I wonder if those complaining about the touchbar have tried customizing it?
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Bought the Kaby Lake MBP day one, returned it day 14
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I tell everyone looking to buy the new model to buy the non-Touch Bar. It has 90% of the performance for $300 less. Also, lets face it, the vast majority of buyers aren't going to be using 4 thunderbolt ports.
faster processor and touch id are still enhancements. Sad thing is the tb 13" the right side tb3 ports are full bandwith 40 gb ports like the left side.
Marginal performance gains and touch ID are not worth 300$/300€. If you sum to it more ports (even if the 2 right ones are slower) the TB starts to be a bit better.
Again if the 13" nonTB had 4 port nobody would buy the TB one. It even has user upgradable SSD (albeit non standard).
i believe the poster's point was that, given the option where THAT existing in a multi-port/non-TB option as well as the TB option, many would forgo the TB option.
It's apple telling you what you want, versus giving you a choice. When they do this, without compromising functionality, people just normally grouse a little, but still buy. In this case, they remove desired functionality(ESC key, ports, MagSafe), put in something many see as useless, AND hike prices to boot. So you hear more than just grousing this time.
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Good point. It'd even be better if the nTB had two TB3 ports, but one on each side IMO.
To not come across defeated, what Apple might do is make the trackpad smaller and reintroduce the Touchbar in addition to the physical function keys. I think just makes better sense that way.
I'm not trying to invalidate anyone's experiences here, but I'd just like to throw my 2c in about the touchbar.
I find it really useful for running scripts for Photoshop and Illustrator, and sometimes other programs as well. It really streamlines my workflow for a surprising amount of tasks.
I find it really useful for running scripts for Photoshop and Illustrator, and sometimes other programs as well. It really streamlines my workflow for a surprising amount of tasks.
I definitely think there are things you can do with the Touch Bar if you get very dedicated to it, but it just feels like a real reach and not very useful for such a large chunk of people and/or without a lot of work/customization.
Additionally what you described above here with the Touch Bar falls into the power user category and I would argue those are the same types of people that are most against something like the TB as they have established workflows and know so many keyboard shortcuts, don't like to look down away from the screen, etc
I did not expect to like the 2017 keyboard. While I'm probably going to return my 2017 MBP - the keyboard was one of the very best things about it. It feels better- works better- just awesome.
Agreed, basically out of the box, the 2016/2017 MBP has less functionality in terms of ports i.e., if you need to use HDMI, SD cards, want magsafe. While I understand it can be rectified by spending more money by purchasing cables/dongles/accessories, but the point is the laptop cost more $$ but yet doesn't do what I want from the get go.
I run a little hot and cold on the touchbar, yeah it gimmicky imo but if it took off, then maybe the short comings could be addressed some how. With only the MBP (no other product line using it), I'm not sure it will.
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Am open minded to the Touch Bar as I never underestimate what good Dev's can accomplish. Port situation is simply tragic and the Keyboard is simply a design exercise & engineering solution to help reduce the overall thickness of the notebook, not to enhance or improve the typing experience, which I find rather pathetic for a Premium notebook, focused on the user experience.
Q-6
To me the best of both worlds for a customizable "touch bar" would have been physical keys with customizable LED interfaces. Tactile feedback is an essential advantage that regular keys have over anything touch screen. A fancy, futuristic haptic feedback system just doesn't compare to regular old key pressing-- classic example of "if it ain't broke, don't fix it."
Why, do you really miss you old fashion function keys the Touch Bar replaces? While i'm not a huge user of the Touch Bar I almost never used the old function keys.
as a developer I use the function keys a lot (probably not F6 - F12 but definitely lots of F1 - F5), and, tons and tons of ESC. It's so much faster when you are used to most of the useful shortcuts, and it's very important for me to be able to hit keys without looking at my keyboard.
also physical feedback is very important to many typists and developers.
Ohh don't worry,there will be $300-$400 apple keyboards with it as well. It's only a matter of time.
This is true, I use 1 to charge and occasionally another for a peripheral like for importing photos from a camera. But in general I see little need for 4 ports and rarely even need 2. If you have that much stuff connected, it sounds like you aren't really using it as a portable laptop anyway, and if you really need that stuff, you could still probably make it work with USB-C breakout boxes to get more ports/connectors.
The only thing I really like about the 4 port models is you have the option of plugging in on the left or right depending on the situation, it's annoying to me that Apple put both ports in the 2-port models on the same side (left).
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For many the idea is that you can take a desktop replacement class device anywhere you need to (mobile workstation) and once there, can plug in many things at once.
For professional use, the less "hubs" and other areas of potential instability and uncertainty in the chain of connections the better, thus making additional ports very desirable.
Assuming they're all USB-C and don't require dongles. But for a while most people are going to need dongles.
But sure, I'm not saying no one has a use for 4 ports. I just don't think the vast majority of buyers will. I know a ton of people with laptops (I work at a fortune-100 company with many thousands of MacBook Pro users) and in my experience, ports are rarely used outside of power and maybe a monitor. Bluetooth inputs (mouse, keyboard) are much more common than wired, again reducing the need for more ports. Also, with USB-C and Thunderbolt, you can generally daisy-chain out of peripherals so they don't all need separate ports, for example drives and monitors.
Which is precisely the new models are a step backwards for the time being for many video/audio professional uses.
By the way, that type of content creation/editing professional is who I'm personally talking about. Everyone has a different way of defining "professionals", but just for clarity, that's who I'm talking about.
And, as I said above, anytime you daisy chain or hub connect, you are introducing all sorts of latency, failure point and power issue possibilities. That is very undesirable (deal breaker) in many professional use settings.