What to choose: MacBook Air or MacBook Pro? What should I do if streaks appear on my MacBook screen? Red macbook

Since 2013 I have been working at the same MacBook Air. Basic model, the simplest technical specifications. During this time, thousands of photographs were processed, dozens of videos were created and almost three thousand articles were written.

For me, the Air has been the benchmark laptop for six years now. Until now, I have forgiven it for its outdated display, monotonous design and, in general, that’s all. I couldn't find any more flaws.

But you and I can’t calm down, we constantly want something new. What if you like it? I took in re:Store A 12-inch MacBook for one week to understand: is Apple's smallest laptop worth the money? Moreover, am I ready to exchange my beloved Air for it?

And this one port of a rare standard - is it possible to live with it in working conditions?

The conclusions were mixed.

Portability has a limit. This is him

Most readers saw the heyday of netbooks. Do you remember the impressions from the first time you used them? Such a small computer, but already capable of so much - it pulls office tasks, even allows you to watch movies and at the same time fits into a regular bag.

The 11-inch Air isn't exactly big either. But that's exactly what it looks like after working on a 12-inch MacBook. Not sure what it is Badly.

Most small laptop Apple amazes with its size and weight. Every time you take it out of your bag, the thought runs through your mind - unrealistically cool, simply magical. Super thin, super light, very stylish. But at the same time toy.

When you work on such a small computer, from the outside it seems that you are doing some kind of useless crap. A device of this size is purely psychologically associated with entertainment, even a little show-off. Coffee shops, cross-legged, thoughtful look, latte macchiatto, that’s all.

It doesn't help that it's the "colored" versions that are popular. Almost no one buys the silver model, which is most similar to a MacBook (fact). Everywhere is either black or gold. Now they've also added pink.

So, over the course of a week I constantly caught myself thinking a strange thought: this laptop is so small that Seems unsuitable for work. Even when you work on it yourself and don’t know any troubles. All this seems to be out of habit, although there is some reality in it.

For example, not everyone will be so physically suitable small display. Everything on such a screen will be real small. If your vision is not very good, the macOS scaling settings will help. And then it’s not clear why this laptop is better than the cheaper Air with the same powerful hardware inside.

And the keyboard area seems small. I can't imagine how a person with big hands will type on it and feel fine.

But the whole irony is that the 12-inch MacBook is smaller than the Air when used ABOUT larger display area. That is, it seems to be better – if you measure usefulness by the effective screen area. But prejudices and habits play a role; we couldn’t get rid of them in one week. Other factors also interfered.

Keyboard I never got used to

It is in keyboard I fell in love first when I bought my first Mac in 2010. The tactile feedback from typing, the location of the keys, the movement of the mechanism and the shape of the pad - after so many years of living with Windows laptops, I suddenly found my standard.

Since then, the keyboard in MacBook all models has remained virtually unchanged. And only the 12-inch MacBook breaks the rules. They put something strange in it. Perhaps it just takes a month or two to get used to. In one week I was unable to adapt to the new buttons.

To be fair, the reduced key travel is a benefit: it reduces the time and effort required to write each letter. If you write a large text, you notice that you do it a little faster than usual. If only this feature could be combined with the MacBook Air, it would be great!

And yet no fun from typing that comes with working on any of the standard MacBook keyboards. Now he’s gone, that’s all. It feels like writing on the iPad screen and listening to software clicks from the speaker. Someone has tampered with your familiar keyboard.

I don’t like the spaces between the keys, their height and width - the buttons almost merge with each other, I often make typos. Finally, the tactile surface is too rough and, excuse the expression, rustles. Because of the matte finish. It will be 100% erased and the problem will go away, but the fact remains.

All this, of course, nitpicking. Getting used to the keyboard is always a matter of time and desire. But I still have it open. It was these little things that previously stopped people from buying a 12-inch MacBook as their only work laptop.

The screen has two sides. One of them is glossy

What I have always liked about the MacBook Air is the specific display coating. In the Air, the screen is not covered with glass and is actually “recessed” inside a wide aluminum frame. Therefore, in terms of glare reflection, it is very close to a matte rather than a glossy type of display.

Here's the new MacBook really shines.

This is a very contrasting difference, noticeable instantly. You will see this in photographs and will always notice it at work, especially if you often use your laptop outdoors or in well-lit rooms.

There is an anti-reflective coating here. It's good and reduces the brightness of the highlights (and makes them blue-purple). But it doesn’t work miracles; you can’t just suppress the bright sunlight on the glass, while leaving it transparent. On the street, the picture from the Air display is readable a little better.

