General thoughts on new MBP 2018

[Xil3]

I've been waiting to get a new laptop for ages now, whilst holding onto my Macbook Air (2013), which has been an amazing machine, and still kicking. Nothing that has been released since then has just been enough of a motivator to upgrade, until this newest iteration.

I finally bit the bullet and bought the 2018 MBP 13' (i7, 1tb, 16gb), brought it home and immediately started getting everything installed so I can get a general feel for it.

Half way through the day, I found myself wanting to go back to my Air, and here are the reasons:

• I spend a lot of time in the command line, and the ESC key is pretty important. The fact that the ESC key is now part of the touch bar, really hampered it for me. You can't just quickly feel for it and push it, for that immediate satisfaction - I now have to pay close attention to make sure I am tapping it in the right area, and on a number of occasions I'd have to tap it a couple times, because I may have hit the edge.
• The touch bar is horrible! Biggest gimmick I've ever seen.
• The touch pad seems worse to me. It's now so big that there is no room to rest my fingers, so I have to constantly hover them over the touch pad - on the Air, there is a small area where I can lay them between the track pad and the keyboard. Found my hand was getting fatigued really quickly.
• The sound the touch pad makes when you press it in is really weird (to me).
• I hated the keyboard. It wasn't that I couldn't type fast enough, or it impacted my productivity in any way - it just didn't feel nice. Maybe it's the travel distance between the keys? Maybe it's the weird sound it makes? I just didn't like it, and it felt kind of cheap (I know it's not).

So, I packed it all up, put it back into the box and returned it. For such a huge price point ($4200 CAD), I want to really be satisfied with a product. I feel like Apple isn't making anything for professionals anymore - just appealing to the mass audience and ditching all other efforts.

Obviously these are all my personal feelings, so please don't take offence; but I would like to hear other peoples thoughts.

 

[dannyar]

I feel really really sorry for you then going forward as apple is incorporating everything you hate about the new machines into all their machines. Your only saving grace is hoping apple doesn't discontinue the 12" MacBooks and adds the 8th gen chips to them. Aside from that theres a slight chance they may update the nTB MacBook Pro 13" but that still won't deal with your complains about the trackpad size, keyboard, and trackpad sounds. I love the new keyboard on the 15" MacBook Pro and its the best keyboard I've ever used IMO. I type faster, more accurately and with more precision than ever. I love the large trackpads as I don't have use 2 fingers to drag something across the screen and stop midway and adjust. Its large enough to make it all the way across. Its a powerhouse and I don't have a single complain about it whatsoever.

 

[svgn]

I think you should've gave it more than a half day try, especially if you had a 14-day return policy.

 

[Newtons Apple]

I've been waiting to get a new laptop for ages now, whilst holding onto my Macbook Air (2013), which has been an amazing machine, and still kicking. Nothing that has been released since then has just been enough of a motivator to upgrade, until this newest iteration.

I finally bit the bullet and bought the 2018 MBP 13' (i7, 1tb, 16gb), brought it home and immediately started getting everything installed so I can get a general feel for it.

Half way through the day, I found myself wanting to go back to my Air, and here are the reasons:

• I spend a lot of time in the command line, and the ESC key is pretty important. The fact that the ESC key is now part of the touch bar, really hampered it for me. You can't just quickly feel for it and push it, for that immediate satisfaction - I now have to pay close attention to make sure I am tapping it in the right area, and on a number of occasions I'd have to tap it a couple times, because I may have hit the edge.
• The touch bar is horrible! Biggest gimmick I've ever seen.
• The touch pad seems worse to me. It's now so big that there is no room to rest my fingers, so I have to constantly hover them over the touch pad - on the Air, there is a small area where I can lay them between the track pad and the keyboard. Found my hand was getting fatigued really quickly.
• The sound the touch pad makes when you press it in is really weird (to me).
• I hated the keyboard. It wasn't that I couldn't type fast enough, or it impacted my productivity in any way - it just didn't feel nice. Maybe it's the travel distance between the keys? Maybe it's the weird sound it makes? I just didn't like it, and it felt kind of cheap (I know it's not).

So, I packed it all up, put it back into the box and returned it. For such a huge price point ($4200 CAD), I want to really be satisfied with a product. I feel like Apple isn't making anything for professionals anymore - just appealing to the mass audience and ditching all other efforts.

Obviously these are all my personal feelings, so please don't take offence; but I would like to hear other peoples thoughts.

My thought is you need to try something other than Apple or use your Air for the rest of your life.

 

[CreeptoLoser]

I've been waiting to get a new laptop for ages now, whilst holding onto my Macbook Air (2013), which has been an amazing machine, and still kicking. Nothing that has been released since then has just been enough of a motivator to upgrade, until this newest iteration.

I finally bit the bullet and bought the 2018 MBP 13' (i7, 1tb, 16gb), brought it home and immediately started getting everything installed so I can get a general feel for it.

