How happy are you with you Macbook Pro 2016?

[mythdemon]

I have been using it for more than 10 days, and here are my thoughts.

Coming from a 2011 17" MBP (which is still running well).

Screen
Wonderful. I am amazed by how well it renders text as well as hi-res videos.

Keyboard
Definitely like it. It allows me to type lightly and glide my fingers over it for minimum movement. The butterfly mechanism does provide a lot of feedback.
Do I wish the keys had more travel? Yes, of course. But this keyboard is certainly not bad.

Touchbar
After reading a million people say 'it's a gimmick', I was pretty biased against it. And that was certainly true when it came to using Safari or Finder. But then I opened Lightroom and Photoshop, and I really started liking it. It's not ideal, in the sense it does not allow 'touch typing', and makes you look at the keyboard. But the controls are sometimes just so handy! It would be interesting to see how Developers decide to use it.

Build Quality
Top notch stuff. Feels really solid, and I still cannot believe I have such a powerful machine in such a compact form.

Gaming
I didn't buy this machine to game on it. Nevertheless, I was happy it is able to run games such as Diablo 3, LOTRO, and Team Fortress 2 very well.

Price
This is an expensive machine (2.9/512/460). Even when I got a refurb deal. Will it be worth it? Only time will tell.

I was not too thrilled when Apple announced it back in October. And since then I have looked at other options as well. I was tempted to get the 2015 MBP, but somehow decided against it since I plan to keep the machine for a few years, and would really appreciate the small form factor for the 2016 (travel). iOS Development removed any Windows options from consideration.

The SSD performance blows my mind. Quite often. The touch ID login is super convenient as well.

Overall, I am quite happy with the machine. Sure, I feel it is overpriced by $200 at least, but then it is really good at a lot of things I want it to do (now, and hopefully a few years down the road).

 

[ronaldcastillo]

Satisfied with my MacBook Pro 15-inch, only concern is how it repeatedly makes a soft clicking noise every so often.

 

[WhiteWhaleHolyGrail]

Best MBP I have owned. It has such a beautiful form, the battery lasts forever, the screen is a delight, it's fast and eerily quiet. What's not to like with this thing.

I still have very minor UI graphic glitches but updates seem to be taking care of these one by one.

WWHG.

 

[Sanpete]

Satisfied with my MacBook Pro 15-inch, only concern is how it repeatedly makes a soft clicking noise every so often.

What kind of clicking noise? Like a fan hitting something, or more like metal expanding and contracting, or something else?

 

[grahamtaustin]

Satisfied with my MacBook Pro 15-inch, only concern is how it repeatedly makes a soft clicking noise every so often.

This happens to me too, does it sound like a pop sound coming from the hinge? There are multiple threads about this and I think it might be a widespread design flaw.

 

[Sanpete]

This happens to me too, does it sound like a pop sound coming from the hinge? There are multiple threads about this and I think it might be a widespread design flaw.

There are multiple threads, but about different kinds of sounds. There's hinge noise (an issue since forever), expanding and contracting parts (besides the hinge), speaker pops and clicks, and possibly others.

 

[ronaldcastillo]

What kind of clicking noise? Like a fan hitting something, or more like metal expanding and contracting, or something else?

This happens to me too, does it sound like a pop sound coming from the hinge? There are multiple threads about this and I think it might be a widespread design flaw.

There are multiple threads, but about different kinds of sounds. There's hinge noise (an issue since forever), expanding and contracting parts (besides the hinge), speaker pops and clicks, and possibly others.

I honestly don't know. But it sounds like it's coming near the hinge/back part of the MacBook Pro. It only bothers me when I'm in a quiet environment (when I'm at home), but most of the time I'm listening to music, so I can't hear it at all. I went through 3 replacement for the scratch near the speaker grill and they all made the same noise. I do notice tho it barely makes the noise when I'm on battery for some odd reason. I notice it makes the noise more often when I'm charging/using Adobe apps.

 

[neil218]

Extremely happy with my MBP 2016, this is by far the best mac laptop I have owned.