Does this mean Air wins? Hardly.

Let's be real: the Air has huge display bezels, simply wild by modern standards. This is a tribute to the old design and simply Apple's reluctance to change anything in a well-selling laptop. It's a pity, because against the backdrop of a 12-inch MacBook, these stumps look funny. I’m not talking about the quality of the matrix now, that’s a separate topic.

But the aluminum frames and plastic protection are not collect stains just like the glass in a 12-inch MacBook. Every time you open the “twelve”, you leave a small stain. It's a small thing, but it infuriates a perfectionist. If you accidentally touch the frame, the mark will inevitably remain until the next cleaning with microfiber.

It's strange that they don't include a cloth in the kit. I miss it so much, at least carry it with you.

There is one more point. It's not so much a drawback of the device as a conclusion from personal experience. I always have a Mac with me, in my hands or bag, in different situations and conditions. And therefore he is in additional danger.

Periodically falls, it doesn't scare me. There’s no getting around it; I’ve already stopped noticing the small ones. So, if the Air falls, in the worst case, you will bend a corner or leave a miniature dent. Nothing critical.

To damage the screen itself, you need to try very hard, at least to open the laptop itself.

Everything is worse here. The fall of the 12-inch MacBook risks ending broken glass display. This means a complete replacement of the cover, which can cost from 20 thousand rubles, or even more. You can't just replace one piece of glass.

The chance of getting into unscheduled repairs increases 20 times. Just the thought of such a fragile device falling on a corner makes you want to hug the Air. And remember what wild things I had with him over the past 3 years. Everything went without the slightest consequences for the case, performance and wallet.

As a result, my impressions of the display are twofold. On the one hand, there are bright reflections, hand marks, and the danger of breaking the display. On the other hand, narrow frames and, of course, picture quality.

The display quality is fabulous and beyond praise

In order not to repeat hundreds of reviews, including ours, I will not go into details. But the display here is magically good.

It is incredibly contrasty, very bright, super saturated and brutally clear. Editing anything on it, be it photos or videos, is a real pleasure. And watch a movie in good quality Overall I'm having a blast.

The screen has awesome viewing angles, and high resolution and high-quality scaling algorithms make the font and any texts very smooth and pleasing to the eye, regardless of lighting or background. macOS itself looks better, more detailed, just more colorful.

After Air, it seems that you simply upgraded your eyes and began to see what you had not noticed before.

Such a screen has another plus that only owners of several Air models of different years of production will understand and notice. He Consistently good, regardless of model.

The fact is that color calibration in the “air” series of Apple laptops is constantly different, as are the screens themselves. Four different manufacturers supply approximately ten different matrices for MacBook Air, each of which has slightly different viewing angles, contrast and color rendering parameters, maximum brightness. Therefore two different models Air will display the same color differently.

LG- matrices are often faded, and Samsung– on the contrary, super contrasting. The colors vary from bluish to green-yellow. Some cannot be corrected even by calibration using built-in system tools.

All this chaos is missing from the Retina display in the 12-inch MacBook. It is perfectly calibrated from the factory. You just take it and use it, enjoy the correct, bright colors. This alone is worth a lot. I speak as a person who almost went crazy adjusting color rendering in Air after a complete reinstallation of the system.

Performance. Everything is fine here, guys.

In our editorial office, Roma Yuryev and Dima Cherenkov use 12-inch MacBooks. Roma lives far away, so he is lucky. But Dima got it. We have already named his first generation laptop SlowBook and we joke not only about the brakes (sometimes honestly made up), but also about the foreign black color of the body. Otherwise, his Asus is very good.

Basic 12-inch models MacBook first generations didn't impress me. They were sufficient for basic work with text, but their power disappeared with a large number open tabs browser and a “heavy” program running in the background. Like Photoshop.

What my working mode looks like: 20 Chrome tabs, of which three are with working Flash and another ten with very heavy web pages; Photoshop + Bridge open and regularly called in the background for editing RAW photos; running iTunes, Skype, Slack, Telegram and Viber, Yandex.Disk background processes, Google Drive and Twitter client.

I constantly noticed that in many tasks the 12-inch MacBook 2016 really faster my Air. This concerned not only the speed of opening files (thanks to the super-fast SSD drive), but also the overall efficiency of the system.

Only at peak loads and when open Photoshop Sometimes the animation of the Dock interface was stuttering. A light reminder that the computer has limits, it’s just that now they are harder to find when actively working.

I think everyone here understands what this is Not gaming laptop. I haven’t run any games on it and I’m sure that nothing modern will work with a readable picture and performance. But I watched a 4K video from YouTube, and, unlike my Air, it played perfectly well, without brakes or delays.

