How happy are you with you Macbook Pro 2016?

[MrGuder]

I wanted to update anyone interested that I got my 2016 15" 2.7GHz 512 SSD refurbished from Apple today. If you followed me previously....I had 2 of these back in Jan and Feb but they were brand new and they were the 2.6 GHz. I returned both due to different reasons and when the refurbished models showed up I decided to up the GHz to 2.7 and see how it goes.

I've only had it up for a few hrs but after getting all my setting configured one of the first things I downloaded was coconut battery. I was quite surprised to find that this 2016 15" 2.7GHz was manufactured on Oct 31, 2016. If I recall correctly, the 15" model didn't get a release date until Nov 12, 2016 so this one I got must have been one of the early builds. Now here comes the strange thing the battery info is showing Feb 07, 2017 with only 3 cycles. So this tells me (and I could be wrong) that it's possible someone returned this early unit because they considered the battery life terrible. We know that a lot of the early units people were complaining about battery life. So it's seems that on this refurb that Apple replaced the battery on Feb 07, 2017 just a little over 3 months since it was produced. Since the cycle count is only reading 3 it appears the unit has not been charged by anyone since Feb 07 and today I got it on April 04.

I can't really comment on battery yet as it's way too early. I did upload by USB flash drive about 10 GB of my iTunes library that only took about 5 mins or less. I wanted to see if the lag was still showing in the albums folder in iTunes and sure enough it's still there, just a second or so lag when clicking on the album and for the song titles to show up below it. This must be a software glitch Apple still has not addressed. I'm on iTunes 12.5.3 and Sierra is showing 10.12.3 and I have not updated to the latest and stopped auto updates for the time being.

So the keyboard....this keyboard actually feels the best out of the 3 that I've had now. They keys all feel about the same, there clicky but don't seem to be quite as loud sounding, especially the ones in the middle unlike my other 2. I went around and tried each key multiple times tonight and there are NO high pitched clicks or pops like some of the videos on here. The only issue I'm having so far is the space bar. It's only on the far right side it makes a louder sound than pressing it in the middle or far left side. However what I've noticed is that when I'm typing normally I'm hitting the space bar in the middle and slightly to the right of middle so at this spot the space bar is acting normal and it's producing the same sound as all the other keys. It's only if I'm pressing the space bar on the very edge of the far right that it makes a louder click or sound and that's not really normal behavior for me to use it like that.

So I'm excited to continue this 2 week period and see how battery life is working and how everything else works for me. I really inspected this thing all over and there is not a scratch or blemish on this, everything looks unused and brand new, even the keys all look perfect like they have never been touched. I would not be able to tell this was a refurbished model except the original Apple box has the logo that's it's a refurbished yet the box is the normal Apple MacBook Pro box.

 

[jonnysods]

Dongle wise = not happy

Touchbar = a lot more handy than I thought

Keyboard = loud, not as comfy as the chicklet keyboard

Screen = love it

Battery = better than I thought now that it's on 10.12.3 and I don't use chrome

This replaced my 2013 rMBP. I'm happy with it. The fiscal requirements to make all my tech work with this is a major downside.

 

[BlueGoldAce]

Let me preference most post with this: I am tech agnostic, I jump from laptop, phone, etc way too often. I owe an array on none Apple products, and I view all my products from a usability, cost, and "joy of use" perspective. One month ago I owned an Apple TV (4th gen), iPhone 7 plus, 13in MBPtb 8gb ram, nike edition apple watch, and an iPad Pro 9.7.

I still own the iPad Pro (still the best in its class, highly productive device, and recently it has become my wife's show watching device on lunch...the joys of marriage! Happy wife, Happy life). I also own the Apple TV, which was free via a DirectTV now trial. The Apple TV is a nice device, a bit slower than my Roku 4, but the interface and the App design is better. I prefer the shield tv, but only because it was faster.

Anyway, being tech agnostic and loving all things tech, one purchase/change can cause a landslide. My wife and I moved to Google fi, because through a University related promotion my bill is 25% of what was already a very affordable T-Mobile plan. So we got Google Pixel Xls...love them, but that is not here or there.

