Best Free Vpns For Macbook (2024 Updated)

This is my first foray into the world of Macbooks and I’m absolutely delighted with this machine. It’s been built to the usual Apple high standards, Its fairly heavy but that is to be expected with the screen size and battery power.

I’ve always had windows based laptops so this move to an IOS operating system it’s taking time to learn, but rather than installing windows on a partition I’m going to persevere with learning how to use it.

(The internet is a valuable tool for finding solutions and “how to do it” videos. For those who know IOS (and not the iPad versions) you’ll have no problems with this laptop. It’s noticeably faster than anything I’ve ever owned and so far does not crash like windows frequently does.

The screen is brilliant, it’s sharp, really good definition and watching films on it is very enjoyable with several great-sounding built in speakers adding to the experience. Battery like is good. I’ve used it for 8 -10 hours and had it in stand-by mode for for a day without needing to charge it.

(Battery has gone from 100 to 18%), I’m not sure what it should be, but that’s good enough for me as I was using photoshop, watching films and occasionally listening to music. The charger is in typical Apple style, heavy and bulky and protrudes straight from the wall socket which I would have preferred not to.

The charging cable is good, braided and connects to the MacBook via a very useful and clever strong magnetic connector which holds well and charges quickly. The other end is a USB-c connector which plugs into the charger at the wall socket.

A small led on the magnetic charger shows the charging stations going from Orange to Green when the battery is charged. There are 3 Thunderbolt (usb-c), 1 SD card and 1 hdmi port, which is enough for me, but as most of my current peripheral devices are USB 3.

0 or less, they don’t fit without the appropriate adapters, which fortunately can easily be bought online. There is also headphone Jack socket if you want to use wired headphones although it has good reliable Bluetooth connections too.

There is no doubt this is a fabulous laptop but it’s hefty price tag is a serious consideration. So far I’m delighted with it and I hope it’ continues to be as reliable as it has been.

This is my first MacBook I have owned having always used Windows Laptops. I am really impressed with the build quality. It is made of Aluminium and feels solid, tactile, and the display has to be seen to do it justice (retina display made up of micro LED’s).

The sound that comes from the laptop is awesome and, again, you need to hear it for yourself. I have never heard a laptop sound so good unless hooked up to external speakers. The M1 Pro processor is lightning fast and the 16GB of RAM is ample for what I need.

I edit a lot of photos in Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop and it is blisteringly fast. I have hooked it up to a decent external SSD and this seems to work well, and there are loads of tutorials on FaceBook on how to customise and use the Apple operating system.

However, I have found this challenge mildly fun and learn a bit more every day and add to my knowledge and using the machine. It is one of those things that just makes you smile every time you open it up and turn it on.

I have also set it up with two W Screen monitors on my desk and even that is impressive. It is expensive and a considered purchase, and, if all you want to do is surf the web and send and receive a few e-mails and use social media then this product is probably not for you.

From what I have gleaned, the MacBook Air is a cheaper version (albeit still very good) and would me more suited for the type of use I have described. I have paid for some additional software but this was reasonable and most of it was a “one off” where you would not have to pay again.

My Adobe subscription simply involved me downloading the Mac version to my Mac Laptop and entering the passwords and user details and then it was all up and running. Overall I would highly recommend this Laptop and the 14 inch screen is the ideal compromise between size and portability.

I love mine and hopefully it will last me a good few years before I need to upgrade it. Looking at second hand Apple products, they seem to hold their value really well and again, this is another plus for the future.

All in all I am a happy shopper and really pleased with my purchase. John Lewis’s price was really competitive and to cap it all they include a 2 year guarantee.

I got Mcafee back in college of 2017. My account had been inactive for quite some time as I no longer had the same laptop or ever renewed my subscription on other owned laptops. Today 1/29/2022. I wake up to a charge from them of $84.

99. I immediately called and the guy stated my account was renewed by them back in 2020. I did not authorize this renewal. upon checking my previous statements I see that I was charged $79. 99 in February of 2021 and $19.

99 in March of 2020. How I’ve missed these charges I do not know. My main issue however is since 2017 I’ve changed banks back in 2018 and even lost my bank card a few months back and had it replaced.

There is absolutely no way they should have my card information. If I didn’t personally renew my subscription, then it should’ve not been renewed automatically THREE YEARS LATER. I’ve received no notifications of upcoming charges or anything and did not authorize Mcafee to take my personal account information.

Different amounts have been charged since 2020 and on different months. The guy stated it was a yearly subscription. But what yearly subscription takes out on different months and not even notify customers before withdrawal, especially if price increases.

From $20 to $79. 99 to $84. 99!? But again, I got the Mcafee in 2017,even if it was set up on a yearly subscription, which I honestly don’t recall. It was inactive on the laptop because it broke that same year and I had changed banks since then, which in itself would’ve automatically canceled the subscription being they wouldn’t have been able to charge the previous card.

I would’ve personally called to cancel any subscription had I even remembered, which again is why companies send courtesy reminders to customers once the year is approaching. For them to steal my new banking information and renew and charge my account three years later in 2020 and continue to do so is a complete violation.

I wish I had noticed the withdrawal in 2020 because I would’ve had been called to correct the situation. They got $94. 99 from me for free considering it was still inactive on a broken laptop I no longer own.

Do not trust this company.

The software works well in terms of Anti-virus, shredder and the valuable Trukey password manager. Setting these up is pretty easy via the interface. Trukey is great in generating and saving passwords and notes for any average user.

However, the Firewall feature is mediocre and recently has been causing grief because if you choose to manually monitor the access of programs, the alert viewer (to grant program permission) hangs consistently and hogs your system memory forcing you to reboot your PC.

McAfee has not fixed the bug in last 4 months despite repeat complaints from users on Community centre. Also, you can’t email Customer Support directly to keep track or get tickets as they only provide Online chat/Community blogs and Phone call.

So, they basically want you to waste your time chatting with or calling them for an issue reported by multiple people already. The firewall program access list also lacks the feature of “searching” programs that’s been allowed/blocked by McAfee or the user.

You have to scroll the entire list to find your application and then click Edit buttons at the end to make any modifications to firewall access. For above-average users at the same price, I would recommend switching to Norton or other products without all these hassles and have similar features but not memory hogging bugs.

I have used McAfee virus protection for many years. I tried another software one time in the interim, and switched right back to McAfee. However,, this last time I purchased it, has been a total nightmare.

I always get the upgrade which includes up to 5 devices. We had the worst time installing it this time, or what we thought was installing it. On anything. Period. Even attempting to log into the app at ANY point was again; a nightmare.

Create account. Not found. Invalid ID/user. Wrong password. The entire year this has supposedly been installed on my phone and several other devices, I get the exact same conflicting messages that say my device is up to date and the software is working to fight viruses, even working in the background and then get.

your subscription has expired. Whenever trying to log in I always get ‘create new account’ though I have a password and log in name. Then I get an ad for an outrageous price such as RENEW for $199 or more.

Trying to reach a page/number where you can find a solution or speak to someone has been futile. I did some research right after of reviews and many users have stated how the software is no longer user friendly and many of the same issues I had.

I take reviews with a grain of salt and don’t jump to conclusions, because let’s face it, some of these are way out there. But please sift thru and read the cogent ones for an accurate account of this software, which seems to have lost its use, its integrity, and its functionality along the way unfortunately.

Excellent security software! Just set and forget. I’ve been using paid AVG internet security (paid version) for more than 10 years. Never had a problem with bad websites, spyware or viruses. It eats them for breakfast! I’ve used other security software in the past, and NONE of them were 100% reliable, especially the advertised ones.

There’s a reason why NORTON and other BIG NAME security companies have to heavily advertise their products! But did you notice how AVG doesn’t need to use PAID ADVERTISEMENTS, because IT WORKS PERFECTLY! 100% recommend AVG internet security.

I’ve converted many of my family and friends, and they couldn’t be happier. NO MORE ISSUES WITH NASTY THINGS HACKING/DAMAGING THEIR COMPUTERS!.

This was used for a renewal. Installation was straight-forward, thanks to instructions from the vendor, but the AVG website required repeated log-ins to my existing account to get going on the first device.

