Apple Unveils Redesigned MacBook Pro With Notch, Added Ports, ProMotion Mini-LED Display, M1 Pro or M1 Max Chip, and More

[alit]

Apple is just disappointing customers... notch everywhere, removing and again putting back old ports, thicker and heavier laptops... still no underscreen fingerprint in iPhone...
Maybe we need to wait another decade to have a gadget fulfilling what we want and meanwhile competitors have already all we want !!

 

[germinator]

AAAarrrrghhhh... now that Jony is gone I expected a stop to the crap that Apple has been doing to the MBP for the last 10 years.

And the new MBP are mostly alright--except they did another huge blunder with the notch.

There's really NO REASON to have a notch. It splits the menu bar, breaking continuity in it. And what for? It doesn't even have faceID (which I would immediately turn off anyway).

Try to watch a movie with a notch. It's not funny.

Prices are insane as well. Why is the 16" so much more expensive? Larger screen and battery? Before there was a reason (dGPU), but now you can get the same performance on the 14". RAM prices are highway robbery, too.

 

[e.clinton]

The notch is ugly, but preferred for thinner bezels. Better solution than what the XPS 13 does with the nostril angle

 

[thunng8]

Try to watch a movie with a notch. It's not funny.

Movie are mostly 21:9 or 16:9. The content won't even touch the notch.

 

[MBX]

The notch won’t be in the way when watching movies in fullscreen or opening apps in full screen because fullscreen mode only opens right up to the edge of the notch.

I still don’t like it though.

 

[MedRed]

does it use power from the brick or use the battery while charging? I ask because in old times it did the latest and my batteries got worn out while i believed they where unused.

I don't know, My 2015 has a design capacity of 96% per coconut battery and my full charge capacity is at 95.2%. I know the newer Macs have better battery lifecycle management.

 

[otakuon]

I will still be sticking with my 2019 16 inch MBP for awhile. If they are going to put a notch on a laptop, then it better at least have FaceID. So strange that these don't have that. Sure, better camera is great for FaceTime, but that is what I have a 2021 iPad Pro for. Plus, I am still not convinced that the M1 chips have the all around performance needed for doing many different tasks with a single machine. Longer battery life is nice, but doesn't do me much good if I only get up to 21 hours by just watching movies. I do appreciate having MagSafe back although by now I have largely moved on and embraced the universality of USB-C charging since so many other devices support this now as well (no need for proprietary power adapters anymore). HDMI and SD slots are nice to have back on the machine, but many of us now have generic USB-C pocket docks that you can get for about $20 on Amazon that include all these ports and work with our MBPs, iPads, Windows laptops and even the Nintendo Switch for good measure.

Anyway, going to let things marinate for a bit more and check back in a year and see what Apple has come up with for the next batch.

EDIT: Oh, and I am one of those weirdos that actually likes the TouchBar. I get that most MBP users either hated it or were ambivalent about it, but for the few apps that actually made full use of it, it was a handy feature to have. Oh well....I will continue to enjoy it while I still have a machine that uses it.

 

[Lestdog]

I bet you a dollar Monterey will make the menu skip over the notch.

So less room for all the menu items then, still not good.

 

[RaoulDuke42]

I’m pretty sure they made em’ ugly on purpose. Get the people talking about how function over form has returned and hey now there’s the fugly to iterate away in future offerings. Good stuff.

 

[anson42]

Try to watch a movie with a notch. It's not funny.

Let's dispel this one. In full screen mode, only the 16:10 area below the notch is in use. Your movie content, if it were to stretch to the top of that area, would not be affected by the notch at all. And of course watching a movie in a window could not be affected because you can't move a window into the notch vertical space.

Aside from looks, really the only negative of the notch is that it will take away some horizontal space of the menu bar. I feel that is an issue that is way overblown. Yes, some apps will be affected. Yes, application developers may relocate some menu items to accommodate. Maybe there's even a Monterey option to move the menu bar back down below the notch for those who really can't stand it.