I got my first MBP in 2011, (a loaded, high res, 15in MBP) when my 5-6-year-old Dell Lattitude (still runs great) wasn't powerful enough for my work. Windows 8 was around then, or beginning to surface, and I saw no way of managing that disaster. So I moved to OSX. I loved it. Compared to windows at the time, it offers a reliability and fluidity that was unparalleled. I would still be using that device if it had lasted. I know MBPs are reliable, but mine was the exception to the rule and died a few years ago.

I flirted to Windows 8 briefly, but then moved back to OSX with a 13in MBP. That last until I decided I needed a larger screen for my increasingly demanding day to day activities. I moved to a surfacebook, and that may be the best laptop I ever used.

Anyway, I purchased an iPhone 7 plus, apple watch, iPad pro 9.7...and was swayed to move to the new MBP.

I loved it for a month or two, but I am a cost conscious person, and the overall price tag never left my mind. I was/am not hurting for money; call in a personality trait or flaw, but I want my devices to be worth what I paid. I am not good with cognitive dissonance, convincing myself I made a great purchase.

Before I get to the bad, there is always the good. MacOS is still a beautiful operating system, even though I am a bit weary of Apple's direction. The screen was second to none, the speakers on the new MBP are top notch, and the design was easy to appreciate from a weight and visual perspective (I would have preferred a more practical design, with a larger battery and a few legacy ports like USB A and hdmi...but, again, knew that about the machine before I bought). I also love the USB C charging.

I knew the 13in screen would be smaller than I liked, so I won't complain there. But again, for the price, the 8gb ram was a bottleneck that became apparent more often than not. I was aware of that possibility, but I hoped MacOS would handle the workload as well as it had on the same ram in the past. It didn't, and that could just be me being more demanding. What I could not dismiss was the unreliability of the device. I tried reinstalling MacOS, even considered a hardware swap, but I reasoned the problem was in the OS/software I used.

The device ran slowly for my expectation, battery life was a disappointment, and along with that, the battery drained overnight more than it should. I know this may not be big to some, but it drives me nuts. It was a problem the Surfacebook had, as well as other Windows devices, on the skylake platform. It is no longer an issue on newer windows devices, and I don't know if it is software or kaby lake; same goes for the skylake based MBPs, I don't know the root cause. Anyway, the keyboard was also a disappointment (there is only so much you can get used to, and I have a mechanical keyboard on my desktop). But the biggest problem was the unreliability of the device. The Bluetooth was problematic and frustrating (bluetooth mice and headphones, including the W1 beats, often required a restart or re-pairing to get to work), and the wifi was unreliable. I would often have to restart my device, losing my work, to get wifi to reconnect again (may be a work wifi thing, but it was never as frequent a problem in the past, and its a big university with a robust system). A big problem was Microsoft office unreliability, in particular, powerpoint. This was huge and is suppose to be addressed in a future version of MacOS, but it was a problematic. It is not a problem on Windows 10, and in the end, it doesn't matter whose fault it is; it comes down to a usability issue.

Anway, this all was frustrating, and then I moved to Google fi and got the Pixel XL....which all combined to me considering selling my MBP. I didn't consider my purchase to be yielding its money worth and knew I could sell the device for a good amount (which I did, on craiglist). Combining all the above with owning an extremely reliable windows 10 desktop lead me to make the plunge and move off the MBP.

Windows 10, especially the impending creator's update, is an equal alternative for macOS. I love both and don't see one as being better than the other. Both are visually pleasing, fast, secure, etc. I do miss fantastical 2 and PDF expert, but windows 10 has its own valuable programs as well. I could go on forever, like this long winded post, on the pluses and minuses of both.


I tried out the lenovo yoga 910, which was an excellent device that outclassed the MBP in performance for the price, and matched it in design...except Lenovo went to aggressive with the design and the cooling suffered. The device sounded like a small jet engine even with light work.

So, after a lot of research, a 10% coupon at Best Buy, and even more research.....I ended up with the newest version of the HP spectre x360, 4k 15.6 inch touch screen with active stylus, ash grey (beautiful), i7 Kaby Lake, 512 gb ssd (1.7 gb write, 1.5 read...plenty fast), 16gb ram, and dGPU (940m or so, about what Kaby lake iris graphics will offer)....all for about $200 less than I sold the MBP for.

The device is wonderful; extremely well built, fast, reliable, light, wonderful battery life, the trackpad is equal to anything I have used, the screen is beautiful, the keyboard may be the best I have used on a laptop, and all for about $200 less than I sold my MBPtb for. I won't give a review of this device here, but it is great.