Worked just fine and very quickly after that with my other equipment. Tune-Up has been disappointing, as a number of useful features on the latest Windows version have been removed, notably the duplicate file search.

While not always accurate, it was helpful when shifting work-in-progress files between laptops and desktop PCs, where duplication was likely. Once I discovered the loss, I didn’t update Tune-up on one machine in order to retain this feature.

AVG overall remains more naggy than Harry Mudd’s wife (one for the Trekkers, there). Like most software houses, they seem to harbour the belief that my equipment belongs to them, sucking up resources while crying “Update me! Update me now! Don’t do that! Don’t do that either! Put the AutoUpdate back on – I feed when I want to, whether you like it or not! You’ll be sorry you did that.

I’ll make your life a misery. and by the way, buy this VPN from us as well. ” etc. etc. AVG gives me more cause to tinker with diverse PC and software settings than any other application own. They tend to bury quite a few tweaks outside ofthe main menu, so you have to hunt for some, and I have to fiddle with services.

msc more often than one should. These are my devices, AVG, and I’m not a six year old. Live with it. The trouble is, the others are not much different. I’ve used a variety of AV products over the decades, and (at time of writing) I’ve found AVG is the best package for the least money with its 2-year contract, providing you don’t renew with them directly when your sub expires.

The eye-watering prices quoted on their website are ludicrous to the point of laughable.

I had been using the “Free” version of the AVG Anti-virus on my servers and Windows client devices. The free version just scanned for viruses on the device and had the ability to schedule scans which my preferred Free Anti-virus (Panda) did not.

Unlike Panda Free Anti-Virus, AVG “Free” would continuously give Pop-Ups asking me to Upgrade, Add Features, and offer “Discounts” for the Paid Subscription. It was Quite Annoying. The Free AVG for Android also had a good feature set and a cleaner which was very useful.

Unfortunately, the amount of ads and highjacking of the phone startpage caused me to delete the App in favor of Kasperski Anti-Malware at minimal settings (no cleanup feature and I had to manually initiate scans).

When the AVG Internet Security 2017 Unlimited 2Yr license came on sale at Newegg, that seemed to be an answer. The cost was less than US$20 for a 2 Yr license which covered an unlimited number of client devices and multiple platforms (Windows, Android, Linux).

IOS devices were going to be a problem but, I could live with that. The chance to get rid of the constant nagging Pop-Up Ads at this price made the offer very attractive. Unfortunately, the old maxim of “You Get What You Pay For” held true again.

The first indication that this was not going to be such a great deal was when I tried to register the license on-line. I went to the AVG website as directed in the instructions I received with the license number and created a new account then registered the license number.

The website indicated a valid license and I downloaded the executable file for Windows devices which I saved on a server and transferred to other client Windows devices. That appeared to work fine. When I tried to log into my account on my Android phone, the website acknowledged that the account was correct but stated that there was no license registered to my account hence, I could not download the Android App.

I logged into my account on a Windows device and the website refused to acknowledge any license connected to my account for that either. I contacted Tech Support and Customer Service on subsequent days and was told that AVG acknowledged and was aware of the problem.

They stated that “They Were Diligently Working to Fix The Problem. ” When asked how long it would take, they stated “Keep logging in every day to see if the problem was fixed. ” So far, it has been more than 2 weeks and the problem still is not fixed! I asked Customer Service whether they would adjust the “Start Date” of my license to when the problem was fixed and basically was told “No”.

After carefully uninstalling and cleaning the registers on a Windows server of all the AVG “Free” software, I installed the paid license software. That required comfirmation of my account which, suprizingly was successful considering that the website still does not acknowledge my license.

The software installation was fairly simple with the exception that the default settings messed up most of the Internet connections. AVG made itself the “default” firewall (which is difficult to configure correctly so I turned it off and went back to my old firewall.

AVG reset the DNS server settings and implemented ones that track internet traffic, so I had to turn that off and reset the DNS primary and secondary settings. AVG highjacked the search engine setting in Mozilla Firefox to set it to Yahoo and made that the Home Page.

I had to reset that. AVG deleted the BluHell Firewall and deleted Ghostery Apps in Mozilla Firefox. AVG deactivated the VPN so I had to turn off those features of AVG. AVG Firewall reset/deactivated all the port forwarding features of my router so I could not get connections for PLEX Media Server outside my network to work.

I still have not figured out how to get that part of AVG configured to work with PLEX even after turning off the AVG firewall and re-configuring my router ports again. All very frustrating! Add to that, the fact that I have to do a manual configuration of the AVG FOR EVERY DEVICE SEPARATELY!! Regarding Android Devices – Same Problems plus the Pop-ups are still there.

I will not even try to address Apple IOS problems. – Not enough space in this review. In conclusion, the cost of the 2Yr AVG Internet Security Unlimited license was very attractive. I actually told quite a few people about it before I realized all the problems I would encounter.

Now, I can honestly say that I do not recommend this software to anyone who has anything other than a dead simple network and doesn’t want to know anything about it. I will not be renewing my license after this expires and I may just get rid of this software anyway for all the difficulties it has caused.

Got this as a digital download and once it finally came it’s just ok. I’ll give it 4/5 because it’s just ok. It is truly easy to use, point and click, but has its issues too. I’m using windows 7 so maybe that’s why but it just slows my speed down and crashes my system but like I said it could be my old version of windows.

So if you have Win10+ it may be the perfect fit. Beyond all that it does what it says it does, gives you multiple devices to use it on, and is pretty straight forward. Out of all the vpn’s there are this one is worth getting.

Lots of servers to choose from in many countries. You can select a server based on your Internet usage. My Netgear router with DD-WRT can be used as a client so that all devices connect to it are covered.

Unfortunately, the connection is very slow. No matter what server in whichever county I choose, my speed is very slow. Using Speedtest. net, my upload speed is always faster than my download speed. I usually see around 10%-15% of my normal speed when the VPN is connected.

NordVPN is the go to choice for me. I’ve tried other VPN’s and none could match the level of compatibility for different Operating systems. From Linux, MacOS, Windows, IOS, or Android. Nord works on all of them.

Also, I like the ease of use, and extent of server choices, even Onion over VPN. Pretty impressive. Another note is the Kill-Switch option in the app has worked very well for me.

I’ve been using AVG since 2009 and it’s an amazing piece of additional security on top of several other software I use for max protection. Reading the reviews, I see a lot of people don’t know how to actually use the digital download and give it 1 star instead.

Let me give you a walkthrough for WINDOWS PC to help you understand how it’s used. 1. Make sure you have AVG downloaded and installed, make an AVG account on AVG’s website, and then use the Menu button in the top right corner of the app to sign in.

Pretty straight forward. 2. Buy this product. 3. When you see that the download is ready, go to your digital library. 4. In your digital library, you will see a KEYCODE for AVG. 5. Keep that KEYCODE handy.

6. Go to the AVG app on your computer. In the top right of the app, you will see the Menu button. Enter the Menu. The first option should be Enter Activation Code. Click this option. 7. Put the KEYCODE in and click Enter.

8. Answer the few questions that pop up and hit Enter. 9. Your AVG app is now activated with all the features. As a tech enthusiast, I can guarantee you the default windows security feature does very little to actually protect you.

Having the AVG Free Version alone is far better. Having the paid AVG is far beyond comparison that it isn’t even a fair fight. I will agree, having the endless spam of “Your subscription is expired, would you like to renew?” is extremely tiresome.

Putting AVG into silent mode tones it down but it’s still annoying. I understand they need to make money too. Honestly, I always recommend AVG to anyone who has a computer. Even the Free Version. And I will continue to recommend AVG.

Does what it should, super super easy user interface, and no apparent slow downs. No issues so far other than one, but it’s Best Buy’s fault, not the product’s. Their digital download/ library seems to work when it wants to.

This is the second time I’ve bought this anti-virus software and the second time I’ve had to hunt down a way to get what I paid for. First was the download link didn’t go directly to the version I bought and now it just wouldn’t show up in my Digital Library to get the Key.

However, a simple call to BB’s customer service helped me get what I needed, but still slightly annoying.

