Are apple seriously going insane?

[terley]

So i've been comparing a few things recently with a friend of mine, he has always been a HUGE apple fan... we would have heated arguments into the night over it.

This week he was due to upgrade his mobile phone and after looking at the new iphone i drew the following conclusions for him:

• Iphone 7 is still non-hd still only supporting 750p.
• The loss of the headphone jack no matter what way you spin it is not a "good" thing... 3.5mm audio can still cary studio quality 192,000hz and the highest bit rates, and will still be chosen by any logical producer.
• No real redesign, same model as everyone has had for the past few years in a ridiculously fast paced market.
• Locked into the "apple" experience lacking many amazing features new phones have to offer.

Honestly the list could go on and on and on. (he went with the samsung galaxy s7)

Then i went on to compare the mac-book pro retina to an equivalent windows laptop.

Macbook Pro Retina (most expensive model)

• i7-4980HQ I7 7th gen kabylake is already starting to appear and due to ship to over 100 laptops by the end of the year
• 2,880 × 1,800 (16:10), 220 ppi Almost all laptops now have a 4k option (overkill) and many laptops have a comparable screen for colour accuracy, viewing angles and gamut
• 16 GB DDR3L 1600mhz All laptops are now hosting DDR4 2400mhz as standard
• AMD Radeon R9 M370X with 2 GB GDDR5 memory. Half the speed of the last generation's GTX 970m
• 512 GB or 1 TB SSD pci-e Comparable to any modern laptop
• 2 Thunderbolt 2 ports Thunderbolt 3.0 is now standard on most laptop's
• 99.5 Wh battery Huge battery but many people claim to only achieve 4-6 hours out of it
• 2.04kg Similar weight to any other ultrabook

All this for the low low price of £2,149.00

Is it just me who think's that apple are losing touch with a market that is becoming increasingly tech savy as people learn that to get anywhere they must learn tech? What are they going to do when the kids learning programming in nursery become potential customers?

Sorry for the essay i just wanted to see what other people thought..

 

[Mynight]

It is just you(they haven't had "touch" in a long time). Apple has got into a position they could **** in a box slap an Apple logo onto it and it would sell a few million units.

I must admit I've never understood the need for HD in a smartphone its never going to be far enough away from your face to notice the lack of pixel density. As for the 3.5mm thing it's a good business move. Lock out third party and introduce an expensive peripheral that's easy to lose.

To be fair I dont expect the generation of kids learning programming at school to be much better than the current generation.

 

[adolf hamster]

The whole apple ethos isnt something i buy into, but i'll give them credit for mastering the premium feel of their products, at least in everything bar the phones.

Bendgate and now the removal of the headphone jack show their utter dedication to making a phone thinner when lets face it thats not what consumers really care about, sony for one have cottoned on that the thickness of a phone reached its ergonomic practical peak a long time ago and going any thinner was pointless.

As for screen resolution, theyre wrong on the whole 360ppi thing, sure theres no point in the sony 860ppi monster (outside of vr you really cant tell the difference) but apples stuff doesnt ever seem any better than the competition in the phone market.

Its the same old apple though, pack market standard hardware into a shiney box and use clever salsemanship to convince people to pay over the odds for it. Their only true power pony is software optimisation which tbh isnt worth the heavy price of being locked into the apple way. For your average joe though im sure the promise of trouble free "oh we'll sort that for you" computing is alluring.

 

[G-MAN2004]

I don't think it really matters what they do. Their latest products will always be a success and will go on to sell millions, no matter what.

They could bring out a phone with no screen and the people in the Apple forum on here will still be waiting in the queue on launch day, pork sword in hand.

 

[Amp34]

And if bet if you compare it to an ACTUAL comparable laptop (rather than plastic fantastic with 2 hours battery life then you'll be looking at about the same price for a similar laptop...

What Apple realise is it's not all about spec. Usability and design are just as important to most people, if the innards are about the same. That said whether you like OSX is a personal matter, and whether you like the designs over other manufacturers (and materials for that matter) is also a personal matter.

As an example I've tried android a couple of times but just find it counter intuitive and "boring", as well as slow after a few months (even with the top end phones). iOS and WP just don't have the same issues. No, you can't "customise" them as much, but then most people aren't that bothered.

 

[Arthur Hucksake]

Remove the headphone jack just to shave 1mm off. I really don't like the direction they've gone in. First time in years I will switch back to Android 2017.

Having to spend extra on dongles to charge and listen to music at the same time is ridiculous. So i'd have an adapter for my headphones that plugs into a charger adapter and then the power lead itself. Have they lost the plot?

Extra faff for no real reason.

 

[G-MAN2004]

Remove the headphone jack just to shave 1mm off.

They've not even shaved 1mm off. The measurements are exactly the same.

 

[terley]

And if bet if you compare it to an ACTUAL comparable laptop (rather than plastic fantastic with 2 hours battery life then you'll be looking at about the same price for a similar laptop...