So, there you go, the MBP was the first MBP that I ended up regretting my purchase of. I know the post was long winded, but I am approaching 28 hours straight in the lab, and needed to stay awake for the final 30 minutes.

The MBP and macOS are great, but at this point, in my opinion, the price isn't justified. Two years ago, you couldn't match the experience on a MBP with something running windows, but now you can, and as such I can't recommend the purchase. This applies to both the 13in and 15in.

I know my experience/opinion is unique, and a large majority of you will disagree. I hope tihs overly long reply helped someone.

Cheers.

 

[BenTrovato]

I really love the 2016 MBP. BUT if I had to do it again I probably wouldn't buy it. I don't think the cost is justified no matter how beautiful this machine is. If the iPhone 8 really will cost close to 1k, I'll be moving away from Apple at that point. It's getting ridiculous. For those considering the 2016 MBP, it's beautiful but there definitely isn't value here that you can get from other machines.

 

[Sanpete]

But again, for the price, the 8gb ram was a bottleneck that became apparent more often than not. I was aware of that possibility, but I hoped MacOS would handle the workload as well as it had on the same ram in the past. It didn't, and that could just be me being more demanding. What I could not dismiss was the unreliability of the device. I tried reinstalling MacOS, even considered a hardware swap, but I reasoned the problem was in the OS/software I used.

The device ran slowly for my expectation, battery life was a disappointment, and along with that, the battery drained overnight more than it should. I know this may not be big to some, but it drives me nuts.

What were you doing that caused the MBP to run slowly? How much power was draining at night? Sounds like something may not have been working right.

I really love the 2016 MBP. BUT if I had to do it again I probably wouldn't buy it. I don't think the cost is justified no matter how beautiful this machine is. If the iPhone 8 really will cost close to 1k, I'll be moving away from Apple at that point. It's getting ridiculous. For those considering the 2016 MBP, it's beautiful but there definitely isn't value here that you can get from other machines.

You get what you pay for. If it's bare specs you're comparing, then Windows machines are your best option, for sure.

 

[BlueGoldAce]

What were you doing that caused the MBP to run slowly? How much power was draining at night? Sounds like something may not have been working right.

You get what you pay for. If it's bare specs you're comparing, then Windows machines are your best option, for sure.

Large number of PDFs, large powerpoints, photoshop, illustrator, imageJ/fiji, SPSS, prism 6, and working with .nd2 files using nikons .nd2 viewer for confocal microscopy.

The above can easily eat up a system's available ram, but I also found that chrome could do it as well (yeah, safari, I know..but like I said, it's the user experience. I use what works for me, and I use products that work with what I work with). I understood that 8gb of ram might bottleneck when I bought the machine. I had hoped it wouldn't, it didn't on my XPS 15, but that had a quad core skylake that probably helped elevate the problem. The problem was the cost to upgrade to the higher amount of memory, which was an extra $300-400, maybe, for what is about an extra $50 of ram. Apple has always charged a lot for upgrades, but the system was already very expensive. Over $2000 for a 13in dual core, integrated graphics laptop is too much. You are not getting what you pay for there.

In comparison, my gaming desktop was cheaper, and better suited to the task. I got what I paid for. The same, so far, is the case with the HP laptop I have.

The problem is that Apple raised their prices over what they already were, and compromised some aspects of the notebook. If they hadn't raised their prices and made said compromises, then I wouldn't be typing this. I probably would of spent the same amount of money on a higher speced MBP, with great battery life, and be happy.

Again, I don't fault anyone for buying them. They are good machines.

 

[Dave245]

I think price wise we could see price drops

 

[Sanpete]

Large number of PDFs, large powerpoints, photoshop, illustrator, imageJ/fiji, SPSS, prism 6, and working with .nd2 files using nikons .nd2 viewer for confocal microscopy.

The above can easily eat up a system's available ram, but I also found that chrome could do it as well (yeah, safari, I know..but like I said, it's the user experience. I use what works for me, and I use products that work with what I work with). I understood that 8gb of ram might bottleneck when I bought the machine. I had hoped it wouldn't, it didn't on my XPS 15, but that had a quad core skylake that probably helped elevate the problem. The problem was the cost to upgrade to the higher amount of memory, which was an extra $300-400, maybe, for what is about an extra $50 of ram. Apple has always charged a lot for upgrades, but the system was already very expensive. Over $2000 for a 13in dual core, integrated graphics laptop is too much. You are not getting what you pay for there.

