14-Inch and 16-Inch MacBook Pros: Everything We Know

[MacD87]

This is absolutely false. Do you know how many times a day the average touch typist accidentally triggers touchbar functions because Apple didn’t make the touchbar pressure sensitive? Or how many times a day people who would otherwise never have to take their eyes off the screen are forced to look down at their keyboard to find a key they would otherwise be able to automatically reach for?

Touch Bar absolutely makes the machine worse just by being there.

Sounds like you just have terrible dexterity and no muscle memory because that has not once happened to me. And you are not going to tell me that having a row of fixed keys compared to a row that allows for unlimited key options is better. That’s the same as saying that the design of the old phones like the palm treo or a blackberry before the iPhone is better than the design of an all touch screen layout. Steve already proved this concept with the iPhone. Virtual keys supersede fixed keys. The problem is dumb people like you that don’t want to move forward. But yet you love and don’t complain about your iPhone that doesn’t give true tactile feedback and has an entire virtual keyboard. Stop bashing the Touch Bar cuz you can’t seem to figure out how useful it is.

 

[jlc1978]

Except for the BILLIONS of USB-A devices that still and will continue to exist for years. A single USB-A would be useful.

Except you can easily connect them with an adapter, or replace the USB-A cable with one that has USB-C instead; adding in a legacy port adds no functionality and simply take up space that can be better used for a more modern port. What would be useful is to space the USB-C ports a bit further apart so that devices with wide connectors don't block access.

I've never had an issue with using an adapter, and IMHO, stressing over adding a small adapter to the end of a long cable is much ado about nothing. YMMV.

 

[hot-gril]

Whut? HDMI is exactly the port we need. Whenever I'd visit a client to present stuff I'd keep my fingers crossed that their screen/projector/whatnot would be compatible with my adapter, and not even half of them have Apple TV or another casting option.

HDMI is also the one port you're very likely to use on the go, meaning a dongle shouldn't be required. USB-A isn't as necessary since the laptop already has a built-in keyboard and mouse.

 

[hot-gril]

Except you can easily connect them with an adapter, or replace the USB-A cable with one that has USB-C instead; adding in a legacy port adds no functionality and simply take up space that can be better used for a more modern port. What would be useful is to space the USB-C ports a bit further apart so that devices with wide connectors don't block access.

I've never had an issue with using an adapter, and IMHO, stressing over adding a small adapter to the end of a long cable is much ado about nothing. YMMV.

Would rather have no adapter than yes adapter. Nothing uses USB-C yet.

 

[the8thark]

The Mac has become a long game of waiting and seeing. And considering the pie-in-the-sky "innovations" of the godawful 2016 generation are being rolled back, I wonder if the new roadmap is the result of new management by people more familiar and respectful of the Mac line and users. The previous MPBs were an insult and yes, I'm salty that we wasted so much time, effort, and money getting the right peripherals just so Apple would go "nevermind" on their whatever-vision a few years down the line.

Nah. This is just how true innovation works. A truly innovative company innovates. A good innovative company keeps the good innovations and trashes the bad ones. Not every idea is good. Realising what ideas to keep and what to toss helps you improve. A goods example is the trashcan vs cheese grater. Apple learned that the cheese grater is better and trashed the trashcan. I'm glad Apple tried the trashcan though.

Without taking risks on new innovation the good innovations might never come to pass and become adopted for the long haul. Also there's always something to learn from the not so good innovative ideas.

 

[jml12286]

Who cares about MagSafe. These things have all day battery life. I only ever have it plugged into power at night and when I'm not using it these days.
I also love the Touch Bar now that I have it. I was a big hater before I got one myself.

 

[MacD87]

Would rather have no adapter than yes adapter. Nothing uses USB-C yet.

Literally millions of android phones use usb c all the iPad Pros use usb c every new iPhone comes with usb c cable literally every single new thunderbolt product uses usb c. The level of ignorance your comment is on is ridiculous please keep your comments to yourself from now. Stop trying to keep old usb A alive you and everyone else complaining about an adapter are the reason we still need adapters to support you and your dumb kind not wanting to go with the new superior port.

 

[TheFluffyDuck]

As long as it has MagSafe, more ports and variety, and an actual graphics card not a 'Fischer Price' integrated garbage solution. Ill be happy.

 

[MacD87]

As long as it has MagSafe, more ports and variety, and an actual graphics card not a 'Fischer Price' integrated garbage solution. Ill be happy.

