MacBook Pro – I never imagined I’d do it!

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August 4, 2018

I finally switched to MacBook Pro and I think I left Windows’ for goods. This is my first post using Mac…

I bought 2017 MacBook Pro 15”, i7-7820HQ (8M 2.90/3.90GHz), 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD, Intel 630 / Radeon Pro 560 (dedicated 4GB). On paper this is even better than the Dell XPS 15 9560 I was planning to buy.

Why Mac?

There are many factors that cause one to prefer a system over other. For me, it was mainly because of the consistency and general experience.

The display in Windows laptops are annoying. Not all apps support High DPI screens. Even with high-end laptops, there are glitches with such screens in general.
The integrity of applications and the mess between Windows store apps and the desktop ones.

Some thoughts about my new experience

Yet people and papers claim that Mac system has better performance and speed, I don’t find that noticeable when you have a high-end Windows device.

Considering that my Mac has Retina display, the display is more beautiful than what I used to with no glitches at all.

Applications have smooth and integrated experience. Except for OneNote, MS Office is better on Mac’s than on Windows’. Furthermore, Visual Studio and MS SQL are available on Mac’s now. MS SQL operation studio still needs more work though. I miss Paint.net & PaintShop but Affinity is doing great job (it’s now available on Windows). Preview is compensating Foxit PhantomPDF too – I never been an Adobe guy!

I hate that I can’t disable some native apps (easily). I still use Office365; thus, I don’t plan to use iCloud when I have 1TB of OneDrive is included in my plan.

Outlook app is more stable than the default app (mail/calendar/reminders) especially in tasks sync – considering that I’m using Exchange Mail. It better handles attachments; but it’s bad in calendar colors.

iCloud can’t share folders. iCloud photos is very weak comparing to Google Photos or OneDrive Photos. Shared photo (or public album) has no info presented; only the photo.

Being announced, should I upgrade to MacBook Pro 2018?

After three weeks of my purchase, the new model has been announced. I thought of returning my current device and wait for the new one to be available in the market. Apple claims it’s 70% faster than the current one. They haven’t mentioned which model they are talking about though!

More cores (6 vs 4)
Unless you buy 2.9 processor’s (much more $), a core has less speed.
Faster RAM (2400 vs 2133MHz) with the option of 32GB (more $).

Since I won’t do a lot of heavy tasks at the same time, I don’t believe it’s worthy to upgrade. I think there would be no noticeable difference. Rather, I feel that my current one is faster. In my previous experience, I haven’t noticed big difference in RAMs speed between 2400 & 2133 (this is argumentative). Additionally, the 6 cores 8th generations processors are still new; which means more problems and less utilization.

Do you have MacBook? Do you prefer it over Windows’? How much you keep your MacBook before considering the upgrade to next model?

EDIT: I replaced the MBP 2017 with the new one MBP 2018 / 15″ 2.6GHz. I haven’t noticed big difference in performance. However, the display is amazing (same colors and bright in all lightening conditions)

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Comments

22 responses to “MacBook Pro – I never imagined I’d do it!”

August 4, 2018

whatsnonfiction

After switching entirely to Apple 10 years ago, I’ve never looked back. My husband finally made the switch last year and it’s been the same experience for him. I still use an HP/Windows laptop just for my work but I wouldn’t want to go back to it for my personal use. I keep mine for 5-6 years before getting a new one but I’m not particularly tech-savvy or have specific needs that would benefit from the new features or big upgrades so it’s ok for me that way 🙂 I love having a laptop last that long without needing replacements or anything in the meantime! First time that was the case for me. Welcome and enjoy it!!

Reply
1. September 22, 2018
  
  Mohamad Al Karbi
  
  I totally relate to this and understand it now. I usually keep a good Windows laptop for 2 years. But this one might take more before being replaced 😉
  Thank you very much for sharing your experience and sorry for delay in replying back.
  
  Reply
August 4, 2018

Image Earth Travel

I made the switch back in 2015 with a MacBook Air 13″ screen, so not cheap.

One difference as a traveller I noticed right off is that the MAC is much heavier than my Toshiba.

Another major difference for me is that MS Word isn’t great on MAC. Also, I find the Finder application a real pain and convoluted, obviously no usability testing was done on this as it’s so frustrating. For example, when I move something from my Desktop (or anywhere) to my external drive, I don’t wish to go back to the original source and have to delete this from there also – double-handling and waisting time.

The one good thing I’ve noticed is I don’t have so many internet issues on my MAC as I did on my Windows machine. For a traveller, this is a real bonus.

Reply
1. September 22, 2018
  
  Mohamad Al Karbi
  
  Thank you very much, Nilla, for sharing your experience. I understand your point. I had some, but with more working on it, things are becoming easier. I like to use shortcuts (command+tab) to switch between current and pervious locations I’m on… Additionally, command+option+v will delete the original when pasting. I noticed there are some alternative for Finder but haven’t tested them all till now.
  I could understand that MS Office 2019 (including MS Word) is having something big very soon…
  
  Reply
August 4, 2018

Debbie Bugezia

I’ve been reading a lot about the new MacBook Pro but seems the touch bar has some issues. I follow on Twitter Brian Tong (was on CNET 10+ years) he just bought one and he’s very knowledgeable about Apple and tech in general. His YouTube channel has great info too. Also iMore.com.

I don’t know about the touch bar, but if it’s an option on 2017 but only option on 2018 that may be a deal breaker for me.

Reply
1. September 22, 2018
  
  Mohamad Al Karbi
  
  Thank you very much, Debbie, for letting me know about Brian Tong. I’m reading a lot from iMore.com too. I haven’t noticed issues on touch bar. I found it handy but till now I feel it’s not totally utilized by developers.Unfortunately, touch bar isn’t an option any more in 2018 models!
  
