Actual MBP 2016 users, please tell me the truth!

[mousematt]

The impression I get browsing these (and other) forums is that the 2016 MBP is a complete disaster and I would be better to burn my money in the garden and use the ashes to write on my walls.

I have a use-case for a 15-inch MBP but all the negativity has made me very wary of spending so much money on something that so many people seem to think is a lemon.

What's the truth? What are your real experiences with this thing? Particularly interested in base model 15-inch.

 

[pvanberlo]

I'm more than happy with mine. Yes, battery could be better, but that's about it.

 

[therealseebs]

I would shy away from "complete disaster". That said? I'd absolutely get a 2015 instead. And did.

I couldn't stand it at all, the keyboard being the key dealbreaker for me. But overall, it's just moved so much further away from what I want in laptops that it's really not a good fit at all. I was going to have two, one personal and one for work (there's reasons not to have those be the same computer). I ended up with a 2015 as my work machine, and a Dell precision as my personal use machine.

My spouse had one, and he was basically okay with it, but then it died (suddenly stopped accepting AC power; I saw maybe 6 other people who had the same problem within a few days of the same time, but haven't seen much about it since), and we looked at how long it would take to replace, and got him a 2015 as well. Which he likes better; he uses function keys, the touchbar was useless to him, he likes magsafe, and he likes the old keyboards better.

Since then, my employer's adopted a policy that they will buy you any laptop you want except the 2016 MBP, which they won't buy any more of until things improve a lot.

 

[Sully]

I owned a 2007 15” MacBook Pro. Over the years I had upgraded the RAM and added an SSD. This worked. But, only OK. I was compromised on certain parts of my work flow. I had wanted to upgrade when the 2015 machines came out but I didn’t want “old” technology since I replace computers infrequently. So, I waited for Sky Lake.

I purchased the top spec 13” model at my local Apple store. Because of past issues with the dGPU, I passed on the 15 “ after almost buying it. I had been going back and forth on the size since I carry my computer to the office each day and travel with it. In the store, I felt that the 15” had a huge footprint and that the 13” would be big enough. So far it is.

These forums have taken all of the joy out of my purchase. Reading the forums, I’m apprehensive about my computer. I keep looking for issues and I’m worried about my machine failing. So, ownership isn’t as fun as it should be. But, so far, I’ve had no issues.

Coming from a 2007, my new computer is wonderful. It’s quick, has a beautiful screen, and the USB C is way faster than what I had. I don’t miss the ports because I never had them on my old machine and I was using a lot of dongles to connect anyway.

I was shopping against the XPS and the Surface Book. The Surface Book was more money than my MacBook Pro. It was nice and I kind of liked Windows 10. But, it didn’t have USB C and I like the Apple environment. The XPS just didn’t feel as well built as the Mac. So, I stayed with Apple.

My advice is that if you need a computer now, you should feel comfortable buying these Macs. The Surface Book is a nice option, but until it gets a USB C connection, I think it’s compromised. Plus, you need to make peace with Windows 10, something I wasn’t prepared to do. These Macs are very powerful and the port issues everyone is complaining about are minor. However, if you can wait, given all of the complaints, I’d wait a year.

 

[teerexx52]

My 15" 2.7 stock is just great! I have had no problems at all.

 

[mousematt]

These forums have taken all of the joy out of my purchase.

I joined these forums in about February last year in anticipation of the launch of the Apple Watch. I've been addicted to them ever since. But they do make me feel very negative about Apple and Apple products, despite the fact that my own experience is mostly very positive.

I don't need a new MBP -- I currently have a 13-inch Early 2015 MBP -- but I can see a case for having a 15-inch rather than a 13. It is a huge amount of money to spend, and I'd want to be utterly delighted by my purchase. I'm pretty delighted by all my other Apple products to be honest.

 

[Trixs]

Don't know about the 15", but I dig my 13" non-touchbar.

 

[chabig]

I love my 13" touch bar. Don't let a bunch of loud internet whiners scare you away. Make up your own mind. They are Apple's most powerful laptops.

 

[Ma2k5]

If you aren't happy with 2016 I'm not sure buying 2015 is answer. The 2016 hasn't got inherent flaws but rather chosen design - at the cost of some features or function. It represents what they want the machines to be and is a good indicator of future MacBooks (imo). Future MacBooks are unlikely to revert to 2015 design wise - so is it worth buying into an ecosystem which you aren't happy with how it's going by buying a 2015 model?

