I am perfectly fine with many of the technological restrictions on this device, and think it represents a great balance.
However, I think that two will bring sour tastes to people’s metaphorical mouths much more than expected: the RAM and drive space.
There should have been a 16Gb option. Nosebleed the price if you have to, or include a SODIMM slot if needed, but the option should have been there to expand the memory to 16Gb either on spec or at a later date. Because each version of MacOS gets weightier and more demanding of hardware - Windows isn’t the only resource hog out there - and at 8Gb the pain will begin to be felt long before the 7-year usability cycle comes to an end.
There should have been a 1Tb option. Not because people use that much drive space - many don’t - but because 1Tb is the level which provides enough cells in parallel to properly saturate the PCIe bus, ensuring maximum performance. Not always at that 1Tb level, and not on every machine. But typically 1Tb or above, rather than below. Even if it required a hairdryer to unstick the original due to the constrained space not permitting a lock-down screw, the drive should have been either replaceable or with the size as (again) a nosebleed-price option at provisioning.
Because while I see every other compromise as acceptable, it is those two which make me hesitate on getting this as a long-term secondary/casual system.
Other than that, this is a laptop which can only goose Apple’s further adoption among students and casual users.
> Anyone who knows what any of that means, or even to looks at those specs, are not in the market for this and should know better.
Why? I am a power user, and if I didn’t already have a copious stable of second-hand machines (a side effect of also being in the hardware end of IT), I would gladly pick one of these machines up as a “vacation/personal device”.
I mean, as a power user I am going to need high specs… for my work.
In my off time and on my vacation time, all I need is something that can connect to the Internet, let me do basic eMail and web surfing, and lets me connect remotely to my iron back in my office to keep a light touch on things.
And in that regard, this machine is perfect.
My issue with the device is in term of long-term ownership, where 8Gb RAM and 512Gb of storage isn’t going to get me all the way out to 7-8 years of usage in a comfortable manner. Even with light duties, imma gonna see the seams stretch uncomfortably so somewhere in the 4-6 year stage.
16GB is going to leap you into the air category. They intentionally make this an entry premium laptop. The retina itself and MacOSX’s mandate of font conformity make this premium over other budget laptop in that price range.
However, I think that two will bring sour tastes to people’s metaphorical mouths much more than expected: the RAM and drive space.
There should have been a 16Gb option. Nosebleed the price if you have to, or include a SODIMM slot if needed, but the option should have been there to expand the memory to 16Gb either on spec or at a later date. Because each version of MacOS gets weightier and more demanding of hardware - Windows isn’t the only resource hog out there - and at 8Gb the pain will begin to be felt long before the 7-year usability cycle comes to an end.
There should have been a 1Tb option. Not because people use that much drive space - many don’t - but because 1Tb is the level which provides enough cells in parallel to properly saturate the PCIe bus, ensuring maximum performance. Not always at that 1Tb level, and not on every machine. But typically 1Tb or above, rather than below. Even if it required a hairdryer to unstick the original due to the constrained space not permitting a lock-down screw, the drive should have been either replaceable or with the size as (again) a nosebleed-price option at provisioning.
Because while I see every other compromise as acceptable, it is those two which make me hesitate on getting this as a long-term secondary/casual system.
Other than that, this is a laptop which can only goose Apple’s further adoption among students and casual users.