Half way through the day, I found myself wanting to go back to my Air, and here are the reasons:

• I spend a lot of time in the command line, and the ESC key is pretty important. The fact that the ESC key is now part of the touch bar, really hampered it for me. You can't just quickly feel for it and push it, for that immediate satisfaction - I now have to pay close attention to make sure I am tapping it in the right area, and on a number of occasions I'd have to tap it a couple times, because I may have hit the edge.
• The touch bar is horrible! Biggest gimmick I've ever seen.
• The touch pad seems worse to me. It's now so big that there is no room to rest my fingers, so I have to constantly hover them over the touch pad - on the Air, there is a small area where I can lay them between the track pad and the keyboard. Found my hand was getting fatigued really quickly.
• The sound the touch pad makes when you press it in is really weird (to me).
• I hated the keyboard. It wasn't that I couldn't type fast enough, or it impacted my productivity in any way - it just didn't feel nice. Maybe it's the travel distance between the keys? Maybe it's the weird sound it makes? I just didn't like it, and it felt kind of cheap (I know it's not).

So, I packed it all up, put it back into the box and returned it. For such a huge price point ($4200 CAD), I want to really be satisfied with a product. I feel like Apple isn't making anything for professionals anymore - just appealing to the mass audience and ditching all other efforts.

Obviously these are all my personal feelings, so please don't take offence; but I would like to hear other peoples thoughts.

I'll send you my PowerBook Aluminium. It has no touch bar, it has an escape key, it has keyboard with more travel. It has a small trackpad.

And it's crap compared to new machines.

 

[jerryk]

I have a 15" 2.6/512/560.

I am still not a huge fan of the keyboard, but it feels better than the 2016/17 units I tried, and a lot quieter. But, a mechanical keyboard this is not.

The screen is great, better than the earlier generation (say my 2015 15"). The True tone works about as well as on my iPad Pro, which is fine, but I still think the white point compensation is slightly off. I will test with calibrator when I have some time.

The slight reduction in size, and 1/2 reduction in weight is nice. Feels skinnier and lighter than the numbers say. I want to keep this feeling so am looking at going with a skin instead of a shell.

Hex core i7 seems pretty speedy. Never any lag in Office, Lightroom, or Audition. But, does not feel day and night faster than the 2015 15" with dGPU.

GPU seems fine for my use which is business and coding, not gaming.

Disk speed feels about the same as the 2015 15", which is to say fast.

Touch bar is semi-useless, except for fingerprint reader. It is not Windows Hello, but it will do.

USB-C has been less of an issues than I thought. Ended up replace one set of dongles with another for driving external HDMI, VGA, and DVI projectors and monitors. Added a cheap USB/A adapter with SD and uSD card support.

So bottom line, 4 days in everything seems to be working fine. Transition was smooth with no real issues.

 

[xxray]

I feel like Apple isn't making anything for professionals anymore - just appealing to the mass audience and ditching all other efforts.

I can’t understand why you would say this. Nothing you complained about is related to anything “pro”fessional. All your complaints could be made by the most casual users. On top of it, you’ve been using a 5 year old MacBook Air, so how could this MacBook Pro possibly not serve your professional performance needs?

I’m not trying to invalidate any of your experiences or complaints. I can completely understand why your list of complaints would make the laptop not work for you. I just wish you didn’t blame this on Apple not being “pro” enough when none of your complaints derive from anything specifically pro-focused. Apple created a solid pro-focused update this time around, and that should be recognized.

 

[Pangalactic]

I just wish you didn’t blame this on Apple not being “pro” enough when none of your complaints derive from anything specifically pro-focused

At Apple HQ:

Professional: what I need is a reliable laptop that can be easily repaired if necessary, with all the ports I use for work, powerful performance, great battery life, function keys that can be used without looking at the keyboard and a MagSafe to not accidentally break it.

Apple: got you, we'll solder all the components together, remove all the ports you use, put a crappy graphics card inside, cut the battery by 25%, add a touchbar to the top that you will never use and remove MagSafe

 

[poorcody]

I went from a 2013 MacBook Air to the 2016 MacBook Pro. To each their own of course, but, man, there are a lot of upgrades in that transition, and I can't imagine going back to a non-retina screen in this day and age...

Some other points:

• ESCape key is easily solved by mapping the tilde key.
• Just put your palms where you want (on the trackpad), and don't think about. The palm-rejection works flawlessly for me. I don't see the downside of a big trackpad.
  
• Keyboards are of course a very particular taste, but honestly, I would have given it a little more time. I went from not liking it particularly to preferring it, but it took me a good couple of weeks of full-time typing. My old Air keyboard now seems slow and mushy to me!
• Touchbar -- well, there are plenty of opinions on that already.

The machine is obviously very expensive (especially outside US apparently), so maybe the reward value just didn't match up for you. But I think I would have given it a little time, especially since you had 14 days. Then again, if the Air is sufficient, might as well keep saving for the next year's model!

 

[buran-energia]

You can bind the Escape key to some other key like Caps lock.