That integrated garbage runs at less than half the wattage of any equivalent and can out pace many dedicated graphic cards and it’s the first of its kind. It is by no means garbage. Nobody is even coming close to what Apple has done and if they scaled it like they will it will be more powerful and energy efficient than anything the competitors push out. Nobody is coming close to wattage to power ratio like Apple. You are trying to compare things that need to be plugged into a wall and generate excessive heat that the “garbage” integrated Apple silicon runs circles around and does it with all day battery life there is nothing that compares at the moment pound for pound. Before you go bashing get educated on what you talk about because you just sound stupid.

 

[iPaulie81]

Still hanging on to my 15" Mid 2015 Haswell until something decent comes up as a replacement. I haven't been thrilled to upgrade for some time, however some of these rumours sound promising.

 

[amaze1499]

It would be great if they had at least 1 USB-A and possibly HDMI back/

Removing Touchbar ? hard to believe

I think so too, but its possible. 3D Touch for instance was an interesting concept, but removed and replaced eventually. It's neat to have programmable keys or a bar in this case, but somehow it seems to break focus in my opinion. Just by holding down F keys you can have the features popping up as context menu on screen.

 

[SimonJHarris]

Eh, you quickly learn kids are a lot more durable than a MacBook and there are a lot more places to get them repaired with quicker turnaround after they trip, than a MacBook...

IDK I'd argue that claiming on your AppleCare is easier & less risky than taking a kid to the ER during a pandemic

 

[jlc1978]

Would rather have no adapter than yes adapter. Nothing uses USB-C yet.

Well, I use a USB-C cable with my 5+ year old printer, ancient external BluRay drive, external hard drives, iPhone, monitor; the list goes on. Yes, I needed to get new cables but they were as cheap or cheaper than an adapter; some devices even came with USB - C and a C to A adapter.

The only thing in need an adapter for are flash drives and my HDMI input device. There are USB-C flash drives but since I use them primarily for transferring files I still have some USB-A ones. I actually have a multip port video out (HDMI/VGA) since VGA is still pretty common on projectors.

There is no compelling reason to add back USB - A given the availability of USB-C cables and adapters; and a good argument for leaving it out in favor of better USB-C port spacing. An HDMI port's space is also better put to use with USB-C since it has more flexible video options.

IDK I'd argue that claiming on your AppleCare is easier & less risky than taking a kid to the ER during a pandemic

Except AppleCare's deductable for accidental damage may be higher than the one for the ER...

 

[Macaholic868]

“which would annihilate any Intel CPU in terms of performance”

If true then figure out how it can run Boot Camp and do real time x86-64 emulation.

 

[BradMacPro]

“which would annihilate any Intel CPU in terms of performance”

If true then figure out how it can run Boot Camp and do real time x86-64 emulation.

Be fair. That is as much a legal or policy problem as it is a programming problem.

 

[Stevethekingjobs]

I hope not. That would be stupid. No one designs web pages with rounded corners in mind. Moreover, you lose screen real estate, for what...?

Totally agree with this. I really hope they don't go with curved corner display.

 

[09872738]

Sounds like you just have terrible dexterity and no muscle memory because that has not once happened to me. And you are not going to tell me that having a row of fixed keys compared to a row that allows for unlimited key options is better. That’s the same as saying that the design of the old phones like the palm treo or a blackberry before the iPhone is better than the design of an all touch screen layout. Steve already proved this concept with the iPhone. Virtual keys supersede fixed keys. The problem is dumb people like you that don’t want to move forward. But yet you love and don’t complain about your iPhone that doesn’t give true tactile feedback and has an entire virtual keyboard. Stop bashing the Touch Bar cuz you can’t seem to figure out how useful it is.

That is wrong. Apparently you did not grasp what Touch UI fixed versus what it didn‘t.
Jobs/Apple fixed the socalled smartphone, with its cramped keyboards due to lack of keyboard real estate.
The whole concept of a keyboard OTOH is based on keys that NEVER change, so that you can type on them without looking at them once you learned them. This is why keyboards are so very effective when writing; still way more effective than anything else known.

This is also why the Touch Bar (or Touch UI for that matter) does not - cannot! - work for skilled typists: because it gets in the way of fast typing. There may be some use cases where the Touch Bar makes sense, but in the general case it does not, at least not as a replacement of the F-Key Bar.