  Reply
August 4, 2018

Jim

I made the switch to Mac in 2010 and I’ve never looked back. I no longer have those almost daily and annoying updates from Microsoft. Keeping it updated is easier and the things run like the Energizer Bunny. My first MacBook Pro died and I simply replaced the hard drive with a new SSD and it’s running fine once again. The one feature that Apple took away that I wish that they would restore is the memory card slot for my camera’s memory card.

Reply
1. September 22, 2018
  
  Mohamad Al Karbi
  
  Thank you very much, Jim, for sharing your experience. I never though that Mac will ever be my main laptop! I understand your points regarding the device’s slots. I’m still trying to get used to the c-type things. SSD hard drives will die with big amount of data (many movie editing) being written and deleted…
  
  Reply
August 5, 2018

George

My wife swears by Apple, and from limited experience I have of her MacBook, I can see how well designed and integrated everything is.

Interesting to read an appraisal from a Windows user who’s made the switch.

Thank you.

Reply
1. September 22, 2018
  
  Mohamad Al Karbi
  
  Thank you very much, George, for your kind input. Yes, it’s well deigned. Yet there are many Windows laptops that are very well designed too, the software integration here is great. However, I don’t think I’ll use Apple’s phone. One more note, I haven’t made this step until I was sure Microsoft applications (VS, SQL, Office, ..) are there! 😀
  
  Reply
August 5, 2018

mainepaperpusher

I’ve had a MacBook Air for 2 or 3 years now and it has taken a beating. My Danes ruined two pc laptops within a year’s time. If I left the laptop on the couch or even somewhere I thought was safe, they still found a way to ruin the hdd. I kept looking for better pcs. Nothing intrigued me until a salesman told me that the MacBook had an SSD and was pretty much Dane-proof. He then lifted it about two feet off the display stand and dropped it. It worked just fine. I LOVE mine not only because dropping it won’t ruin it, but I love the OS, too. I am ready to look at another laptop soon but, like one of your other commenters stated, the touch bar has had some issues. For that reason, I am looking at an iPad Pro with the thought that I’ll upgrade the laptop once the bugs are worked out. I still keep a Windows 7 box that I use as a server. Hope this helps!

Reply
1. September 22, 2018
  
  Mohamad Al Karbi
  
  Wow, Linda. Windows serve! Glad to hear that you find a Dane-proof device at the end 😀
  Yes, the OS is amazing. I haven’t had an issue with the touch bar yet. It’s handy but not fully optimized by developers yet. Tabs or iPad never worked with me. I always wanted a device with a keyboard and heavy duty capabilities yet I find that I don’t use the full power all the time. Thank you very much for sharing your experience, my friend.
  
  Reply
  1. September 25, 2018
    
    mainepaperpusher
    
    Of course, my dear friend. I haven’t gotten a new MacBook, but I did just order a nice new iPhone XS Max. I can’t wait! 1/2 terabyte on a phone!!! My phone may be my new server! 😝😉😍
August 6, 2018

mariemclean

You’re preaching to the converted here! I absolutely adore my Mac (I use both an older Mac Pro, and an iMac desktop). Apple products are so intuitive, I have no desire to go back to the dark old days 😆.

Reply
1. September 22, 2018
  
  Mohamad Al Karbi
  
  Thank you very much, Marie.Wow, MBP and iMac… That’s cool. Outside work, I never used desktops; only laptops. Yes, it’s intuitive and very flexible in contrary to what I thought.
  Hope your writing work is going well, my friend.
  
  Reply
August 6, 2018

mum2sum

I lile your specs. I was looking for a new laptop as my toshiba died. I have avoided apple for the past 6 years as i felt it was always just overpriced and behind in specs compared to other companies. Had i found something like your mac book i would have certainly reverted to apple.
I ended up getting a hp elite book i5 with 8gb ram and 1 tb hard drive space.
I got free upgrade of the hard drive.

Reply
1. September 22, 2018
  
  Mohamad Al Karbi
  
  Thank you very much for your input. I had this idea too about Apples being overpriced. Then, I noticed that high end Windows Laptops or Google Phones are very expensive too! HP is good ones in general. Hope you’re enjoying it up till now.
  
  Reply
August 11, 2018

Byungafallgren

I’ve been using MacBook Air for four years now and begin to have virus. I was told to update Safari, don’t install other browser because it doesn’t work well with macbook. Problem is I can’t find a compatible version for my computer because mine is considerably old. But I got the problem solved when I followed as WP suggested to clear the memories in Safari. 🙂

Reply
1. September 22, 2018
  
  Mohamad Al Karbi
  
  Thank you very much, Byung, for sharing your experience. I’d suggest cleaning your device and check for malware in such cases. Glad to hear that the problem is solved now.
  Anyway, that’s another point for me to search for; the compatibility of software with the hardware and OS…
  
  Reply
  1. September 23, 2018
    
    Byungafallgren
    
    Thank you so much, Mohamad, for the suggestion. Yes, I need to do that.
February 3, 2020

Green Magick

I had my first MacBook for 8 years, then we got an air/WiFi printer and it wouldn’t print to it. So, I then got a MacBook Pro. Technology changes rapidly, but Apple keeps up pretty well. I should have that for at least 6 years, I’m guessing.

Reply
1. March 22, 2020
  
  Mohamad Al Karbi
  
  Yes, Apple keeps things consistent despite the changes. I believe 4-7 years is a normal average for Apple’s product. Wish you all the luck and be safe, my dear friend
  
  Reply