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15" MBP without Touchbar

J

jjjoseph

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Sep 16, 2013
504
643
I've been frustrated since release, been waiting to get a new laptop since 2011.
Things I could figure out how to deal with. I would only buy an i7 with 460, and 1tb of storage, since that would be the only true upgrade for me.

my complaints.

1. Price, $3,499.00!!! OUCH!! Your paying double for a Macbook build with Pro tacked on the end.
Solution -- work more hours, take equity line of credit on the house.

2. AMD Radeon GPU, (even AMD admitted the 460 isn't good for gaming, well whats it good for? OpenCL is so MEH!)
Solution -- wait for Thunderbolt 3 to build eGPU expanders so you can have a REAL video card externally. FRUSTRATING, but possible.

3. Thunderbolt 3 ports.
Solution -- Dongle the crap outta everything, but wait until Apple figures out what dongles work.

4. 16GB of RAM.
Solution -- Don't work it too hard.. treat it like a little baby. Its about looks and weight not power.

5. TOUCHBAR. TOUCHBAR. TOUCHBAR. Why force users to adapt a gimmick to their laptop. I can't look at my keyboard while I'm tying. I can't jump from my trackpad to my keyboard to a gimmick touch bar without looking.
Solution -- NONE.

Crap, even when I calm down and try to figure out a way to make this laptop work.. The Touchbar just doesn't make any sense.

Apple if your listening. Make the Touchbar an OPTION, not a requirement.
Thank you.
 
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Completely agree! I would happily buy a non-touch bar Macbook Pro at a lesser price. To me the touch bar is gimmicky. Id rather pay less for a non-touch bar and spend the money by getting getting more storage space or a better graphics card.
 
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Don't get upset at this idea...

But is there another computer with the same specs that is less expensive?
 
jjjoseph said:
I would argue that the Touchbar isn't really a feature. Its more of an experiment.
Click to expand...

It is until more apps are written that take advantage of it. But, that does not matter. I still stick to my guess that the 15" will have the Touchbar simply because they are perceived by Apple to be the "premium model" (quad core CPU, 16GB of memory as default, 4 TB-3 ports, etc.)
 
jjjoseph said:
I've been frustrated since release, been waiting to get a new laptop since 2011.
Things I could figure out how to deal with. I would only buy an i7 with 460, and 1tb of storage, since that would be the only true upgrade for me.

my complaints.

1. Price, $3,499.00!!! OUCH!! Your paying double for a Macbook build with Pro tacked on the end.
Solution -- work more hours, take equity line of credit on the house.

2. AMD Radeon GPU, (even AMD admitted the 460 isn't good for gaming, well whats it good for? OpenCL is so MEH!)
Solution -- wait for Thunderbolt 3 to build eGPU expanders so you can have a REAL video card externally. FRUSTRATING, but possible.

3. Thunderbolt 3 ports.
Solution -- Dongle the crap outta everything, but wait until Apple figures out what dongles work.

4. 16GB of RAM.
Solution -- Don't work it too hard.. treat it like a little baby. Its about looks and weight not power.

5. TOUCHBAR. TOUCHBAR. TOUCHBAR. Why force users to adapt a gimmick to their laptop. I can't look at my keyboard while I'm tying. I can't jump from my trackpad to my keyboard to a gimmick touch bar without looking.
Solution -- NONE.

Crap, even when I calm down and try to figure out a way to make this laptop work.. The Touchbar just doesn't make any sense.

Apple if your listening. Make the Touchbar an OPTION, not a requirement.
Thank you.
Click to expand...

Is this a serious post? The solutions you have posted are borderline psychologically dangerous.

Equity on the house for a laptop?

Cave in to the additional X amount of dollars you would need to front for dongles?

Do not work it too hard?

You really need to evaluate your lifestyle and mental processing, and I say that with a straight face. Which means I'm not laughing at you, I'm putting some healthy advice on the table.

This community must have me fooled, I looked at it as a level headed place to talk shop with others who carried some degree of financial common sense. I usually see the exact opposit.

