5 ms·

I think if you are spending more than 10 hours per day on your laptop, price shouldn't matter. On a side note, you've missed the retina thing, it's making a tr

I think if you are spending more than 10 hours per day on your laptop, price shouldn't matter. On a side note, you've missed the retina thing, it's making a true difference.

ricksplat 11y ago
I've had retina for the last couple of years and while it's a nice bit of fluff I'd take software & service reliability over it any day
stock_toaster 11y ago
But it has a matte screen, which sounds glorious! I am still using a seemingly ancient macbook pro 15" 2009 model, simply because it has a matte screen, yet still runs the latest OSX. The super glossy screens make my eyes hurt after a while. I have been hoping that some day the glossiness gets down to a level that I can tolerate enough to get a newer macbook. However, if my laptop ends up giving up the ghost along the way though... I may look at using something like the matte screen zenbook discussed by the parent, and running FreeBSD or OpenBSD on it.
- PhasmaFelis 11y ago
  Have you tried using an anti-glare (matte) screen protector? I haven't, but they're reasonably priced and it seems like an easy product to get right.
  - spronkey 11y ago
    From my experience the matte films are pretty poor, they really do reduce the visual quality of the display to far worse than the actual Matte displays
    - stock_toaster 11y ago
      Agreed. Most of them I have seen range from really terrible to only just crappy.
- radicalbyte 11y ago
  I use a screen protector on my MBP: it removes the glare and covers up the horrible ugly streak marks (production fault which Apple only admitted after being sued). Still, I've just bought an XPS15; it has a better screen than the MBP and incredible specs. The only real downsides are 16:9 and not using the new Samsung 950 Pro PCIE-SSD (which is 25% faster). Upgradability, a massive amount of RAM, fantastic screen and a tiny shell more than make up for that :)
threatofrain 11y ago
What does a 'true difference' mean? (retina screen) => (mediating factor) => ( more productivity / better eyes )?
- jakobegger 11y ago
  For coding, I use a smaller font size now than I used before I had a retina display. It allows me to use a physically smaller laptop, which is a huge advantage when working on the train / on the bus etc.
- sklogic 11y ago
  For me Retina meant that I stopped printing papers, now I can read PDFs comfortably straight from the screen. Not sure it's better form my eyes, but it saves time a lot.
tluyben2 11y ago
That depends on your taste. I bought my first retina macbook pro last year and I really don't like it compared to my Air. Actaully it's rotting in a cupboard now because of the ghastly battery life. I agree with the premise; computers are locked down and cheap build quality in general. But for me only battery life matters, so I bought a stack (from a broker; it was very cheap) of Lenovo X220s with a 9 cell batteries and i'm happy as a clam. It costs a fraction of the Macbook Pro (10% actually) and it actualy just chugs along with Ubuntu installed for 12 hours after which I just swap batteries for another 12 hours. I was never that bothered with the whole lock-in thing before but now that i'm back working in Linux (2009 was my first Mac, before that I went from DOS to Unix in the early 90s and after that straight to Linux until 2009) I really don't want to touch anything else. But YMMV.
- coldtea 11y ago
  >That depends on your taste. I bought my first retina macbook pro last year and I really don't like it compared to my Air You might not like the form compared to the Air. Very few won't like the retina compared to the Air's monitor.
- yoz-y 11y ago
  If the battery life is the only thing that matters then a USB-C charged laptop (Macbook one, pixel, some new stuff) + some heavy duty battery pack is probably a good option as well.
  - tluyben2 11y ago
    Yes, agreed. I had that for a while, but it was one of those cheap things from Asus. I did not know the Macbook can do that via USB... Maybe i'll sell my Pro and get me one of those... Thanks.
scholia 11y ago
If you are spending more than 3-4 hours per day on your laptop, you should really be using a desktop, for the sake of your long term health....
- christoph 11y ago
  I think a lot of people use a laptop throughout the day like in our office - plugged into a large monitor, mouse, keyboard and put up on a desktop stand. You then have the flexibility to just get up and walk into a meeting with it or walk out at the end of the day with everything just as you left it and carry on working on the train should you need.
  - lmm 11y ago
    The Macbook isn't very usable in that space though, since they have no first-party docking station support.
    - Mister_Snuggles 11y ago
      I use a MacBook Pro like this every work day. Plugging in four cables (power, 2x DisplayPort, USB) is not really that big of a deal.
      - slantyyz 11y ago
        But if details matter (they do for a lot of Mac users), nothing beats a drop in dock. There's also no wear to the plugs or ports with a drop-in dock. When I was a die-hard Mac user, that was perhaps the only thing that I wish Macs had, minus the crashiness that docks caused on Windows.
      - scholia 11y ago
        You could simply add a Thunderbolt or USB 3 dock.... Using an external keyboard and mouse solves the ergonomic problems of using a laptop for long periods. (Sad to say, I see very few people actually doing this.) Of course, you don't get the benefits of running a faster, hotter processor, expandability etc, though Apple no longer offers a reasonably priced tower system anyway....

