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Moonjumper

macrumors 68030
Jun 20, 2009
2,740
2,908
Lincoln, UK
I tried one in store. It is a huge improvement over the first generation of butterfly keyboard on the MacBook. Will we see a third generation with more improvements? Possibly, but I doubt it will be anything more than minor changes.

I really liked the new touchpad.
 

aloshka

macrumors 65816
Aug 30, 2009
1,437
744
I heard that in tablet mode, the battery life of the surface book tablet is no more than 3 hours only. That will be a problem.

It's actually much less than that. And also, the base will not charge the tablet, so if the tablet is out of power, you cannot disconnect it anymore. Even for a second.

Honestly, I'm just trying to give options and the surface book is considered one of the more serious good-quality contenders to the MacBook pros.
 

hajime

macrumors 604
Original poster
Jul 23, 2007
7,727
1,215
If the base cannot charge the tablet, how to get the tablet charged?
 

aloshka

macrumors 65816
Aug 30, 2009
1,437
744
If the base cannot charge the tablet, how to get the tablet charged?

Sorry, let me clarify. You can charge the tablet directly and the base directly, and the tablet through the base. I meant, if the charger is not hooked into power, then the battery of the base won't charge the tablet. It doesn't seem like a big deal, but happened to me quite often. Maybe my usage is not normal. But also, happened, a lot is when you can't take the tablet out if the battery is dead to charge it separately.
 
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hajime

macrumors 604
Original poster
Jul 23, 2007
7,727
1,215
Sorry, let me clarify. You can charge the tablet directly and the base directly, and the tablet through the base. I meant, if the charger is not hooked into power, then the battery of the base won't charge the tablet. It doesn't seem like a big deal, but happened to me quite often. Maybe my usage is not normal. But also, happened, a lot is when you can't take the tablet out if the battery is dead to charge it separately.

Thank you very much for your info. That does not sound good. It would mean I have to carry the charger most of the time.
 

Medic

macrumors member
May 31, 2008
86
33
London, UK
Indecisive about whether or not to buy the 2016 15" rMBP, I tried it at an Apple store, hoping to be convinced one way or the other.

Since the store makes you stand while typing, the unusual orientation might make a test type inaccurate, of course. I was unable to sense whether the touch pad seemed too big (as some here have said) or good.

My question for you: are the keys really wobbly, or was that impression my mistake? I have been using a 2010 MBP for six years, so that is the keyboard I have as an experiential reference. The 2016 keys seemed to have significantly more side-to-side movement than my 2010 keys.
[doublepost=1480414291][/doublepost]As you say, any in store trial of the keyboard is going to fail as you're not sitting in a comfortable position relative to the computer...I asked to move it to one of the bar stools area to try which they let me do. I bought the 13in MBP 2016 with TB, i7 and 16GB on the spot!

I can confirm that after a few days I find the keyboard on the 2016 is actually BETTER (for me) than the previous 13in rMBR...I was wary of it being noisy but found that actually that depends on how one types. I'm a 'soft' typer I guess as it seems make less noise than my previous MBP!

Going off from the thread. I find the overall experience of the new rMBP vastly superior to the predecessor: screen is amazing, love the keyboard and trackpad. TB still needs to be proven and can't wait for the MS Office update.
 

Fishrrman

macrumors Penryn
Feb 20, 2009
28,240
12,388
If you don't care for the 2016 keyboard and prefer the 2015-style keyboard, do what I did:
I just bought a 2015 MacBook Pro instead...
 

NickPhamUK

macrumors 6502
May 6, 2013
356
197
I tried the keyboard at an Apple Store, and as an old fashion person as I am, I didn't like it. I had to constantly look down at the keys, it makes noisier sound etc. But then I decided to gamble and ordered one.

The keyboard really grew on my after the first hour of usage. At first I was a bit annoyed by the click noise - since the machine is so silent and the only noise is from the keyboard - but then as I get used to it, I don't need to press as hard now, and the noise is reduced. I also think I type faster on this machine - so it's a plus.

I say give it a try, I don't think Apple will go back to it's traditional keyboard. If not, you can get an iMac with an external keyboard :)
 

purfledspruce

macrumors member
May 1, 2008
56
64
Its odd, I just posted in another thread the trend of folks giving up the Apple ecosystem for the sake of hardware. I couldn't fathom switching out of the OS to go to another platform at this point -- and yes I fully understand Apple has me were they want me. ;-)

It was surprisingly easy, despite being an Apple "fanboy" for over 10 years. I bought a laptop from "ibuypower" - it's thick, it's heavy, it has crap battery life. But I can run the software and games I like, I never had to learn anything about windows 10 (it has a search bar, so I haven't had to mess with a new directory structure; it's crashed only once in the three months I've had it, though I reboot more frequently,) and it had 4x the graphics performance and an updated processor MONTHS before Apple finally released their latest rMBP. I payed extra for an M2.sata SSD, and I paid an extra $10 for ibuypower to wipe the hard drive and do a clean install of windows so I wouldn't have any bloatware. I paid less than half of what I would have paid for one of the new rMBPs after upgrades I would have taken.

So, thin + light + good battery life + fast HDD + macOS, but weak ass graphics + wait three years between updated processors (for the 15") = an extra $1400 per computer. for $1400, I can carry a power brick. And, unlike my colleagues at work, my laptop plugs in to the projectors all over. How many times have I heard someone say "anyone got a dongle?" and then watched 5 people huddle around a macbook's screen ... while sitting next to a $2500 projector that won't be upgraded to usb c for a decade?

So far, the biggest irritations with Windows have been that my bookmarks aren't synced with my work iMac or my iPhone, and the control key isn't where the command key was, so ally my fingers still go to the wrong key, even after three months.