I'm all for people going for older model due to financial reasons and/or non-2016 model critical reasons - but not for feature specific reasons - as you just end up being on a dying boat.

Some people if not most will like he new model, some won't.

 

[Hawaiian Starman]

Just helped a friend set up her new 15" MBP (500GB SSD; 2.9GHz i5; 16GB RAM). Very nice machine and relatively light compared to my 2012 MBP. Quite slim for a MBP. Beautiful/vivid screen. I didn't think I'd like the keyboard touch, but after a brief adjustment period turns out I do. Quite quick typing. Toolbar is a great add-on and will only get better as 3rd party developers add to the mix. I personally wish the machine were upgradeable for RAM as well as HD. Transfer rates to USB 3 devices via USB-C were quite quick. Dongles not really an issue except a bit unsightly. No opinion about battery as machine remained on AC for my setup purposes. Migration from a time machine backup went smoothly.

 

[SoyCapitanSoyCapitan]

The Leica of computers. We always wanted Apple to be a well crafted luxury brand, not just a niche brand. Now it has achieved that.

They just need to stop releasing a new OS every year - it presents a problem because rebuilding an OS so frequently means new bugs become more frequent too. Apple should stick to one OS for a few years and keep refining it. It's easy to add the new features to a mature OS.

 

[mousematt]

For what it's worth, I don't care about ports at all. I have nothing to plug into them except power. I'd lose MagSafe, but I'd gain being able to plug the power cable on the left or the right, which adds some convenience.

I'd be using Safari, Mail, Word, Excel, InDesign and Illustrator. No video editing. No Photoshop.

 

[sflomenb]

My 15" is great!

For what it's worth, I don't care about ports at all. I have nothing to plug into them except power. I'd lose MagSafe, but I'd gain being able to plug the power cable on the left or the right, which adds some convenience.

I'd be using Safari, Mail, Word, Excel, InDesign and Illustrator. No video editing. No Photoshop.

Even better. The ports are a total non-issue for you then.

 

[jk76]

I'm more than happy with mine. Yes, battery could be better, but that's about it.

I'm quite fine with mine. Price (4000+ euros for this model, with VAT - but optimal price point is one of those where personal opinion and thickness of the wallet is more important than popular opinion) was the primary cause of some hyperventilation, but battery life is actually considerably better than my old, battery-replaced 2012 rMBP. That is, on mostly idle and low display brightness configuration. Touch bar is mostly pointless at this point, but I believe certain applications I use make it useful on an upgrade. Also, I don't really miss the function row because I have never really used it for anything but media controls.

In general (things I didn't explicitly mention), I'm happy with the machine. Please note that basis for purchase was the fact my 2012 rMBP had seen quite a lot of use - probably at least 7000 lid open-close cycles, and daily transport. Mechanical failure of some sort has to happen at some point, and I want to sell that laptop before that happens. Also, if I want serious compute, I buy Amazon EC2 capacity...

 

[Karnicopia]

It's the best laptop I've ever owned and by a fairly significant margin. My first MacBook and I'm coming from a few Asus gaming laptops and I've always had Lenovo work laptops. To me the 15" is portable enough where I wouldn't mind taking it anywhere and it's great as an actual laptop. The screen, keyboard, trackpad, and speakers are all better than anything I've seen in a laptop. For all the grief people were giving the keyboard I really enjoy it. The travel means I don't press hard and the bigger keys and even keystroke make it really accurate and easy to type on. Less force and movement to me means less fatigue and I really do glide across this keyboard when I got used to it. Just really fast accurate and low movement.

USB c doesn't really bother me as I have one travel adapter that has any port I would need and replaced usb cables with usbc cables for $3-$6. Charging on either side is really convenient too, I use this so much it's really an underrated aspect of the machine as well as the fact that it pretty much completely charges in an hour and a half, while I'm using it. Magsafe sounds good but I think I'll just pick up one of those adapters when they get the size down and can power the 15" (the Kickstarter looks good but I'll just wait till they actually ship something).

