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Apple Adds 2016 MacBook Pro Without Touch Bar to Refurbished Store [Updated]
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Now now .....that MacBook Air was about innovation that only apple could achieve, it even fit into a foldernever aimed at pros...hence it lost ports to achieve form over function . The innovation at the time was limited by components ....hence the issues it had.
The MacBook Air moment was like the 2007 iPhone. Both of which were overpriced btw and received a price dropped once apple realised they were on a winner .
You cannot compare the MacBook Air launch to the 2016 model....nothing in the 2016 is being held back by 2017 tech except for ....battery
Just about everything you've said above also applies to the 2016 MBP. The 2016 MBP is very innovative if one's outlook isn't predisposed to ragging on Apple, which btw, occurred when the original MBA was released. Ditto for the iPhone.
Try and understand what a "Pro" really is. Pro computer users are simply people who work in business environments that use computers. They're not limited to what many here personally romanticize as Walter Murch film editors. I know just as many "pros" using MacBook Air laptops as those using MacBook Pros. The word "Pro" is attached to all sorts of consumer-level products, Sony's PlayStation Pro is a great example.
Stated differently, "Pro" is just a label that differentiates a bump in performance/features relative to lower cost/performance models. Most people, outside of some here on MR who use that as whine-worthy fodder, understand that.
"nothing in the 2016 is being held back by 2017 tech except for ....battery"
The same limitations that pushed the envelope with the original MBA apply to the 2016 MBP. The CPU is a great example. For the last few years Intel's updates have been few, delayed, and very incremental performance increases. Thus "innovation" is limited by components as well with the MBP, even though its extremely high-performance and flexible I/O in compact form is clearly innovative for a laptop.
The 2008 MBA with limited technology, coupled with removing almost all ports, the optical drive, SD slot, ethernet, etc resulted in a laptop heavily loaded with profit priced at $1799.
Like the original MBA and previous MBPs, the price for the current MBP will drop while its performance increases as technology evolves.
Or a lot more non-TB were sold...so an increased chance of a return/refurb cropping up.
Still a ripoff. If you want to bring prices on these things down to earth, wait for Best Buy to put them on sale. Happens every couple weeks lately. Then go buy an Open Box model. They're still covered under the same return policy if anything is wrong, and 9/10 times were owned by someone who used it for a week and was smacked by buyers remorse so are in excellent if not mint condition.
That was my reaction in the store when I found out there are limited options for button customizations. However the upcoming version of BetterTouchTool (available for beta download) fixes this. Thank God for BTT - been using it for years, and its developer is so good with features/code. Don't have to believe me, someone wrote an extensive blog post on how BTT improved his interactions with the tbMBP. Highly recommend the page below - shows the touchbar potential in a good developer's hands. (That last statement applies to how much better BTT has made the magic mouse and trackpad work for me all these years. Sorry, but imho Apple now only provides the simplest Preferences options with iWatch Edition owners being their design target):
https://medium.com/productivity-fre...lly-customize-your-new-touch-bar-ea42ec66f42c
You missed my point, the first generation macbook air was not fit for purpose, weather you were a pro or not, its GPU could not even run youtube....it was not till the second generation that it was useable.
The 2016 is nothing like the original macbook air, its just a slow evolution of the current Macbook pro with some elements from the macbook....no WOW about it when it was launched.
Again the 2008 MBA was not useable even for the consumer ......in 2008 CPUs were still underperforming unlike today. Today a 2012 macbook retina CPU is competitive, its the advances in Storage that have leaped . The issue with the 2008 MBA was also storage.....its was SSD that made these laptops a new breed.
In my opinion there is nothing innovative about the 2016 macbook pro....its just an evolution step..... its not even got major tech advantage, TB3 is useless over TB2 for the average consumer.
What is the selling point of the 2016 Macbook pro, the original air was size/weight, the 2012 was again size and weight...... the 2016....a slight weight loss.... compared to the major weight cuts of the previous 2.....meh in my opinion. TB3 over TB2....meh.....pass.
The problem is Apple has never set a precedent for dropping prices as the rest of the industry evolves. It's "this is our product, buy it or don't".
All good point. I don't agree with Apple's elimination of all useful ports and then just telling people to connect things outside with dongles.
They did the same with the Mac Pro. If you see one in an office it 's funny how it looks like a kraken with all the cables, Maybe personal taste, but a portable all in one would be incredible to have.
Imagine a 17 inch (sniff/sob , I stopped using my 2008, too many beach balls), with 1 TB SSD upgradeable, memory upgradeable and a removable Superdrive, hot swappable for another SSD possibly evenSSD RAID (As the Superdrive takes up lots of space) and card slot.
What a beast.
With today's technology much less weight than the original.
One would never need a desktop, only a larger monitor, which btw is what I do with MBPs now.
Not entirely sure about that. They have dropped prices on some things historically, and made new SKU's available to lure in new customers, etc.
BUT I would say that's certainly gone away in recent years now that Apple is so set on positioning itself as a purveyor of luxury goods rather than just a pure technology company. And prices of of luxury goods (e.g. Rolex, etc) generally only seem to go one way - northwards.
I got an open box from bestbuy for a pretty good deal. I regret buying it though to be honest. Other than the screen my 2013 macbook air is just a far superior computer
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I actually think no touchbar is an advantage!
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I actually think no touchbar is an advantage!
Makes me even happier for just buying the last gen model new, for $999.
These new prices are nuts.
and in two. three years - I will be able to load up the memory and SSL of my prior generation for dirt cheap - and probably have a machine that will outlive the usefulness of the new model with it's soldered in components.
These new prices are nuts.
and in two. three years - I will be able to load up the memory and SSL of my prior generation for dirt cheap - and probably have a machine that will outlive the usefulness of the new model with it's soldered in components.
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Can get a new (not refurb'd) HP Envy 13 with i7 Kaby Lake, 512GB SSD, 3200x1800 display, 16GB RAM for a bit over $1600. Windows 10, of course, but then you're not overpaying for the Apple logo. (No, I'm not a Windows troll; I own both Macs and PCs.) Oh, almost forgot: You also won't have that numb excuse for a keyboard.
I bought my late-2013 rMBP with 16GB and a 516 SSD in Oct 2013 for $2,050. The new model here is likely better in every aspect except perhaps for battery and ports. And it has twice as much storage.
This philosophy - all over mac rumors - drives me insane.
There are not two groups of people: pros and casual users.
It is not a dichotomy between pros who edit high definition videos for feature length films and casual users who scroll Facebook.
I'm an english teacher, which means I do some photoshop, some iMovie, some word processing, some garageband, some screencasts, some manic 10-tab web searches, some powerpoint, some excel, some google docs, some podcasting - and since they're all part of my lesson planning, I need them all at the same time, and I need them to work fast, together, now.
I don't fall into the "pro" category, but I'm also not scrolling instgram all day, LOLing at cats. I find the MBA a little underpowered. I think there are huge numbers of users like me. I think we're a lot. What does it serve to say "well, you know, you're not a pro... You're a casual."
I think the current (13") MBP looks great for people like me. I hope that Apple - or someone - develops something more badass and powerful for those who need it, continues to make lightweight things like the 12" MB for my now-retired mother. All our use cases count.
That's why I buy Apple only from the refurb store.
My comment was aimed at the price of a 13" "pro" machine. There is very little to justify the price beyond the fact that people will buy it. I wish that Apple would have a serious loss of profit soon to force them either back in the innovation business or just get out of the computer business. The stagnation of the Cook era is really getting annoying.
Buy a 2015 MacBook
Everybody knows the MBP 2016 is for consumers I hear superior specs are also only available on the TB models.