What a horrible multi-pack internet security bundle! I can’t activate it on MAC or IOS. The instructions, or lack of, are horrible and there isn’t a single AVG Ultimate app for OS X or IOS that I can find.

It appears to be multiple apps for multi devices with no clear instructions on which you need for which and how to activate or use any of them. Stay away from this horrible product! I don’t know if BB will give a refund on this open package, which is another horrible waste, but I’ll get a refund if I can.

And speaking of horrible, why have a packaged box for a digital download with nothing in it but the activation code, which doesn’t seem to work, and convoluted instructions, which do no good. This is an environmental nightmare with unneeded packing for a digital product which could be sold online with instructions online.

AVG, CAN’T YOU JUST SELL THIS AS A DIGITAL DOWNLOAD on BB WITH CLEAR INSTRUCTIONS FOR ONE APP FOR EACH OS DEVICE? Stay away from this and do not buy this horrible product or a like one from AVG for any number of devices, OS X, IOS or PC!!!.

I have been using the latest version 2022 of Norton 360 Platinum edition for about a week now on multiple Windows, Android and iOS devices and it is better than I have expected. Many years ago I had less than positive experience with the old Symantec Norton antivirus products that would bog down even the most powerful systems, but not this version.

One of the Windows desktops I installed it on first is nearly 7-years old and did not take a performance hit with Norton 360 Platinum running on it. The installation was fairly straight forward, I had to create an account, download the installer that detected the antivirus and antimalware software I had running and asked to uninstall them.

Once that was done and rebooted, the Norton360 installer automatically started and completed the installation of the new products. It then downloaded and installed a Live Update patch, another reboot and offered to install a number of web browser extensions for safeweb browsing, safe search and password manager.

Norton 360 Platinum is much more than just an antivirus/malware protection product, it’s a complete suite of cybersecurity protection. I’ve enabled most features such as: 1. Device Security that protects against viruses, spyware, malware, ransomware 2.

Dark Web Monitoring for PII data 3. Privacy Monitor that helps you opt out of people search sites 4. Parental Control to protect your children from unwanted on-line content 5. Password Manager where you can securely store your passwords in an encrypted cloud vault 6.

Cloud Backup, 100 GB included to securely backup important PC data and settings 7. Smart firewall, monitors and blocks unauthorized network traffic 8. Secure VPN network connection I toggled the VPN connection on and off and ran a number of tests.

As expected, when the VPN connection is on, your download/upload speeds will decrease considerably if you have a Gigabit fiber connection like I do. For example I get about 900Mbps downloads and 500Mbps uploads on my wired devices.

With the Norton 360 VPN enabled I only got about 150 Mbps down and 50 Mbps upload speeds. That is a considerable drop even when picking the United States as the country of origin. It would be nice if this information was part of the documentation of the VPN specs, and if it varies from country to country, so people know what to expect.

There are a few other settings I hope I can tweak, along the lines of Norton pop-ups and offers to enable additional features/protection, whether they are included for free or not, I generally don’t like any pop-ups.

All in all, Norton 360 Platinum is a comprehensive cybersecurity product that offers multiple layers of protection for 20 devices of the most popular consumer operating systems – Windows, MacOS, Android and iOS.

I am a bit conflicted with the Norton 360 Platinum protection suite, while it has the familiar Norton Anti-virus interface buried deep into the product it often feels like the product won’t leave you alone.

I’ve used other anti-virus suites and Norton has to be the most chatty of them all, especially soon after you install it. Reminding you to use the included VPN (more on that later), the Dark Web Monitoring, Cloud Backup, Password Manager and various browser integrations.

Somewhere you can reduce the amount of prompts, popups and other items via some changes in settings, but the default configuration is just chatty. Lets start with the Device Security, where you can scan your hard drives, removable drives, force updates of virus definitions manually (this happens in the background automatically) and review security logs.

Internet Security which monitors your Internet activity for various threats. Backup, which can backup your PC and important data to the cloud (the version I have provides 100GB of storage) however you need to smartly configure what is backs up as if you have a large amount of picture or videos on your computer you will receive messages that your backup failed due to cloud storage constraints.

Granted you can only configure this if you have administrative rights on your PC, that level of access is also needed to make any real configuration changes with the Norton setup. As part of standard best security practices, you should use an account on your PC that has plain user rights and only use a full administrator account for configuring changes to your applications or PC.

Performance, again you need full administrative right to Optimize the disk, you can do a limited file cleanup which only cleans up your browser cache (note to Norton, Internet Explorer is history, need to update the verbiage) and Windows Temporary files that are under your user profile.

Startup manager requires Administrative privileges but will allow you to configure the startup behavior of your PC. Graphs will provide you a chart of activities Norton performed and when. Any of the actions that require Administrator privileges should really prompt you to enter elevated credentials instead of just saying Access Denied.

Dark web monitoring is part of Norton Life Lock service and can be configured to monitor dark web activity with any of your personal information, such as address and email addresses as well as other Bank Accounts, Credit Cards, Phone Numbers, Drivers License, Mothers maiden name and Gamer tag.

Now this is great service if you are comfortable with providing all this information in one place and with Norton (what if they get breached?). All of this opens a browser and is not integrated into the Norton Interface itself.

Secure VPN – most security suites offer VPN access which can help secure some of your information and web surfing activities. Most VPN connections actually slow your connection down from your PC or Mobile device as all you internet traffic through a setup of servers.

Norton’s implementation does not use Open VPN, but IPSEC instead – from a performance perspective this is good, but it practices seemed to make my connection a bit buggy. Also, it assumes you only want to use a VPN when connected to unknown or public networks, not your home Wi-Fi if it is password protected.

This behavior also occurs with the mobile device VPN in addition to cellular networks, again in practice the VPN seemed a bit flaky when I installed in on my iOS device. There are also reasons for masking your traffic and sites you visit when using your Internet Services Provider (ISP) or mobile phone carrier since some internet providers monitor your Internet traffic and sell or otherwise use this info and/or feed it to third parties.

Thus I prefer to keep my VPN all the time. If you plan to use their VPN, you can only specify a country, not a specific city. Their VPN servers are well known, and most content providers will be able to detect that you are using a VPN (in case you were going to try to spoof Netflix or another service but connecting to a different country).

Password Manager – useful for some, annoying for me. Parental Controls – useful for those with young offspring, again opens a browser to configure instead of doing it within the app. Pros: – Good performance, not a huge resource hog – Fairly high rated as it catches a majority of threats – Fairly configurable if you have Administrator rights, logging into an elevated account to do that is annoying.

– Cloud storage (100GB) with my subscription level (Platinum) – VPN included, albeit not the best in class – Software Firewall included and mostly configure itself Cons: – VPN automatic configuration seems a bit overbearing and the connection sometimes varies in speed and connectivity.

– The product out of the box is too chatty, need to change items (admin access required) to quiet it down. – Antitrack is not included in Deluxe. – VPN is only configurable by country, not a specific city within one, most services seem to be within the Amazon Web Services (AWS) cloud.

– Limited amount of VPN servers worldwide.

I’ve been using various flavors of Norton 360 for over a decade and have been using Norton products in general since the early ‘90s. I began with Norton Utilities and Norton Antivirus for DOS and Windows 3.

1 and began using Norton Internet Security when it was introduced years later. Just sharing this to point out that after three decades, I’m more than a little familiar with Norton products. I stopped using Norton around the turn of the century and experimented with numerous other AV and Internet security apps before ultimately returning to Norton.

I stopped using Norton originally because it simply got too bloated and resource hungry. I returned after Symantec replaced the bloated version with a lean, lightweight, resource friendly version. This current iteration lies somewhere in between.

It’s not as lightweight and resource friendly as it was several years ago but it’s not as bloated and laggy as it was around the early 2000’s. Like nearly every other commercial app out there, Norton is now subscription-based with annual renewals.

The program requires a product key and a Norton account for activation and use. When activated through the Norton account, it requires a payment method and automatic renewals are enabled by default. Renewals tend to be pricier than simply buying a new retail license, so I usually disable renewal immediately after activating.