The conclusion is simple: this no longer SlowBook, even if you take basic model. And that's great. All basic “two-piece” models have a 256 GB SSD, which is enough for most people. And there is also 8 GB of RAM, which is very useful for those who like to edit photos, and in general a good foundation for the future.

So I advise new model for those who were disappointed in the power of the first generation.

How to live with one port?

Not too bad. In my case.

Firstly, I discovered that I need to connect to the laptop only card reader. And once every 3 weeks, charge your iPhone from it. The first can be solved by purchasing an adapter compatible with USB Type-C. The second is about the same: you buy an original Lightning to USB Type-C cable, and move on with your life.

Thanks to this MacBook, I was again convinced: no flash drive needed. It's easier and faster to transfer files using AirDrop. Or throw it into a free “cloud”. In extreme cases, there is an adapter, it’s not the biggest pain: you poke it into the port, throw off what you need, and pull it out.

Some people will need to have two connected USB devices with full-size ports at once. Then special extension docks for USB Type-C will do; they are made by several companies. This one is easy to take with you, it takes up no more space than a card reader. Good thing.

If you desperately need three USB ports or even more, I can only recommend buying a MacBook Pro - sorry, but demanding so many connectors from a miniature laptop is simply stupid.

Speaking of ports. The laptop is small, you often use it on the sofa without a stand. One day I sat down and suddenly realized that I don't miss MagSafe. And all because the charger no longer falls out of the port, you don’t knock it out with your knee, you don’t worry about it like before. This is a twofold point; after all, the magnetic mount has a bunch of other advantages. But it’s not bad without it, 50/50.

It turned out that you can already live with USB Type-C. This is the most important thing. What is missing is a second such connector. Since we are stepping into the future, why not?

The last one. About color

I took not just a 12-inch MacBook, but the most unusual one. Pink.

Color « rose gold» appeared this year. It is immediately clear who it is intended for. But the interesting thing is that its shade is very unstable, it is almost impossible to photograph it or evaluate it in its original state.

Under different lighting conditions pink macbook may appear golden, gray, pale red, wild pink. The run-up is big, the impressions are also different. When it’s completely pink, I’ll be honest – brr, I don’t like it.

But a little pale is already normal. But no matter how you feel about color and prejudices, this laptop is not suitable for a man at all. And the comparison with the pink iPhone is incorrect: the MacBook uses a different shade, it is more saturated, towards purple.

You can get a pink iPhone if you're a hipster or don't care about the crowd and just like the shade. But a pink MacBook only looks good on girls. Just like the gold one, but that’s ok.

Take the silver one, guys. The rest is for the girls :)

So should I swap the Air for a 12-inch MacBook?

Yes, If:

you want a normal display
ready to get used to the keyboard (and type faster)
I need the most portable laptop possible
almost never use USB ports
ready to buy a couple of adapters and cables
used to carrying a laptop in a case and with microfiber
your Air model was manufactured before 2015
108 thousand rubles lie idle

No, If:

you are completely and completely satisfied with Air
frequently drop or treat your laptop carelessly
use your laptop in difficult conditions
you type poorly or slowly on the keyboard
you are nearsighted or have vision problems
I probably have no money, I don’t know what to come up with

Personally, I decided to wait another year at most and think. If nothing changes, my next work laptop will be a 12-inch. The screen is great, performance is now good. You will have to straighten your hands, try not to drop them and, of course, get used to the keyboard.

I will give the conclusion using simple examples.

12" MacBook- This is a fragile secretary. Young, smart, beautiful, slim, efficient! But with a subtle mindset and a couple of cockroaches in the head, which you will need to adapt to in order to appreciate all the other advantages.

But if you really love your Air, then don't rush.

Instead of making life easier for the user, as Steve Jobs once advocated, Apple seems to be doing the opposite. Take, for example, the MacBook line - there are now three varieties of it (ultra-thin 12-inch, thin Air and powerful Pro), so it is quite difficult for a potential buyer to figure out which laptop to choose. If you are not well versed in the Apple product line or cannot make a choice, we will try to help you with this.

First, let's define the characteristics of Apple laptops:

MacBook is a 12-inch ultra-thin laptop (thickness varies from 0.35 cm to 1.31 cm), weight 0.92 kg.
MacBook Air is a 13-inch thin laptop (thickness from 0.3 cm to 1.7 cm), weight 1.35 kg.
MacBook Pro (in in this case we will talk about two versions of laptops at once) - a powerful productive laptop with a screen diagonal of 13 and 15 inches, a thickness of 1.49 cm and a weight of 1.37 kg.