It's fast and handles everything I've thrown at it, I don't have the base model but I don't imagine you would have any issues with the base model. I get 10 hours browsing and about 6-7 if I have things plugged in or push it. I'm sure if I gamed non stop or really pushed it I would drop further but I'm fine with the battery life and for that I'd probably at a desk anyway. If you are concerned about this though it may not hurt to wait and see what happens, Consumer Reports just kind of threw down the gauntlet so Apple should respond but personally I haven't had too many problems with battery life outside of the first couple days where spotlight was running but the longer term ones were my email synching and my photo agent running. Those took a few days since it's probably a lot of data wirelessly where the spotlight indexing was done in the first day.

Also some of the people complaining are testing the battery while driving external monitors or devices so you really have to take some of it with a grain of salt. There are some valid concerns, some that was fixed through software changes, some that is from external devices and some is just noise from people that don't own the devices. The fact that everyone isn't having battery issues (even review websites that are trained on testing battery) though is fairly optimistic, the fact that consumer reports ran the same exact tests and got wildly different results on the same laptop also makes me think this is software related. If the battery was just too small, the battery would always be to small. I will say though it doesn't hurt to wait it out and see if apple responds.

 

[lmitch6]

Remember that what you read on forums is a small subset of the general user population. In other words, take all of this with a grain of salt. People are more likely to come online to discuss an issue with a product, whether real or perceived, than they are to sing an it's praises. I read both computer and photography forums, and level of noise is the same. If the features fit your needs, go for it!

 

[JustinRP37]

It really is a great computer, but man it is also the buggiest Mac I have ever owned. Yes the bugs will be worked out with software updates, but good god, do the engineers and programmers actually use them before shipping them? I do get the feeling that Bloomberg was on to something with its piece about Mac development this week. I love the computer, but it is more like Windows than any other Mac I have ever used. External monitor attached while the Mac is sleep? You never know what to expect when it turns on. Will the touch bar turn on with the screen, one, both, or neither? The dock has also randomly frozen several times for me and touch bar just turned off once for no reason and wouldn't come back on. However, when the computer is running, it runs great and is super fast. I love the design and the keyboard is actually really great. But these bugs have to go, especially for the cost of the machine. Yes battery life is all over the place as well. Mine has not been as bad as CR, but it definitely is not stable. We'll see what happens in the next few months. But please Apple fix the external monitor sleep glitch!

 

[Jaekae]

The Leica of computers. We always wanted Apple to be a well crafted luxury brand, not just a niche brand. Now it has achieved that.

They just need to stop releasing a new OS every year - it presents a problem because rebuilding an OS so frequently means new bugs become more frequent too. Apple should stick to one OS for a few years and keep refining it. It's easy to add the new features to a mature OS.

Yeah one OS per year is apples biggest flaw. Its always by the time they finally make it stable they release a new one and has to start over again, and that new ones breaks stuff for 3rd party devolopers too so they have to start fixing new stuff that takes months for them. Soon 3rd party developers will get tired of apple and stop doing it..

 

[sunapple]

Love my 15" MacBook Pro with 2.6 and 460 graphics. A very fast and capable machine, can handle basically everything you throw at it.

Furthermore, 15" screen is so great I ditched my external 27" monitor. Now I use just the MacBook with Twelve South Baselift (awesome foldable stand!) so I'm also using the keyboard, trackpad and Touch Bar full time. Keyboard is very precise, trackpad is of the right size and Touch Bar is a nice feature (waiting on further support from 3rd party apps).

Speakers are louder than anything I've heard from a laptop, size and weight are great, Space Grey looks awesome, haven't had any hardware or software issues except a single glitch.

Oh and the ports, you need to adapt, but it doesn't have to be a problem. I just use a USB-A-adapter and I'm set, HDMI adapter in the bag for beamers.

 

[colinwil]

The impression I get browsing these (and other) forums is that the 2016 MBP is a complete disaster and I would be better to burn my money in the garden and use the ashes to write on my walls.

I have a use-case for a 15-inch MBP but all the negativity has made me very wary of spending so much money on something that so many people seem to think is a lemon.

What's the truth? What are your real experiences with this thing? Particularly interested in base model 15-inch.

My 15" 2.7Ghz 460 DGPU is pretty perfect - at least for what I use it for...

- I write software for a large UK retail company - using XCode/Swift for iOS and macOS, and Android Studio/Java for Android. That's the 'pro' bit taken care of - It's fast and satisfying to use for that.