Norton usually sweetens the pot by offering a few extra months if you keep auto-renewal active. Performance wise, I have never experienced a malware or virus infection while using Norton. The realtime protection is fantastic at detecting and preventing malicious files and apps from running and Norton Insight is helpful for those questionable borderline apps that I’m not familiar with.

Other features include no-log VPN and dark web monitoring. The VPN is super easy to use, even for total PC novices. Although most home and ISP routers now typically offer SPI firewall capabilities, Norton provides an excellent first, or second layer of defense in case anything sneaks through.

It also provides robust application control, which many hardware firewalls typically don’t offer. Norton security is excellent and provides a good measure of safety but some degree of common sense is still required.

Risky behaviors like frequently using P2P to exchange or download files from strangers, visiting dangerous sketchy websites, sharing removable media like flash drives among multiple foreign systems and exhibiting other reckless behavior will likely result in an eventual malware incursion regardless of the security software being used.

Norton utilities is useful in some regards but aside from general housekeeping, largely unnecessary. Registry cleaners have always been questionable at best. Most systems don’t need registry cleaning and if any critical registry keys are accidentally removed, it can completely wreck a system and require a full Windows reinstall.

File cleanup can be accomplished for free using native windows utilities. High resource startup programs can be manually disabled in task manager. Defrag may be useful on systems still using mechanical drives but again, is a feature available natively in Windows.

Modern SSDs don’t require defragging and TRIM, the SSD equivalent, is usually enabled in Windows by default. So, in a nutshell, non-technical users may find some benefit in Norton Utilities but anyone comfortable and savvy enough to use native Windows utilities can accomplish most of the same results without a third-party app.

Norton has traditionally been resource friendly with Windows 7, 8 and 10 in the past decade. However, it seems to be a little more resource greedy lately on Windows 11. It caused a noticeable hit to frame rates on my gaming PC.

I tried enabling silent mode but it didn’t result in much improvement. I eventually uninstalled Norton since I only game on the PC and don’t even browse the web on it. I also had an issue where Norton kept blocking Teredo for one of my games which prevented me from playing online.

Nothing I tried could fix it other than completely uninstalling Norton. Norton Utilities was also unable to help resolve the issue. So far, I’ve been mostly satisfied with Norton 360. The anti-malware and Internet security are both top notch, although a little resource hungry.

The Teredo issue was quite annoying and I think I’ll skip the mostly unnecessary utilities on the next go-round. It’s ironic that the very utilities that initially introduced me to Norton three decades ago are basically unnecessary these days thanks to OS advancements and native utilities.

I had several experiences with this god awful antivirus software. One, it keeps changing my default browser off of google every time I turn off my computer, so I am constantly having to switch back to the default browser I want to use.

I deleted it from my computer, however it still kept sending me notifications to renew, reinstall, or upgrade the software. It feels more like a virus since I use a antivirus software that is actually good.

I am sickened by the unbelievable amount of steps required to delete it from my computer. It is one of the most recognized antivirus software entirely due to the fact that it’s preloaded on almost all windows computers.

With that being said, it is stupid that even if you don’t want to use it, it basically floods your computer with adds like it is a virus itself. Seriously it feels like they are trying to hold my computer for ransom, and the ransom is paying for their terrible product and service.

I received product reimbursement in exchange for my honest review. I purchased this product for some additional web safety and security – to start, the process of download and install was very simple.

Within 24 hours of purchase from the staples website I was emailed my download code. I began the process of creating my Mcafee account, everything was as smooth as could be. Once I downloaded the software, the install on to my Pc took just a minute or two.

No hiccups whatsoever. For the handful of hours I have used the product, it seems to be doing exactly what I need it to do – protect my machines from the dangers of the internet. The displays and settings are easy to read and toggle and frankly I would not expect anything else from a leader in internet security like mcafee.

I look forward to downloading this on other machines of mine so that I can have the enhanced protection this product offers.

IšverstiShow in original languageI got the base model M2 MBA as I move on from my 2015 i7 MacBook Air and had a bit of storage anxiety, but with ever improving iCloud drive integration I still have plenty of space after installing Office, Xojo, Rapidweaver and several other apps along with docs and photos.

Changes in how other cloud services work in macOS 12. 3+, including OneDrive, also improved how apps are stored. I have 2TB iCloud and 2x 1TB OneDrives and still over 100GB free on my 256GB base MBA.

Anything I need just gets pulled down and anything you don’t need is easily purged and left in the cloud. 10 years ago this would have been a bigger issues but with 5G phones and big tethering plans usually included (like the 40GB/mo tethering I get from T-Mobile), making use of Cloud on the go is seamless.

But you do have the option to get 512+ storage if you are willing to pay the excessive money Apple is asking, but really, casual users just don’t need it anymore. New MBA has a very good keyboard, much better than the old butterfly and a perfect trackpad as always.

The screen, while just the regular ‘liquid retina’ is very bright with excellent contrast that is nearly as good as my Dell XPS 15’s OLED screen. It is quite shocking really. M2 is very good on battery (on day 2 without charging) and very speedy, easily as fast as my previous i7 MacBook Air.

Scaling options in macOS 12 and 13 beta make for plenty of screen space despite the 13. 6″ size. While the 256GB model, using a single NAND is slower than the 512GB dual NAND SSD, you don’t really noticed it unless you have to move a lot of files and you aren’t going to be doing that on a 256GB drive anyway, so don’t let that negativity of 1400MBps vs 3000MBps storage be a distraction.

Again, for casual users, you just don’t hammer the SSD enough to notice any difference. With only 8GB of RAM I don’t know what the longevity will be going forward as macOS gets bigger and bloated garbage electron apps continue their march overrunning native ones, but for now 8GB is plenty for casual use and basic dev work.

This 8GB/256GB is perfect for casual users and students. If you are heavy in CS or video editing, then obviously this isn’t the machine for you, but for the 90% that is everyone else, the new base model MBA is great.

IšverstiShow in original languageI love iOS and iPadOS. I haven’t had an iPad in a few years, so I thought that MacOS would be a great experience to dive into. However, it was not really the seamless experience I expected.

I am not sure about the appeal of MacBooks themselves. They are kind of buggy, and extremely limited in what they can do out of the box unless you buy the multitude of overpriced and overhyped Apple-specific accessories.

Yes, it was buggy lol. I was very surprised by this. When I say buggy, there would be minor issues with the device restarting itself in the middle of browsing. This would happen when I would try to watch a video on it.

I’d never be browsing a million sites at once, just the video application (youtube, netflix, hulu, take your pick), and it would crash and reset. If I tried casting from it, certain screen pixels would become stuck.

I have never seen that before. Seems like it happens to MacBook users, but hard pass for me. When it comes to my iPhone, I can stomach it when it is just a phone case, or mobile charger station, or a bluetooth keyboard to enhance productivity.

When it becomes $400 docks or $50 cables to increase productivity and efficiency, specifically to just extend a monitor, that is just insane. It is simpler, if you dish out the $2000 for a MacBook Pro.

But that’s not a price jump worth it to me just so I can use, let alone simply enjoy my MacBook on two displays. Beautiful device, but it just does not live up to it’s price point compared to what you could get for an FHD/QHD gaming PC or laptop, or any number of productivity laptops that are sub the $1,200 price point.

I ended up going with an iPad Pro 11. I will take the touch screen capabilities and better display any day, especially when it is $500 less.

IšverstiShow in original languageI was skeptical about buying this machine, especially with only 8GB RAM and 256GB SSD. Mind you, this machine is not for everyone, certainly not for creators. For me, a entrepreneur and family man, it is PERFECT.

It has ample processing power for any day to day business task such as MS Office, Web, Email, PDF, etc. If you occasionally need to do more, like PhotoShop, iMovie or GarageBand, there is ample power and memory, but storage can become am issues.

If your daily work flow is heavy creative work, video rendering, or other extended computational tasks, this is not the machine for that. For everything else, it is a solid daily drive that is FAST, light, and pretty.

Screen is great, speakers are adequate (not as good as MacBook Pro) and battery life is phenomenal. The full integration with iPhone and iPad is second to none, particularly iMessage. Overall, a wonderful daily machine for the typical productivity user and family user.

In spite of my nervousness with the initial purchase, I am very pleased.

