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Is the Macbook Pro... too thin?

I would say yes and this was exactly my fear after Apple has released the rMB. This should be their fancy, toylike notebook for people that don't need much more. But the MBP should have been a different beast, if I have the choice between:

Small, thin but only slight improvements and the same battery life versus same more form-factor, more power, 14 hours + of battery life I'd always choose the latter. you know what would have justified the price increase? Performance, better battery life, 4k display and more Cherry MX styled keyboard but that's just my opinion. As a I really don't believe a pro(fessional) based machine needs to be ultrathin and ultraportable that's what the Ipad Pro and retinaMacBook are for.
 
The 2016 15" MBP is the perfect replacement for my late '08 15" MBP. It's super thin and light and will be amazing for photo editing in Lightroom and occasionally in Photoshop. I would not have been willing to pay a penny more for a faster CPU or GPU. In fact, I ordered mine with the 2.7/455 CPU/GPU combo to keep the price under $3.5k with Applecare and tax (and 1tb sdd). I'm not sure if I would benefit from 32gb of ram. I am happy to sacrifice additional performance for all the new features in the new package.

That being said, I understand the frustration that the new MBP no longer serves as a true desktop replacement for gaming and 4k/5k video editing. Apple prides itself on design and prioritized the aesthetic "wow factor" over higher-spec features found in iMacs, Mac Pros, and competitors' desktop replacements. From a marketing standpoint, Apple's decision makes perfect sense... to the detriment of those who want the ultimate portable machine. For me and the majority of laptop users, the new MBP strikes the perfect balance of power and portability.
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frankgrimes said:
I would say...Performance, better battery life, 4k display and more Cherry MX styled keyboard but that's just my opinion. As a I really don't believe a pro(fessional) based machine needs to be ultrathin and ultraportable that's what the Ipad Pro and retinaMacBook are for.
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I would say that's what the iMac and Mac Pro are for. The reason why you get a laptop vs. iMac/Mac Pro is for portability. The new MBP is now more portable.
 
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No I need a pro device that will last all day without a charge. If a device can't last me the whole day then it's not a pro device or it's for pros who don't need to do work all day in various locations going meeting to meeting writing code etc where sometimes you are away from a charger for hours at a time.
 
I don't care a ton about battery life, personally, but I care a lot about ports.

Conveniently, a machine with lots of ports and lots of battery life would be perfectly acceptable to a lot of us. I wouldn't object to battery life, and I suspect the people who want battery life wouldn't object to an ethernet port or such.
 
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Everyone keeps going on with the "ultimate portability" but that is not what a professional machine is supposed to be. A professional machine should design for performance first and then design the package accordingly. What Apple did was design as thin of a package possible first and then went to see what they could actually put inside of it. If they decided to make it a pound heavier, and a tenth of an inch thicker, they could have easily put a bigger battery and a 1060 in it, thereby more than doubling its graphics performance and still gotten 6-7 hours of internet browsing (Remember, the 10 hours is from internet browsing, not the more intensive work a "pro" would be doing.) If you want 10 hours of browsing the internet, then get a macbook, you don't need a Pro to browse the internet.

I truly don't see how people can think that 1 lb, .1", and 10 hours rather than 6 hours of battery life, which you will only notice during the times you don't have it plugged in is worth giving up 2x as much ram and 2.5x as much graphics power which you will notice whether it's plugged in or not.

Just FYI, the STRONGEST graphics card you can buy in this new "Pro" is BARELY stronger than the WEAKEST nvidia 10 series (1050), that is a joke and a slap in the face.
 
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dallas112678 said:
Everyone keeps going on with the "ultimate portability" but that is not what a professional machine is supposed to be. A professional machine should design for performance first and then design the package accordingly. What Apple did was design as thin of a package possible first and then went to see what they could actually put inside of it. If they decided to make it a pound heavier, and a tenth of an inch thicker, they could have easily put a bigger battery and a 1060 in it, thereby more than doubling its graphics performance and still gotten 6-7 hours of internet browsing (Remember, the 10 hours is from internet browsing, not the more intensive work a "pro" would be doing.) If you want 10 hours of browsing the internet, then get a macbook, you don't need a Pro to browse the internet.

I truly don't see how people can think that 1 lb, .1", and 10 hours rather than 6 hours of battery life, which you will only notice during the times you don't have it plugged in is worth giving up 2x as much ram and 2.5x as much graphics power which you will notice whether it's plugged in or not.

Just FYI, the STRONGEST graphics card you can buy in this new "Pro" is BARELY stronger than the WEAKEST nvidia 10 series (1050), that is a joke and a slap in the face.
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Who are you kidding? The thinest package possible is the 12" Retina MacBook. I like portability in my "Pro" devices. I use Xcode, Docker with a gazillion containers with VMware as well as a Windows 10 being installed in VMware as well. I'm a software engineer. I've worked with some of the largest media companies in the world. I don't use all those legacy ports and stuff other "pros" claim to need.