Screen
DCI-P3, incredible!

Keyboard
I like using the new keyboard. But if you don't like it, I can totally understand.

Touch Bar
It will not make a huge difference in our workflows, that's true. But I don't think it's a gimmick. I believe 95% of people don't use function keys, especially the new generation. So, instead of keeping the unpopular function keys, why not a Touch Bar? I really like the sliding feature, which is not possible with a regular keyboard.

Build Quality and Design
The most beautiful laptop ever.

Ports
I love the current configuration (ps: I never use the SD card slot).
First, what did we have before? 2 USB-A, 2 TB2, 1 SD Card Slot and 1 HDMI. Do you use these TB2 ports and HDMI everyday? Maybe, but definitely not the majority. Now we can have 3 or 4 USB ports! When we need DP or HDMI, the universal USB-C can transform to these ports. It's extremely practical. Secondly, I don't miss MagSafe, I can finally plug to the right side. Last but not least, it's finally symmetrical!!! So beautiful.

Price
Very expensive, Apple will drop the price in the future for sure.

Conclusions
This machine is incredible, it's art! There is no other laptop that can match this masterpiece.

 

[Sanpete]

I honestly don't know. But it sounds like it's coming near the hinge/back part of the MacBook Pro. It only bothers me when I'm in a quiet environment (when I'm at home), but most of the time I'm listening to music, so I can't hear it at all. I went through 3 replacement for the scratch near the speaker grill and they all made the same noise. I do notice tho it barely makes the noise when I'm on battery for some odd reason. I notice it makes the noise more often when I'm charging/using Adobe apps.

Sounds like it's probably heat related, expansion and contraction. In some cases that can make quite a loud noise (for an MBP), but it doesn't represent any other problems, as far as I know, i.e. won't hurt anything.

 

[tonyz123456]

Had the MacBook Pro no touch bar + LG5k Monitor for about 6 days.

8/10 LG 5K: Wish it were an apple branded thunderbolt display but the picture quality is amazing and the aesthetics aren't bad. It's actually much more modern and sleek than the old thunderbolt display. I figure any future 8k apple branded display is going to cost a whole lot more so will be happy with this for a while.

6/10 Macbook Pro without Touchbar. Upgraded from a 2013 MacBook Air to an entry level MacBook Pro 2016. The power bump helps but 8gb of memory isn't enough and it struggles a little bit with 4k video. I will consider selling this and replacing with a 13in Kaby Lake MacBook Pro for better video and get it upgraded with 16 gb of RAM once those are available.

 

[S4m4n]

Screen
Gorgeous! I used to think sex and drugs were the best of physical feelings in life... until the tbMBP's display came along. (totally kidding, bad joke, let's move on.)

Keyboard
Disappointing initially; it grew on me... now my life-thus-far's favorite typing experience. It's loud, especially if you tend to slam the keys down like there is no tomorrow. I have been self-concious about it in quiet libraries, something that didn't happen with my old MBP (early 2013, the first "retina" MBP).

Touch Bar
No doubt it looks sweet, but in terms of usefulness I had mixed feelings at first and other than scrubbing through videos found it not to be very useful. Loving it these days though, to the point that keyboards lacking it feel as if they are missing something... but this happened only after BetterTouchTools and TouchSwitcher made it actually useful (just my opinion of course, others might find it is super useful as is).

Build Quality and Design
Do you really have to ask?
The very best money can buy. Of course that doesn't mean perfection, for instance I too like many of you am experiencing some variation of the clicking sound(s).

Ports
As an avid amateur photographer, most definitely missing the SD reader... still do every time I have to "adapter" this baby.

Missing the MagSafe.

That being said, I love that it can be charged via any of the ports.

Price
Umm... EXPENSIVE? But for me Apple products are just as much about WANTS and they are about NEEDS. Hard to say I am "happy" to pay the now even higher premium, but you wouldn't find me complaining about it either.

Conclusions
Don't take people's complaints to heart on the tbMBP. You are going to love it! What else would we do with our time if we didn't have forums like this on which to complain about the specifics of how our particular experiences with the tbMBP fall short of absolute perfection.

