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Bought the Kaby Lake MBP day one, returned it day 14

slipper

slipper

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Nov 19, 2003
1,563
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Just thought i'd share my experience with the new MacBook Pro. It was the first time with significant experience with the new design with Touch Bar. As you can judge by the title, overall, it wasn't for me. I was and still am using my late 2013 MBP. I don't mean to crap on the new MBP, i just hope this helps others make a better decision for their future purchase.

Things that i really liked:
-Touch ID made it really convenient to log in
-Lighter weight and narrower profile
-USB-C (though i admit i have absolutely no USB-C devices yet. It was cool from a future proof standpoint)
-Ability to charge from both sides
-Audio from built in speakers was really good compared to my late 2013


Things i didn't like much:
-Lighter weight and thinner profile mentioned above means less variety of ports, only USC-B and a headphone jack, and almost guarantees the use of dongles which annoy the crap out of me. My SD slot is used frequently.
-USB-C charging and the loss of Mag Safe. The new MBP fell off my torso and onto my soft bed and partially landed on the USB-C, no noticeable damage but too many of those and i don't think it'll fare well.
-Touch Bar is a gimmick. It doesn't solve anything or make anything better, it may make some specialized tasks a tiny bit easier (just an assumption, i have not experienced anything that was made easier), but it makes a few really common tasks, such as adjusting volume and screen brightness, really annoying. The Touch Bar can be difficult/impossible to see in certain positions.
-Keyboard is annoyingly loud. I love the keyboard on my late 2013.

The Touch Bar was the ultimate reason that kept me on the fence about the upgrade. I really wanted to love it. I've been an Apple fan boy since 1998 when my mother bought me my first Mac (iMac). But since it was day 14 and i was still within the return window, i felt i need to return it and give it more thought.
 
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I got the non touch bar model partly because I saw the lack of touch bar as an advantage, not the disadvantage Apple wanted me to think it is. I like the double-width Escape key as well. The touch bar I think is one of those things that looked like a good idea on paper, but in practice has some problems. Dividing my attention between 2 screens bugs me, thought the same about the Nintendo DS systems and always wished it was just one big screen (although it wouldn't fold).
 
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I did play with the TB model at the Apple Store and I personally loved it because of its versatility. I know it's not for everyone. But it will be a big upgrade for me coming from a 5 year old Dell Inspiron.


I can't recall who did the video on USB c ports. But he yanked several times very hard on the cable at 90degree angle and there was no damage to the port. But the cable was ruined.
 
I haven't used it much, but what I've used of the TouchBar, I really disliked it. If I were to buy a MBP, it'd be the non-Touchbar model.
 
slipper said:
Just thought i'd share my experience with the new MacBook Pro. It was the first time with significant experience with the new design with Touch Bar. As you can judge by the title, overall, it wasn't for me. I was and still am using my late 2013 MBP. I don't mean to crap on the new MBP, i just hope this helps others make a better decision for their future purchase.

Things that i really liked:
-Touch ID made it really convenient to log in
-Lighter weight and narrower profile
-USB-C (though i admit i have absolutely no USB-C devices yet. It was cool from a future proof standpoint)
-Ability to charge from both sides
-Audio from built in speakers was really good compared to my late 2013


Things i didn't like much:
-Lighter weight and thinner profile mentioned above means less variety of ports, only USC-B and a headphone jack, and almost guarantees the use of dongles which annoy the crap out of me. My SD slot is used frequently.
-USB-C charging and the loss of Mag Safe. The new MBP fell off my torso and onto my soft bed and partially landed on the USB-C, no noticeable damage but too many of those and i don't think it'll fare well.
-Touch Bar is a gimmick. It doesn't solve anything or make anything better, it may make some specialized tasks a tiny bit easier (just an assumption, i have not experienced anything that was made easier), but it makes a few really common tasks, such as adjusting volume and screen brightness, really annoying. The Touch Bar can be difficult/impossible to see in certain positions.
-Keyboard is annoyingly loud. I love the keyboard on my late 2013.

The Touch Bar was the ultimate reason that kept me on the fence about the upgrade. I really wanted to love it. I've been an Apple fan boy since 1998 when my mother bought me my first Mac (iMac). But since it was day 14 and i was still within the return window, i felt i need to return it and give it more thought.
Click to expand...

how did you like the battery life? I'm on day 9 and deciding if I should return for the non-TB model
 
I really enjoy my new Touch Bar MacBook Pro 15 inch. Really like the keyboard, its thiness and even the sound of the keyboard.

I will say that the touchbar is a gimmick, but all other things with this new MacBook Pro are great.
 
I will be buying the 2017 model as my MBR 2009 won't cope much longer. I do hate the idea of the touch bar though and I know I won't like it.

However, I want the better processor and dGPU, so unfortunately i can't go for the nTB version.

I would pay £200 extra just NOT to have the touch bar. What a terrible idea it was.
 
slipper said:
The Touch Bar was the ultimate reason that kept me on the fence about the upgrade. I really wanted to love it. I've been an Apple fan boy since 1998 when my mother bought me my first Mac (iMac). But since it was day 14 and i was still within the return window, i felt i need to return it and give it more thought.
Click to expand...
I'm not following the logic on why you returned the MBP.

You don't have to use the Touch bar, and TouchID seems more useful and isn't really a gimmick. I agree TB is very gimmicky.

The MBP does have a number of positives going for it, and at this point if you need a mac, short of buying a 2 year based machine for a premium (2015 model), what other options do you have (if you want to stay with Apple).
 
maflynn said:
I'm not following the logic on why you returned the MBP.

You don't have to use the Touch bar, and TouchID seems more useful and isn't really a gimmick. I agree TB is very gimmicky.