Display

This is perhaps one of the most important points to pay attention to when choosing a model. The fact is that the latest Apple laptops are equipped with excellent Retina displays, providing high-quality images with rich in colors. Image on screens new MacBooks much better than most Windows competitors.

Simple arithmetic applies here - the larger the screen, the larger the work area, but also the more you have to carry, and weight can be critical.

The MacBook has a 12-inch diagonal screen with a resolution of 2304 x 1440 (16:10) and a density of 226 ppi. This is exactly what a Retina display is, you really won’t be able to see the pixels with the naked eye, and the picture quality will pleasantly surprise you.

The MacBook Air is available only as a model with a 13-inch display (the 11-inch model has been discontinued) with a resolution of 1440 x 900 pixels (16:10) and a density of 128 ppi. This is a standard pixel density, and from a normal distance the “grain” of the screen is noticeable.

MacBook Pro comes in 13-inch with a resolution of 2560 x 1600 pixels (16:10) and a density of 227 ppi, or 15-inch with a resolution of 2880 x 1800 (16:10) and a density of 220 ppi. Both screens are also Retina.

If we talk about the MacBook Pro 2016, they have a wider color gamut, so the colors look even brighter and more realistic. Other modifications use standard sRGB screens and display fewer colors than reality. The latest generation MacBook Pros offer a wider P3 color gamut - the color space is 25% wider, and with a large number Image colors look brighter, more realistic and allow you to see even more details. If you take a photo taken on an iPhone and compare it to the exact same photo in HDR, you'll see what we're talking about.

If you want a high-quality picture, and do not need a large workspace, feel free to choose MacBook.
For full graphics work, any MacBook Pro is better suited.
If color accuracy is a fundamental issue for you, then we recommend looking towards the MacBook Pro 2016.

External monitors

MacBooks are often used as a portable computer, to which external monitors can be connected if necessary. For example, at home or at work. And here too there are some nuances.

The MacBook can be connected to the monitor via USB-C or via HDMI (if an adapter is available). It should immediately be noted that at the same time you will not be able to charge the laptop, since it only has one connector. You can connect a monitor with a resolution of up to 3840 x 2160 pixels (30 Hz), or up to 4096 x 2160 pixels (24 Hz).

MacBook Air only works with Thunderbolt monitors with a resolution of up to 3840x2160 pixels.

The capabilities of the MacBook Pro are much wider: a monitor with a resolution of 3840x2160 pixels is connected using Thunderbolt (you can have two at once), but if you bought a top-end package (with AMD Radeon R9 M370X), then you can connect a monitor of 5120x2880 pixels (60 Hz). "Proshka" also works with displays with resolutions of 1920x1080 (60 Hz), 3840x2160 (30 Hz) and 4096x2160 (24 Hz).

The 13-inch MacBook Pro 2016 supports connecting one monitor with a resolution of 5120x2880 (5K), but the 15-inch works with two such screens at once. Therefore, if you plan to use two external monitors, you should choose the MacBook Pro.

Camera

Perhaps one of the few elements in Apple laptops that requires serious improvement. The company allows you to use FaceTime video calls not only on the iPhone, but also on the MacBook, and video calls in general do not lose their relevance.

The 12-inch MacBook has a 480p camera, which is, to put it mildly, rather weak. The remaining models use a camera that shoots in 720p resolution. Even the newest MacBook Pro is 1080p front cameras laptop computers Apple is not supported. Actually, the choice here is simple - if you want high-quality video shooting, buy additional camera with USB connection.

CPU

The processor is the second important point that you should pay attention to when choosing a MacBook. Hardware affects performance, and we need to understand for what tasks we are buying a laptop.

MacBook is considered the weakest laptop in terms of performance. The 12-inch model is based on chips Intel Core M with Skylake architecture, which are significantly weaker than Core i5 or i7. On the plus side, this processor doesn't require a fan, and the smallest MacBook is completely silent. Apple offers configurations with M3, M5 or M7 chips - they differ in performance, but not much.

The MacBook Air uses an outdated chip with Broadwell architecture, but it is a proven Intel Core i5 or i7, depending on the configuration. This laptop is more powerful than the previous one, although it is worth remembering about weak displays.

The MacBook Pro runs on Skylake (13-inch), the 15-inch version runs on Broadwell. Both laptops, depending on the diagonal, are equipped Core processor i5 (2.7 GHz and 2.8 GHz) or Core i7 (3.1 GHz and 2.8 GHz).

