MB Pro TB: is Touch Bar a pretty much pointless gimmick?

[Fishrrman]

OP wrote:
"The one common flaw I didn't avoid was the loose USB-C ports, which on my MB Pro TB are loosening every month and now drop connections to peripherals such as my external storage drives, so I've sadly been through a few $100 drives that had the header corrupted by repeatedly dropped connections. To be honest, the ports on the MacBook Pro TB do not seem fit for purpose, I've taken it in to the Apple Store, had cables tested, the whole bit, it's the ports."

Interesting comments. I've seen posts from other users as well with "loose USB-c ports".

Makes me wonder just how "robust" the USB-c design will prove in the rough-and-tumble world of day-to-day hard knocks and usage. I'm thinking that the USB-c design is one of those that "looked really good on paper", but won't stand up to the cold, hard outside world.

On the other hand, I don't often see posts about "loose" USB-a ports, nor have I had any trouble with mine, even on old Macs. They "just work". A solid design that's withstood the test of time.

Re the touch bar:
I sense it was one of those "design innovations" that looked great in theory, but in real-life most folks simply don't have a need for it.
For some, using certain applications, it's probably useful.
For others, perhaps for most, not so much. Not worth the added expense.

I predict we'll see the touch bar vanish from future MacBook Pro's, if not in the 2018 models, within the next 2-3 years. I could be wrong.

Full disclosure:
I don't have a touchbar equipped Macbook.
I DO use the function keys on my 2015 MBPro, and find them quite useful "as is".

 

[macjunk(ie)]

I agree with most here. I have a 2015 and 2016 MBP. I get much more productivity with the 2015 function keys over the 2016 MBP touchbar. I can see how it might work for certain people that don't know hotkeys. It otherwise is a complete gimmick. I really hope in the near future they revert back to physical function keys

I'd love to get rid of my 2016 MBP for that.

Quite a few of my friends in my circle are thinking of doing the same. Wonder what the resale value of the 2016 and 2017 MBPs will be if Apple reintroduces the physical function keys

 

[AustinIllini]

It's there. It's fine. Is it a failure? No. I mean, you still get the function keys, the escape key, and all the other keys you need.

The Touch Bar is not, however, a replacement for a decent touch screen. I'm not a big touch screen PC guy, but I'm not going to pretend this is as good as a touch screen. If they had a 15" non Touch Bar, I probably would have bought it.

 

[Queen6]

I hate the entire key layout and keyboard, which includes the touch bar. I wouldn’t mind the touchbar if it had its own row + fn keys. I find myself constantly hitting the screen shot button when going for a delete. I actually used my function keys, so I ended up forcing a rebind in certain programs.

There is plenty of room to fit both the function keys and the touchbar, but I’m sure it was added in place to force a revolution. I feel Apple shamed themselves when they had a DJ play a whole song on the touchbar during the keynote. It was a parody into itself.

Absolutely tragic and laughable at the same time. Apple's execs need a good dose of reality, as they are very clearly disconnected from it...

Q-6

 

[mmomega]

I have had a tb MacBook since release and personally I only use the tb for volume and brightness control.

Occasionally I have used it for various other actions but I am so used to doing those without the tb and am much quicker by not using it. Now can there be scenarios where the tb is useful and quicker, Yes. Just not for my particular use case.

 

[Queen6]

OP wrote:
"The one common flaw I didn't avoid was the loose USB-C ports, which on my MB Pro TB are loosening every month and now drop connections to peripherals such as my external storage drives, so I've sadly been through a few $100 drives that had the header corrupted by repeatedly dropped connections. To be honest, the ports on the MacBook Pro TB do not seem fit for purpose, I've taken it in to the Apple Store, had cables tested, the whole bit, it's the ports."

Interesting comments. I've seen posts from other users as well with "loose USB-c ports".

Makes me wonder just how "robust" the USB-c design will prove in the rough-and-tumble world of day-to-day hard knocks and usage. I'm thinking that the USB-c design is one of those that "looked really good on paper", but won't stand up to the cold, hard outside world.

On the other hand, I don't often see posts about "loose" USB-a ports, nor have I had any trouble with mine, even on old Macs. They "just work". A solid design that's withstood the test of time.

Re the touch bar:
I sense it was one of those "design innovations" that looked great in theory, but in real-life most folks simply don't have a need for it.
For some, using certain applications, it's probably useful.
For others, perhaps for most, not so much. Not worth the added expense.

I predict we'll see the touch bar vanish from future MacBook Pro's, if not in the 2018 models, within the next 2-3 years. I could be wrong.

Full disclosure:
I don't have a touchbar equipped Macbook.
I DO use the function keys on my 2015 MBPro, and find them quite useful "as is".

