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Apple's Latest MacBook Move: Cutting Prices and Improving Performance

Hey guys, this is Austin. I'm here to share some exciting news with you today. Apple has not only made their cheapest MacBook better, but they've also cut the price.

A decade ago, Apple was the undisputed leader in laptops. Their touchpads were the top of the class, and even 10 years ago, the MacBook had a better touchpad than many PC's today. Think back to the original MacBook Air - it was so ahead of its time. We take thin and light laptops for granted now, but it was a game-changer when it came out.

However, things are complicated on the Mac side. On one hand, we have solid packages like the Mac Mini and iMac Pro. Even with the recent release of the Mac Pro, which is incredibly expensive but looks like a monster, the situation isn't perfect. One area that needs improvement is the laptop performance.

I love the build and form factor of the current generation MacBook Pro, but the issue here is that it can't keep up on the performance side. There are serious throttling issues, especially when you get to the 15-inch model. Despite this, Apple's latest move - cutting prices and improving performance - could be a game-changer for their laptops.

WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: en- Hey guys, this is Austin.Here is something I did not expect to say.Today, Apple has not only madetheir cheapest MacBook better,but they've also cut the price.(electronic music)There was a time, not all that long ago,that Apple was theundisputed leader in laptops.Now, their touchpads arestill the top of the class,but even 10 years ago theMacBook had a better touchpadthan a lot of PC's today.Think back to the original MacBook Air,it was so ahead of its time.Now, sure, today we take thinand light laptops for granted,but it by far the first Ultrabookand that was years before that becamea normal thing on the PC side.But when it comes to the Mac today,Well, it's complicated.So one one hand we have systems such asthe Mac Mini as well as the iMac Pro,which are pretty solid packages.We even have things likethe Mac Pro coming out,which while it is incredibly expensive,looks like a monster.Just a very expensive monster.On the laptop side though,I love the build and the form factorof the current generation MacBook Pro,but the issue here is that it justcan't keep up on the performance side.There are serious throttling issues,especially when you get upto the 15" with that Core I9.I mean yeah, it sounds like a great idea.But the issue is that it barelyis able to keep up with thebase clock speeds while stock,and as soon as you startuploading any kind ofgraphics workload, theentire performance suffers.It's a good machineand it is about as goodas you can expect forsomething that's this thin.But it just can't keep up with Window'slaptops with similar specs.Then there's the keyboard.So I've actually beenfairly fortunate with it.So I've been using aMacBook Pro since 2016as my work laptop, and I've only hadone single issue with a sticky key.But a lot of people suchas Dave as well as Lou,have had much much bigger issues with keysdouble pressing, not working at all.I mean, very quicklysome of these keyboardshave been completely useless.And the problem is that if youdo have something like this,it's not as simple as blowing it outwith some compressed air.I mean the keyboard isstraight up useless,and requires a very,very expensive repair.Which up until fairly recently,was something that youusually had to pay for.Now it did take Apple awhile to respond to thishowever, they have redesigned the keypadactually a couple oftimes on these MacBooks.So, theoretically the versionin this new MacBook Proas well as the new Air,is better, but still.Not exactly reassuring when you spendwell over $1000 on a laptop,and something like a broken key means thatyou need a $800 repair.That's just not a good look.But today we have someupgrades to check out.And that starts with the MacBook Air.It just got a much neededredesign late last year.However today, we also seeprice cuts go along with that.It goes from $1200 down to $1100.Now it's not $999 likethe old MacBook Air.Which by the way as oftoday is now discontinued.So you have to go with the Retina guy.But there are some veryvery minor upgradeswith this new version.So first of all, it doesadd a true tone display.Cool, I guess.It also does have that updated keyboard,which theoretically shouldbe a little bit more durable.Now time will tell whether thiskeyboard is actually better.So there's only been a few months sincethis keyboard went out into the wildwith the 15" MacBook Pro,but the good thing isunlike in the pastwhere you had to pay fora very expensive upgrade to kind ofrepair the entire thing,instead now Apple doescover you for four yearsfrom when the MacBook comes out.So even if you buy oneof these Airs today,you know that you'll be covered forquite a while if you dohave any keyboard issues.What we've also seen is thedeath of the 12" MacBook.Man, this is such aweird tiny little laptop.Well, I guess we did ask why it existed.And they killed it.