New MBP 13"

MacRS4 said:
Now, I am an actual student. Genuinely. Probably should say this quietly....if I buy stuff from the education store using my work account I get both discounts.
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Are you sure? Surely you’d need to purchase it through the business account to be able to claim it as an expense?

FWIW I did the same thing, but my accountant said it was cool because I don’t currently invoice VAT to my clients.
They never even asked for proof I’m a student! (I am)
 
Yup, I'm very sure. I have both access to the education store AND a business account. I don't think it's supposed to work tbh, but I'm not going to ask! My bus account got all messed up when it was setup (probably my fault), so I had to spend an age on the phone sorting it. I kind of wonder if it's because of that, but I'm not going to investigate too hard.
 
MacRS4 said:
I've justed tested this more when there's no noise about - and the fans are on constantly when plugged in. Left to idle they're about 1250/1350, and when doing stuff they're 4k+. Certainly audible anyway.

Would it be annoying....? Depends really. I wouldn't find it annoying tbh - I didn't earlier - but then my office has a fair amount of machine noise in it anyway.

Video will be up in an hour os so about this.
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Appreciated the video! I assumed using a laptop with an external display would be quite a common setup but possibly not? Quite interesting to see the results of the tests you ran and you pre-empted my question about whether is was down to the way the monitor was connected (USB-C or HDMI adapter)!

Presumably this an issue which would occur on any laptop and would be the same with a Windows device when connected to an external display?

Like the Akira background by the way :cool:
 
The 16 is a lot quicker to max up the fans. The XPS doing the same thing is also pretty maxed out BUT is generally ultra quiet. That thing though doesn't perform particularly well when it's hot, and yet the reads for stuff like the Intel Power Gadget don't show it throttling. Wouldn't be surprised if there's some thermal shenanigans going on there tbh.
 
I’m torn between the MacBook Air 2020 with an i3/i5/i7.

The base MBP 2020 with last years 8 gen.

Or a 2019 MBP 13 with a 2.4ghz processor.

My alternative would be the older 6 core dell XPS 13 from I think it’s 2018.

I plan to keep the machine 5 years at least and I’m by no means a heavy user. Just need something to do generals tasks, learn coding and light photoshop work.
 
I have (well, my daughter's mother is using it at the minute) one of the 6 core 7390 XPS units (because of course I have). It's a nice machine, but don't get carried away about the whole 6 core i7 thing. Comparison benchmarks for you.

I find it throttles back quite quickly. The i5 13" feels far more fluid and capable.
 
My 16 arrived about an hour ago. Three mobile decided they would pick yesterday and today to carry out essential repairs on the local mast so my internet has been awful to say the least. So unfortunately this is making it a real PITA to set up.
Very early thoughts are it's too big - for me anyway. No doubting it's a stunning piece of kit and the screen is on point however as 13" user this 16" would certainly take some getting used to. I will spend the weekend getting acquainted with it. If I had to decide now I would return this and purchase the £1799 13" (with student discount) however time will tell.
I have a 35 inch monitor at the house so a big screen, although a joy to look at, isn't entirely necessary plus I kind of like the idea of having an workhorse of a laptop inside a 13 inch chassis.
 
MacRS4 said:
I have (well, my daughter's mother is using it at the minute) one of the 6 core 7390 XPS units (because of course I have). It's a nice machine, but don't get carried away about the whole 6 core i7 thing. Comparison benchmarks for you.

I find it throttles back quite quickly. The i5 13" feels far more fluid and capable.
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Yeah I thought as much.

I’m just unsure on what to purchase.

I can purchase via the bay a decent 2019 2.4 256gb 8gb ram with Apple warranty for around a £1k but the keyboard puts me off.

Give or take I can spend a couple of hundred for the 2020 air/pro but I’m not sure if the extra outlay is worth it?
 
Vita said:
I’m torn between the MacBook Air 2020 with an i3/i5/i7.

The base MBP 2020 with last years 8 gen.

Or a 2019 MBP 13 with a 2.4ghz processor.

My alternative would be the older 6 core dell XPS 13 from I think it’s 2018.

