| For what it's worth, as just a plain user of computers, I personally find Microsoft's industrial design way more appealing to my sensibility than Apple's industrial design. I prefer: * Smaller radius corners. The Mac and iPhone have always appeared too rounded. * Less tapering. I like that the Surface Book's contact surface (no pun intended) is basically its entire area (notwithstanding the rubberized feet). I don't like that the Macs taper inward. I think Apple corrected this on the newest MacBook Pro, however. * Less visual emphasis on the keyboard. I don't like the Mac's dark keys on a silver plane. I prefer that Surface Book's keyboard matches the metal color. * Less obnoxious branding. I like that the Surface Book has just a reflective Windows logo on the back and no branding on the front. I have never liked the glowing Apple logo on Macs and I applaud Apple for ditching that. But for 2016, they added a big "MacBook Pro" on the bottom edge of the screen which is also tacky. * This one is a particularly big pet peeve: a chamfered edge for the track-pad that matches the width of the trackpad. I've never understood why the chamfered edge on the MacBook is so narrow. I like not having a sharp edge digging into my wrist even when I am a bit sloppy with my arm positioning. That's saying nothing of the software. But to be brief on software, I am so happy that Windows is (slowly) providing a dark look and feel. Applications that use the latest Microsoft design thinking look great to my eye. Admittedly they are very slow at bringing old apps up to snuff—there are a number of legacy apps that still look as they did on Windows 8 or earlier. MacOS has always looked too "bubbly" to my eye. My personal laptop is a Surface Book, though I use a workstation for normal day-to-day work. |