In comparison, my gaming desktop was cheaper, and better suited to the task. I got what I paid for. The same, so far, is the case with the HP laptop I have.

The problem is that Apple raised their prices over what they already were, and compromised some aspects of the notebook. If they hadn't raised their prices and made said compromises, then I wouldn't be typing this. I probably would of spent the same amount of money on a higher speced MBP, with great battery life, and be happy.

Again, I don't fault anyone for buying them. They are good machines.

I see. The upgrade to 16 GB is $200. Looks like that would have been more useful for you than the extra storage you got for the same price. Glad your new machine is working well for you, in any case.

 

[The Mercurian]

<SNIP>

So, after a lot of research, a 10% coupon at Best Buy, and even more research.....I ended up with the newest version of the HP spectre x360, 4k 15.6 inch touch screen with active stylus, ash grey (beautiful), i7 Kaby Lake, 512 gb ssd (1.7 gb write, 1.5 read...plenty fast), 16gb ram, and dGPU (940m or so, about what Kaby lake iris graphics will offer)....all for about $200 less than I sold the MBP for.

The device is wonderful; extremely well built, fast, reliable, light, wonderful battery life, the trackpad is equal to anything I have used, the screen is beautiful, the keyboard may be the best I have used on a laptop, and all for about $200 less than I sold my MBPtb for. I won't give a review of this device here, but it is great.

<SNIP>

Will you stick with this one ?

 

[BlueGoldAce]

I see. The upgrade to 16 GB is $200. Looks like that would have been more useful for you than the extra storage you got for the same price. Glad your new machine is working well for you, in any case.

I agree the extra ram would have been necessary, but I didn't get any extra storage. My model was the base touchbar model with 256gb.

Theoretically, if you keep paying more, you will eventually get what you need in the new MBPtb (unless you need more than 16gb ram...but I don't). But like all things, I hit a limit on what I will pay. Again, a few years ago, I wouldn't have made this argument...but windows 10 and OEMs have eliminated the gap.
[doublepost=1491425626][/doublepost]

Will you stick with this one ?

If nothing changes, absolutely.

I have a 45-day return policy with Bestbuy, which is where I got the HP. The laptop, as described above, does everything I need and more; while being the best-looking laptop I have used. The added pen functionality is pretty handy too.

Theoretically, something could change in 45 days. If I had purchased the MBP from BestBuy, I might have returned it within that windows, but that place I purchased from offered no return policy of an opened device (B&H photo, I know...mistake). There is always a honeymoon period, but I have owned a lot of laptops, and this laptop doesn't display any of the annoyance I have found on every single other device I have used.

Forty-five days is a good long while, but at this moment there is not a 15in laptop that offers this exact combo. The only way I see that changing is if Microsoft announces a new surfacebook laptop that starts around $1000 (as rumored) and offers a lot of what I need. I don't see that happening, not at this price point.

 

[thesaint024]

I have a 45-day return policy with Bestbuy, which is where I got the HP. The laptop, as described above, does everything I need and more; while being the best-looking laptop I have used. The added pen functionality is pretty handy too.

Theoretically, something could change in 45 days. If I had purchased the MBP from BestBuy, I might have returned it within that windows, but that place I purchased from offered no return policy of an opened device (B&H photo, I know...mistake). There is always a honeymoon period, but I have owned a lot of laptops, and this laptop doesn't display any of the annoyance I have found on every single other device I have used.

Forty-five days is a good long while, but at this moment there is not a 15in laptop that offers this exact combo. The only way I see that changing is if Microsoft announces a new surfacebook laptop that starts around $1000 (as rumored) and offers a lot of what I need. I don't see that happening, not at this price point.

The prior model hp spectre was one of the laptops I considered too. Looks great on paper, but I didn't like the look of the prior model among other things, completely subjective of course. I personally have had a bad history with hp, but that is just one data point. And in no way am I suggesting that is indicative of any overall statistic because I just don't know.