MacBook Pro 2016 runs on Skylake with almost identical parameters: 13 inches – Core i5 (2.0 GHz), Core i7 (2.4 GHz); 15 inches – Core i7 (2.6 GHz, 2.7 GHz, 2.9 GHz); Version with Touch Bar – Core i5 (2.9 GHz, 3.1 GHz), Core i7 (3.3 GHz)

If you need a thin and beautiful laptop, but with... decent performance, choose an M7-based MacBook.
If you need a portable machine, but with better performance– MacBook Air.
If you need a powerful laptop for everyday use, the MacBook Pro is your choice.
If you need a top-end laptop for complex tasks like video rendering, you'll have to fork out for a 15-inch MacBook Pro 2016 and forget about upgrading for three years.

Graphics

Apple laptops don't have super-powerful graphics, and you're unlikely to be able to fully play video games on a MacBook. Again, a lot depends on the configuration - the GPU power may not be enough to comfortably play games rich in 3D graphics, but Apple laptops can handle complex multimedia content quite well.

The MacBook uses the simplest Intel HD Graphics 515, which is enough to work on one Retina screen. The MacBook Air runs on HD Graphics 6000, which is better than the MacBook, but still may not be enough to handle complex processes.

The 2015 MacBook Pro is equipped with an Intel HD Graphics 6100 chip, which is slightly more powerful integrated graphics than the MacBook Air. The top version provides a fairly powerful AMD Radeon R9 M370X video card with 2 GB of GDDR5 memory.

The 13-inch MacBook Pro 2016 received Intel Iris Graphics 540 (model without Touch Bar) and Intel Iris Graphics 550 (with Touch Bar) with the ability to upgrade to Radeon Pro 450 / 460. The 15-inch has Intel HD Graphics 530 and discrete graphics Radeon Pro 455 / 460.

The choice here is obvious - to work with multimedia content, you should take a closer look at the MacBook Pro 2015 or MacBook Pro 2016.

Autonomy

Everyone understands how important time is battery life laptops. Whether you are flying on a plane, traveling on a train or bus, or even just sitting with a laptop in the park - usually these “last” 15-20 minutes are not enough to finish an important report, finish a presentation, or watch interesting video. Wherever we need a working computer, and there are no sockets nearby, an additional plus to the laptop’s autonomy will not be out of place.

Fortunately, the MacBook has no problems with this - all models work without recharging for a very long time.

MacBook: 10 hours of browsing, 11 hours of video playback, 30 days of standby time.
MacBook Air: 12 hours web browsing, 12 hours video playback, 30 days standby time.
MacBook Pro 13 inches: 10 hours of browsing, 12 hours of video playback, 30 days of standby time.
MacBook Pro 15 inches: 9 hours of browsing, 9 hours of video playback, 30 days of standby time.
MacBook Pro 2016: 10 hours of browsing, 10 hours of video playback, 30 days of standby time.

If battery life is a key factor for you, the 13-inch MacBook Air is worth a look.

RAM

The more RAM in a laptop, the more applications you can run simultaneously without reducing performance, process photos or videos.

The MacBook only offers one option: 8GB 1866MHz LPDDR3 memory

The 13-inch MacBook Air also only comes with 8GB of RAM.

MacBook Pro 2015: 8 or 16 GB 1866 MHz LPDDR3 RAM for the 13-inch version. The 15-inch MacBook Pro 2015 has 16 GB of 1600 MHz DDR3L memory.

MacBook Pro 2016: 8 GB 1866 MHz LPDDR3 RAM for the model without Touch Bar, upgradeable to 16 GB. The 2016 13-inch MacBook Pro with Touch Bar comes with 8GB or 16GB of 2133MHz LPDDR3 memory. The 15-inch model is offered with 16 GB of 2133 MHz LPDDR3 memory.

If you care RAM, choose MacBook Pro.

SSD drive

MacBook: 256GB PCIe SSD, upgradeable to 512GB.

MacBook Air: 128 GB, expandable to 256 GB or 512 GB.

MacBook Pro 2015: 13-inch – 128 GB, 256 GB, 512 GB; 15-inch – 256 GB, 512 GB, 1 TB.

MacBook Pro 2016: 13-inch – 256 GB, 1 TB; 15-inch – 256 GB, 512 GB, 2 TB.

Ports

MacBook: one USB-C, 3.5mm audio jack.

MacBook Air: two USB port, one Thunderbolt 2 port, an SD memory card slot, and a 3.5 mm audio jack.

MacBook Pro 2015: two USB ports, two Thunderbolt ports, an HDMI port, an SD slot, and a 3.5mm audio jack.