What Apple realise is it's not all about spec. Usability and design are just as important to most people, if the innards are about the same. That said whether you like OSX is a personal matter, and whether you like the designs over other manufacturers (and materials for that matter) is also a personal matter.

Challenge accepted

Dell XPS 15 7550

• I7 6700HQ
• 16gb DDR4 2133mhz
• 4k touchscreen (arguably nicer than the macbook pro's with its almost bezel less display)
• GTX 960m 2gb (only mac GPU available in the UK on the top model is the R9 M370X here is the comparison http://gpuboss.com/gpus/Radeon-R9-M370X-Mac-vs-GeForce-GTX-960M)
• 512gb PCIe SSD
• Thunderbolt 3.0
• 2kg
• roughly 5-7 hours battery

£1,649.00 (exactly £500 cheaper)

Gigabyte Aero 14

• I7 6700HQ
• 16gb DDR4 2133mhz
• 2560x1440 display
• GTX 970m
• 512gb PCIe SSD
• USB 3.1 type-c
• 1.89kg
• 94.24Wh battery upto 10 hours office or 4 hours gaming
• HDMI 2.0 for 4k 60hz output

£1,559.99 (£589.01 cheaper)

The build quality of the XPS 15 is truly stunning and comparable to the Macbook pro. The gigabyte's build quality isn't as premium but the 970m turns it into a portable workstation with a ridiculous battery life for its power and portability.

 

[terley]

Oh lets also mention the annual £90+ firmware upgrade for their laptop's if you want to keep "up to date"

Mod edit: what the hell are you on about? Every OS for the last few years has been free and they don't charge for firmware upgrades. Your ignorance is pathetic.

 

[AHarvey]

They've not even shaved 1mm off. The measurements are exactly the same.

yeah but they've added 2 hours to the battery life so it now sits alongside other phones...

I am not an Apple fan. I get fed up with seeing news stories about them, they are now moving into automated cars...why? because they can whack an Apple logo on it and charge twice as much.

I've an older gen MacBook pro sitting upstairs that I was given. I turned it on, spent an hour tinkering with it and I've not touched it since. Feel like I am using my kids VTech tablets.

 

[Spitfir3]

To be fair, the latest Macbook Pro Retina model was released mid 2015 - which are the specs you're using for this comparison.

 

[terley]

To be fair, the latest Macbook Pro Retina model was released mid 2015 - which are the specs you're using for this comparison.

Mid 2015, they haven't refreshed it.. the 2015 one uses a 4th gen CPU.. 7th gen is already available on some laptops. yet they are still selling it for £2000+

 

[Tefal]

Am i the only one who finds phonez too thin to be comfortable now?
I wuite like my battery case for the reason it thickens our the phone especialy for holding it in landscape

 

[Stealthploit]

Not wanting to steal the thread ive heard that the make the hardware also fail just alsmost when there waranty it out is that true ?

 

[JBod]

Not wanting to steal the thread ive heard that the make the hardware also fail just alsmost when there waranty it out is that true ?

planned ob·so·les·cence
ˌpland ˌäbsəˈlesəns/
noun
a policy of producing consumer goods that rapidly become obsolete and so require replacing, achieved by frequent changes in design, termination of the supply of spare parts, and the use of nondurable materials.

 

[trentlad]

Yes and no. One way to look at it; they specifically design products to be worthless after three years VS their products are targeting the premium market where people can afford to upgrade every one/two years.

A lot of people fail to understand this and instead apply a standard business model where product quality is based on durability and future proof value. That's not how Apple operates, it's not their target market and to judge their products by a different business model triggers this confusion.

 

[nick.lidgett]

I like my iPhone 6s but that's mainly because I prefer iOS over Android and definitely over Windows.
I have no desire to start using their wearables, laptops or upgrade to the new iPhone.
I don't agree with the minor updates for maximum money.

 

[Tefal]

Not wanting to steal the thread ive heard that the make the hardware also fail just alsmost when there waranty it out is that true ?

Tbh given the abuse a pgone goes through and just the tsandard life of a lithium battery 2 year life span (linked with a 2 year contract) is actually pretty reasonable.

Think how much younuse your phone all the vibrations the drops the water the twmperature changes etc.

Surviving the 2 years is fairly impreasive lol

 

[PinkPig]

Oh lets also mention the annual £90+ firmware upgrade for their laptop's if you want to keep "up to date"

What do you mean? Not really an apple fan but macOS updates have been free for years.

 

[Nismo]

Aren't the Macbooks due a refresh soon? With Apple release cycles working as they do, it's slightly unfair to compare against the constant trickle of Windows laptops from almost every manufacturer that are always going to be more current in terms of tech.

Locked into the "apple" experience lacking many amazing features new phones have to offer.

Can you expand on these "amazing features" offered by other phones? Just curious.

I'm exclusively a Windows PC user (hate Macs) but as an iPhone user since the 4, iOS does everything I want, how I want and expect it to work (I did try Android with an S3 for 6 months but hated it). I'm not particularly inclined to upgrade my standard 6 model to the 7 this year, but some of your points are not particularly relevant, especially the screen not technically being HD.