Over the years I’ve had various antivirus programs based on whatever the deal is running at the time. In many cases it’s possible to get an Antivirus program for free or cheap based on current rounds of rebates, and without going with no-name options, I’ve tended to do very well in that regard.

For the last few years I’ve been using a specific antivirus that has recently increased the amount of nagging they give to the user in terms of upgrades for other services and renewals for their own AV.

I find this not only annoying but insulting for an application that you’ve paid for to constantly nag you with zero option to disable that nagging. When given the opportunity to move to Norton, I did so without a second thought.

Norton 360 Platinum combines many of the features that the big name AVs have now, between password vaults/locks, VPNs, the antivirus itself, firewalling and many other features, it basically runs the gamut for what is expected in a premium product.

Add on that it can protect 20 devices across basically every major name OS out there, and it really is one of the most complete options. Installation is very straightforward, as you’d expect. You set up your account at Norton, login, decide if you want auto-renew, then download and install.

The installation honestly could not be easier, it’s a one-click deal, and while you *can* go into the installation options, there’s no real need to do so. Once it installs it recommends the standard baseline AV scan, lets you set up certain things like VPN if you desire, and you’re good to go.

The interface looks a lot like the AV that I’m coming from which honestly isn’t terribly reassuring, but so far it hasn’t nagged me incessantly about features that I dont want, or dont want to pay for.

It seems to be relatively lightweight in terms of ‘bloat’, which was never one of Norton’s strong suits, so it’s good to see they’ve gone this direction with the product. Overall it’s a streamlined and easy setup.

Usage appears to be quite unobtrusive, which I appreciate, again I havent seen much in the way of nagging from the application and I hope as time continues that this doesn’t change, but for now I’m happy with it.

VPN is an easy one-click setup, although probably not something I’ll use a lot of as I have an existing VPN provider, but if needed, it’s nice that it’s there. Bottom line is that it’s not expensive to buy new, a quick and easy install, and can work on up to 20 devices.

There’s very little to complain about here. The fact that it doesnt nag the crap out of me makes it a win in my book. Good job Norton.

I have stayed away from Norton for many years but needed a new VPN and decided to try Norton 360 standard. Many of the installed tools offered by Norton 360 standard I run as different, stand-alone programs (i.

e. a different antivirus, a different malware, a different registry cleaner, etc. ) but was pleased to see that the Norton tools are both effective and accurate and require less upkeep (i. e. updating) than my old tools.

Consequently, if you can get product on sale, even better as the included tools are worth the subscription. The other service that helps make this product worth considering is the dark web monitoring.

Assuming you don’t know how to monitor the dark web yourself, the Norton product will let you know both if your data as likely involved in a retail breach (i. e. Target) or if your email address, password, etc.

was found on any lists on the dark web. Again, I had another tool I would run *manually* from time to time to search for myself on the dark web, but Norton lets me search multiple emails (5, I believe) which covers my multiple, critical email accounts.

Additionally, you can input other info such as your credit card, bank, postal address, DoB, etc. and it can search for even more of your stuff on the dark web. While I am nervous about punching all that data into Norton’s website, if you have reason to fear your data has been compromised, the Norton tool makes confirming your suspicion really easy! There is also a password manager and cloud backup storage–both tools EVERYONE should be taking advantage of either through Norton or another service.

Nonetheless, Norton makes it all very easy to set-up and maintain. The password manager runs as an app on a mobile device or as an extension on a desktop browser. Once the extension is running Norton will offer to store passwords for you or suggest strong passwords or point out your weak passwords.

You can also store notes, addresses and credit cards safely in the password manager vault. Like any password manager, you set a STRONG ***MUST ALWAYS REMEMBER*** password to gain access to your stored data or to successfully run the extension.

All-in-all, from someone who grew to hate Norton 15 years ago, I am happy I gave them another try. This 360 standard bundle is worth it.

Everything about this laptop is incredible, it exceeds my expectations and those were high already. There are only three downsides to it though. Its overpriced, the fans kick in quite fast since it gets hot quickly and it only supports USB-C and no other ports.

You need adapters or USB hubs, which are not cheap to say the least and thats on top of the already expensive enough laptop. Those were the only negative points, moving on to the positive ones. The fingerprint scan is amazing, it recognises my finger really quickly, even if its slightly wet.

It saves me a few seconds every time I open it since I dont have to fill in my password. That doesnt sound impressive, but it can save me hours in my whole life in total and time is precious. It can save up to five fingerprints, so if one of your fingers is dirty, you can always save spare ones and use those instead.

As you can see in the picture, the speakers are massive and the sound quality cant be compared to any other laptop that Ive ever used. The sound is unbelievably clear and the bass is beautiful. Like I mentioned before, the laptop has USB-C ports, four of them to be exact.

Moreover, the laptop contains enough energy to charge your iPad and other devices and the trackpad is huge. Last but not least, the touch bar is fantastic and fairly easy to use. It cannot only stop and play the music youre listening to on iTunes, but also the videos youre watching on YouTube.

You can adapt it to your preferences. Fortunately, they decided to change the old butterfly keyboards, so they arent sticky anymore. The most wonderful thing about this keyboard is that the ESC button is separate from the touch bar, which wasnt the case with the older models.

There have been complaints about that and now its fixed! If youre on a tight budget, DO NOT buy this laptop. There are so many laptops out there that can provide you the same experience. Only buy this laptop when you have money to spare.

Also, DO NOT buy it when youre only using it for basic operations, such as watching Netflix, YouTube and some light office work on Word or Powerpoint.

Ive bought the I9, 1TB, 16GB version. I should highlight now, that Im not a poweruser, but I do some music production as a hobby, so Im not using this laptop in the most extreme way. Its also my first ever Mac Ive only ever used windows beforeThe hardware is truly stunning from the notquite 4k screen to the stunning aluminium chassis and snappy keyboard, I was thoroughly impressed with what Apple has been doing in the laptop space.

A particular highlight for me is that huge trackpad it provides fantastic precision and the Taptic engine which powers the haptic feedback is second to none. The speakers are also classleading I was shocked at the fidelity they are capable of.

The only letdown on the hardware side is the lessthanspectacular 720p webcam which falls slightly short of expectations I would expect 1080p from a 2,500 laptop, but I guess we cant have everything The bezels around the 16 screen are also remarkably small.

Dell XPS laptops do have a slight edge in terms of screentobody ratio, but nonetheless it does look very sleek. From a software perspective, Mac OS is not something Ive had any real exposure to before, but within a couple of days I had settled right in.

Gestures are well implemented much better than windows and there are plenty of useful shortcuts available for those who wish to use them. My only real complaints here is the absolutely bananas idea that you have to download special software to transfer files back and forth from an android device.

I found this pretty irritating, especially as I wanted to add a bunch of photos from my S10 and the process was less than seamless. I also think the Touch Bar is a total gimmick. It displays largely irrelevant info most of the time and I cant fathom why they would want to make simple tasks such as changing volume or brightness more complicated than necessary.

I can see the vague utility of being able to scrub through YouTube videos or editing projects with greater ease, but Im pretty sure this was simply Apples way of justifying the upgrade to some customers.

Im glad we have a physical escape key now though Ive seen this is missing from prior models. Also worth mentioning is the finger print scanner it works well amp is great for maintaining security while ensuring that logging in is seamless, but I wouldve liked them to implement Face ID as that Windows computers already have this in the form of Windows Hello.

Its also worth noting, as an aside that you can only stream Netflix at a Maximum of 1080p, and only via Safari Chrome is 720p. This obviously isnt an issue for most people, but I do have Netflix in 4k, so would ideally have liked to make full use of the nearly 4k display.

Its also clear that the Windows store is much more populated than Apples Store for Mac these store fronts are great for easily and securely keeping your commonly used applications up to date I always use the Netflix on the windows store as it can provide full 4k.

The IO is absolutely fine 4 thunderbolt ports and a headphone jack do me just fine, though your mileage may vary if youre sick of living that dongle lifestyle. Overall great machine, stunning build quality and a breeze to use.

I wont comment too much on performance, as this is not my expertise all I can say is that it is pretty snappy all round. It is pricey and it is not the most versatile OS in terms of compatibility, but the overall experience is fantastic if you have the money to burn and dont need to game or stream 4k Netflix.

