New 16" is 2.6/32/512/5500M (8 GB) and I'm coming from a base mid-2015. Did a clean install and painstakingly installed everything manually and mirrored every setting with my old computer, with the two computers side by side, going through menu by menu.
1) The fit and finish and QC on the new one is outstanding. Not a blemish to be seen. Screen is nice and even and much brighter than my 2015. No backlight bleeding. Trackpad is level, no speaker pop, zero coil whine ever. I feel very lucky. I'm also understanding why the hinge has less resistance than prior models when opening it - it prevents the bottom of the laptop from getting pulled up off the table like can happen with the older models. I can understand why it is this way now, and it's fine. Don't miss the glowing Apple logo like I thought I would.
2) The keyboard takes some getting used to if coming from a 2015 machine, not because of the tactile feel or travel, which are perfectly fine, but rather the larger footprint of each key. Keys are quite a bit bigger than the old keys, and I'm making some mistakes here in the early days. I can tell I will adjust just fine though. Stability of the keys is really nice. Backlight bleed is more than butterfly, but definitely less than the 2015. Keyboard backlighting is a hint more blue than on the 15".
3) Screen is nice, but it is warmer than my 2015. Played with the whitepoint, but ultimately decided Apple got it right. It's warmer, but not in a bad way like most Apple products. Additional screen size doesn't really matter.
4) USB-C ports - I'm impressed with the data speeds, and I was genuinely surprised/pleased to see that cables and peripherals click in with satisfying authority, like lightning. I remember people complaining how sloppy and loose USB-C was by design. This is not my experience.
5) Battery only has two cycles, but capacity is between 98-99% per Coconut. Expecting that to go up and probably in excess of design once it has a few cycles. It was 97.1% out of the box with one cycle, but got better after the one additional cycle I put on it.
6) Speakers and mic are great, but I don't use them so don't really care. But very nice.
7) Touchbar is take it or leave it. I am just running the old brightness/voume/etc. controls like my 2015. But I did modify and toss a couple of those out in favor of a desktop shortcut, a NightShift shortcut, and a screenshot shortcut, so I could see me actually preferring the touchbar. Haptic feedback would be nice, and it would be nice if I could set the Touchbar to never sleep, like the keyboard backlighting.
8) Trackpad could still be 20% smaller and nobody would miss it, but so far I've had no errors from my palms, so less of an issue than I thought it would be.
9) Runs nice and cool and quiet. Temps typically in the low 30C range when just doing a few light tasks.
10) Other - the fact the computer turns on at the press of any key - and more so at the simple action of opening the lid, is ridiculous.
11) Catalina kinda sucks, converting from iTunes to the Music app was brutal and took the better part of 24 hours trying multiple ways to fix album art that disappeared. Ended up doing a second clean install and starting over completely with the whole computer once I figured out how to fix it. I hated iTunes, yet DREADED converting to Music and it was just as awful as I hoped it could be. Glad that's over with now, Music library is clean and perfect and working as it should. Using Finder for your phone is stupid, as is having separate apps for Podcasts and TV IMO.
12) Overall - if you're on a 2015 or older machine, just get this one - this is the one you've been holding out for. Love it.
1) The fit and finish and QC on the new one is outstanding. Not a blemish to be seen. Screen is nice and even and much brighter than my 2015. No backlight bleeding. Trackpad is level, no speaker pop, zero coil whine ever. I feel very lucky. I'm also understanding why the hinge has less resistance than prior models when opening it - it prevents the bottom of the laptop from getting pulled up off the table like can happen with the older models. I can understand why it is this way now, and it's fine. Don't miss the glowing Apple logo like I thought I would.
2) The keyboard takes some getting used to if coming from a 2015 machine, not because of the tactile feel or travel, which are perfectly fine, but rather the larger footprint of each key. Keys are quite a bit bigger than the old keys, and I'm making some mistakes here in the early days. I can tell I will adjust just fine though. Stability of the keys is really nice. Backlight bleed is more than butterfly, but definitely less than the 2015. Keyboard backlighting is a hint more blue than on the 15".
3) Screen is nice, but it is warmer than my 2015. Played with the whitepoint, but ultimately decided Apple got it right. It's warmer, but not in a bad way like most Apple products. Additional screen size doesn't really matter.
4) USB-C ports - I'm impressed with the data speeds, and I was genuinely surprised/pleased to see that cables and peripherals click in with satisfying authority, like lightning. I remember people complaining how sloppy and loose USB-C was by design. This is not my experience.
5) Battery only has two cycles, but capacity is between 98-99% per Coconut. Expecting that to go up and probably in excess of design once it has a few cycles. It was 97.1% out of the box with one cycle, but got better after the one additional cycle I put on it.
6) Speakers and mic are great, but I don't use them so don't really care. But very nice.
7) Touchbar is take it or leave it. I am just running the old brightness/voume/etc. controls like my 2015. But I did modify and toss a couple of those out in favor of a desktop shortcut, a NightShift shortcut, and a screenshot shortcut, so I could see me actually preferring the touchbar. Haptic feedback would be nice, and it would be nice if I could set the Touchbar to never sleep, like the keyboard backlighting.
8) Trackpad could still be 20% smaller and nobody would miss it, but so far I've had no errors from my palms, so less of an issue than I thought it would be.
9) Runs nice and cool and quiet. Temps typically in the low 30C range when just doing a few light tasks.
10) Other - the fact the computer turns on at the press of any key - and more so at the simple action of opening the lid, is ridiculous.
11) Catalina kinda sucks, converting from iTunes to the Music app was brutal and took the better part of 24 hours trying multiple ways to fix album art that disappeared. Ended up doing a second clean install and starting over completely with the whole computer once I figured out how to fix it. I hated iTunes, yet DREADED converting to Music and it was just as awful as I hoped it could be. Glad that's over with now, Music library is clean and perfect and working as it should. Using Finder for your phone is stupid, as is having separate apps for Podcasts and TV IMO.
12) Overall - if you're on a 2015 or older machine, just get this one - this is the one you've been holding out for. Love it.
Last edited:
