Posted on 04/16/2010 2:58:49 AM PDT by Swordmaker
Comment Good versus not so good
THE CAPPUCCINO COMPANY Apple updated its line of laptops aimed at creative professionals. But what the launch of the latest Macbook Pro serves to illustrate is how underwhelming the Ipad really is.
Apple's portable PC lineup has always been strong and ever since its move to Intel processors back in January 2006, not only have they looked the part but they've also performed very well. The latest crop incorporates Nvidia's Optimus graphics switching technology to build on the previous generation's dual GPUs.
That Nvidia feature enables 'in line' switching between an integrated GPU, which in the case of the Macbook Pros is Intel's "HD" graphics, and a discrete chip, which is either Nvidia's 320M or 330M depending on whether you opt for the 13-inch model or either the 15-inch or 17-inch model. This system is a welcome upgrade from the earlier awkward setup on Macbook Pros that had required users to logout to make the change.
Baseline RAM of 4GB is the standard across the range. There's also the built to order option of solid state drives all the way up to a 512GB unit which will set you back around £1,100.
However the biggest change is the adoption, in the 15-inch and 17-inch models, of Intel's Core i5 and i7 chips. The inclusion of these chips meant that Apple, often critised for putting out sub-par hardware configurations in the past, is on the ball.
However, the 13-inch Macbook Pro has to make do with simply faster Core 2 Duo chips, suggesting that Apple was unable to beef up the cooling in the smaller chassis.
Nevertheless, regardless of the fact that the Macbook Pro is aimed at 'creative professionals', throughout the line you get a decent specifications at a reasonable price.
Comparing the price of a Macbook Pro, which starts at £1,000, against a £300 Acer notebook isn't the name of the game. Of course both will essentially do the majority of jobs equally well, but when compared against similar premium 'lifestyle' PC brands such as Sony you see that Apple isn't doing its usual bang-up job of ripping customers off.
Nevertheless, although comparing the Macbook Pros against Sony might not be fair comparison of service, performance or even posing ability, putting them side by side against the Ipad shows just how far off the cut down tablet really is.
The two devices do vary wildly in terms of specifications but considering how much extra you're getting with even the baseline Macbook Pro, it's shocking that anyone would opt to spend so much money on an Ipad. Although prices for British punters have yet to be announced, following an additional month's delay, and even going by the usually favourable US prices, it really doesn't look good for the Ipad.
Take a 64GB Ipad with only WiFi connectivity, that's $700 or about £450 using a generous $1.60 to £1 exchange rate. Depending on which US state you have that delivered to, and taking into account shipping costs and import duties you're easily looking at £600, if not more.
What this shows is that for 60 per cent of the cost of a fully loaded, premium Apple Macbook Pro laptop you can purchase a cut down Apple Ipad tablet device. The figures get even more staggering when you consider the consumer oriented Macbook. That laptop in its standard configuration costs about £815. If you want to get really creative, Apple often offers refurbished units with the same warranty as its new models for even less.
But for the sake of keeping this comparison competitive, lets stick with the Macbook Pro. For £1,000 you can purchase a well designed laptop that runs the full version of Mac OS X, has the capability to run Windows or Linux either in Boot Camp or through virtualisation, has the ability to expand its functionality by doing such revolutionary things as plug in USB devices and even choose where you get your software from. Of course that pretty much describes any laptop on the market, but lets do what Steve Jobs wants and stick within the Apple ecosystem.
Taking a gander at the hardware specifications, there's simply no contest. Without a doubt the Ipad has a superb screen and CPU, but one would have to possess yet unattained levels of incompetence to believe that a system on chip, even one that is as capable as the A4, can compete in general computing tasks with an Intel Core 2 Duo, much less a Core i5 or Core i7.
Similarly it's possible to argue until the cows come home whether Nvidia's 320M is the ultimate mobile GPU, and clearly it isn't as Apple has opted for the marginally up-rated 330M on its 15-inch and 17-inch models, but it certainly beats the living daylights out the graphics core in the A4 chip when it matters.
Finally we get to the question of battery life. According to Apple both the Ipad and the 13-inch Macbook Pro have the same battery life, around 10 hours.
Given the extra performance, functionality and fewer restrictions it does seem that Apple's own products show up the pretty obvious flaws of its latest toy. The Macbook Pro range of laptops are quality machines that are honestly priced. The latest updates, especially for the 15-inch and 17-inch models, keep their specifications not only competitive but surpass some of their competitors.
Apple clearly has the ability to put out decent products at respectable prices, the Macbook Pro is a testament to that. For the Ipad however, the latest round of Macbook Pro upgrades just goes to show that Apple's new toy really is being sold at an "unbelievable price". µ
I have never seen a Microsoft thread. Please ping me for the next one.