The pen and touchscreen I sort of view the same way as the touchbar at this point. There isn't any killer app for it for me yet. I see potential in both the Windows and Mac innovations. If one or the other becomes a must have, I'll jump on it. At this point for me, neither is a must have on a laptop, so I opted for what I personally thought was the best in all of the other areas. I strongly agree that the gap between the OS's has closed quite a bit over the years. It's become more and more a personal preference at this point, with fewer things that one has to tolerate in one or the other. The hp looks like a contender. I hope it works out.

 

[djrm]

So maybe I can offer a slightly different perspective on this. I was fortunate enough to have Apple swap my 2013 15" MBP for a 2016 touch bar MBP after multiple repairs on my old MBP. This wasn't a complete freebie as I decided to max out the processor, upgrade from 512GB to 1TB and go for the 460, so spent £630 on the upgrades from the base unit offered (and of course asked for the space grey)

Had the MBP for 6 days and I'm completely in love with it. Before you open this thing the exquisite slenderness and finish is premium, I find myself running my fingers around the edge admiring how insane its milled (that hinge!!) Not missing the light up logo one bit and the mirrored logo looks sleek. Opening it the first thing that jumps out at you is the crispness of the screen and the enhanced real estate thanks to the new default screen resolution. The screen really is gorgeous, bright, vivid and the first screen I've found myself turning down the brightness on ever.

The keyboard.....(my biggest concern) what the hell was I thinking, this thing is bang on perfect. It makes the old keyboard look so dated. The travel on the keys is just perfect, the feel and speed at which you can accurately type is far superior to the old keyboard and you know what, its one of the best things to come to this MBP. I really don't know why there is so much hate. The alleged noise to me is irrelevant, its almost a comforting experience and sounds exactly as you would wish. Spot on Apple.

The trackpad, brilliant as always, just larger

The Touch bar, Touch ID is wicked, faultless and speedy to the max. The rest of the bar is another great addition and incredibly useful. Anyone that has the tbMBP and not installed BetterTouchTool is dumb! So much customisation and useful functions can be added using it. Love love love track names in Spotify and iTunes

The enhanced experience it delivers for photoshop, numbers, messages, email etc increases work flow so how is it not a more useful than a bunch of f keys?

So what else, actually loving the USB C ports, being able to charge from either side is super useful and unlike the MagSafe you feel this isn't going to fray like every other cable I've ever had (and even if it does you only have to replace the USB C to USB C cable and not the whole charger) My external USB 3 hard drives all connect with this simple cable...

So no big deal what so ever and looking forward to USB C becoming standard. So much nicer than A.

Ok, so miss the USB reader and HDMI but nothing a couple of dongles doesn't fix.

Bottom line, when you take most of the money out of the equation this is un questionably the best laptop Apple have produced. The speed, design and added features make it feel right bang up to date. Use a 2016 tbMBP for a while then jump on a previous generation........feels ancient and old fashioned.

Way to go Apple. 10/10

 

[BlueGoldAce]

The prior model hp spectre was one of the laptops I considered too. Looks great on paper, but I didn't like the look of the prior model among other things, completely subjective of course. I personally have had a bad history with hp, but that is just one data point. And in no way am I suggesting that is indicative of any overall statistic because I just don't know.

The pen and touchscreen I sort of view the same way as the touchbar at this point. There isn't any killer app for it for me yet. I see potential in both the Windows and Mac innovations. If one or the other becomes a must have, I'll jump on it. At this point for me, neither is a must have on a laptop, so I opted for what I personally thought was the best in all of the other areas. I strongly agree that the gap between the OS's has closed quite a bit over the years. It's become more and more a personal preference at this point, with fewer things that one has to tolerate in one or the other. The hp looks like a contender. I hope it works out.

I agree completely.

I had a bad experience in the past, and the first HP specter that, though similar to the updated 2017 model on paper, was not a complete product. From what I read, last year's model was great but not quite up to speed. This newer model is wonderful.

Honestly, my biggest concern was the non-precision touchpad on the HP. Having used Macs for a long time, the touchpad is a huge deal to me. When I tried out the model in the store, the touchpad was horrible, but apparently, that was unique to the model in the store.

Anyway, precision touchpads are controlled directly by windows drivers and are largely seen as the way to go. While Synaptic makes the majority of touchpads for windows, HP chose to directly use Synaptic drivers. Theoretically, this could result in missing out on future gestures in future windows updates, but this doesn't seem to be the case now. The HP touchpad has more gestures and Synaptics updates it often.