 

[anson42]

like I said, if you arent doing **** like this, then this MacBook Pro is unnecessary and you should leave it for someone who will do something useful with it besides browse the web.

I don't fully agree with what you wrote as folks are free to spend their money any way they want. But that said, there are use cases where just the long battery life alone provided by the 16" machine will lead to purchases.

 

[Lt69oX]

Yep, useless ports most people will never use.

Do you know how many people use HDMI for presentations? Give me a break.

 

[Lt69oX]

This MacBook Pro looks incredible. 64 GB of unified memory is insane for a laptop. Even includes HDMI, MagSafe and an SD card slot!

I’m currently using the new M1 iMac as my main computer and it is so much faster than my previous Intel iMac

Once I start going back to traveling, I’m going to need a MacBook Pro so I’m definitely planning on getting one by next fall or whenever there is another update to the MBP

Yeah for professionals, this will be great. M1 is already fast, but this will be so much faster. It's gonna be great to have 64GB vs 16GB in the M1.

 

[canopic]

AAAarrrrghhhh... now that Jony is gone I expected a stop to the crap that Apple has been doing to the MBP for the last 10 years.

And the new MBP are mostly alright--except they did another huge blunder with the notch.

There's really NO REASON to have a notch. It splits the menu bar, breaking continuity in it. And what for? It doesn't even have faceID (which I would immediately turn off anyway).

Try to watch a movie with a notch. It's not funny.

Prices are insane as well. Why is the 16" so much more expensive? Larger screen and battery? Before there was a reason (dGPU), but now you can get the same performance on the 14". RAM prices are highway robbery, too.

The notch is NOT cutting into ANY actual content, especially full screen content like movies EVER, and if you discount the screen beside the notch it's a standard 16x10 aspect ratio. The only content that ever goes up there is the menu bar. Think about things more.

There is a reason to have the notch, have you seen bezel less-laptops recently with their stupid little slide out cameras and cameras that pop up from a key and shoot right up your nostrils? They are ****ing stupid. People who praise these solutions and **** on the notch are stupid.

This is the best solution - adding extra screen strips beside the camera array, and leaving the camera array sensibly where it should be, at a decent size so it can pick up a good amount of light.

Prices are not insane. In fact, per unit of performance, they are pretty amazing, certainly better than the competition. Where do you live? Maybe your economy/currency is weak right now.

 

[canopic]

At this point in time, it really looks like Apple is engaging in a customer psychology experiment to see just how far they can go with silliness and people still buy and defend.

But those who embrace the notch (and rounded corners) are implicitly admitting that it's about form not function, because missing screen information is not an issue for them.

Hopefully the winking face means you are being sarcastic.

 

[baryon]

This is a ridiculous argument. You should not depend on what the environment has. For example, just two years ago almost, I had to use a projector that had VGA instead of HDMI. Now would I look like a less "professional" if I didn't prepare for this scenario?

No because VGA nowadays is rare and is being phased out. HDMI, however, is present on all new projectors and TVs. HDMI is a current standard that is not being phased out, and therefore, is being actively used. If you give a presentation anywhere, you will almost certainly need HDMI.

 

[dzankizakon]

The rest of the working creatives that the machine is intended for will not give two wet ***** about the notch. After a few days of ownership, you'll ignore it just like you've learned to ignore your iPhone notch.

It’s still super ugly and distracting.

 

[Kilibee]

Well, do I like the notch? Nope. Can I live with it? Definitely.

I'm totally confident that a lot of people are working on solutions for this. Possibly black menu bars will become the norm sooner or later, rendering the notch invisible.

Having a better web cam is a very welcome improvement, and totally useful.

 

[klky]

It's been several years since I've used a MacBook or MacBook Pro. I was quite surprised that Apple didn't release any sleeves or covers for these latest models. Is this unusual or do they typically release these later on?

 

[phillytim]

My critique about yesterday's MBPro-14/16 release:

1. if Apple is going to have a notch, then it should include FaceID here in 2021.