 

[turbineseaplane]

I just hope all these people talking about the clicking sounds, uneven key noises, graphical glitches, etc, somewhat dismissively also realize that is all only likely to get worse over time and with usage.

I find it to be fairly unacceptable stuff for such expensive hardware personally.

Extra AppleCare should be considered mandatory on the 2016 MBP's I think.

 

[tshrimp]

I think price wise we could see price drops

I was able to get my non-touch bar version for $1249.00 at Best Buy a few days ago. Still wondering if this was overpriced though as I could have gotten a Dell XPS 13" for less, or paid the same and gotten a Kaby Lake I7 512GB SSD, and great display.

Pros:
Nice display - Not sure it is any better than my wife Dell though (forgot the model, and too lazy to go look), but better than my MBP Mid 2012 non Retina.
Touch Pad - I really like the larger size, and it works very well. The touchpad is one reason I like the MacBooks
Size and form factor - Not the smallest, but definitely liking the smaller footprint.
Thunderbolt3
Hard drive is flat out fast.

Neutral:
Keyboard - I didn't like it at first, and thought about taking it back, but the keyboard is growing on me.
Magsafe - Lacking this. I have seen laptops destroyed due to the cable being tripped over and the laptop hitting the floor, but I admit there are times the MagSafe just wasn't that great as it would disconnect with very little pressure.
Performance - More of a mental thing. This laptop feels very fast, but a 2Ghz CPU seems a little slow.

Negatives:
Really?? Only 2 ports. This thing retails for $1500 and you want to give us 2 ports.
Needs at least 2 USB 3 ports IMO
Power on when plugging it in. I need to do some looking on how to disable. I am okay the lifting of the display to turn it on though.
Price - If I didn't get this on sale, I would not have purchased.$1500 is insane.

One thing to ask the experts... The base MBP has a 2 ghz with turbo boost to 3.1. The touch bar version is 2.9 with turbo to 3.3. I assume this means that doing things such as surfing the web the computer will be running at 2ghz, and if running CPU intensive things then it will ramp up to 3.1. Large difference between the 2 and 2.9, but not between the 3.1 and 3.3. So since this thing should ramp up would the CPU differences be minimal?

 

[Precursor]

One thing to ask the experts... The base MBP has a 2 ghz with turbo boost to 3.1. The touch bar version is 2.9 with turbo to 3.3. I assume this means that doing things such as surfing the web the computer will be running at 2ghz, and if running CPU intensive things then it will ramp up to 3.1. Large difference between the 2 and 2.9, but not between the 3.1 and 3.3. So since this thing should ramp up would the CPU differences be minimal?

The non-touchbar version uses a 15W weaker CPU. It's non-turbo speed is low to save more energy, hence longer battery life than the touchbar version. The touchbar version uses higher wattage, and dual fans to blow the heat out so it will stay at turbo speeds longer than the non-touchbar version. If you do a CPU torture you'll see the temperature rise and your CPU speed goes down to less than 3.1GHz whereas the touchbar version's CPU clock speed will stay higher.

 

[tshrimp]

The non-touchbar version uses a 15W weaker CPU. It's non-turbo speed is low to save more energy, hence longer battery life than the touchbar version. The touchbar version uses higher wattage, and dual fans to blow the heat out so it will stay at turbo speeds longer than the non-touchbar version. If you do a CPU torture you'll see the temperature rise and your CPU speed goes down to less than 3.1GHz whereas the touchbar version's CPU clock speed will stay higher.

Thanks for the info. I thought about getting the touch bar version for the upgraded specs, but no "esc" physical key = no deal. I am betting Apple changes that in the future.

 

[Dave245]

Thanks for the info. I thought about getting the touch bar version for the upgraded specs, but no "esc" physical key = no deal. I am betting Apple changes that in the future.

The escape key is on the Touch Bar, i can't see Apple adding a physical space key when there is one on the Touch Bar itself.