Anyway, the HP touchpad is large and the same aspect ratio as the display and the finish is very high quality. Combine that with a highly customizable set of drivers, and it may be my favorite touchpad yet. It doesn't feel better than a Mac, that isn't possible, but it feels just as good. I prefer its shape, and the extra gestures and customizable behavior is useful.

It really is a personal preference thing. HP, like others, finally stepped up their game a few years back and the newest models are fully fleshed out.

 

[Dave245]

So maybe I can offer a slightly different perspective on this. I was fortunate enough to have Apple swap my 2013 15" MBP for a 2016 touch bar MBP after multiple repairs on my old MBP. This wasn't a complete freebie as I decided to max out the processor, upgrade from 512GB to 1TB and go for the 460, so spent £630 on the upgrades from the base unit offered (and of course asked for the space grey)

Had the MBP for 6 days and I'm completely in love with it. Before you open this thing the exquisite slenderness and finish is premium, I find myself running my fingers around the edge admiring how insane its milled (that hinge!!) Not missing the light up logo one bit and the mirrored logo looks sleek. Opening it the first thing that jumps out at you is the crispness of the screen and the enchanted real estate thanks to the new default screen resolution. The screen really is gorgeous, bright, vivid and the first screen I've found myself turning down the brightness on ever.

The keyboard.....(my biggest concern) what the hell was I thinking, this thing is bang on perfect. It makes the old keyboard look so dated. The travel on the keys is just perfect, the feel and speed at which you can accurately type is far superior to the old keyboard and you know what, its one of the best things to come to this MBP. I really don't know why there is so much hate. The alleged noise to me is irrelevant, its almost a comforting experience and sounds exactly as you would wish. Spot on Apple.

The trackpad, brilliant as always, just larger

The Touch bar, Touch ID is wicked, faultless and speedy to the max. The rest of the bar is another great addition and incredibly useful. Anyone that has the tbMBP and not installed BetterTouchTool is dumb! So much customisation and useful functions can be added using it. Love love love track names in Spotify and iTunes

The enhanced experience it delivers for photoshop, numbers, messages, email etc increases work flow so how is it not a more useful than a bunch of f keys?

So what else, actually loving the USB C ports, being able to charge from either side is super useful and unlike the MagSafe you feel this isn't going to fray like every other cable I've ever had (and even if it does you only have to replace the USB C to USB C cable and not the whole charger) My external USB 3 hard drives all connect with this simple cable...

So no big deal what so ever and looking forward to USB C becoming standard. So much nicer than A.

Ok, so miss the USB reader and HDMI but nothing a couple of dongles doesn't fix.

Bottom line, when you take most of the money out of the equation this is un questionably the best laptop Apple have produced. The speed, design and added features make it feel right bang up to date. Use a 2016 tbMBP for a while then jump on a previous generation........feels ancient and old fashioned.

Way to go Apple. 10/10

Sounds like you are really happy with it, I'm currently using a 2011 MacBook Pro and contemplating getting the 13" MacBook Pro with Touch Bar or the 12" MacBook. Having tried out the 13" with Touch Bar and then coming home from a friends later that night, i have since been using my iMac and MacBook Pro 2011, i can notice the difference in the screen, the keys also feel a world apart and that Touch Bar i fell in love with, when opening Pages on the Touch Bar MacBook Pro it offered the different options but then when i opened it on my current 2011 MacBook Pro the next day it felt so different as weird as that sounds it felt almost cumbersome to have to use the trackpad to just click open new document when on the Touch Bar all you have to do is touch that particular option, it also feels far better than any touch screen laptop that I've tried in the past and i think Apple are right to implement the Touch Bar rather than a full touch screen Mac.

It's great that you like your new MacBook Pro especially after all of the negativity that has surrounded them since the launch (even tho they have sold really well according to Apple and a few other reports that have surfaced on the internet).

 

[sigomez]

I purchased a slightly used 15' MacBook Pro TB for 1700 on Amazon and I couldn't be happier. Computer is amazing

 

[MrGuder]

Can anyone advise what is happening....I just got a refurb 2016 15" 2.7GHz model yesterday and tonight I was just at Macrumors forum on the Sierra update page about the latest Sierra release 10.12.4 and there are 2 videos there by Matt one was about the new night shift, so I start the video and it plays right on the page then I expand to fullscreen and then 15 seconds into the video I get the spinning wheel and I can't stop the video or scroll or even hit the escape key just the spinning wheel so I close the laptop lid put it to sleep for 30 seconds and re-open it and the video starts playing again and the spinning wheel is gone.