MacBook Pro 2016: two Thunderbolt 3 (USB-C) ports for the version without Touch Bar, four Thunderbolt 3 ports for the version with Touch Bar, while on the 13-inch model two of them do not work at full capacity.

Force Touch trackpad and keyboard

Force Touch technology allows you to press with force. To do this, you need to press down on the trackpad and then apply additional force. In this way you can activate additional features many Mac programs and system features. The Force Touch trackpad is available on MacBook and MacBook Pro.

Laptop keyboards are different - the MacBook Air and MacBook Pro 2015 are equipped with conventional keyboards with a mechanism called “scissors”, which has one significant drawback - the keys are slightly loose around the edges. If you press such a key closer to the edge, it may hit the bottom before the mechanism registers the press.

Applies to MacBook and MacBook Pro 2016 new keyboard, which uses a butterfly mechanism. It is a one-piece element made of more rigid materials, with larger area supports. Thanks to this, the keys are more stable, respond more accurately to pressing and at the same time take up less space in height.

Colors

MacBooks are available in different color options. MacBook Air and MacBook Pro 2015 are available in silver, the MacBook is available in four shades (silver, gold, space gray, rose gold), the MacBook Pro 2016 is available in two colors (silver, space gray).

Conclusions

The MacBook is perfect for managers and travelers who need the thinnest and lightest laptop with modern technologies for comfortable work.

The MacBook Air will be the choice for those who need the most affordable laptop from Apple - the device still has almost all the necessary ports, but the model itself is quite outdated.

MacBook Pro 2015 is a good and high-quality laptop with all ports, it is suitable as an alternative desktop computer almost any user. Although it is not very convenient for travel.

Well, if you need the most advanced and productive laptop, choose the MacBook Pro 2016 (but remember that the “apple” no longer lights up there, if this is important to you).

The Crystal Case is an ultra-thin, lightweight, translucent protection for your favorite laptop. The cover case is created for those who prefer a minimalistic design, but at the same time high level security for your favorite device.

*The shade of materials and some decorative elements may differ slightly from those shown in the photograph.

Crystal Case for MacBook

A translucent polycarbonate case will protect the laptop body from scratches and more. serious damage without sacrificing the comfort of its use. The thin and lightweight case features two separate covers that install in seconds. The main thing is that the case gives full access to all ports of the laptop, so you don’t have to remove it to connect a flash drive or cable to your MacBook.

Protect and personalize

The cover case perfectly fits the shape of the laptop without compromising the thin and sleek design of the MacBook. The polycarbonate case does an excellent job of protecting against scratches and chips from light impacts. There are holes at the bottom of the case that provide ventilation and cooling of the laptop during operation. There are round rubber feet at the corners of the bottom cover. The legs slightly raise the MacBook above the table, which provides additional ventilation for the device, and prevents the laptop from sliding on any surface. The ultra-thin Crystal Case is designed for those who carry their MacBook with them either at work or on the go.

Fair, not overpriced and not underestimated. There should be prices on the Service website. Necessarily! without asterisks, clear and detailed, where technically possible - as accurate and concise as possible.

If spare parts are available, up to 85% of complex repairs can be completed in 1-2 days. Modular repairs require much less time. The website shows the approximate duration of any repair.

Warranty and responsibility

A guarantee must be given for any repairs. Everything is described on the website and in the documents. The guarantee is self-confidence and respect for you. A 3-6 month warranty is good and sufficient. It is needed to check quality and hidden defects that cannot be detected immediately. You see honest and realistic terms (not 3 years), you can be sure that they will help you.

Half the success in Apple repair is the quality and reliability of spare parts, so a good service works with suppliers directly, there are always several reliable channels and its own warehouse with proven spare parts current models so that you don't have to waste extra time.

Free diagnostics

This is very important and has already become a rule of good manners for service center. Diagnostics is the most difficult and important part of the repair, but you don't have to pay a penny for it, even if you don't repair the device based on its results.

Service repairs and delivery

Good service We value your time, which is why we offer free shipping. And for the same reason, repairs are carried out only in the workshop of a service center: correctly and according to technology can only be done in a prepared place.

Convenient schedule

If the Service works for you, and not for itself, then it is always open! absolutely. The schedule should be convenient to fit in before and after work. Good service works on weekends and holidays. We are waiting for you and working on your devices every day: 9:00 - 21:00

The reputation of professionals consists of several points

Company age and experience

Reliable and experienced service has been known for a long time.
If a company has been on the market for many years and has managed to establish itself as an expert, people turn to it, write about it, and recommend it. We know what we are talking about, since 98% of incoming devices in the service center are restored.
Other service centers trust us and refer complex cases to us.