I think if you are spending more than 10 hours per day on your laptop, price shouldn't matter. On a side note, you've missed the retina thing, it's making a true difference.

ricksplat 11y ago

I've had retina for the last couple of years and while it's a nice bit of fluff I'd take software & service reliability over it any day

stock_toaster 11y ago

But it has a matte screen, which sounds glorious! I am still using a seemingly ancient macbook pro 15" 2009 model, simply because it has a matte screen, yet still runs the latest OSX. The super glossy screens make my eyes hurt after a while. I have been hoping that some day the glossiness gets down to a level that I can tolerate enough to get a newer macbook. However, if my laptop ends up giving up the ghost along the way though... I may look at using something like the matte screen zenbook discussed by the parent, and running FreeBSD or OpenBSD on it.

PhasmaFelis 11y ago
Have you tried using an anti-glare (matte) screen protector? I haven't, but they're reasonably priced and it seems like an easy product to get right.
- spronkey 11y ago
  From my experience the matte films are pretty poor, they really do reduce the visual quality of the display to far worse than the actual Matte displays
  - stock_toaster 11y ago
    Agreed. Most of them I have seen range from really terrible to only just crappy.
radicalbyte 11y ago
I use a screen protector on my MBP: it removes the glare and covers up the horrible ugly streak marks (production fault which Apple only admitted after being sued). Still, I've just bought an XPS15; it has a better screen than the MBP and incredible specs. The only real downsides are 16:9 and not using the new Samsung 950 Pro PCIE-SSD (which is 25% faster). Upgradability, a massive amount of RAM, fantastic screen and a tiny shell more than make up for that :)

threatofrain 11y ago

What does a 'true difference' mean? (retina screen) => (mediating factor) => ( more productivity / better eyes )?

jakobegger 11y ago
For coding, I use a smaller font size now than I used before I had a retina display. It allows me to use a physically smaller laptop, which is a huge advantage when working on the train / on the bus etc.
sklogic 11y ago
For me Retina meant that I stopped printing papers, now I can read PDFs comfortably straight from the screen. Not sure it's better form my eyes, but it saves time a lot.

tluyben2 11y ago

That depends on your taste. I bought my first retina macbook pro last year and I really don't like it compared to my Air. Actaully it's rotting in a cupboard now because of the ghastly battery life. I agree with the premise; computers are locked down and cheap build quality in general. But for me only battery life matters, so I bought a stack (from a broker; it was very cheap) of Lenovo X220s with a 9 cell batteries and i'm happy as a clam. It costs a fraction of the Macbook Pro (10% actually) and it actualy just chugs along with Ubuntu installed for 12 hours after which I just swap batteries for another 12 hours. I was never that bothered with the whole lock-in thing before but now that i'm back working in Linux (2009 was my first Mac, before that I went from DOS to Unix in the early 90s and after that straight to Linux until 2009) I really don't want to touch anything else. But YMMV.

coldtea 11y ago
>That depends on your taste. I bought my first retina macbook pro last year and I really don't like it compared to my Air You might not like the form compared to the Air. Very few won't like the retina compared to the Air's monitor.
yoz-y 11y ago
If the battery life is the only thing that matters then a USB-C charged laptop (Macbook one, pixel, some new stuff) + some heavy duty battery pack is probably a good option as well.
- tluyben2 11y ago
  Yes, agreed. I had that for a while, but it was one of those cheap things from Asus. I did not know the Macbook can do that via USB... Maybe i'll sell my Pro and get me one of those... Thanks.

scholia 11y ago

If you are spending more than 3-4 hours per day on your laptop, you should really be using a desktop, for the sake of your long term health....

christoph 11y ago
I think a lot of people use a laptop throughout the day like in our office - plugged into a large monitor, mouse, keyboard and put up on a desktop stand. You then have the flexibility to just get up and walk into a meeting with it or walk out at the end of the day with everything just as you left it and carry on working on the train should you need.
- lmm 11y ago
  The Macbook isn't very usable in that space though, since they have no first-party docking station support.
  - Mister_Snuggles 11y ago
    I use a MacBook Pro like this every work day. Plugging in four cables (power, 2x DisplayPort, USB) is not really that big of a deal.
    - slantyyz 11y ago
      But if details matter (they do for a lot of Mac users), nothing beats a drop in dock. There's also no wear to the plugs or ports with a drop-in dock. When I was a die-hard Mac user, that was perhaps the only thing that I wish Macs had, minus the crashiness that docks caused on Windows.
    - scholia 11y ago
      You could simply add a Thunderbolt or USB 3 dock.... Using an external keyboard and mouse solves the ergonomic problems of using a laptop for long periods. (Sad to say, I see very few people actually doing this.) Of course, you don't get the benefits of running a faster, hotter processor, expandability etc, though Apple no longer offers a reasonably priced tower system anyway....