- My 15000-ish photos are already in iCloud, so the Photos app tends to be what I use. No problems with this at all. Also Pixelmator if I ever want to edit the photos more, or design icons for work apps, etc.

- Occasionally edit simple videos with Final Cut Pro X.

- The only game I play is WoW - which runs pretty flawlessly, with acceptable framerates at good graphics settings , with the native macOS version,

As far as the complaints go - none really:

- I haven't come across any graphics or other hardware-type glitches.

- The battery life seems fine - I have separate chargers at home and work anyway, but I tend not to bother with the one at work.

- I'm hoping that the world will adopt TB3/USB-C and I'll eventually be able to get rid of my USB-C to USB-A dongle. I'm hoping Apple didn't back the wrong horse (for reasons that seem valid at the time) - like they did with Firewire.

- The complaints about only 16Gb of RAM seem faintly absurd. 16Gb is tons for a laptop!

- The keyboard is great.

- I find myself using the Touchbar more and more - for doing simple things that would otherwise require me to use the touchpad (or my external Apple mouse) - eg. quickly switching tabs in Safari and Activity Monitor, doing stuff in Mail, etc. But it's still a bit of a gimmick.

- The size/weight/build is perfect - though it's a bit heavier than you'd think from looking at it.

 

[suleman_kh]

For me the laptop is perfect, only problems are getting it connected with my 3 external displays, and use the ports on these displays which I have been using it before. Otherwise I love it very much. But If I knew it was such a problem I would not have switched to this model yet, maybe next model and when more supported cables are out.

 

[Easttime]

Love my 15" MacBook Pro with 2.6 and 460 graphics. A very fast and capable machine, can handle basically everything you throw at it. Furthermore, 15" screen is so great I ditched my external 27" monitor. ... Keyboard is very precise, trackpad is of the right size and Touch Bar is a nice feature (waiting on further support from 3rd party apps). Speakers are louder than anything I've heard from a laptop, size and weight are great, ... haven't had any hardware or software issues except a single glitch. Oh and the ports, you need to adapt, but it doesn't have to be a problem. I just use a USB-A-adapter and I'm set, HDMI adapter in the bag for beamers.

That about sums it up for me and my 13". Luxury price and luxury machine. Battery has not been a big issue. I'm usually plugged in anyway when I do serious work for long periods. Use my iPad for browsing and email anyway. Hope it doesn't need repair in next 5+ years. Hope the OS doesn't bloat so 16 GB RAM chokes. But for now it's a very nice experience indeed.

 

[mousematt]

Thank you everyone. Very helpful.

I've pulled the trigger on a base 15-inch model, for delivery in mid-January. I can always return it if it doesn't feel right or I get buyer's remorse!

Anyone want to buy a 13-inch, Early 2015 MBP? (LOL)

 

[Zigman]

The impression I get browsing these (and other) forums is that the 2016 MBP is a complete disaster and I would be better to burn my money in the garden and use the ashes to write on my walls.

I have a use-case for a 15-inch MBP but all the negativity has made me very wary of spending so much money on something that so many people seem to think is a lemon.

What's the truth? What are your real experiences with this thing? Particularly interested in base model 15-inch.

I highly recommend it, I have the 15" TB 2.9/1TB/460 and have to say it's the nicest designed laptop I have used. There is no laptop in the market that has his level of power in such a small size. That being said my touchid button is a little loose, though works fine, other than that I don't really have any problems with the computer.

Other than the 16GB memory limitation, I really don't understand how this laptop can not be "pro" since it's just as fast if not faster than most slim workstations (not the large and heavy ones) in the markets, at a fraction of the GPU heat/power usage. Also the battery although not as good as the 15" is more than most workstation laptops in the market by 25-50%.

Also for those who complain about dongles, it's inteteresting that people would rather not pay $25-50 for a few adapters and have less Thunderbolt 3 ports which are meant for pro use. Something this thin to have 4 thunderbolt 3 ports is pretty awesome for the long run.

Just my $0.02, everyone has different use cases so it may not be the best fit for all. I have to say I love mine.

 

[Guy Mancuso]

I have a maxed out 15 see below and it's really nice and I'm a power user and have no issues at all. Period works like it should , like the new ports.