Apple Macbook : Finally Used In Anger

My main laptop for day to day usage is an 2012 Apple Macbook Pro which I love, its been a great machine whilst i’ve had it. The only real issue i’ve had was 6 months ago, when the screen developed half a dozen dead pixels, Apple were great, and immediately replaced the screen with a new unit. Sadly since the machine came back I’ve never managed to get a bluetooth mouse to connect to it, so its currently back with Apple.

In the meantime, i’ve decided to see if I can run the 12″ Macbook I leased earlier in the year, to replace it.

So far, the experience has been pretty good, I’ve not noticed any real performance issues, which was my main concern, speed is fine for my use, which basically covers Outlook and RDP use.

I loved the idea of the simplicity of the machine, with just a single port, it seemed like a sensible solution, in real world use, its a pain in the arse. You have a beautiful machine, that looks awesome, then you dangle 2 additional adaptors off of it, just to connect to a network cable, the whole slick thing goes out the window.

There’s my biggest gripe about the machine, dongles! the only company that produces any sort of adaptor with a power pass through is Apple, and they don’t do it on the £20 USB-C network adaptor, oh no, they only offer it on the USB-C Digital AV or VGA multi-port adaptor for £65, but to be fair also gives you a single USB 3 port, to hang an additional Hub / Network adaptor off of!

I’ve setup a Windows 10 vm running on Fusion 7 and I have to say it makes a lovely little Windows machine, i’ve heard reports of the USB-C adaptors not being particularly good with Windows, but not experienced any issues yet.

Will I carry on using the Macbook as my main laptop? probably not to be honest with you, the keyboard whilst very nice, is a bit weird to use in everyday use, the spacing on the keys is unusual when you’re used to typing on a full size macbook keyboard, the keypress depth is also difficult to get used to. I’ve also found it difficult to run the Loxone Config application, the screen size is just too small imho.

I will miss wandering out of the house with a lightweight bag! Its literally about a third of the weight of my macbook pro bag.