Situation here is not even remotely comparable to smartphones. Which is why Steve Jobs never advocated vitual keyboards with computers: those just make no sense. Same with touchscreens, btw

 

[AAreias]

No Touch Bar

Without the touch bar it goes from better to worse. So I think it is better to call Macbook Pro only Mac or only Apple because it no longer makes any sense to get free of the best idea they ever had for professionals.
I just don't believe Apple will give up on the touch bar.

 

[otternonsense]

Nah. This is just how true innovation works. A truly innovative company innovates. A good innovative company keeps the good innovations and trashes the bad ones. Not every idea is good. Realising what ideas to keep and what to toss helps you improve. A goods example is the trashcan vs cheese grater. Apple learned that the cheese grater is better and trashed the trashcan. I'm glad Apple tried the trashcan though.

Without taking risks on new innovation the good innovations might never come to pass and become adopted for the long haul. Also there's always something to learn from the not so good innovative ideas.

Not really. That's pie in the sky "innovation". Of course companies are allowed to fail and learn from failure. iTunes Ping, anyone? But there are some problems with Apple's recent approach, if you consider:

1) gimmicky features that feel like the tail is wagging the dog
2) baked-in features that have the potential to evolve into something better but Apple doesn't commit to their development and success (also e.g. 3D Touch)
3) some features come across as DOA and "what were you thinking" from the get-go

I feel the Touch Bar combines all of the above. Fine if you fail after an earnest effort, but who honestly did the legwork behind the research and user testing behind the TB and found out it was a good "innovative" idea that one-upped the TouchBars used on mid 00's laptops like HP's QuickPlay?

 

[otternonsense]

No Touch Bar

Without the touch bar it goes from better to worse. So I think it is better to call Macbook Pro only Mac or only Apple because it no longer makes any sense to get free of the best idea they ever had for professionals.
I just don't believe Apple will give up on the touch bar.

The "best idea ever" would have been to keep this trash optional.

Greetings,
A professional

 

[otternonsense]

What peripherals did you get that are suddenly this victim of Apple saying "nevermind"???

3 different hubs, largely for the HDMI because somehow not all of them are similarly compatible with external monitors used in our clients' offices, a few single-cable adapters, a magic keyboard to make up for the faulty built-in keyboard, oh and a couple new thumb drives because the A/C fluctuations of the 2016 MBP actually fried the ones I had.

Money down the drain.

 

[ruka.snow]

Would rather have no adapter than yes adapter. Nothing uses USB-C yet.

18 USB-C/TB3 devices here. Everything from my mirrorless camera to my tablet and external drives.
0 USB A devices, it has been 4 years. You replaced the cable or replaced the device by this stage.

It is 2021, professional laptops need modern connections.

P.S. Professionals also don't need SD readers, SD cards died and we use CF Express cards. Even when SD was still a thing, you couldn't plug it into the CF, XQD, or CFast slot on your pro camera.

 

[Mr.PT]

I bump it constantly in autocad [the escape key is used a lot], and have had to customise the layout of it as drove me mad. It’s fine since I did the customise however.
All other apps not so bad.

I think I would prefer permanent keys for volume, brightness, and spaces then a custom strip. So half and half... how about that for a compromise

Also use Autocad, so current version with physical Esc key seemed “Apple God” listen to my prayers...by now I’ve “distorted” my muscle memory to avoid accidental bumps, what bother me mostly is the need to awake up the thing...
Personally find it better for sound and bright adjustments (prefer a slide Comand for those). I think they should leave it for those you want and put back physical keys for those who find it abominable (though redundant design would feel awkwardly “unApple”).

 

[imikem]

I suppose I'll be one of those sorry to see the Touch Bar go. Some applications utilized it well and provided useful shortcuts, but it wouldn't be a dealbreaker to lose it, especially considering I use an external keyboard in my office.

 

[SSDGUY]

Does it make MBP to heat up more with the external display? I have purchased a new 4K 27 inch Eizo display and connected my 15” 2015 MBP to it. Things are working more or less OK, but I noticed that fans are running loud most of the time. I was planning to upgrade to a 14’ MBP with ARM chip when it comes out to use it with the Eizo monitor

It's been years since I ran an external display from a MBP but in my case, yes, temps were consistently higher w/ a connected display as opposed to the laptop only. Makes sense since the video card is working much harder. I usually ran mine "clamshelled" as I didn't want the laptop to mirror or act as a second monitor. That probably doesn't help temp issues, but having it open was a lot a lot different. I seldom work outside of my studio so a desktop (iMac) has been a reasonably good option, but a laptop portability is still a nice option.