I still have a 2015 Retina MacBook and it's USB C port too has become loose. I also have multiple devices with USB C and only the MacBook has shown issue, really adding a layer of frustration when in use with the multiport dongle, being very easy to disconnect the Mac from the dongle. Don't see it as a wide spread issue, equally doesn't bring any joy...

As for the TouchBar more and more inclined to go with "gimmick" as Apple have not remotely followed up, or implemented the TouchBar into any other hardware. Just a poor excuse for not being capable or willing to deliver a touchscreen enabled computer to market outside of IOS devices...

Problem being Apple is so arrogant that it's unlikely to backtrack on it's mistakes, new MBP keyboard perfectly exemplifies this mindset...

Q-6

 

[Wags]

I think the Touch Bar is the most useless feature they've ever added to the MacBook Pro.

I'm hoping they get rid of it on future models, I'd much rather have individual tactile keys so I can quickly change the screen brightness, audio volume and put my Mac to sleep without needing to look down, tap multiple times etc - It's a mess of usability.

Frustrating when they make big changes like this and don't give us the option to choose. If I could buy a 15" MBP without the Touch Bar I would have upgraded already, simple as that.

Apple knows many more non touch bar models would be sold especially at reduced price if was real option.

 

[celly]

I've only been using the Touch Bar for a few days and it's fine. Nothing groundbreaking. Depending on the application I am using, it does provide some added functionality I don't mind.

I love being able to use Touch ID to log in. I bought the TB model for the faster CPU, the extra fans, and the two extra USB C ports.

No regrets. Buy what makes sense for you, not others.

 

[svendobbelaere]

I use both a 2017 12" MacBook and a 2016 15" MacBook Pro with touch bar.

I vastly prefer the physical f keys over the touch bar. When it's time to upgrade I will not get a machine with touch bar, period.

It makes everything take longer. Luckily I mostly use an external bluetooth keyboard that has regular f keys.

Apple should just put a touch screen in the MacBooks, imho.

 

[Marc_S]

I don’t understand why so many people get emotional over the TB. How often did you use the F keys the TB replaced previously on your old laptop?
I never used them regularly on my old laptop so the TB is okay by me. I don’t use it a lot but I’ve set it so it displays the F1 to F12 keys all the time which I can cancel and go back to default setup instantly.

 

[nylon]

I would be happier with a MBP without a touch bar but with Touch ID. While the Touch Bar adds functionality it does so at the cost of seamless usability.

 

[randomgeeza]

The one common flaw I didn't avoid was the loose USB-C ports, which on my MB Pro TB are loosening every month and now drop connections to peripherals such as my external storage drives, so I've sadly been through a few $100 drives that had the header corrupted by repeatedly dropped connections. To be honest, the ports on the MacBook Pro TB do not seem fit for purpose, I've taken it in to the Apple Store, had cables tested, the whole bit, it's the ports. Expensive problem to have, but I'm still willing to stick with Apple, and hey there's always great warranty coverage from Apple if I want to be without a machine for 2 weeks while they confirm if it's the ports and if they can fix them.

This right here... already had my 2017 15 MBPTB replaced due to loose ports...

And as for the TB, I don't use it much other than extended keys. When it was moving about suggesting text and stuff I found it distracting and IMHO annoying. Coming from a solid built 2009 17 MBP Unibody, to a 2015 15 MBP, and then on to this new model, the build quality is *****! It feels fragile and I can almost guarantee, it will not stand the test of time.

Disappointingly, Apple have lost me at the moment...

 

[Wags]

I don’t understand why so many people get emotional over the TB. How often did you use the F keys the TB replaced previously on your old laptop?
I never used them regularly on my old laptop so the TB is okay by me. I don’t use it a lot but I’ve set it so it displays the F1 to F12 keys all the time which I can cancel and go back to default setup instantly.

For me it is the fact that I have no option and I would be paying for something that I don’t really want right now. Also, Apple’s obsession to gain .12 inch has created other problems that users have to pay for.

 

[afir93]

Quite a few of my friends in my circle are thinking of doing the same. Wonder what the resale value of the 2016 and 2017 MBPs will be if Apple reintroduces the physical function keys

As someone who intends to buy a 2018 15" MBP once they release, that's one thing I'm actually a bit worried about. Many people say that Apple should just drop the TB altogether, but in that case, what about those who bought into it, who either like it or dislike it but still own a laptop with it because Apple didn't give them a choice?

MBPs (and Macs in general) are well-known for their great resell value. If you get a Mac right now and upgrade sometime down the line, then you can oftentimes get a good portion of the value of the new machine back in by selling the old one. Now if Apple dropped the Touch Bar in future models, wouldn't that make the current TB models drop in resell-value much faster than Macs usually do? These models would be stuck with an experimental feature that Apple wouldn't support/develop anymore; I don't imagine their value would hold up well when they are not only outdated but are lacking physical keys in favor of a feature that Apple distanced themselves from.

