Oh man. Remember how I wrote that my employer decided to buy me a new device for work? Well, it’s here! I’m typing on it right now. It’s much lighter than my previous MBP and it is much faster, as one would expect. It took a couple of hours to set up but actually, now that I think of it, setting up and transferring thousands of files in a couple of hours really isn’t too bad.
Opening applications or starting it up hasn’t been as lightning fast as I was expecting given what I saw of it online, but its speed did shock me when I put my laptop into clamshell mode and my external monitors did not even blink. I thought it meant the laptop didn’t work properly in clamshell mode, but actually it had already switched modes!
I should have expected the silver version when it arrived – duh, that’s what I ordered. But the colour still surprised me a little because this is the first silver MBP I’ve seen of Apple’s new lineup. All of the device reviews or model devices I’ve seen have been grey. Now that I’ve got the silver version, I do quite like it but I think the grey actually looks more sophisticated.
I thought I’d hate the touch bar because I just didn’t see the point in it. However, within 10mins of using it I fell in love. It’s so much faster to use than moving the mouse around to click the right buttons, and being someone who uses hotkeys like nobody’s business it’s exactly what I didn’t know I needed haha. The only downside is that I sometimes end up clicking buttons on it by mistake when I’m going for the delete key.
It’s still early days but I am enjoying this new device significantly. TouchID has been great, the keyboard is pretty good and I was expecting the trackpad to be in the way given its size, but it’s been fine. I did not like the ordering experience though. The prep/shipping duration is pretty long, and my brand new laptop arrived with a very minor chip, which I was not happy about. It’s barely visible but I have sharp eyes. Not the quality I’d expect from Apple to be honest.
Also the Apple website is buggy as hell these days, that was very frustrating to deal with – I mean, trying to purchase a device but Apple not allowing my clicks to go through is really not ideal.
I know that Apple is due to announce a new MBP soon but I just didn’t have the time to wait given how much my old laptop was falling apart. Plus, I think this one is plenty enough for me. I purchased a dock to use with it and it’s been fantastic – only one plug needed into my laptop and I’m good to go!
My laptop is charged via the dock too, and given the battery life of the new MBP (I have high expectations), I reckon I won’t need to charge it at all if I’m walking around with the laptop during the day, then I can just return it to the dock in the evening, so even the additional ports on the new device no longer appeal.
So far I’d rate the laptop a 4.5/5 and the ordering process probably 2.5/5.
Edit 1st June 2021: They weren’t lying about the battery life on this thing.
I don’t know if it’s just me, but I’m simply in awe of its battery life. Just look at this… I last fully charged it 3 days ago. I decided to plug it in and charge it after screenshotting these, but this is seriously impressive to me.
To be fair, I wasn’t putting my laptop to heavy use over the past few days, but I definitely used it for browsing the internet, Discord, watching videos and movies etc. and it still lasted this long. With heavier use, it still lasted me 2 days on battery.
Honestly, I’m kind of amazed… and it’s a major upgrade from my old MBP, which had been dying on me after 2-3hrs and couldn’t even go through the night without losing all its charge. I recall even at the beginning of its life it was only lasting 10-12hrs on battery. This is just next level.
Muchos love,