In fact I don't know any engineer I've worked with in the last 5 years who required any of the legacy ports at all to do their jobs. Once someone needed a USB-A drive from me like 4 or 5 years ago. I just was lucky and happened to have one on me at the time but it was just sheer luck and it wasn't an engineer. I hadn't used the thing in ages.
 
AdonisSMU said:
Who are you kidding? The thinest package possible is the 12" Retina MacBook. I like portability in my "Pro" devices. I use Xcode, Docker with a gazillion containers with VMware as well as a Windows 10 being installed in VMware as well. I'm a software engineer. I've worked with some of the largest media companies in the world. I don't use all those legacy ports and stuff other "pros" claim to need.

In fact I don't know any engineer I've worked with in the last 5 years who required any of the legacy ports at all to do their jobs. Once someone needed a USB-A drive from me like 4 or 5 years ago. I just was lucky and happened to have one on me at the time but it was just sheer luck and it wasn't an engineer. I hadn't used the thing in ages.
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I couldn't care less about the ports. What I care about is the fact that we have a "professional" laptop that starts $2400, and the best GPU you can put in it is essentially the same as the weakest nVidia 10 series. I have a sneaking suspicion that you wouldn't really notice 1 lb of weight, and .1" of thickness. It would still be VERY portable but get you significantly more performance.

At this point you are just grasping at straws to defend Apple.
 
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dallas112678 said:
I couldn't care less about the ports. What I care about is the fact that we have a "professional" laptop that starts $2400, and the best GPU you can put in it is essentially the same as the weakest nVidia 10 series. I have a sneaking suspicion that you wouldn't really notice 1 lb of weight, and .1" of thickness. It would still be VERY portable but get you significantly more performance.

At this point you are just grasping at straws to defend Apple.
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TBQH I don't think adding the latest nVidia 10 series to the MacBook Pro given the past history would've made a difference. I'm not grasping at anything. The display is clearly better and I tested the low end 13" retina MacBook w/o TouchBar that is currently at stores with games and it was getting 70-80fps consistently & effortlessly. The display was clearly superior to the 2015 15" retina MacBook Pro sitting next to it. That is more than acceptable for 99% of user's needs. The only reason I could see going higher on ram and video specs is if you need some extreme video editing capability or you want to play games on your mac. In those cases a MacBook Pro in any configuration is not what you were ever using to begin with certainly not without a desktop being involved somewhere along the line.
 
Apple went too far with the thinness of the Macbook line. Those feel awful to type on. Due to the thinness and lack of key travel they are fatigueing to type while not completely stable. The Macbook Pro is fine, but was there ANY need to make it thinner in the first place? It's the one thing Apple keeps doing across their product range yet literally nobody is asking for thinner. People would rather have bigger batteries than super thin devices.
 
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What's evident here (and this has been made abundantly clear in countless other threads and in tech blogs, etc) is that Apple simply is not listening to the requirements and needs of its customers.

If they needed a new tier of machines then so be it. The MacBook Pro Air or something. Deliver a powerful, thin and light machine for them and then a full on workhorse for the others.

We are not talking about some small, niche company here - we are talking about a juggernaught worth hundreds of billions of dollars. Their overcautiousness, inability to diversify and take risks, and their increasing disconnect between what they produce and what people want is starting become increasingly obvious.
 
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Chicane-UK said:
What's evident here (and this has been made abundantly clear in countless other threads and in tech blogs, etc) is that Apple simply is not listening to the requirements and needs of its customers.

If they needed a new tier of machines then so be it. The MacBook Pro Air or something. Deliver a powerful, thin and light machine for them and then a full on workhorse for the others.

We are not talking about some small, niche company here - we are talking about a juggernaught worth hundreds of billions of dollars. Their overcautiousness, inability to diversify and take risks, and their increasing disconnect between what they produce and what people want is starting become increasingly obvious.
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What is clear is that they are make no laptops for the ,majority of their customers not the minority happy to carry a massive beast around and plug it in every few hours. You have this the wrong way round, the minority need loads of ports and a massive GPU no the majority...
 
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myscrnnm said:
In what way are the MacBook Pros aspiring to be like the Air or MacBook? Because Apple made them thinner than they were the last generation? That's not because Apple is trying to make them ultraportables, it's because they're trying to make them mobile machines. It's always preferable to make a laptop lighter when possible.

It's crazy how in the 1990s we envisioned computers of the future that were paper thin, embedded in sheets of glass, projected onto a variety of surfaces, et cetera. And now in the 21st century we have the technology to make thinner computers that maintain a high level of processing power and all-day battery life, and people are actually complaining. People don't know what they want anymore. Consumers are making computers worse, not Apple.
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People who want thin and light should be buying macbook airs and MacBooks. Not macbook pros.
 