Overall not a bad machine – relatively fast, comfortable keyboard. The keyboard actually fails quite often. It is engineered like this – to break easily. So that you will either buy the expensive module which is like 1/3 of the notebook value or you either buy the mac keyboard – you decide.

Very good marketing trick as you have no other choice but to spend even more money on it. Me and another 4 friends are having this particular model of macbook pro. For 3 of us the keyboard failed. I don’t believe it is coincidence especially when we are talking about multi billion business.

The second thing is that once I enter a video correspondence the fan starts rotating like crazy and my battery dies in two hours. I can not believe I can spend 2 or 3 thousand on such a product and be left with such a cheap experience.

I think that if you are a real professional and want to use this computer for work – 10-12 hours with video cals, VPN connections etc than you should spend like 5-6k to get the top spec and then maybe your fan will not go crazy, your battery will not die in 1.

5-2 hours and probably you will end up with a bit better experience. Unless the keyboard gives you up. Thats why you’ll need a additional keyboard as well. Think before you spend your money.

Bought this MacBook Pro 16 halfway expecting something to be wrong with it when I it was delivered. I inspected it top to bottom, looking for evidence of some grand conspiracy. I just couldnt find it.

But I did find however is a machine that wouldve cost me almost $1000 more if purchased brand new, but that had barely 30 cycles on the battery, and that looked almost brand new. There is some evidence of prior use if you look closely at the trackpad, but otherwise I could not have distinguished this from a unit pulled from a retail box that same day.

The speakers on the 16 inch MacBook Pro are something else. They saturate the area with sound, seeming to bounce it off the display to create an immersive experience. I highly recommend picking up a macboook pro for a relative steal now that the M1s have apparently tanked the price of these.

Also I underestimated how often I would use the thunderbolt ports to switch the side Im using to charge. This is such an underrated feature.

Finally, after over 11-years I’ve come back to a MacBook Pro once again. My last MacBook Pro was purchased in 2011, mainly purchased for school. but then sold it after 4-years since I had no use for it.

At the time I really liked the machine, but overheating and battery was just horrible and mainly because I had Parallels installed with Windows 7 virtual machine, along with 4x other virtual machines.

I made minor upgrades to the memory and installed an SSD (during a time when MacBooks were still upgradable), but still it was not efficient to use as I mainly used Windows for work purposes. I have been using a Surface Pro Tablet PC portable machine for the past 7-years.

Ive always liked Microsoft Surface PC’s, but the screen size has always been too small for my taste and I really never used the touchscreen at all. Fast forward to 2022 and now I still work mainly with Windows for work purposes, but now I have a side business too and decide that I need a powerful machine that can handle all my needs (My work and side business with out sacrificing battery time and speed).

This MacBook is insane monster when handling multitasking. The machine works at its peak even when just on battery, something I don’t think my Surface Pro could ever handle. The screen is just so beautiful almost OLED type of level colors/brightness, even though its just a 14.

2″ Mini LED screen. Trust me, I’ve owned two OLED TVs since 2016, currently have a Sony Bravia XR 65″ A80J, so anything less would not satisfy me. I don’t think I could ever go back to another Intel machine i5/i7 Laptop or Desktop PC, its like going back to legacy hardware from 2010.

I mean, even the MacBook Air M1 2020 model is a beast compared to most intel laptops/PCs, and that’s a two year old MacBook product. Apple removed the stupid Touch-bar, added better speakers, brought back useful HDMI/SD card ports, and finally brought back MagSafe connection port.

In two short years, Apple has changed the game and I really hope Windows learns for this and steps up their game.

I will start this review by stating that this laptop probably has more power under the hood than any average consumer will need but, if the price is within your budget, you really can’t go wrong with the new 14” MacBook Pro.

Performance of the M1 Pro chip is superb – I don’t get into fancy benchmarks but can just share that, in real world use, this thing flies. I wouldn’t describe myself as a “power user,” by any stretch but, based on my limited experience thus far, I think the 2021 MBP packs more than enough power for most users.

While not as elegant looking as the MacBook Air, the MBP finally better balances function with form – the addition of ports, physical function keys, and return of the MagSafe charger are all welcome changes.

The keyboard is fantastic – if you are coming from an older MacBook model with the much maligned butterfly keyboard, you will undoubtedly enthusiastically welcome the “magic keyboard” typing experience.

The trackpad remains one of the best in the industry with great haptics and an ample control area. Audio is superb – without question the best speakers I have heard on a laptop. The webcam is also now finally 1080p, so your video calls will be vastly improved.

The display is fantastic – it’s bright, crisp, and expansive. I have to admit that I was not sure how I would feel about the notch and, quite frankly, I am still not sure. I can say that, generally speaking, it has not been a major annoyance/problem – it’s hidden in full screen and most of the apps I’ve used are able to handle the notch without issue.

Touch ID remains fast and secure and you can’t beat the integration with your other iOS devices, including the ability to unlock your Mac with your apple watch. Mac OS Monterey is great – not a huge departure from Big Sur but will bring some welcome functionality, such as Universal Control.

Battery life is very good, but not quite as impressive as the 13″ M1 MacBook Pro and Air. but charing on the 14″ is super quick. There’s no getting around that this is an expensive laptop but, if you have the budget, this laptop will undoubtedly provide you with many years of use.

This is not a superfluous review. I bought this machine for reliability and build quality. The best machine I’ve ever owned and still use is a twelve-year old Mac Mini. I tend to hang on to my devices, so I appreciate the updates for as long that Apple will push them, but I’m not married to MacOS.

BATTERY LIFE Meh. I hear a lot of phenomenal things, but my real-world experience on a Zoom call for one hour and 45 minutes (80 participants) drained the battery from 100% to 65%. SCREEN It’s okay. I retuned a Dell OLED and an ASUS OLED when I settled on this machine, and both Windows machines were gorgeous, and I miss them.

I miss touch screen, too. SIGN-ON I miss Face ID on Windows. I also miss fingerprint scan on initial log-in (but becomes active thereafter). USE Ironically, mostly Microsoft products (WORD, EXCEL, Outlook).

I miss a touch screen for DOCUSIGN stuff, but I’ll survive, I guess. Other documents that require me to check a box is sorely missed without a touch screen. I also use Cricut Design Space on my iPad and love the invisible transferability to this machine.

14″ VERSUS 16″ I love a lot of screen real estate, but I also value portability. This MacBook fits in my leather sling, but the 16″ did not. I use my iPad Pro in Sidecar mode to move my WORD document onto my iPad while I have a Zoom call going on the MacBook.

WHAT I LOVE Banging speakers with deep base. Play CT 72 smooth jazz or Paul Brown Angel smooth jazz and you will have an appreciation for how good it sounds. Also love my Apple devices talking to each other.

Air Drop. Can’t live without it. Sidecar is cool, and a life saver at times. Love transferring Notes, too. I draw, doodle and write on my iPad, and transferring over to my MacBook is way cool. WHAT I HATE No touch screen.

MacOS or Windows? MacOS: It’s okay, but it’s that perfect friend who’s never late, always right, won every spelling bee in school, dresses perfectly, never lets you down – reliable. I do love Windows because it’s the ditzy friend who sometimes forgets an appointment, loses a shoe while running, needs to borrow a few bucks here and there (and forgets to pay it back) but always is a fun time when you’re in their company.

I like this machine but I’m not in love. I do love my Mac Mini and I will buy an M1 Mini soon to be my in-home base machine. This MacBook is my on-the-run, never-let-me-down machine on the go. Again, build quality and reliability trump anything else out there.

This is easily the best MacBook I’ve owned in years, and I’ve been using MacOs since 2014 when I was in college. The return of MagSafe and all these ports brought back such great memories of the MacBook Air that I used for so many years from that time even up until 2020 or so, although I had to buy a newer alone, long story short.

And even better is that the Magsafe mechanism here is at least 3x sturdier than ever before, so you dont have to worry too much about accidentally yanking the cord or the Magsafe connector yellowing over time like the old ones often did.