I plan to keep the machine 5 years at least and I’m by no means a heavy user. Just need something to do generals tasks, learn coding and light photoshop work.
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I've had this debate with myself and came to decide on this year's base MBP. I can't really see a real world benefit to getting the MBA over it, unless you get the i3 and save a few hundred £. In practice, the MBP sounds like it performs as well as the MBA for most tasks - the MBA may be marginally snappier for really straightforward stuff, but the MBP isn't going to struggle with that, and for anything more intensive such as Photoshop I'd much rather have the MBP's cooling than having the MBA's fans spinning up.

I can't see any benefit in getting last year's MBP over this year's base model (except, again, saving a bit of cash).
 
manic111 said:
I can't see any benefit in getting last year's MBP over this year's base model (except, again, saving a bit of cash).
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Looking at the spec of various models on the Apple website, and laughing/crying at how much Apple charge for upgrading the SSD/RAM as far as I can see there are basically 3 spec options of 13" laptops which make sense to consider :-

1) 13" Macbook Air in base spec at £1000

2) 13" 8th gen Macbook Pro (with 16Gb RAM) for £1400

3) 13" 10th gen Macbook Pro at £1800

IMO it's basically a case of picking one of those options depending on your needs and budget.
 
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Well I’m thinking the i3 with 16gb makes sense, the i5 is tempting me just for the extra cores and seems to be the best medium.

Though maybe the base model MBP 8th gen is better?
 
Vita said:
Well I’m thinking the i3 with 16gb makes sense, the i5 is tempting me just for the extra cores and seems to be the best medium.

Though maybe the base model MBP 8th gen is better?
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I'd have thought i3 with 16gb RAM would be a bit like putting trolley wheels on a formula one car?
 
GMac11 said:
I'd have thought i3 with 16gb RAM would be a bit like putting trolley wheels on a formula one car?
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I see where you’re coming from.

It’s just so it lasts me a while. My 2011 MBP lasted me for ages and was still brilliant the day I sold it.

I have had the mba 13/pro and 12” from 2018 but I sold them to try other laptops but keep coming back to Apple.
 
Vita said:
I see where you’re coming from.

It’s just so it lasts me a while. My 2011 MBP lasted me for ages and was still brilliant the day I sold it.

I have had the mba 13/pro and 12” from 2018 but I sold them to try other laptops but keep coming back to Apple.
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Understandable, I am by no means an expert in the Apple/Mac world - I just bought a 16" from the refurb store and I have no idea why! :p
I have only owned two Macbook Pro's before this - a 2015 then a 2017 13" - still have the 2017 in fairness. I am still deciding whether I'm happy to stick with it or move to this 16" or the higher tier 2020 13".
I was under the impression the MBA's were useful for basic tasks and not much else? For raw performance the surely the base 8th gen MPB has got to be better than the MBA?
Just checking on Passmark and the i5-1030NG7 in the MBA scores 5754 compared to the i5-8257U's score of 8246 - that's well over 50% higher.
 
Oh my - the 2015 15" MBP. What an absolute joy that was. All the ports. All the performance. It made hot women randomly talk to me in coffee shops (bizarrely, this is actually true. I've got videos and everything).

The previous gen MBA was bloody awful tbh.
 

Thanks for taking the time to answer my questions. Hopefully boot camp is a common use case which others are also keen to know about.

Disappointing that battery life takes a hit since as far as I can see there's no reason for that to be the case given enough optimisation and proper driver/firmware support. Also, it annoys me that Apple continue not to support the three finger trackpad gestures (for the epose-style app view and app-switching) in Windows as I found them really useful on other multi-touch trackpad Windows laptops.

I often get the impression that, though Apple want to advertise Windows support and boot camp as a feature, they're actively making sure the experience is substantially worse than using MacOS by deliberately hobbling things like battery life and hardware/driver support!
 
So narrowed it down to the following.

2.4 mbp 13 2019. Benefits 4TB ports and an extra fan for cooling. Downside is the butterfly keyboard.

or the base 2020 1.4. Benefit is mainly the keyboard.

Where would you’re money go? The 2019 is an extra £29 on the refurb store.
 
b0rn2sk8 said:
Tough call, the 2019 will have more performance but that keyboard is an obvious risk.
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I could use one of those keyboard protectors. How reliable it would be I’m not sure, but my gut is saying to opt for the 2.4 as I plan to add a monitor at a later date as well as using external storage devices.
 
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