How many masters in areas

If there are always several engineers waiting for you for each type of equipment, you can be sure:
1. there will be no queue (or it will be minimal) - your device will be taken care of right away.
2. you give your Macbook for repair to an expert in the field of Mac repairs. He knows all the secrets of these devices

Technical literacy

If you ask a question, a specialist should answer it as accurately as possible.
So that you can imagine what exactly you need.
They will try to solve the problem. In most cases, from the description you can understand what happened and how to fix the problem.

I must admit right away: I have always been madly in love with the MacBook Pro and tried never to think about what would happen if I was suddenly forced to switch to another computer. Apple has consistently updated the line, and there are no problems with the transition from more old version I didn’t have any problems with MacBook Pro compared to a newer one. I clearly remember the moment when I switched from an old, thick MacBook Pro to a new “tag” with a Retina display. Those things that had to be sacrificed for more slim body, did not evoke any compassion.

FireWire gone? And to hell with it, I've never had to use it once in my life. Removed Ethernet? It’s okay, at home, at work and in all public places there has been Wi-Fi for a long time. Lost optical drive? Well, that’s great, it was high time to get rid of him. Overall, the transition was as painless as possible. Next generations The Pro lines did not bring anything fundamentally new, except for new processors and the appearance of trackpads with Force Touch. But with the 2016 MacBook Pro, everything turned out to be much more complicated.

Shortly before the start of sales of the new MacBook Pro, if you remember, I wrote a skeptical column “”. I didn't have any experience at the time, but now that I've been using the 15-inch MacBook Pro 2016 for two months, I have to admit that it's not as bad as I previously thought. In case you missed it, we already had a classic one, so there will be no tests, no measurements here, but only personal impressions of what “has become” in comparison with what “has been.”

MacBook is no longer Pro and we have ourselves to blame

It must be admitted that the majority of MacBook Pro users are not at all hardcore professionals working with photos, videos, sound or computer graphics. Not at all. The typical owner of a "professional" Mac is a hipster with no budget who just likes the way his computer looks. Of course, professionals still use Macs, but from a business perspective their share is extremely small. Alas, I cannot give specific numbers here. But just look around. The guy at the table on the right uses a 13-inch MacBook Pro as a typewriter, a terminal for distributing Facebook likes, and as a browser-based gaming console. The girl from the next department is unlikely to edit videos; most likely, she sometimes plays solitaire, watches TV series, and never opens more than five or six tabs in her browser. No, I'm not exaggerating. There are too many MacBook Pro users who, figuratively speaking, hammer nails with a microscope. And there is no more “Think Different”, now the MacBook Pro is mainstream, and Apple has been striving for this for a long time.

The good news is that technically the MacBook Pro is still suitable for the most hardcore tasks, but from an ergonomic point of view things have become much worse. It's like buying a new floor lamp and finding out that instead of the usual E14/E27 light bulbs that are in every store, you now need to order special branded elements in advance or buy an adapter (again, branded, for only $49.99) and come to terms with the fact that that the lamp protrudes slightly beyond the ceiling. Well, or another example, especially for photographers. Imagine that you bought a Nikon D7 or Canon EOS 5D Mark VIII, and instead of the old mount, you bought a new one. But all your optics, on which you spent tens of thousands of dollars, new camera doesn’t fit, and there won’t be enough new lenses for another two or three years. I’m exaggerating, of course, but now you understand what a person for whom the MacBook Pro has always been a convenient work tool might feel.

Big trackpad for the sake of a big trackpad

For a long time, the MacBook Pro had the largest touchpad among laptops. After the tiny touchpads of Windows laptops, sitting down with a MacBook Pro was a pleasure. But time goes by, and in a competing sect support for gestures appeared, and the average size of the touchpad doubled. Apple decided to reclaim the lead in the most obvious way by making the trackpad even bigger. I already said that 99% of users gain nothing from this. Delicate work with graphics is unthinkable without a Wacom or, at worst, without a mouse, and there was already enough space for gestures.

But suddenly an artist friend asked an interesting question, which was probably raised among Apple designers. Could such a trackpad be as pressure sensitive as the screen? iPad Pro? To make it just as convenient to draw on it with a stylus. Theoretically yes. And here large size will only be a plus, but in the current iteration the large trackpad does not bring any tangible benefit.