Anyway, this beauty can handle so much of what you can throw at it without skipping a beat, with none of the fan noise or massive heat that came along with the old Intel models. I even have at least 10 tabs open in Chrome and haven’t experienced any slowdowns either, and often even more than that depending on how much I have to get done.

I know with my very old MBA I had to sell, that thing would fry like an egg easily without having to download a bunch of programs to control the fan speed and what not. You don’t have to worry about any of that with this monster of a machine.

The silver aluminum finish really makes it truly feel like you’re using a pro device. I especially love that the rubber feet are so sturdy and firmly keep the Macbook from sliding around all the time compared to the smaller Macbook 13″ models.

No more having to use a bunch of dongles to try to connect such things as drawing tablets directly into the computer. Even with the Rosetta 2 layer in place, I never noticed any problems running all the programs that previously worked with Intel either.

Before I got this MacBook in the mail, I tried going back to the previous Intel MacBook Pro and the 10th gen Intel CPU was already really showing its age, even updating the OS to Monterrey. I was reminded of just how much I had to do just to keep that computer at a decent temperature, including turning off Turbo Boost and a whole bunch of other nonsense you don’t have to even think about using this latest Macbook Pro.

Less time wasted. Let’s not forget about the beautiful Liquid Retina XDR display that this comes with. That, the extra real estate you get from having a big 16″ screen, and all these ports alone make having this powerhouse worth it if you can.

Save yourself some money and go with this base model for the best bang for your buck. You’re getting so much at a price just $800 more than how the Macbook Pro 13″ from 2020 with 4 Thunderbolt ports was priced.

It’s definitely worth the upgrade and for anyone else who needs a huge screen and a sort of desktop like experience but on a mobile device, this MacBook is definitely for you! It’s worth every penny.

Oh yeah, the battery life is also crazy good and even with doing a whole bunch of things to get the computer set up, I was still at 76% battery and it was 88% right out of the box.

Where do I even start with this review – I suspect I can start with stating this is the best portable computer I have ever purchased. When I heard Apple was moving to their silicon, I was somewhat apprehensive.

I thought my days of using the Mac would be over, as it would lead down a path of apps that only work on M1 or only work on Intel, and there would be compatibility issues and bugs to work out for the first few generations.

My expectations couldn’t have been farther from the truth. All but one or two ancillary applications I use have been compiled for native Apple Silicon and those that aren’t run without issue. The most prominent app I use that is still not native for Apple Silicon is Microsoft Teams.

Previous to this, I had a 2017 MacBook Pro with Touch Bar – it was a dual-core i7 with 16GB of memory. A solid performer at the time, but I was never impressed with battery life, and the amount of heat that the machine produced was evident of the inefficiencies in that platform.

The new M1 machine is light years ahead in this regard. No matter how long I use the machine or whatever I throw at it, it NEVER heats up – and along these lines, the battery lasts forever. I’m not sure I’ve had the battery drop past 75% even after using for upwards of four hours untethered to the charger.

I was hesitant to go anywhere without the charger with my old MBP. With this device, I have no issues going out for a few hours with the computer and not worrying about if I’ve got my charger with me.

The display on this machine is fantastic. It’s bright, colors are vivid, and the ProMotion Refresh is killer. Scrolling through any type of content is so smooth. Did I mention it’s fast? Apps open instantly, and 16GB of memory seems to be enough.

I now use this as my main computer, displacing my 27″ Quad Core i5 iMac with 24GB of memory on my desktop machine for seven years. I have tons of apps open all the time, including most of the core MS Office suite, text editors, SSH sessions, Slack, Zoom, and countless browsers with multiple tabs, and this machine doesn’t slow down in the least.

All in all, I can’t say anything bad about this computer, even for its size, the extra pound and change that it weighs over my previous generation 13″ MBP. If you twisted my arm, I’d say that this machine is slightly too large to use comfortably in economy seats on most aircraft – so keep that in mind.

This is my first Macbook purchase, and I can definitely say I’m glad I made this decision! There was alot of thought I put into making the choice to switch to Mac. Primarily, I was tired of buying a new laptop and/or PC every few years.

While Windows computers aren’t “bad”, they don’t have the same ecosystem that Apple has incorporated where your iPhone and other Apple products sync together. Windows is starting to try and have the “look” of their ecosystem imitate the Macbook such as the dock at the bottom of the screen, having widgets, having an “app” store, and even having the folders look similar to how the Mac OS is setup.

What Windows is bad at is having a “janky” way of syncing devices. With Apple’s ecosystem, I can view all my iPhone pics on my Macbook thru iPhoto. Even tho Windows allows you to setup it up similarly, it just doesn’t sync as well and everytime I tried to access my iphone pics thru windows it just never worked out as one would think.

Other features I like about the Macbook is the trackpad, the Retina screen, the speakers, and essentially everything about the Macbook that separates it from a traditional laptop. The trackpad is proprietary to Apple, and using it is so easy I hardly use my mouse anymore.

The Retina screen display is nice and allows me to view more of the website (and auto adjusts the view as well). The M1 Pro processor is amazing, and so far I’ve not noticed or heard the fans kick in.

My previous laptops (gaming laptops like MSI, Alienware, etc) would sound like they’re about to blow up just turning on or opening internet browsers. Overall, I see why people have held on to their Macbooks over the years (and why they last so long).

Unless some magic fairy comes and kills this thing, I believe this will last me at least 5 years (hoping for 10 years). Lastly, I’ll say, if you’re looking to game on the Macbook I wouldn’t suggest it, simply because gaming PCs are designed for high-detailed graphic games, those expensive graphics cards (and the power supply units) are designed to handle those games.

Macbook isn’t designed to be a monster gaming machine. It’s designed mainly for multimedia (video and photo editing) use, as well as normal use. It doesn’t have a crazy power hungry design to allow for high-end gaming like gaming PC do.

This is written by a life-long Windows PC user, so if you’re looking to switch, don’t be afraid. Yes, it is expensive, but that’s because Apple builds everything in-house now (no more intel/amd chips), which means more smooth performance compared to typical PCs.

Hope this helps!.

Easy, simple, awesome. Put it in to my MBP. Formatted it. Forgot it was even there. I just have an extra 128GB that holds my Music Library, Photo Library and other misc stuff. No software needed. No disconnects.

No unwanted unmounting. Works perfectly. I never really use the SD card slot, so this was really the perfect solution for me.

It seems like there is something wrong with the controller of this SD card, the 4k read and write( except the sequential write) are painfully slow. My test result from XBench: Disk Test 22. 32 Sequential 24.

63 Uncached Write 20. 54 12. 61 MB/sec [4K blocks] Uncached Write 16. 40 9. 28 MB/sec [256K blocks] Uncached Read 21. 65 6. 34 MB/sec [4K blocks] Uncached Read 152. 07 76. 43 MB/sec [256K blocks] Random 20.

41 Uncached Write 7. 57 0. 80 MB/sec [4K blocks] Uncached Write 16. 79 5. 38 MB/sec [256K blocks] Uncached Read 692. 99 4. 91 MB/sec [4K blocks] Uncached Read 346. 23 64. 24 MB/sec [256K blocks].

Fits flush against my MacBook Pro – it’s a very simple and easy way to add additional storage.

was a little skeptic of the keyboard since I also use a retina macbook 12. Now after using the new 15 macbook pro for a few weeks, every time I go back to the flat keyboard of the rMB12, it feels awkward.

The keyboard on the new macbook pros are definitely superior to those found on earlier retina macbooks. Other than the good keyboard both the performance, screen quality and the battery longevity are the strong points for Apple’s flagship laptop.

I am getting around 8-9 hours on 40-50% sreen brightness. I have learned the hard way that the screen brightness is the ultimate battery killer, since I simply can not run the CPU more than 10% (even if I run multiple browser tabs and browsers, mail app and watch videos at the same time – although no rendering or cpu demanding tasks, watching video on browser or video conferencing were quite hard on the rMB12), if I run the screen with 90-100% brightness I get around 4-5 hours runtime.

Since 50% is more than enough for a satisfactory screen experience, I will give this macbook 5 stars for Apple’s engineering requirements of making the laptop lighter by putting a ~75% smaller battery than the older rMBP15, and the other 5 stars goes to intel’s energy efficient but powerful 7th gen quad core cpu.