This place is the definition of compulsory consumerism. A majority of thread I read are people throwing money out the window for products that they not only don't need, but are probably not benefiting from due to a gap in todays performance specs vs real world use.

It is so frustrating for a Boglehead to browse these forums.
 
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fate0311 said:
Is this a serious post? The solutions you have posted are borderline psychologically dangerous.

Equity on the house for a laptop?

Cave in to the additional X amount of dollars you would need to front for dongles?

Do not work it too hard?

You really need to evaluate your lifestyle and mental processing, and I say that with a straight face. Which means I'm not laughing at you, I'm putting some healthy advice on the table.

This community had me fooled for a while, I looked at it as a level headed place to talk shop with a others who had at least a certain degree of minimalism.

Reality is this place is the definition of compulsory consumerism. A majority of you people throw money out the window for products that you not only don't need, but are probably are not benefiting more often than not due to a gap in todays performance specs vs real world use.
Click to expand...

Your right, you got me. I actually don't use Laptops for anything. I am actually not exactly sure what they are for... The last MacBook Pro I purchased I put on my desk, then did Instagram Photos of me and the laptop, selfies, me typing on it, with captions like, "Just finishing up my next award winning screenplay!" And my dating profile, "Glad I have one of these in each room of the house, they are too heavy to cary to each room."
 
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jjjoseph said:
Your right, you got me. I actually don't use Laptops for anything. I am actually not exactly sure what they are for... The last MacBook Pro I purchased I put on my desk, then did Instagram Photos of me and the laptop, selfies, me typing on it, with captions like, "Just finishing up my next award winning screenplay!" And my dating profile, "Glad I have one of these in each room of the house, they are too heavy to cary to each room."
Click to expand...

Your a weird dude.
 
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monkeydax said:
Just...buy the 2015 rMBP then!
Click to expand...
Totally. Let's do it. You and me. Together holding hands Thelma and Louise style. And split the bill.

BTW. I have been looking. The refurbished are selling like hot cakes, and inventory is dwindling.
 
I wouldn't mind a touch bar free version either. I use mine closed lid 99.9% of the time on my desk, external keyboard and mouse.

Why do I need the 15" Pro? Well, show me another Apple unit that has Quad Core and Thunderbolt 3. Those are the features I need, i'm happy they're available, but the touch bar is sooooo low on my list of wants.
 
cmaier said:
Okay, so argue it. What evidence do you have that it's not a feature?
Click to expand...
I actually don't have to. It will be argued aggressively when the Touchbar models hit the shelves, just wait a few weeks. And my opinion is as valid as any other long time mac user and investor. But anything that requires and extra level of coding by developers will always be put on a back burner. Imagine using all your resources to get a product on Linux, windows, android, OS X and iOS, then after all that figure out how to add a 12 inch wide touch area to your application. It will become a Gimick. An absolute after thought. Yes people could do something cool with it. Anything like that could find a cool home. But I don't see how developers will find it cost effective. Why the heck would a developer put resources into to something that will not sell them more licenses or downloads, and it will only sell more laptops. So Now Adobe lets you chooses photoshop layers on a little strip. If you don't want to use a couple mouse clicks to get somewhere, you can slide your finger back and forth on a bar. Not on your trackpad, that would be too easy, but on a different bar that changes colors. I don't see companies using resources for it. I mean possibly companies that only make Apple MacOS apps for the laptop. But how many companies make an application for that specific of a demographic.
 
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jerryk said:
It is until more apps are written that take advantage of it. But, that does not matter. I still stick to my guess that the 15" will have the Touchbar simply because they are perceived by Apple to be the "premium model" (quad core CPU, 16GB of memory as default, 4 TB-3 ports, etc.)
Click to expand...