 

[maflynn]

Thanks for the info. I thought about getting the touch bar version for the upgraded specs, but no "esc" physical key = no deal. I am betting Apple changes that in the future.

Its there, just not a physical key. I recommend checking out the MBP at an apple store and see if touch bar esc key is good enough

 

[aevan]

Thanks for the info. I thought about getting the touch bar version for the upgraded specs, but no "esc" physical key = no deal. I am betting Apple changes that in the future.

I would gladly take that bet, if I could, because they are not going to do it.

And while I can understand some people prefer physical keys to the Touch Bar, can one key really be a deal-breaker?

I almost feel sorry for Apple, they added a whole little computer there, with all these cool features and options and people just want things to be the way they were. Esc key is there. It's right there in the corner. And there are numerous advantages to the Touch Bar, give it a chance.

 

[Dave245]

I almost feel sorry for Apple, they added a whole little computer there, with all these cool features and options and people just want things to be the way they were. Esc key is there. It's right there in the corner. And there are numerous advantages to the Touch Bar, give it a chance.

This always happens whenever Apple change something, usually when they make a big change. From my hands on wither the 13" MacBook Pro with Touch Bar it was a great little machine, the only downside I think is it's price, but I think Apple will probably drop the price later this year.

 

[JMacHack]

I almost feel sorry for Apple, they added a whole little computer there, with all these cool features and options and people just want things to be the way they were. Esc key is there. It's right there in the corner. And there are numerous advantages to the Touch Bar, give it a chance.

It's weird how nearly every tech guy I talk to is very much against trying new things out. Honestly if Apple listened to most of these guys we'd still be using 5 1/2 inch floppies because they were "industry standard" at some point.

 

[csurfr]

I would gladly take that bet, if I could, because they are not going to do it.

And while I can understand some people prefer physical keys to the Touch Bar, can one key really be a deal-breaker?

I almost feel sorry for Apple, they added a whole little computer there, with all these cool features and options and people just want things to be the way they were. Esc key is there. It's right there in the corner. And there are numerous advantages to the Touch Bar, give it a chance.

I find myself more and more looking for software that has touch bar support. Code, Transmit, Dreamweaver (ugh), Photoshop. . . Give me touch bar support in Illustrator and Brackets and I'll be a very happy person.

 

[turbineseaplane]

Can't speak for others, but I've used a 15" w/ TB extensively and decided it's not for me. It was not a snap judgement at all. It simply doesn't add anything to my workflow, even with BTT, and just adds something sort of odd and clunky.

I liked Touch ID though, but it could use more widespread implementation.

I'd love to have a normal keyboard w/ Touch ID!
Oh well.. Sucks.

 

[BenTrovato]

When I first bought the MBP, I hated the touch bar, keyboard was loud, and the virtual escape key bothered me.

5 months later, the physical escape key is much better and the touch bar has potential but still not there. It's no different than blackberries still being better to type on than an iPhone but the way we work has changed. Keyboards won't have physical keys forever - at least I don't think they should. Time to move on. Laptop has been outstanding. Spec for spec, not a value in this machine but definitely appreciate that Apple has turned it into a work of art and the user experience is great.

 

[Dave245]

those who have the 13" MacBook Pro with Touch Bar is the 2.9GHz, 8GB Ram, intel 550 graphics good enough? If I buy one im wondering if those specs are going to last me the same amount of time that my 2011 MacBook has lasted. I'm not a spec guy so I don't know which spec would be the best, all I know is I like the 13"

 

[turbineseaplane]

Keyboards won't have physical keys forever - at least I don't think they should.

I'm really on the opposite end here personally. I literally create content that's different if it comes through my fingers and put on the page/screen vs voice interactions.

Perhaps you just mean we'll have virtual buttons, but can still type. I'm very much open to that idea, assuming the the technology can create something that's pleasant to use for extended sessions. I type on my iPad screen reluctantly and certainly wouldn't want to create long and complicated works on it alone.

Hopefully some type of haptics and materials can move this forward a bit.

...and back to Touch Bar - It really needs some haptics and sensitivity settings, etc