The MBP does have a number of positives going for it, and at this point if you need a mac, short of buying a 2 year based machine for a premium (2015 model), what other options do you have (if you want to stay with Apple).
Click to expand...

How do you change sound, brightness and press the esc key without using the touchbar? And don't tell me key-remapping, beacuse having muscle memory that only works on your own laptop sucks. I was almost going insane when switching from windows to mac with copy-cut-paste shortcuts.
 
slipper said:
but it makes a few really common tasks, such as adjusting volume and screen brightness, really annoying
Click to expand...

Why is using a slider more annoying than using buttons? Actually, I'd think that these tasks are what Touch Bar excels at?
 
I felt like OP did when I first got mine. Took longer than 14 days for me to like the keyboard but now I prefer it over the old one. If I didn't need to drive 4K screens I would have stayed with the older model but now I really appreciate thunderbolt 3.

Touch bar isn't better but it's certainly not worse. If you've been using a computer a certain way for a long time, it will take many months, let alone 14 days to get used to a new way of changing the brightness and presssing escape.
 
Ries said:
How do you change sound, brightness and press the esc key without using the touchbar? And don't tell me key-remapping, beacuse having muscle memory that only works on your own laptop sucks. I was almost going insane when switching from windows to mac with copy-cut-paste shortcuts.
Click to expand...
I suppose in those instances you'd have to use TB, but its not the end of world.

I'm not defending TB, I don't like it myself but overall I think the MBP has a number of positives going for it (and a number of negatives), I was asking if TB was the only reason to return it, I'm not sure I follow that logic. Especially given that TB shouldn't be a surprise at this stage of the game.
 
maflynn said:
I suppose in those instances you'd have to use TB, but its not the end of world.

I'm not defending TB, I don't like it myself but overall I think the MBP has a number of positives going for it (and a number of negatives), I was asking if TB was the only reason to return it, I'm not sure I follow that logic. Especially given that TB shouldn't be a surprise at this stage of the game.
Click to expand...
It might not be a surprise, but until you are face to face with the lack of an escape key, and TB itself, you don't know how your final reaction will be. Add to that - Dongle-life, keyboard, no magsafe, etc...

Makes perfect sense to return it, within 14 days, because of the TB. Heck, knowing it caused the price to increase, I would loath it all the more if I didn't like it, yet kept the MBP. In that case, it's a constant reminder of Apple forcing it's will on a captive audience.
 
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slipper said:
Just thought i'd share my experience with the new MacBook Pro. It was the first time with significant experience with the new design with Touch Bar. As you can judge by the title, overall, it wasn't for me. I was and still am using my late 2013 MBP. I don't mean to crap on the new MBP, i just hope this helps others make a better decision for their future purchase.

Things that i really liked:
-Touch ID made it really convenient to log in
-Lighter weight and narrower profile
-USB-C (though i admit i have absolutely no USB-C devices yet. It was cool from a future proof standpoint)
-Ability to charge from both sides
-Audio from built in speakers was really good compared to my late 2013


Things i didn't like much:
-Lighter weight and thinner profile mentioned above means less variety of ports, only USC-B and a headphone jack, and almost guarantees the use of dongles which annoy the crap out of me. My SD slot is used frequently.
-USB-C charging and the loss of Mag Safe. The new MBP fell off my torso and onto my soft bed and partially landed on the USB-C, no noticeable damage but too many of those and i don't think it'll fare well.
-Touch Bar is a gimmick. It doesn't solve anything or make anything better, it may make some specialized tasks a tiny bit easier (just an assumption, i have not experienced anything that was made easier), but it makes a few really common tasks, such as adjusting volume and screen brightness, really annoying. The Touch Bar can be difficult/impossible to see in certain positions.
-Keyboard is annoyingly loud. I love the keyboard on my late 2013.

The Touch Bar was the ultimate reason that kept me on the fence about the upgrade. I really wanted to love it. I've been an Apple fan boy since 1998 when my mother bought me my first Mac (iMac). But since it was day 14 and i was still within the return window, i felt i need to return it and give it more thought.
Click to expand...

I got my 2017 MBP 15 (3.1ghz/1TB/560) two days ago, and I'm returning it today. Big things:
  • Touchbar is completely useless. Give me keys. It constantly impeded my productivity not to have proper F/delete keys.
  • Performance is EXACTLY the same as the 2.9/460 from last year. I believe this is due to thermal throttling as Apple is giving the Kaby lake 7920HQ a shitton of voltage, but either way, this is not acceptable.
  • It cost 3300 USD. I could justify keeping it if it cost maybe half that, but knowing how much I spent it was just incredibly underwhelming.
 
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There are some legit reasons to not like the new MacBook Pro's, for me in particular, its the tacky keyboard with the lack of travel. That said, the performance benefits give it some advantage; I suspect by next years model they might decide to introduce a cheaper 15 inch model without discrete graphics, reintroduce physical function keys. It just make sense for Apple to do it. The Touch bar is truly a polarizing feature, a problem searching for a solution. I also hope when they do introduce the non-touch bar models in next years lineup, they make Touch ID standard. I don't know why they are holding it ransom on the expensive models.
 
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Count Blah said:
It might not be a surprise, but until you are face to face with the lack of an escape key, and TB itself, you don't know how your final reaction will be. Add to that - Dongle-life, keyboard, no magsafe, etc...
Click to expand...
Perhaps, and as I'm sure many will attest, I've been critical of Apple's decision in terms of the TB, lack of function and escape keys.
 
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The touchbar would be so much better if it had haptic feedback. I found it fun to scrub through YouTube videos with my finger, but apart from that it was a bit meh.
 
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