The keyboard is so much better on the modern ones, so I’d recommend giving it a chance !
It’s size was also the only thing putting me off a personal purchase. Reliability issues aside (I haven’t been affected but I assume it’s a matter of time) it is a nicer machine.
Lost macOS though, which, in the end, didn’t matter as much as I thought it would.
https://www.tonymacx86.com/threads/99-perfect-sierra-10-12-6...
Or you could run it in a VM. I had to test something with macOS not long ago (not a regular Mac user) and was pleasantly surprised when, after doing a small amount of configuration, VirtualBox booted up from the ISO and installed a macOS VM that ran pretty much perfectly.
Having a T25, X1C5 and X1C6 in the family and the keyboard+mouse experience is so much ahead of everybody else.
But yeah, I can't imagine Micro-USB being more reliable than regular USB-A.
It’s hardly an industrial connector, but AFAIK it’s rated for 10k inserts which is more than enough.
Of any problem with USB-C it unplugging has never been an issue...
My tinfoil hat theory is yes - Apple's supply chain folks. Thinner and lighter laptops means more fit on a cargo airplane, which means lower shipping costs.
Tim Cook cut his teeth on Apple's supply chain as COO before becoming CEO, after all.
Sure. Here's a certain Linus Torvalds:
"I’m have to admit being a bit baffled by how nobody else seems to have done what Apple did with the Macbook Air – even several years after the first release, the other notebook vendors continue to push those ugly and clunky things. (...) I don’t think I’m unusual in preferring my laptop to be thin and light. (...) Btw, even when it comes to Apple, it’s really just the Air that I think is special. The other apple laptops may be good-looking, but they are still the same old clunky hardware (...)"
To me the Air is magical because it has a balance of my exact needs: portability, toughness and, battery life. I would give anything for an updated model.
Most people ignore Chromebooks as direct comparisons, but many are just as tough, have similarly crummy/capable internals, cost a pittance, are as unupgradeable, and run Linux like champs. They're the platonic ideal of single function computing.
The 13" Acer I bought in 2012 had a 1080 display, could output over HDMI at 2160p, and played video for at least 8 hours on a full charge. Cost maybe $250 and had a very sturdy case that didn't bend or break when dropped. Not that shabby.
We don't need to speculate. How many MBPs fit in a cubic meter, and how much does it cost to ship a cubic meter of goods on a cargo plane?
According to this[1], flying a 40-foot container from Shenzen to London is around $2000. A 40-foot container has a capacity of 76 cubic meters.
The MBP fits in a 17” x 13” x 5” shipping box[2], which leaves some room for bubble wrap. That's 0.02 cubic meters, so 50 MBPs per cubic meter. So for $2000, 50*76 = 3800 MBPs can be shipped.
That's around 50 cents shipping cost, for something that sells for $1000, which means Tim Cook would have to be quite irrational to reduce the size of the MBP in order to reduce the (50-cent-per-MBP) freight expenditure.
[1] https://www.freightos.com/freight-resources/air-freight-rate...
[2] https://swappa.com/blog/the-best-way-to-ship-your-macbook/
I don't believe this problem is really a limited as Apple has been saying, but they never seem to admit the true scale of problems.
https://www.macrumors.com/2018/07/12/apple-stops-selling-201...
https://www.apple.com/shop/browse/home/specialdeals/mac/macb...
Oh well, hopefully my current one lasts another few years, otherwise I'll probably have to give Windows a try as my main machine again, for the first time in ~10 years.
And refurb models are also eligible for AppleCare if you want a 3 year warranty, but you have to buy AppleCare within 60 days of the Mac purchase.
For an alternative perspective, http://chainsawsuit.com/comic/2016/10/29/the-new-macbooks-ar...
> Battery life is not great. But you can't use it outside anyhow because it'll blow away.
> We want to make a laptop so thin you'll close it and never find it again.
Literally all they needed to do was retina screen, upgrade the internals, and add a few USB-C ports. Was anyone ever legitimately inconvenienced by the thickness of the 2010 MBP? I know I was directly inconvenienced by the loss of MagSafe, ethernet, SD card and USB-A, the loss of the FN key row, and loss of serviceability.
So much so that my 2010 MBP will very likely be my last Apple purchase ever.