Yep, both are 'right,' IMO.
It's an 'experiment' or ALL Apple hardware would have it...while Apple is meanwhile positioning it instead as 'premium' so unlikely we see an option to have a maxed 15" MBP without one, at least until Apple sorts where the 'experiment' winds up in the future.
 
jjjoseph said:
I actually don't have to. It will be argued aggressively when the Touchbar models hit the shelves, just wait a few weeks. And my opinion is as valid as any other long time mac user and investor. But anything that requires and extra level of coding by developers will always be put on a back burner. Imagine using all your resources to get a product on Linux, windows, android, OS X and iOS, then after all that figure out how to add a 12 inch wide touch area to your application. It will become a Gimick. An absolute after thought. Yes people could do something cool with it. Anything like that could find a cool home. But I don't see how developers will find it cost effective. Why the heck would a developer put resources into to something that will not sell them more licenses or downloads, and it will only sell more laptops. So Now Adobe lets you chooses photoshop layers on a little strip. If you don't want to use a couple mouse clicks to get somewhere, you can slide your finger back and forth on a bar. Not on your trackpad, that would be too easy, but on a different bar that changes colors. I don't see companies using resources for it. I mean possibly companies that only make Apple MacOS apps for the laptop. But how many companies make an application for that specific of a demographic.
Click to expand...

Developers already are. Microsoft. Adobe. Certainly all the boutique Mac-only developers will. And all the open source stuff will get toucher support. So who's left?
 
jjjoseph said:
I actually don't have to. It will be argued aggressively when the Touchbar models hit the shelves, just wait a few weeks. And my opinion is as valid as any other long time mac user and investor. But anything that requires and extra level of coding by developers will always be put on a back burner. Imagine using all your resources to get a product on Linux, windows, android, OS X and iOS, then after all that figure out how to add a 12 inch wide touch area to your application. It will become a Gimick. An absolute after thought. Yes people could do something cool with it. Anything like that could find a cool home. But I don't see how developers will find it cost effective. Why the heck would a developer put resources into to something that will not sell them more licenses or downloads, and it will only sell more laptops. So Now Adobe lets you chooses photoshop layers on a little strip. If you don't want to use a couple mouse clicks to get somewhere, you can slide your finger back and forth on a bar. Not on your trackpad, that would be too easy, but on a different bar that changes colors. I don't see companies using resources for it. I mean possibly companies that only make Apple MacOS apps for the laptop. But how many companies make an application for that specific of a demographic.
Click to expand...

Agreed, but let's wait and see.
Pencil support + OLED overlay on the new gigantic trackpad may be where it leads to...in a year or two.
 
wegster said:
Yep, both are 'right,' IMO.
It's an 'experiment' or ALL Apple hardware would have it...while Apple is meanwhile positioning it instead as 'premium' so unlikely we see an option to have a maxed 15" MBP without one, at least until Apple sorts where the 'experiment' winds up in the future.
Click to expand...

What? They ONLY updated their pro laptop line. And where would the touch bar go on an iMac or a Mac Pro?
 
xWhiplash said:
What? They ONLY updated their pro laptop line. And where would the touch bar go on an iMac or a Mac Pro?
Click to expand...
The 13" 'base' MBP would have it, along with updates coming via new Apple keyboards for the Pro and iMacs..
'Experiment' until it's standard equipment across all computer lines they offer, IMO.
 
jjjoseph said:
Totally. Let's do it. You and me. Together holding hands Thelma and Louise style. And split the bill.

BTW. I have been looking. The refurbished are selling like hot cakes, and inventory is dwindling.
Click to expand...
.. :) you can dream.
 
killawat said:
I wouldn't mind a touch bar free version either. I use mine closed lid 99.9% of the time on my desk, external keyboard and mouse.

Why do I need the 15" Pro? Well, show me another Apple unit that has Quad Core and Thunderbolt 3. Those are the features I need, i'm happy they're available, but the touch bar is sooooo low on my list of wants.
Click to expand...

Surely a desktop is a better option for you then??
 
If the touchbar were offered as an upgrade option, and I could get the same laptop for $300 less just without the touchbar, I would get the Macbook Pro without the touchbar for 100% sure.
 
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