2. Theoretically - base MacBook Pro prices *shouldn't* have increased, since Apple: a) doesn't expense for pricey Intel chips anymore (touted as cost-savings), and b) still insists on keeping a "Pro" as a sealed (unable to upgrade internal ssd/ram/etc) disposable appliance.

3. Having triple (and then added multiples) M1-series chips leads to convolute the product lines

4. Apple is now using year-old technology (M1-series is based upon last year's A14 chips), and should have the A15-based M2-series ready for these new MacBook Pros

5. I am still *not* buying into this first-get Silicon (M1); I will wait for M2-based Macs, IF I don't decide to upgrade to a Windows laptop in the meantime (where I can upgrade the SSD & RAM without extortionist prices).

6. Windows will *not* run on Apple Silicon; therefore, Macs are devalued for those of us who paid the premium for one computer to be able to run both macOS *and* Windows.

7. Apple should return replaceable RAM/SSD/battery, for Right To Repair, while it returns ports.

 

[DeepIn2U]

So weird. The iPad Pro has face id with no notch and promotion.

Why the notch on this mbp? It seems ill- designed. Windows does hello for facial recognition so it’s hard to believe that much space is needed........

It’s the 4-element lens that’s caused the need for the notch as it’s a single contained module assembled pre-production of the lid.

 

[DeepIn2U]

I sincerely dont get the notch hate. Typing on my macbook pro right now, theres a big thick black bezel, then the top Apple menu bar, so the working space starts an inch from the top of the metal enclosure. With the new design, it pushes the apple menu bar up, and the notch occupies a space I basically never use anyway. Its, actually not bad. My iPhone X has a notch and I dont even think about it. Im surprised no one is reacting much to how thick/heavy the new MBP's are though

Heavy?
3.5-4.7 lbs is “heavy”

“do you even lift bro?” Lol. All joking aside did everyone forgot what their knapsacks weight while going to college or university? Heck even my high school books were more than twice this 5-days a week and didn’t include wrestling boots or soccer cleats tracksuit adding a few grams.

I’m not even big or have big arms or strong hands and not since 1993 have I complained about the weight of a laptop. Just boggles my mind.

 

[ericwn]

It's been several years since I've used a MacBook or MacBook Pro. I was quite surprised that Apple didn't release any sleeves or covers for these latest models. Is this unusual or do they typically release these later on?

I think these covers are more for the MacBook Air space, I cannot remember any for MacBook Pro.

 

[DeepIn2U]

Interesting. I was reading and I understood Microsoft wasn't officially supporting Parallels. I'd just like something more “permanent” if I could. Especially since, when I trade in my 2015 MBP for a new one, I'll be giving up Mojave (hence my lifetime Dreamweaver license); I can lose MS-Office (NeoOffice is fine) but Dreamweaver has no replacement and is #*$&(!^! expensive to rent. Also, I do have ancient, and I mean ancient, Windows software I still need.

Look for a 4th gen i5 small FF desktop PC that’s just a hand me down or thrown out by a company or ask the high school kids down the block what they upgraded from for super cheap. Setup your licenses and software and run it headless via encrypted RDP to it when needed?

 

[vladid]

Heavy?
3.5-4.7 lbs is “heavy”

“do you even lift bro?” Lol. All joking aside did everyone forgot what their knapsacks weight while going to college or university? Heck even my high school books were more than twice this 5-days a week and didn’t include wrestling boots or soccer cleats tracksuit adding a few grams.

I’m not even big or have big arms or strong hands and not since 1993 have I complained about the weight of a laptop. Just boggles my mind.

I know you were joking, but the truth is that we, as a modern western society, have grown increasingly more comfortable and less resilient. The idea of "lugging around" an extra pound seems like a con in terms of performance. Last time we had a thinner, lighter design, the architecture was riddled with overheating issues due to poor thermal management.

Can't have it both ways.