But Touch ID is, of course, very cool and great. In general, a fingerprint scanner in a laptop is not a new phenomenon. Corporate models were equipped with them back in the early 2000s, and maybe even earlier. But only Apple was able to implement the fingerprint sensor properly. Everything works exactly the same as on the iPhone - to remove the lock, to confirm purchases on App Store and iTunes, for Apple works Pay. It can be assumed that in individual applications in the future it will be possible to log in using your fingerprint - from my set of software at the time of writing this column, not a single program offered such a function.

Touch Bar as a thing in itself

Again, the idea of an additional screen in a laptop is not that new, but here again Apple is the main innovator. The Touch Bar looks absolutely amazing and definitely adds a new look to the laptop, even though the overall design hasn't changed much. But some of the functions that are assigned to it look frankly far-fetched. For example, switching between tabs in a browser. It works great when you have 2-3 or even 5-6 tabs open, but when there are 20 or 30 of them, it becomes difficult to immediately point to the right one. Moreover, you won’t be able to see anything on the tab preview itself.

But the main thing that strikes me as meaningless is the typing tips. This function works great on a smartphone when you type on a small on-screen keyboard, trying to simultaneously catch up with a departing train on the subway, but in a laptop with a gorgeous hardware keyboard (I say this completely without sarcasm, the new keyboard is just a bomb, and I’m sure that among Windows laptops the most shameless copying will begin in the near future) this is completely unsuitable what. Choice current month looks quite organic in the calendar, as does the slider for changing the selected image parameter in graphic editor. What's especially nice here is that the dialog box does not overlap the image on the main screen and allows you to better see the final result. But moving the position on the timeline in Final Cut becomes inconvenient if the video is long enough. In general, there is still work to be done on the functionality of the Touch Bar in the near future. And, as it turns out, I’m not at all against this kind of innovation, but I still can’t say the same about the new approach to ports and connectors.

Less necessary, more unnecessary

To this day I have not been able to come to terms with the lack of the usual USB ports, HDMI and card reader. Yes, there are now adapters for all occasions. Both from Apple itself and from third-party manufacturers. But if you look at the problem more broadly, it turns out that in Cupertino they made the laptop smaller and lighter so that we could then compensate for this difference by external devices. If earlier I could only put a laptop in my backpack, which weighed two kilograms, now the “weight loss” is compensated by a pack of additional accessories. And even if the final weight turns out to be less, transportation of such a set can hardly be called convenient. The required set in my case looks like this: laptop, charger, USB-C to SD adapter, USB-C to USB adapter, universal adapter for HDMI, USB and USB-C.

But the most annoying loss is, of course, the MagSafe connector. I can well call myself a neat person - I always watch my step, I try not to put equipment in potentially dangerous places, but I often have to work in cramped press centers and conference rooms, where there are a lot of people who want to trip over my wire. I used to not worry about this at all, but now I have to monitor everything with triple vigilance. Yes, there are already several adapters with a magnetic connector, but do not forget that if you have one, you will have one less connector, and there are only four of them. In my opinion, this is not enough for the MacBook Pro.

Another thing that I can't wrap my head around is a voice assistant on a computer. To tell you the truth, I don’t use Siri on my iPhone either. During the entire existence of Siri on the iPhone, I could not think of a single situation where I would need it. But I can easily imagine situations where it might be needed - while driving, for example, it’s much easier to create a reminder for yourself via Siri. Or call someone. But why do all this on a computer, where the most convenient and advanced controls are at your service? No answer.

I was not lazy and asked all my friends who had managed to switch to the 2016 MacBook Pro. There were as many as 9 people like this, but none of them use Siri. Many people regularly turn to voice assistant on iPhone. Perhaps in the future something will change, but for now all this does not make much sense.

Best laptop I would never buy

Can I say that the 2016 MacBook Pro is... good computer? Undoubtedly! It's still best laptop on the market. Anyone who switches to a MacBook Pro from some Dell or Lenovo will be absolutely delighted. Anyone who decides to fork out for something more after the MacBook Air will also not leave disappointed. But if we talk about professionals who have been using Macs for a long time, then everything is not so simple. I remember how an editing director I knew complained about life after his employer replaced old Macs Pro new, and I also reassured him, saying, relax, buddy, you’ll get used to it, and everything will be fine. After three years, he never got used to it, and today I sincerely understand his disappointment, looking at the MacBook Pro 2016 in comparison with his trusty MacBook Pro 2015.

I am absolutely sure that Apple will be able to improve the functionality of the Touch Bar, and that the problem with the lack of ports will be solved in the coming year, when everyone switches to USB-C. I have no doubt that over time we will look at old keyboards and not understand how we could work on keys with such a large power reserve. But at the moment I’m not ready to change the old “tag” for a new one, despite the fact that I’ve been wanting to update my main working tool for a long time.