MacBook Pro First Impressions: A Lightweight 'Engineering Marvel' With Beautiful Screen

[Gudi]

These new MacBook Pros are a classic example of form over function. A touchbar that requires you to look at it to be useful, ...

Remember when the MacBook Air came with a keyboard that wasn't backlit? All the moaning, and that was with keys which never change or move. My guess is, people are looking at their keyboards all the time. Maybe only unconsciously, but blind keyboard usage is largely a myth.

 

[otternonsense]

Thank you.
I'm still going to try and find a 2015 one though.
I'll paint it gold.

I'd recommend a maxed out 2015 15" MBP from the refurb section. They sell at approx. $2600 and are much better value for money (despite the dated hardware).

 

[mcoate]

But Apple was crystal clear in their quotes from a few months ago, they basically said the 3.5mm jack is totally obsolete, is a worthless piece of dinosaur garbage, and needs to be removed. Where is their courage now.

When asked about removing the 3.5mm jack, Phil Schiller has been quoted saying “the company can't justify the continued use of an 'ancient' single-use port”, and it took “courage” to abandon the 3.5mm jack.

Greg Joswiak has been quoted saying “The audio connector is more than 100 years old. It had its last big innovation about 50 years ago. You know what that was? They made it smaller. It hasn’t been touched since then. It’s a dinosaur. It’s time to move on”

Yes it is old, and time to move on, right now that starts with the phone as it was being directly affected by it. I guess I'm unclear as to what you are looking for here.

Either:
a) Add a Lightning connector to the MBP just so you can use the free headphones from iPhone
or
b) Leave the 3.5mm on the phone; compromising design, waterproofing and battery.

and if so, are you suggesting that we continue using 3.5 forever? I don't understand.

 

[KPOM]

At times, not far off what it is now.
How is the USA price for these macbook pros then?

The pound at $1.22 is at its lowest rate since 1985. When I lived in London about 12 years ago it was nearly 2 to 1.

The absolute highest end 13" with Core i7 and 16GB is $2499.

 

[nj-mac-user]

It's funny how just about every comment here is a complaint geez lol. I love this update I've already pre-ordered mine!

 

[KPOM]

Shipping times are now up to 3-4 weeks, so someone is pre-ordering them.

 

[mcoate]

"The MacPro is obviously dead."

Totally.

 

[LimerickRunner]

How many of the new apple features do you use?

Siri
Apple Pencil
Foretouch / 3d Touch
Do you like the fact on the latest iPhone update their isnt an easy way to use pin unlock when your hands are wet?
They have changed things, are they for the better?

I love change, but only if its for the greater good, I have all the apple products, but I am seriously wondering is it worth spending the money for this new mac with Touch Bar?

I dont use 3d touch or apple pencil, cos theres nowhere store / hold to put the damn thing.

And with the new product line, who thought that the 2 x 13" inch macbook pros listed were very confusing, why didnt they just call the thing a 13" macbook its only got 2ghz and has no touchbar lol.

 

[nj-mac-user]

Shipping times are now up to 3-4 weeks, so someone is pre-ordering them.

Yup!

 

[FrozenDarkness]

RIP magsafe. I just don't understand why they didn't just make a THINNER MAGSAFE

 

[Ishayu]

Not getting it due to the GPU. The Radeon Pro 460 reaches a peak performance is around 1.8TFLOP/s. Apparently this is the same level of performance Nintendo is putting into the Switch, a tablet device essentially. Absolutely pathetic. Meanwhile, 1080'ies are coming into laptops with 8TFLOP/s.

I wasn't asking for 8TFLOP/s in my Mac, but to me anything below 4 is a joke for the work I do and the games I want to play. Though the laptop has many great qualities I'm sure people will appreciate, it is not for me. Apple still does not have a product for me, and so, despite my love for MacOS, it's time to look elsewhere. I have no choice. The hardware is simply not good enough in graphics technology.

I hear Razer's got some nice laptops.

 

[octopi]

Max of 16 gig of ram, non-replaceable and a standard HD of 256gig. In a 'Pro' machine. Really? And for HOW MUCH! Okey dokey then.

 

[amegicfox]

An engineering marvel? Just because it is thinner? How many pros were clamoring for a thinner computer that has so many compromises? Apple wildly missed the mark if they wanted to market a "Pro" device.

a lot of people can't say bad things about apple devices because they are bloggers and they live talking about apple

the same is true for all the companies that sell apple accessories, apple apps programmers, consultants, apple store employees, apple subcontractor etc.

millions of people depend on apple to make a living so they will always say Timmy Crook is great and every apple product is magic

clearly there hasn't been a mac pro in 4 years, the mac mini is obsolete, the new MacBook has a shorter battery time then the MacBook air and lacks magsafe and the list goes on and on,
but you keep seen posts justifying anything apple does one way or the other

if you argue about it, they will try to discredit you with their mob mentality and tactics

 

[tentales]

And we got to see Tim Cook use Lucille to bash the Mac Pro in the head on stage in front of millions.

and when Daryl rushed him, he took it out on the iMac also, but in Rick's mind, the Mac Mini copped it also, then the Macbook Air.