This looks like an adolescent attempt at satire.
Wrong, it's an Apple feature. Optimus cranks up the dedicated GPU, but leaves the integrated GPU running and writes to that GPU's frame buffer in RAM. This sucks more battery and causes more bus traffic. Optimus also relies no a big list of apps at nVidia to control when it's switched.
Apple's technology switches automatically upon need, not based on a list. The implementation is also different, in that Apple actually switches off the integrated GPU, leaving only the dedicated GPU running. This is the reason Apple can state a longer battery life than other similar solutions.
Wow, another complete fabrication. Apple did it because of cost/performance. They figure the graphics boost gives more than enough performance increase for the price, so no need to go i5 in the low model. There's also the fact that the mid-range Core i5s pull about the same wattage as the mobile Core 2 Duos used.
Remember those early days of technology before LCDs were reliable or visible or attractive enough to be used for any purpose -- even watches? During those days, I worked on the TI LED watch program (remember having to push a button to see the time?)
One of my lesser tasks was analyzing watches that we had sent out (at no cost) for an on-the-arm test program, and one of those watches had been sent to some redneck who was a shade tree auto mechanic. After abusing the watch for weeks by wearing it while laying on a gravel driveway while working underneath his truck, he sent it back with a list of comments like yours.
It was totally covered in the greasy grime that accumulates on a leaky oil pan. The stainless case was scratched, dinged and gouged up worse than the wheel weights on an off-roader's Jeep, the wristband was mangled beyond usability, and the springbars were bent and one was broken. The red plastic lens was cracked and mangled so badly you could not read the display through it.
His complaint: "The red windo scratches too easy." [sic]
Congratulations! you may have just beaten that clod's record as "top equipment thrasher"!
~~~~~~~~~
I'd like to see what condition your (non-Apple, obviously) laptop is in... '-)
Underpowered CPU? A 1.86Ghz or 2.13Ghz Core2Duo in an under 3 pound laptop underpowered???? What are you smoking? Show me one from another maker that came out as early as the MacBook Air that had as much speed and power at that weight factor. Your final sentence says what you really are about... you are just not an Apple fan, so you will find anything they make "underwhelming."
Please demonstrate where Mac fans "troll" in Microsoft threads and drop insults like "applebots." That is a serious challenge, driftdriver. You made the claim. I am challenging you to prove your assertion... Prove it happens on FreeRepublic. Justify your behavior.
When I was in the gun store businesses 40 years ago, one of my richer customers was a Yolo County rice grower. Every year he would come in and buy a $2200 Browning Midas Grade over and under Shotgun and trade in the one he bought the previous year. We'd give him $100 for his trade in of his last year's purchase. Why so little you ask? Simple.
Every year he'd eschew the beautiful hard shel, leatherl case that Browning provided for their incredibly expensive, seven gold-carved inlay guns, and give the case back to us. He'd walk out of the store, after assembling the Midas grade gun, with its beautiful gold inlays, gorgeous grade C factory engraving, case-hardening, and burl-walnut stocks... and toss it into the bed of his pick-up truck. Where it would remain, handy to use for shooting ducks, crows, squirrels, rats, what ever he needed it for, until the next fall, when he would come back to us and trade it in, minus at least five of the seven gold in-lays, scratched all to hell, dinged up, weather beaten and worth only a couple of hundred bucks... if that. One year, it was worth so little, we parted it out. It wasn't worth restoring.
Talk about ostentatious waste.
Well Sword you’ve challenged me before and lost every single time. Just like this time. Here is one example
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2493190/posts#5
So now justify your deplorable behavior.
Intel's Core i5 and i7 chips ... meant that Apple, often critised for putting out sub-par hardware configurations in the past, is on the ball.More than I can say for the writer of that crap.
I found an Apple logo... not one insult to a Microsoft user and insults from YOU to Apple users. And that is a legitimate solution to the problems presented by using Microsoft operating systems... dump them and use something else that doesn't present such problems. So, where are the insults to Microsoft users, driftdriver??? Where? The challenge STILL stands... I said insulting behavior... trolling behavior... posting an apple logo does not rise to that level.
YOU are the one who slings the insults like "Applebos" around... You are the one with the deplorable behavior.
Incidentally, I have not lost... you’ve never been able to find the insulting behavior you claim exists on Microsoft threads... I still am waiting for you to show them... a logo does NOT constitute an insult.
Sword you played this same game before when startraveler said all windows developers were criminals.
You called me a liar. You’ve never apologized. You have no integrity.
