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Four myths about MacBook, or how to switch from PC to Mac and survive

In modern conditions marketing has become a formidable weapon. The PC market is very tough competition. For some manufacturers, there is an army of fans who await the release of new models, but with competitors gaining momentum a variety of rumors. Over a long period of confrontation between Mac and PC has put a whole series of myths that often into the hands of marketers, because in many cases the role played by negative advertising, as well as emerging thanks to the incompetent statements of delusion.

Explorer Keddr my experience was convinced that a conventional wisdom about the Mac computers are myths. He vividly spoke about his impressions of moving from Windows laptop to MacBook.

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Initially, I did not think to buy a laptop from Apple, but was just looking for a compact and standalone laptop for Windows. At that point, I decided on the model from Acer called Swift. Version with i5, 256 GB SSD and 8 GB of RAM cost in the region of 60 000 rubles. Model from the same Asus cost much more. I watched a lot of reviews on Swift and already was was going to order it but decided to see whether it is possible to buy for the money anything from Apple. Imagine my surprise when I learned that the MacBook Air 13’ 2016 with i5, 128 GB SSD and 8 GB RAM can be bought cheaper 60 000. And away we go…

Myth 1. The high cost of Apple products

I’m very skeptical of Apple technology. I had an iPhone 4, but I do it with great pleasure changed to Blackberry and never looked back. I have an iPad Air that I got locked, I unlocked it and use it for browsing and YouTube viewing. I myself would have bought it iPad, and for 20 000, would take Samsung Galaxy Tab A, which I like much more. But on a freebie and vinegar sweet. It’s the fact that a fan of products from Apple I’ve never been.

All this long Preface I have written to that never felt a reverence to Apple technology. Before buying, I decided to see how I will be comfortable working on the operating system macOS. I put a so-called Hackintosh on your desktop computer. The entire installation and configuration took me 2 days. Actually 1.5 days I tried to get to work on your GeForce GTX 950 on a new version of macOS Sierra.

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When it worked, I was surprised to learn that I don’t need to buy any software. My subscriptions to products from Adobe and Microsoft work well under macOS without extra charge and dancing with a tambourine.

Myth 2. Warranty service MacBook provides the seller

All, I was ready to buy my first MacBook. At first I was very afraid to buy a MacBook at the strange shops that I had never heard of, but the difference in 12 thousand roubles made me understand the problem.

And what I found out:

1. The main thing to watch on the laptop model. It is very important to buy the version intended for sale in Russia. For example, the version of my laptop MMGF2RU/A.

2. The guarantee on the territory of Russia is having Apple in the face of official service centers, not dealers.

3. To distinguish between official Russian version of simply on the keyboard. In the Russian version of the Latin characters are not located at the center of the keys, and in the upper left corner and have the same size with the symbols of our alphabet. On the laptop there is a sign of the EAC, indicating that the goods intended for sale in territory of the customs Union (Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan …).

4. On the notebook and on the box has the serial number of the product. They should be the same. The number can be checked on the Apple website. The right to maintenance and support; specifications.

Myth 3. macOS does not lag

Immediately after launch, improving and updating OS and firmware, I was faced with several challenges:

1. When I threw on my brand new MacBook its collection, it was my dream to slow down. Is turned on the face recognition mechanism, which for 18 hours has shipped my MacBook at 100%. After fruitless attempts to disable the process, I contacted the Apple technical support. All I could say technical specialists: “the Process cannot be turned off and need to wait until he finished, and how long it will last we cannot say.”

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2. Customized machine for mail, calendar, notes. Put the required software: Adobe Acrobat DC, OneNote, Word, Excel, Powerpoint, AutoCAD, A360 Desktop.

3. Tried to work on. I don’t know why I would have expected from Apple a miracle and a complete lack of “glitches”. About the errors:

– Switching the keyboard layout works on the second or third time in 90% of cases. Changed the shortcut to cmd+space and the situation has not changed. But then found out that this is true only for the forward switch, the previous layout is enabled without error.

– When in MS Word include the properties of the paragraph appears a white square, which overlaps the apply button and half click cancel. I get a black rectangle in the corner of the screen.

– Periodic podragivanija and hang Safari. On Firefox everything is OK, but there is no option to enable picture-in-picture.

– Periodically freezes the playback of the next song and not change the album art for 3 of 4 of the songs in iTunes, while under Windows it works fine.

This is a systematic lag. There are still periodic. And they are not few.

In the end, after 2-3 updates macOS Sierra, the unit began to operate more or less stable. Apple Music almost ceased to fail, and the rest of the soft and generally demonstrates the stability (even WhatsApp). The only thing I was not able to win, so to make it work in a regular email client (and I work in the box more than 21,000 letters, and periodically I need to find something 6 years ago). In General, the system is not just accepted, and even began to get pleasure from a brand of chips. Think of the praises of the touchpad did not sing just lazy. Mastered the essential keyboard shortcuts for my use case. And even decided to play.

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Myth 4. Mac is not for games

When I went to the App Store, just dumbfounded: a lot of strange individualism of projects at exorbitant prices, among which with difficulty found a few familiar titles (Civillization V, Call of Duty: Black Ops, The Sims 2). Of course, I had no illusions about the gaming potential of the platform, but occasionally want a trip to spend 30-60 minutes, destroying virtual enemies. Taking a closer look at the issue, it turned out that under macOS quite decent games, but still at a reasonable price.

To begin, I installed the client Battele.net for Mac. For all fans of World of Warcraft, Diablo III, StarCraft II, Heroes of the Storm, Hearthstone and Overwath it will be a significant advantage in favor of Apple technology. Unfortunately, all the games I test failed and my SSD does not allow you to install even half of them. On business trips spent 7 hours in WOW and will tell you that the MacBook gives a quite comfortable 60 FPS on medium settings. In terms of smoothness of gameplay, I had claim only to the speed of the foreign Wi-Fi.

Next, I installed the Steam client in order for the evening with his colleagues to play a couple rounds of Counter-Strike. Performance and become a bottleneck, although this is not surprising.

In the end I put the client called GOG Galaxy Client. The choice fell on this client just because of the cost of the games. For example Steamworld Heist asking only 269, and for the second Witch only 419 rubles (in the App Store and they cost 1.150 1.490 rubles, respectively).

This Witcher to pass even on low graphics settings – rather doubtful pleasure. Average FPS is around 24-28. Although I have enough of that.

Overall a purchase I am very pleased. After my previous laptop device with a weight of 1.3 kg just seems weightless. And given its battery you can forget about need to carry a charging unit.

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