They've truly dropped the "Computer" from "Apple Computer" this time.
Welcome "Apple" The style & fashion company. No wonder after hiring the Burberry CEO that this would be the outcome.

 

[Lakailb87]

Holding off until they fix the prices.. no need for a $500 increase

 

[rippley5150]

Yikes!!! They are expensive. The fully loaded 2TB model is 5059 CND and on Apple.cn 21,000 RMB. I guess I'll have to save my nickles or jiao lol

 

[FrozenDarkness]

interesting is that even the base 15" has discrete graphics. might explain the cost difference

 

[scaramoosh]

The MacBook keyboard is crap, why do they think key travel is bad? So bizzare...

 

[KPOM]

Is there a cable with female lightining connector?
Never seen one...

No, except for the adapter that comes with the Apple Pencil. My point is that you can get a cable that is identical to the standard Lightning cable except that it has a USB-C connector on the other end instead of a USB-A connector.

 

[calzon65]

Yes it is old, and time to move on, right now that starts with the phone as it was being directly affected by it. I guess I'm unclear as to what you are looking for here.

Either:
a) Add a Lightning connector to the MBP just so you can use the free headphones from iPhone
or
b) Leave the 3.5mm on the phone; compromising design, waterproofing and battery.

and if so, are you suggesting that we continue using 3.5 forever? I don't understand.

Leave the 3.5mm on the entire Apple line. There are plenty of companies that have created water resistant phones with a 3.5mm jack (iPhone 7 is not water proof its water resistant) so the water resistant argument is bogus and does not compromised their design.

But since Apple told the world the 3.5mm jack is totally obsolete, a piece of dinosaur garbage, should be completely abandoned, and they had the courage to remove it from the iPhone, let's see that courage now by removing it from the MBP. But they won't remove it from the MBP because they know wired headphones are prolific and will continue to have wide ranging use for many years to come. Virtually all professional audio engineers, DJs, etc. still used wired headphones because they are better, don't have to be recharged and can be easily used across a variety of equipment.

 

[Investor27]

Like all Apple laptops, you'll need to upgrade a component or two, making these new Pros $3,000 to $4,500. You can buy a scooter or a motorcycle or both for that kind of money to commute to school or to campus. That is just too much!

 

[tentales]

a lot of people can't say bad things about apple devices because they are bloggers and they live talking about apple

the same is true for all the companies that sell apple accessories, apple apps programmers, consultants, apple store employees, apple subcontractor etc.

millions of people depend on apple to make a living so they will always say Timmy Crook is great

all blogger and mac magazines will always defend tim cook and every apple products

clearly there hasn't been a mac pro in 4 years, the mac mini is obsolete and the list goes on and on,
but you keep seen posts justifying this one way or the other

if you argue about it, they will try to discredit you no matter what with their mob mentality

Kinda like what's going in politics in the US. There's no more impartiality, you pick the news channel catered to your side.
The Apple friendlies, anandtech, cnet at the forefront. But even CNET's headline is having to squeeze a positive by stating:
"...probably isn't that bad"
https://www.cnet.com/how-to/macbook-pro-keyboard-butterfly-switch-2016/

 

[KPOM]

RIP magsafe. I just don't understand why they didn't just make a THINNER MAGSAFE

Since USB-C supports 100W charging adding a dedicated charging port makes less sense. I do wonder why they haven't released a charging cable that incorporates MagSafe, though.

 

[maverick2007]

Looks way Ugly like designed by interns.

Apple lost its Design innovation! Looks like Jony is too much tired of doing monotonous job in designing iphone and Macs. I get it anyone will get bored of doing this. Microsoft has amazed everyone with new products. Time to wake up Apple!!!!!

 

[Feenician]

Sweet, we get an obsolete processor, miniscule storage with hyper expensive tiered upgrades, and a somewhat innovative touch bar. and we get to pay $500 more than the previous model.

Keep it. I'd rather have a cheaper device with far superior hardware running Windows. I am beyond disgusted.

The only machine that a Kaby Lake processor would even be available for is the basic 13" which runs a 15w cpu. The other 13" runs 28w and the 15" runs a 45w CPU. Thanks for registering to let everyone know you don't what you're talking about.