Excuse me? I told you both to cut it out. If I called you a liar, I had good reason to do so, and will not retract it. My integrity is good.
The challenge still stands. Find the insults from Mac users TO Windows users in Windows threads... insults... find them. You are the one who continually invades Apple threads and starts slinging insults to Mac and Apple users and spreading comments equipment stuff you do not use or have not used in years. You justify this by claiming that Apple users insult Windows users in Microsoft threads. I challenge you to produce these insults. The worst you have come up with is people suggesting that Windows users solve their problems by getting a Mac... or the mere posting of a Apple logo.
SHOW US THE INSULTS YOU CLAIM ARE RIFE IN THOSE THREADS OR SHUT UP.
Now, driftdriver, SHOW ME the what you claim is not a lie... If I find you are correct and I am wrong, I will apologize.
No Sword, you can play your game. I showed you the thread. It was a thread you posted on. You can run but you cannot hide.
Every salesman has to go through the entire happy meal with one of these people to really understand them. After that, they're easy to spot. I'll never forget the guy who broke me in. I was selling televisions. I talked to this guy for nearly an hour. After answering all of his questions, to which he'd keep coming up with new objections, he finally told me, "That TV just doesn't look that well-built. I'll bet you I could punch the top of it and break it." After finally getting him out the door, I worked on developing my skills at spotting these types of people. They ain't buying. They ain't ever gonna buy. They've got an afternoon to kill and decided to kill it annoying me. I could cut the price to $50, give them a lifetime warranty, have it delivered by nude dancing girls, and have the manager come out and dance the "Hokey Pokey" while throwing rose petals in their paths as they walked out of the store and they weren't going to buy anything.
When someone claims they'll consider buying a $500 computer product when you can use it as a baseball bat, they ain't buying one. They ain't ever intending to buy one, and if you could use it as a baseball bat they'd say they aren't interested unless you can use it as a waffle iron.
You missed my point completely.
I said there is a market for a go anywhere computer that can be used anywhere but the iPad doesn’t fill it. Of course, no other tablet computer does either.
As it stands right now, the iPad is a toy with limited utility. A nifty toy, but a toy nevertheless. I need a computer that is productive, so I’ll keep saving my pennies for my MacBook Air.
FYI, I have been a Mac user since the Mac Plus and am writing this on an iMac.
Maybe I should have explained my objections a bit better. I didn’t waste any salesman’s time when I looked it over and I certainly wouldn’t have tried to use it as a baseball bat, because others have already expressed the iPads shortcomings in that regard.
My point was that if the iPad COULD be made shockproof and waterproof it would have much greater utility because it could be taken into environments where currently NO computers can be taken without special provisions. Researchers and workers could use them in the field to perform actual work as well as do all the other things that Macs do so well.
Right now, my bitch is not specifically targeted at the iPad, it’s targeted at the whole concept of tablets. They just do not offer enough in the way of utility to make them worth the expense.
I’m cool with that, and thanks for the response. I won’t be buying an iPad cause it doesn’t fit what I need to do.
There is a $15 waterproof case already out for it, and I’m pretty sure at some point they’ll scale up the bulletproof enclosures they’ve made for the iPhone. Some of those things have lexan face covers and rubberized cases that can drop six feet to concrete.
I’m not sure the tablet format will be a success, but I think the Apple approach has a better chance than what I’ve seen with the releases on the upcoming HP Slate. Apple decided they were going to pitch to the tablet’s strength, while it looks like HP has decided to make a component laptop. I just don’t see people carrying a tablet, keyboard and mouse instead of a laptop.
I thought that was the case. It was your
"If they could make it durable enough to serve as a drink tray during a fraternity party and still do all the other stuff, it might be acceptable."
that precipitated my comment re equipment abuse.
~~~~~~~~~
I do field archaeology and cartography -- specifically, locating, following, and GPS-mapping pioneer roads, trails and traces. (Other "Archies" call folks like me "Rut Nuts") '-}
The Pocket PC that I use with downloaded topo maps and a shoulder-mounted Bluetooth GPS receiver just doesn't hack it. (Unreadable in daylight...) And my 17" Max-res MBP isn't practical when trekking through thick brush. No doubt, there is a topo+GPS mapping ap for the iPhone/iPod Touch, but my fading eyesight argues against its small screen size.
Although I'd prefer something closer to 7", the iPad appears to have the best potential yet for a solution. If I had one, I'd treat it with respect and care.
However, I have been observed to toss whatever is in my hand, draw -- and fire from mid-air -- when "Mr 'Buzztail'" sounds off and pokes his head up near my feet. I doubt that even a tablet that could be used for a drink tray would respond well to that!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.