To sum it up 2017 MBP15 is the way to go if do not have very strict backpack/carry on choices that pushes you towards MBP13. I am happy with both of my choices and will be upgrading when the time comes both MB12 as an always with me and MBP15 as the ultimate workhorse all round laptop.

Both worth the money and highly recommended.

This is a beautiful laptop with very reliable build quality. It’s battery life is enough for general purpose computing throughout the day. The fan is silent and inactive most of the time. The system speed is very fast and can be upgraded to newer versions of macosx.

The aluminum chasis, thin profile, and lightweight make it VERY convenient to carry around and travel. Windows 7, 8, 10 can be installed via boot camp. It’s keyboard is back-lit, and it’s on board memory and drive can be upgraded for more capacity to future proof the system.

It is very reliable and doesn’t lag. Menus respond instantly. Wifi and Bluetooth have Amazing range, and can reach wireless access points regular laptops can’t. There’s a magnetic charging cable, so if you accidentally tugged on the wire it won’t pull the laptop off the table.

There’s a variety of input ports such as USB, dvi, thunderbolt, etc. The microphone grill is cleverly hidden and you won’t even know it has a microphone. The webcam has acceptable image quality, and frame rates are smooth.

If you install windows, you have the best of both worlds with a dual booting macosx and windows device.

I have dived into the Mac walled garden, which I have avoided for years. There is good and bad – everything is overpriced for starters, but this used laptop was priced about right. However, the walled garden promises that I can set the machine up, and allow the grandchildren to learn and play, without worrying about where they might go, or what they might do.

Peripheral addons are proving expensive, but I am getting there. I hope to have the workstation configured and ready to play on, in time for Christmas. Overall, quality is good, security is good, and the machine is highly configurable, as the root user.

I’m learning to respect that 9th gen i9 CPU, it is very capable – and that from a long time AMD user. For portability, the 16″ is really nice! Even a half-blind old man can see the screen. For workstation use, plugging into whatever monitor you like works well.

(docking station required of course) Overall, money well spent, and I have no real complaints yet. I regard 1Tb drive and 16 Gb of memory as “minimal”. It amazes me how steep a price Apple puts on storage and memory! I still spend most of my time on my Linux server / workstation.

This is a beautiful laptop with very reliable build quality. It’s battery life is enough for general purpose computing throughout the day. The fan is silent and inactive most of the time. The system speed is very fast and can be upgraded to newer versions of macosx.

The aluminum chasis, thin profile, and lightweight make it VERY convenient to carry around and travel. Windows 7, 8, 10 can be installed via boot camp. It’s keyboard is back-lit, and it’s on board memory and drive can be upgraded for more capacity to future proof the system.

It is very reliable and doesn’t lag. Menus respond instantly. Wifi and Bluetooth have Amazing range, and can reach wireless access points regular laptops can’t. There’s a magnetic charging cable, so if you accidentally tugged on the wire it won’t pull the laptop off the table.

There’s a variety of input ports such as USB, dvi, thunderbolt, etc. The microphone grill is cleverly hidden and you won’t even know it has a microphone. The webcam has acceptable image quality, and frame rates are smooth.

If you install windows, you have the best of both worlds with a dual booting macosx and windows device. mav.

Exreamly Powerful and Amazing performance, Excellent performance for 4K/8K photo video editng. Best screen on a laptop ever found. Great selection of multiple ports for seamless connectivity. Amazing sound.

Remarkably power efficent even on battery with extended battery life on single charge. Amazing Fast charging up to 50% in 30 minutes. Apple happens to be one of my favorite brand. especially when it comes to their laptops, this laptop happens to be one of the best ones I’ve ever used when it comes to their display it is #1 in it’s class.

Also comes with a substantial amount of memory for whatever the need may be. They are the leading brand for many electronics and hands down the most recommended tech that I would suggest anyone to buy.

Yes they’re kind of pricey but you get what you pay for if you want a quality product I would definitely go with Apple.

We bought my daughter this computer for college. She is now a senior, it’s been very reliant. She has had no issues at all. I want to buy an apple for our home office. I Love the large screen, easy to maneuvers.

running software etc. if your on the fence on purchasing computer. I can list a few items to consider, pros and cons of buying an Mac computer, would be the following The Cons; when using Excel, Microsoft do run better on their compatible computers.

The Pros; Apple, you can text, FaceTime, and have your pictures easily stored, Apples have fewer technical issues long term. I recommend Apple products on a whole, i am an Apple person 🍎.

My overall experience with OWC is always excellent. My only gripe with my new 16″ MacBook Pro 2019 was the new keyboard Apple used to replace the butterfly keyboard Apple use on the 15″ 2016 MacBook Pro I was trading in.

I LOVED the feel and the speed of the butterfly keyboard. And yes I did experience issues with the X & C keys. but overall I liked the lightness and size of the 2016. The newly Apple refurbished MacBook Pro 2019 Touch Bar is so much more bulkier (read HEAVY!), and the keyboard is so much more difficult to type on.

I REALLY have to hit a key for it to function, unlike the butterfly keyboard. Oh well. Plus the new MBP doesn’t seem much faster than that 2016 MBP. Could be my imagination. Who knows. \_()_/.

I got the RAM and processor and size of hard drive that I was shopping for without spending more than I had in mind. The laptop is 13inches; I was pleased that its screen size is comfortable for working everyday for hours.

I saved a little money by not going bigger. I just played one video clip and was delighted by how sharp the resolution was. Setting up the computer when you first open it is extremely easy I set up One Drive to access all my current files, Adobe Acrobat, and Microsoft Office and that was all easy.

I like the security features. My Zoom and Google Meet meetings look good. Impressive processor speed. The Touch Bar is a nice feature and it looks good but I have not found it significantly useful so I ignore it.

I will be ordering a separate DVD drive with adapter for the Thunderbolt 3 ports.

I had been searching online for months for an affordable replacement for my vintage 2009 Mac, when I came across various vendors selling refurbished machines. After comparing products and prices, I settled on GainSaver, mainly because of their easy to navigate website, and the prices.

I placed my order for a MacBook Pro, with some nice upgrades. I held my breath and just hoped that I would not be scammed. Some of the online reviews caused concern, however, the dates on the reviews were not recent.

When the package arrived on the date promised I was elated. Reading the specs on the invoice, I was astounded to learn that the machine had been upgraded even beyond what I had ordered! I’ve been using the machine for a few weeks now, and it is a true dream machine.

In the future I won’t even bother with Amazon or eBay. I know where the “deal” is, so why bother. I 100% recommend GainSaver.

It is used to add capacity to a 256 Gb MacBook. It is just what’s needed but it occupies the SD card slot permanently. However, it occupies the SD card slot very neatly so a card reader for a USB slot is fine for transferring files.

You lose a little and gain a lot. A recommended product.

Im really amazed with this little SD card. So fast, it delivers what they promise. Advertised as 95MB/s read and 60MB/s Writing and I’m getting extremely close to that! So its much faster then a mechanical hard drive or a usb hard drive.

You plug this in and you can forget about it as its designed / tailor made for your device. A++ This is a must for your Macbook.

I’ve been struggling with not enough memory on my hard disc on my Mac Book Air. This has been a saviour and has allowed me to expand the online storage without buying a new machine. Brilliant. Highly recommended for others in such circumstances.

If you are in Europe, I believe it is a good idea to get a reliable European VPN provider. F-Secure is from Finland and have been quite open about the laws and policies that they have. I get good speeds from them when using VPN.

Getting a hard copy instead of buying directly online is also another good step to make it more private.

Freedome VPN is very easy to install and even easier to use. It comes from F-Secure a renowned security firm. The VPN now comes with a kill switch an important feature for remaining anonymous. Highly recommended.

I bought the 3 license version, used one on windows 10 the other 2 on an android phone and tablet.

I installed this last week & it appears to be working well. The programme tells me it has stopped a great deal of unwanted internet traffic. I cannot see any difference, however, most unwanted traffic is silent & if it is stopping background searches from sources I am not even aware of, then it has to be a good thing.