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myscrnnm said:
In what way are the MacBook Pros aspiring to be like the Air or MacBook? Because Apple made them thinner than they were the last generation? That's not because Apple is trying to make them ultraportables, it's because they're trying to make them mobile machines. It's always preferable to make a laptop lighter when possible.

It's crazy how in the 1990s we envisioned computers of the future that were paper thin, embedded in sheets of glass, projected onto a variety of surfaces, et cetera. And now in the 21st century we have the technology to make thinner computers that maintain a high level of processing power and all-day battery life, and people are actually complaining. People don't know what they want anymore. Consumers are making computers worse, not Apple.
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I agree. It is pretty amazing how far we have come in even the last 10 years. Biggest 10 years for technology it seems too.
People want something more more more and they don't realize what they had 5 years ago...10 years ago...
To me if they can make things smaller and lighter and more portable WHILE improving performance over the last generation in most areas than its a big step in the right way. These machines are faster than previous models. You can't compare them to other windows computers of not similar size and characteristics.
You cannot compare the 13" base that replaces the air also even though it is faster than the base 13" last year by a small amount even though its only running at 2.0ghz.
Once the 13" and 15" TB macbookpros come out in a few weeks we'll see how much better they are than the previous models.
No complaints here. Sad about the sd card slot. Thats about it. A 5$ adapter covers that though.
 
Courage to remove headphone jack not courageous enough to retain same thickness and put better hardware. TC 2016
 
Samuelsan2001 said:
What is clear is that they are make no laptops for the ,majority of their customers not the minority happy to carry a massive beast around and plug it in every few hours. You have this the wrong way round, the minority need loads of ports and a massive GPU no the majority...
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I respectfully disagree. The feedback on here alone is overwhelmingly negative. And that extends right out across many tech news sites, tech bloggers, etc.
 
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maflynn said:
How is the silicon different in Apple's machines then Dells? They use the same components from Intel so I'm not sure how it can be best in the class
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Dell's XPS and Precision both have only 1 thunderbold 3 port, a big difference to 4 ports in day to day use -- belief me I use a Precison 5510 day to day -- it is great but not as great as the new Macs.
The maxed out Macbook Pro 15" uses an i7-6920HQ and a 2TB very fast SSD you won't find these in Dell's.
MacBook Pro's graphic is also faster.
 
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kasakka said:
Apple went too far with the thinness of the Macbook line. Those feel awful to type on. Due to the thinness and lack of key travel they are fatigueing to type while not completely stable. The Macbook Pro is fine, but was there ANY need to make it thinner in the first place? It's the one thing Apple keeps doing across their product range yet literally nobody is asking for thinner. People would rather have bigger batteries than super thin devices.
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I disagree with this. if you can type with more key travel you can type with less key travel and by exerting less force since you dont have to press as hard or directly in the middle of the key to register the key as as you type. I have more stamina and more accuracy for a longer period of time in my 1.5 years of using a MacBook keyboard. The MacBook Pro line improves upon te MacBook's keyboard.
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Chicane-UK said:
I respectfully disagree. The feedback on here alone is overwhelmingly negative. And that extends right out across many tech news sites, tech bloggers, etc.
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TBQH the feedback on MR is almost always overwhelmingly negative on newly redesigned Apple products. MR is almost solely responsible for bendgate, and various other Apple scandals. Always.
 
Apple even commented on the negative feedback: https://www.macrumors.com/2016/11/02/phil-schiller-new-macbook-pro-interview/had to comment on the negative feedback

To be fair it has been a bit of a surprise to me. But then, it shouldn’t be. I have never seen a great new Apple product that didn’t have its share of early criticism and debate — and that’s cool. We took a bold risk, and of course with every step forward there is also some change to deal with. Our customers are so passionate, which is amazing.

We care about what they love and what they are worried about. And it's our job to help people through these changes. We know we made good decisions about what to build into the new MacBook Pro and that the result is the best notebook ever made, but it might not be right for everyone on day one. That’s okay, some people felt that way about the first iMac and that turned out pretty good.
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Now Schiller was set up for that with a question and issued some good PR spin on it but he acknowledged that there has been a lot of negative feedback. I'm not saying all the negativity is justified (I fall into the "it's fine, we've been through this before" camp) but it is definitely there.

I think this guy hit it on the head:

Then they are buying from the wrong company this has been apples direction for at last 15 years

I realise many people got into Apple laptops in the 2009 to 2011 era purely because everyone else was making very bad laptops, but the competition is now good and if you have specific needs rather than a slim light excellent balanced all round portable then other makes are more what you are looking for. That's fine just go with another make of laptop then swapping over is not the problem it was, but don't blame Apple with following through on a vision for portable devices that they have been aiming for for more than a decade because it's not what YOU want
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This is reality. For many of you Apple is no longer making the kind of computer that you want. It sucks but vote with your pocket books. There is a ton of amazing competition to Apple right now. Apple will either start making machines to bring you back or will be content selling to a smaller crowd.
 
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