Then I wouldn't want to go back to normal screens once I've been on Retina (even that needs a resolution bump), as it's more pleasant to read the text / code.

Touch pad is one of the best I've used (at least on mbp 2015 13). It uses a motor. So you can click anywhere and get the same kind of physical and audio feedback.

Touch bar is not the only difference between ntb and tb models. You get touch id, cpu, gpu, 2 cooling fans, 4 ports.

 

[AppleHaterLover]

My thought is you need to try something other than Apple or use your Air for the rest of your life.

Exactly.

It seems that, Touch Bar aside, he did not like (i) the touch pad, which is best in the entire industry with virtually flawless palm rejection; (ii) the sound of the touch pad (this is the first time in my life I hear such a complaint); (iii) the keyboard, which is divisive but very easy to get used to if you actually try. These are all features that are going to be in all Macs going forward. Surprised to see no complaints about MagSafe.

This seems a bit like buyer's remorse, which is justifiable. At over $3,200 USD the 13" MBP is not good value for money and it seems that, in OP's case, not falling in love with it outright just sealed the deal.

That said, I am sure that Dell has very good laptops whose ergonomics OP may like better.

 

[dannyar]

Exactly.

It seems that, Touch Bar aside, he did not like (i) the touch pad, which is best in the entire industry with virtually flawless palm rejection; (ii) the sound of the touch pad (this is the first time in my life I hear such a complaint); (iii) the keyboard, which is divisive but very easy to get used to if you actually try. These are all features that are going to be in all Macs going forward. Surprised to see no complaints about MagSafe.

This seems a bit like buyer's remorse, which is justifiable. At over $3,200 USD the 13" MBP is not good value for money and it seems that, in OP's case, not falling in love with it outright just sealed the deal.

That said, I am sure that Dell has very good laptops whose ergonomics OP may like better.

I agree with everything you said. Most importantly about the 13" not being a good value. Its just too much money for that size and performance from a computer. If you absolutely need MacOs and a small machine I think a 12" MacBook or even nTB MacBook Pro would be a better option and save you almost a grand depending on config. Otherwise you would get much better specs and performance for a way better price out of a windows machine. The 15" MacBook Pro is where the value is for performance/dollar ratio.

 

[Xil3]

Exactly.

It seems that, Touch Bar aside, he did not like (i) the touch pad, which is best in the entire industry with virtually flawless palm rejection; (ii) the sound of the touch pad (this is the first time in my life I hear such a complaint); (iii) the keyboard, which is divisive but very easy to get used to if you actually try. These are all features that are going to be in all Macs going forward. Surprised to see no complaints about MagSafe.

This seems a bit like buyer's remorse, which is justifiable. At over $3,200 USD the 13" MBP is not good value for money and it seems that, in OP's case, not falling in love with it outright just sealed the deal.

That said, I am sure that Dell has very good laptops whose ergonomics OP may like better.

I agree that their touch pad is the best in the industry for sure - I've tried multiple Windows laptops, and non of them come anywhere close to it. I guess the ergonomics of the large pad is something I would have been able to get used to; but all of my points combined is what did it.

You're absolutely right that I felt buyers remorse, and it was hard to justify that price tag. If I pay that much, I want to feel satisfied.

I'll just be waiting to see what else they come out with.

 

[dannyar]

I agree that their touch pad is the best in the industry for sure - I've tried multiple Windows laptops, and non of them come anywhere close to it. I guess the ergonomics of the large pad is something I would have been able to get used to; but all of my points combined is what did it.

You're absolutely right that I felt buyers remorse, and it was hard to justify that price tag. If I pay that much, I want to feel satisfied.

I'll just be waiting to see what else they come out with.

If the 13" didn't satisfy you then you will be waiting a good while before any drastic changes come to any of apples laptops. This is by all accounts one of the biggest jumps in performance dating back to probably 2010-2011.

 

[AppleHaterLover]

I agree with everything you said. Most importantly about the 13" not being a good value. Its just too much money for that size and performance from a computer. If you absolutely need MacOs and a small machine I think a 12" MacBook or even nTB MacBook Pro would be a better option and save you almost a grand depending on config. Otherwise you would get much better specs and performance for a way better price out of a windows machine. The 15" MacBook Pro is where the value is for performance/dollar ratio.

Yes - considering OP hasn been using a 2013 Air, his/her workload is probably light (in terms of horsepower required, I am aware that anyone who uses their MB to work are pros etc. etc.)

I'd wait until September to see if Apple releases a 2018 nTB and if they don't try to buy a 256 nTB at a lower price.

 

[roland.g]

Why do you use the trackpad in click mode. It is so much more effective using tap to click.

 

[Lobwedgephil]

There isn't another computer whose trackpad comes close, even the surface book which is probably second best isn't near as good.

 

[Xil3]

Why do you use the trackpad in click mode. It is so much more effective using tap to click.

I do use it in tap mode; but at times I click it (by accident or for whatever other reason).