I bought a Kindle Fire 8" tablet on black friday for $60. It has access to my Amazon Prime free music and video content, and it works well enough for me. $60 freakin' dollars. Another $15 bought me 64GB of storage. For less than the cost of a memory upgrade for an iPad mini, I got a full machine with 70GB of ram. Freakin' insane, since I have 2 iPad airs at home.

Leaving Apple was really easy, and so far it's turning out really well. I'll probably buy one more iPhone next year, but after that, I will probably try an android phone for 1/2 the price. All my photos are going to slowly go to Amazon, since they provide free unlimited storage to Prime members...I'm currently paying $1/month to Apple, once I move a bunch of photos, I can stop giving them that, too.

all they had to do was update the rMBP six months earlier, and I would have stayed with Apple. But they didn't.
 

hajime

macrumors 604
Original poster
Jul 23, 2007
7,727
1,215
Just tried the new 15" MBP. I did not make that many typing mistakes but the old keyboard is more comfortable to type on and it does not feel cheap. The machine itself it not noticeably lighter and faster than the 2014 rMBP 15".

Wonder if having a keyboard cover could reduce the noise from the new keyboard.
 

Sam_S

macrumors 6502
Nov 20, 2016
258
314
Everywhere
You have two other choices not yet mentioned:

1) Take to time to adjust to the keyboard. Trying it out for a few minutes in the store doesn't count as a serious attempt.
2) Carry an slim external keyboard, like Apple's Magic Keyboard.

I agree with your first point, however completely disagree with your second. Why should we have to carry about another keyboard (Plus all the dongles we now need) just so we can put up with this stupid MacBook Pro. Apple should have just left the form factor as it was.
 

moonjelly

macrumors regular
Aug 18, 2016
152
98
California
I tried one out in Best Buy and didn't like it. I went with a windows laptop with an nvidia 1070 graphics card. Was ~ 1600 and is incredibly fast. After two days with it, windows 10 is driving me nuts, uninstalling all the bloat ware sucked. Although the computer had much better specs for way cheaper, it is much thicker, heavier and really bad battery life. Now I feel like I made a big of a mistake not buying the new MacBook Pro. (My old MacBook Pro stopped booting) I don't game, just felt like it should have had higher end hardware. I'm thinking about giving this one to my son and getting an older model MacBook Pro. - confused

This is kind of sad. There is a very vocal set of people on this forum saying they need high end desktop class hardware resources in a laptop with lots of ports for backwards compatibility. That is for them to decide. But that is a bigger, heavier, power hungry machine.
 

Sam_S

macrumors 6502
Nov 20, 2016
258
314
Everywhere
I don't like the idea of dongles either. But USB C is a huge improvement over USB B & A. It needs to come. But the transition period is going to be irritating and irksome.

It is going to be a pain yes. But Apple isn't making it easy. They should've included at least one USB-A Adapter in the box, and maybe even thrown in a USB-C to Lightening Cable. Small things like that would go a long way.
 

moonjelly

macrumors regular
Aug 18, 2016
152
98
California
I tried the keyboard of the new 13" MBP as the 15" was not available in store. I don't like it. I prefer the one we had before. Since Apple is so obsessive with thinness, do you think they will continue to use the keyboard of the 2016 models or a small variation of it with low travel on the 2017 models?
If not, I may need to choose Lenovo Thinkpad or Surface Book.


The keystroke breaks lightly and crisply at the top of the stroke, with good feedback. It meets my criteria for a good keyboard. I am ambivalent about travel. Some are picky about travel.

The thing I dislike most is mushy keys with rising force you have to bottom because there is no feedback in the stroke. Exactly the horrible keyboard on this corporate workstation I'm typing on. Its a price point business machine so I won't name the manufacturer. But their initials are Dell.

I learned on manual, non-electric typewriters. Lots of force, travel, and technique required. You had to adapt your style to each machine. Now everyone seems to think the machine is going to be built for their personal style of typing.
 

hajime

macrumors 604
Original poster
Jul 23, 2007
7,727
1,215
I agree with your first point, however completely disagree with your second. Why should we have to carry about another keyboard (Plus all the dongles we now need) just so we can put up with this stupid MacBook Pro. Apple should have just left the form factor as it was.

After carrying the extra dongles and external keyboard, the total weight and dimension would be more than the so-called "thinner" MBP 2016.
[doublepost=1480718231][/doublepost]
The keystroke breaks lightly and crisply at the top of the stroke, with good feedback. It meets my criteria for a good keyboard. I am ambivalent about travel. Some are picky about travel.

The thing I dislike most is mushy keys with rising force you have to bottom because there is no feedback in the stroke. Exactly the horrible keyboard on this corporate workstation I'm typing on. Its a price point business machine so I won't name the manufacturer. But their initials are Dell.

I learned on manual, non-electric typewriters. Lots of force, travel, and technique required. You had to adapt your style to each machine. Now everyone seems to think the machine is going to be built for their personal style of typing.

I recall that when laptops were just started to be on the market, most of the keyboards were very nice. Then, Dell came along to sell cheap computers with noisy keyboards.
 

TopToffee

macrumors 65816
Jul 9, 2008
1,037
971
fwiw, and I'm sure others have said the same, my STRONG recommendation would be to take advantage of the current extended return period, and give the new keyboard version some proper testing over a few weeks, THEN make the decision on whether you still hate it.

I didn't care for it to start with, but my typing is now actually faster and more accurate than it was on the last gen
 
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maflynn

macrumors Haswell
May 3, 2009
73,410
43,304
my STRONG recommendation would be to take advantage of the current extended return period
Agreed, given this unique time of year, we can try the laptop for more then 14 days and see if its a good buy nor not.
 
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