So then I go to the 2nd video and the same thing happens again the spinning wheel while the video plays I can't do anything on the keyboard or trackpad, closing the lid somehow resets it and then the video plays fine. How can I fix this, is this just lag in the internal graphics or something else. This is my 2nd night with this laptop so I think all the indexing is done by now?

 

[puckhead193]

i'm doing ok, just sometimes when editing there was 32 gigs of ram but as a portable machine its ok. Can't wait to see what apple has up its sleeves for the next real mac pro.... if not Puget has my attention...

 

[thesaint024]

So maybe I can offer a slightly different perspective on this. I was fortunate enough to have Apple swap my 2013 15" MBP for a 2016 touch bar MBP after multiple repairs on my old MBP. This wasn't a complete freebie as I decided to max out the processor, upgrade from 512GB to 1TB and go for the 460, so spent £630 on the upgrades from the base unit offered (and of course asked for the space grey)

Had the MBP for 6 days and I'm completely in love with it. Before you open this thing the exquisite slenderness and finish is premium, I find myself running my fingers around the edge admiring how insane its milled (that hinge!!) Not missing the light up logo one bit and the mirrored logo looks sleek. Opening it the first thing that jumps out at you is the crispness of the screen and the enchanted real estate thanks to the new default screen resolution. The screen really is gorgeous, bright, vivid and the first screen I've found myself turning down the brightness on ever.

The keyboard.....(my biggest concern) what the hell was I thinking, this thing is bang on perfect. It makes the old keyboard look so dated. The travel on the keys is just perfect, the feel and speed at which you can accurately type is far superior to the old keyboard and you know what, its one of the best things to come to this MBP. I really don't know why there is so much hate. The alleged noise to me is irrelevant, its almost a comforting experience and sounds exactly as you would wish. Spot on Apple.

The trackpad, brilliant as always, just larger

The Touch bar, Touch ID is wicked, faultless and speedy to the max. The rest of the bar is another great addition and incredibly useful. Anyone that has the tbMBP and not installed BetterTouchTool is dumb! So much customisation and useful functions can be added using it. Love love love track names in Spotify and iTunes

The enhanced experience it delivers for photoshop, numbers, messages, email etc increases work flow so how is it not a more useful than a bunch of f keys?

So what else, actually loving the USB C ports, being able to charge from either side is super useful and unlike the MagSafe you feel this isn't going to fray like every other cable I've ever had (and even if it does you only have to replace the USB C to USB C cable and not the whole charger) My external USB 3 hard drives all connect with this simple cable...

So no big deal what so ever and looking forward to USB C becoming standard. So much nicer than A.

Ok, so miss the USB reader and HDMI but nothing a couple of dongles doesn't fix.

Bottom line, when you take most of the money out of the equation this is un questionably the best laptop Apple have produced. The speed, design and added features make it feel right bang up to date. Use a 2016 tbMBP for a while then jump on a previous generation........feels ancient and old fashioned.

Way to go Apple. 10/10

Gonna go out on a limb and say that you "like it". I felt just like you when I first got it, over the top enthusiasm. Months later I've gotten used to it and have accepted it as the every day standard. Unfortunately, that just means that ANY other laptop looks and feels like shiznit.

 

[MrGuder]

So last night I decided to run the updates on my refurb 2016 15" 2.7GHz to Sierra 10.12.4 which also included iTunes 12.6 it took about 25 mins to complete. I wanted to confirm that after this update I no longer have any of the lag I mentioned previously in iTunes. When in album view I was getting lag as the track listing would populate below, hitting the album cover on and off multiple times would produce pretty noticeable lag. However since I've updated it's been fixed, so I'm not sure if it was the iTunes update to 12.6 or if it was the Sierra update. I'm looking forward to seeing if the beach ball lag I'm getting while watching videos disappears because I got several more last night that locked up my screen and had to close the lid to get it to disappear.