- Just like when we asked,"Why does the iPod still exist?"And they killed that, like right after.This came out back in 2015and it was absolutely tiny.At a time when a MacBookair was way out of date,this is something whichis significantly smallerand it also included the retina display,it had the interesting butterfly keyboard.Which of course has been a little bitof a problem over the years.But this legitimately wasway ahead of its time.And even today, I still feellike this is my favoriteultra portable hardware thatI've ever used on a laptop.So tiny, so lightweight,but there are, of course,some sacrifices that had to be made.With only a single USB CPort, there was a lot ofshall we say, complaining on the internet?I may have done some ofthis complaining myself.But the issue here was two fold.First of all, having onlyone port on the laptopmeant that you couldn't charge and useanything else at the same timeunless you were using adongle, sort of a big deal.But on the top of that, thisis really the first laptopor one of the first devices straight upthat used USB C.Now today, it's actuallyfairly ubiquitous, it's not that hardto get a lot of accessories.But back in 2015 when this first came out,USB C was pretty much nowhere.Which meant that youhad very limited optionsto do anything besidescharge your MacBook,and use like one AppleDongle, which was $80 bucksand it was very, very limited.Yeah, you still haveto deal with a dongle.And yes, I still wish thisdid have multiple ports,but I've gotta say, I'm actually kind ofa little bit sad tosee the 12" MacBook go.Rest in peace little guy.As far as I'm concerned though,the most interesting new Macis the MacBook Pro 13".Now previously, there weretwo versions of this laptop.The base model which didnot have a touch bar,started at $1300, and the modelwith the touch bar was $1800.That $500 worth of savingssounds like a big deal,but you lost a lot for it.So first of all, not only do you go downfrom four thunderbolt ports to two,but of course you loose the touch barand with it the T2 chipas well as touch id.And on top of that, you hadan older dual core processor,instead of a much faster quad core chipin the higher end model.Very clear decision, the lower end modelwas pretty much worst across the board.However, as of today,that's really not the case.Now at the same $1300price, you can buy this.So this is the new basemodel of the 13" MacBook.And it takes everything that was greatabout the previous version,and adds the touch bar.Which, is not the biggestdeal in the world.But with the touch barwe get not only touch id,but also that T2 chip, and importantly,we also upgrade to a quad core processor.Really the most obvious sortof downside to this guy,is that we are still limitedto two thunderbolt three ports.But honestly, I think that'sa pretty reasonable trade offconsidering that thisis a full $500 cheaperthan the higher end model.Now I know it doesn'tsound like a big deal,but they T2 chip actually does makea pretty big difference to these MacBooks.Not only does it speed upthings such as video andcoding with things like H265.John did a great videotalking about just howpowerful this is for editing.For most people though, the jump toa quad core processor is really wherethe sweet spot happens.Now previously the dualcore was fine for basic use,but this is a MacBook Pro after all.So if you start doing, especially photoand really when it comes to video editing,it started to fall downa little bit right?But now with the quadcore processor and thepretty decent Iris graphics,this is straight up asystem that you can usefor real pro work.At least within reason for a 13" laptop.What's really interesting is that nowwhen you look at the basetwo port model versusthe four port model, that $500 differenceseems like a decent thing on paper.So this model does have a slower processorclocked at 1.4 gigahertz compared to2.4 on the higher modelthe both quad core.But as soon as I actuallystarted getting into this,I realized that's actuallynot really accurate.So, if you look at the model numberit's almost the exactsame on this Core I5,and when you start runningit through benchmarks,the performance is nearly identical.Really, the only place that I sawany significant differencewas it's a little bit slowerin multi thread, especiallyin bigger applicationssuch as Cinebench, buteven though it looks likea huge difference onpaper, this, for almost allintensive purposes hasthe same performanceas that much more expensive Macbook.Don't let that spec fool you.All of this begs the questionof which Macbook makes sense in 2019?With the 12" no longer in the picture,it really does come down,at least on the lower end,to the 13" Macbook Pro,or the 13" Macbook Air.And something important to knowis that the two laptopsare very, very similar.If you look from a lot of angles,they look almost identical right?The screens are the samesize and resolution.You've got the same keyboard,you have the same touchpads,same speakers, I mean these footprintsare essentially identical here.Really, the main advantagesto the Macbook Airis that it's a little bit cheaper,and it is very, very slightly thinner.For $200 less, you're gettingonly a dual core processor,which is a lower wattagethan what you're findingon the quad core chipwith the Macbook Pro.The main difference isjust that performance.So many other aspects ofthese systems are identical,that it comes down to whetheror not you actually need it.Now, as far as I'm concerned,if you're doing anythingmore than like light web browsing,the Mac quad core processoris going to make a difference,especially as time goes on.This just feels a littlebit slow right now,and it's certainly notgoing to feel as snappythree, five, seven yearsfrom now, as the Pro does.When it comes to picking between the Pros,I mean sure the higher end versiondoes come with a little bit more storage,as well as two extra thunderbolt ports,but beyond that there's still a minimumof a $300 price difference.As far as I'm concerned, thatis incredibly hard to justify.Yeah, more ports is nice,but is it $300 nice?These updates don't fix the Macbook line,but it's nice to see themget a little bit cheaper,a little bit better, and importantly,Apple's getting a little bit closerto being on top of their game.Honestly, it's been a long timesince I've been able to saythat the Macbook line makes sense,but today it's actually pretty balanced.(electronic music)