3090 K|ngp|n desktop, and the fans didn’t even turn on. It’s not over hype. M2, sure I can agree since it was marginal uplift over M1. I’m not even an Apple fanboy, but that M1 chip is damn good for an off the shelf workstation.
Apple can be so laughably pathetic at times
Other than creating the M1/M2 CPUs, when in the last 20 years haven’t they been? Fuck apple.
The unibody MBPs were solid for the most part. From 2008 to 2012 Apple actually made really good, decently priced, upgradeable, virtually indestructible Unix workstations; I’ll give them that.
Too bad they then made the Retina generation of MBPs, which dropped most of what made the unibodies great and turned them from Unix workhorses to overpriced prosumer devices. And that’s where they lived ever since.
They absolutely unfucked it with the 16" M1 though
Not in my opinion. The ports are barely adequate and I think neither RAM nor storage are user-upgradeable. The silicon is nice, yes, and they got rid of the touch bar. But I still think it’s forcing too many tradeoffs to be worth it. (And, as usual, their base storage is tiny and their SSD upgrades are way overpriced. Hence the lack of internal slots is a real pain.)
A 4-year period, 14 years ago…? That’s actually pathetic.
The preceding ones (iBooks, MacBooks, and aluminum MBPs) were okay for their time as well but not at the same level as the unibodies. Still, it’s been a long time since Apple hardware was worth getting excited about.
Mind you, this is purely from a computer perspective. I never cared about their phones so I don’t know how their quality holds up. I do acknowledge that they’re unbeatable in terms of duration of support, though.
I liked when they wrote a letter to the federal government telling them to fuck off with their backdoor request.
Yet they preemptively pass on data from Chinese users over to the government to save „business interests“
Business over customer privacy: capitalism breeds enshittification. These companies are not our friends…
those CPUs just happen to have a huge marketing budget behind and a very loyal fanbase. They aren’t anything revolutionary. Sure, more battery life. In terms of daily usage, the difference with a high end AMD or Intel CPU is unnoticeable other than having a shiny apple on the back of your laptop.
Well I went from an Intel to m1 (work) MacBook and the difference was quite stark. Even at times feels as fast as my home desktop, which is beefy.
I moved from the last Intel i9 15’ mbp to a 14" m1 pro machine for work and the difference is stark. The m1 pro is significantly faster in both everyday tasks and code compile than the (now older) i9. It is also completely silent where the Intel machine will turn the fans on constantly even for light tasks. The m1 also has more than double or triple the battery life, allowing me to easily finish an entire day without plugging in, where the Intel one will doe within 2-4 hours depending on workload. I don’t even really have to think about it. Overall the m1 is a significantly better machine. Intel is just starting to catch up with their core ultra cpus but I haven’t used those yet personally.
Apple are assholes but the m1 chips turned out great.
Those AMD and Intel chips drew a lot more power though. That said, AMD’s Z1 Extreme looks very promising and shows that AMD can compete in the same ballpark or even surpass. It’s just a matter of waiting for laptops to adopt it.
Lol
I’ve got a 13" M1 MBP about 2 years ago and I wanted to test it’s power after I set it up. I loaded up Final Cut Pro, got to work editing a 15ish minute 1440p video with a lot of elements to it. The render time was about 3 minutes, which is on par or faster than my 5950x/3090 K|ngp|n desktop, and the fans didn’t even turn on. It’s not over hype. M2, sure I can agree since it was marginal uplift over M1. I’m not even an Apple fanboy, but that M1 chip is damn good for an off the shelf workstation.