Now that I've been able to type quite a bit on this one, I'd have to say this keyboard is a lot quieter than the other 2 I had and I really like this one, the keys are much more uniform and they don't make that hollow sound in the middle. The only issue is the spacebar it a little mushy on the right side so I am trying to use it more in the middle when I'm typing. While I was downloading and installing all the updates the laptop was getting really warm for those 20 mins so I ran through all the keys again multiple times and no high pitch sounds, they all have a really nice feel and sound, except for the space bar key. So far battery life on 2 full cycles has been very impressive and much like what I got on my prior 2 ones.

 

[djrm]

Gonna go out on a limb and say that you "like it". I felt just like you when I first got it, over the top enthusiasm. Months later I've gotten used to it and have accepted it as the every day standard. Unfortunately, that just means that ANY other laptop looks and feels like shiznit.

Haha. I can't see my love dying any time soon. It's just awesome. If I scratch this thing I'll need rehab

 

[Dave245]

Haha. I can't see my love dying any time soon. It's just awesome. If I scratch this thing I'll need rehab

It seems to be so much of a mixed bag on these threads, yet overall it seems the new MacBook Pro's have been doing very well according to Phil Schiller.

 

[MrGuder]

I was sceptical at first when I was reading so many people were returning them for keyboard issues. It wasn't until I got 2 that I believed what people were saying that the sound of the keys were not uniform and some making louder sounds than others. I do believe there is some kind of production issue that's causing this to happen. In my case it was never the high pitched clicks or pops but more of the keys not sounding the same.

However I also believe that there are people who are getting these and their keyboards are not showing any of these signs. I also believe if you keep trying your likely to find one that is not having any issues. I kept thinking that if I wait another month something will change and the keyboard won't have any issues. That wasn't the case for me because a Jan & Feb one both had keyboard issues.

I picked up an Apple refurb this past week and this one is the best one I've had yet and ironically it was made in Oct 2016 so one of the first run 15" models being made. The keys all sound very uniform and typing is much quieter than the other ones I returned. I seriously think someone returned this one because of the battery issues (which Apple has now fixed) because Apple replaced the battery in Feb according to coconut battery.

I also feel with the latest Sierra update and iTunes, my 2016 15" 2.7GHz is running the best I've seen. I've currently got 18% remaining battery and time on battery is 26.33 hrs and I've been keeping notes of how long I've had the laptop open and in use and I'm at 10 hrs 15 mins of use time and still have 18% remaining. So for me this is excellent battery and that's with only 6 cycles on the battery so far.

 

[turbineseaplane]

Well - I've now had a 15" and 13" non-TB, the latter of which went back yesterday.

I have no idea what the deal is, but I found both to be so buggy relative to Apple products I've had through the many many years now that I just couldn't handle it.

I use an external 4k & 1440p monitor around the house (individually, not both hooked up to the same machine at once) and no combo I tried of dongles would let them seamlessly get plugged/un-plugged (as I do a lot during the day) without some type of graphical glitching, delays, replug and replug needed and then even times where it would basically act up until I rebooted.

Just so frustrating. I just don't have these issues with the 2015 models or anything earlier (on the non 4k monitor).

Please don't shower me with "it works great for me!" - I'm very experienced with this stuff, and these new MacBooks are the odd duck out here in this situation. No idea why. I'm not buying those LG's here (tried the 21" 4k - just too small - don't want the 5k one)..

I think I'm just "out" on these MacBook Pro's until they get refreshed again and hopefully are a bit smoother, more in line with all my previous MacBook experiences over the years.

 

[Naimfan]

Best avoided.

Wait for the 2017 version, which *should* correct many of the teething problems of the 2016.

And, of course, perhaps Apple will realize its mistakes and provide an alternate, as it has said it is doing with the Mac Pro.

 

[doitdada]

I use an external 4k & 1440p monitor around the house (individually, not both hooked up to the same machine at once) and no combo I tried of dongles would let them seamlessly get plugged/un-plugged (as I do a lot during the day) without some type of graphical glitching, delays, replug and replug needed and then even times where it would basically act up until I rebooted.

The need for a hard reset after unplugging the new MacBook Pros from an external display, is a well known bug or hardware fault, even though you bought the new LG monitors customised for the 2016 models. The keys are still lit, and sound may play, but both the keyboard, power button and touch bar is non-responsive. Have included a few videos here. The issue has been reproducible on 3 MacBook Pro 15" and 1 MacBook Pro 13". One of them had a bent chassis, and wobbled on flat surfaces.

Actually ordered the 2015 version today.