My other worry about this scenario is... even if you don't intend to sell your MBP sometime down the line, being stuck with a feature that you bought into because of its potential and then have Apple completely drop it and move away from it would suck for the large amount of users that own a TB model. I mean everything that it can currently do will continue to work for legacy reasons, but there's a lot of room for improvement and more functionality with the current TB implementation. If Apple just drops the TB, it would mean that not only would the TB not get any new features from Apple, but developers would also be discouraged from making their apps compatible for the TB.

You would sit on a feature that is stuck in time. Not only wouldn't it get any updates or improvements with future system versions, but many future apps that are released after Apple dropped the TB would just not support it, they'd just show a black bar on its left half with nothing on it. It would become pretty much what the Dashboard is now: an outdated feature that stuck around for legacy reasons till now but hasn't really been touched, improved or even mentioned by Apple; the big difference being that you can just completely disable the Dashboard whereas you can't replace the TB with physical keys.

 

[c0ppo]

I don’t understand why so many people get emotional over the TB. How often did you use the F keys the TB replaced previously on your old laptop?

Developers do. But also regular users. You don't use them for keyboard backlight, screen brightness and volume control?
I do. And every owner of MBP/Air that I know of.

And it's way easier to do those things with regular F keys then with TB.
Not to mention removal of ESC key. That one was a SHOCK to say the least

 

[va1984]

Two things:

* People hoping that Apple will backtrack on the Touch Bar are simply deluded and/or are folks who are new to Apple, who haven't observed the company long enough. The Touch Bar is probably part of a long term plan to make the "flat half" of laptops more interactive -- and if anything it will grow (slowly) in future years. I say this regardless of whether you actually like it or not: there is not a chance in hell Apple will remove it from future laptops. Apple doesn't try stuff like that and then remove it -- you must be thinking of Dell or Lenovo or some other cheapass plastic laptop brand. Ive even says in the promotional video that they added the Touch Bar "with great deliberation". No way it's going anywhere. Get used to it.

* It so happens that it is growing on me. I owned a non-TB 2016 laptop and more recently two TB laptops (13" and 15"). I'm actually slowly integrating it into some of my workflows -- mostly for things that there are no shortcuts for in Scrivener and other writing apps. Strikethrough is a prime example. I use it a lot and there is no shortcut for it in most apps. The key -- as far as my experience goes -- it for developers to offer good customization options for the TouchBar.

To be clear:
I'm not saying that everybody ought to like it. Every change is going to mess with someone's workflow - just look at the removal of Firewire or more recently of card readers. But what I am saying is that no amount of pushback will make a company like Apple backtrack -- they thought long and hard about this before and that's their way, I'm afraid. But hey, plenty of other laptops on the market!

 

[justinf77]

I've had a MacBook Pro with Touch Bar since it first came out in 2016. I really wanted to like the Touch Bar and did my best to give it a chance in my workflow, but in the end I feel it's just kind of useless and I honestly would prefer a laptop without it. My two biggest gripes with the TB are that a) the non-physical Escape key still bothers me and b) I'm regularly activating Siri by accident.

TouchID is amazing though, so ideally I'd want the regular function keys back with a TouchID power button.

 

[macjunk(ie)]

I don’t understand why so many people get emotional over the TB. How often did you use the F keys the TB replaced previously on your old laptop?
I never used them regularly on my old laptop so the TB is okay by me. I don’t use it a lot but I’ve set it so it displays the F1 to F12 keys all the time which I can cancel and go back to default setup instantly.

As a developer, lack of physical function keys annoy me. I get emotional about it cause many of my dev apps, the ones I have been using for over a decade, use these keys in their shortcuts and I am so used to them. I tried to use the 2016 for some time. Just could not get myself to accept the compromise.

 

[turbineseaplane]

Two things:

* People hoping that Apple will backtrack on the Touch Bar are simply deluded and/or are folks who are new to Apple, who haven't observed the company long enough. The Touch Bar is probably part of a long term plan to make the "flat half" of laptops more interactive -- and if anything it will grow (slowly) in future years. I say this regardless of whether you actually like it or not: there is not a chance in hell Apple will remove it from future laptops. Apple doesn't try stuff like that and then remove it -- you must be thinking of Dell or Lenovo or some other cheapass plastic laptop brand. Ive even says in the promotional video that they added the Touch Bar "with great deliberation". No way it's going anywhere. Get used to it.

* It so happens that it is growing on me. I owned a non-TB 2016 laptop and more recently two TB laptops (13" and 15"). I'm actually slowly integrating it into some of my workflows -- mostly for things that there are no shortcuts for in Scrivener and other writing apps. Strikethrough is a prime example. I use it a lot and there is no shortcut for it in most apps. The key -- as far as my experience goes -- it for developers to offer good customization options for the TouchBar.

To be clear:
I'm not saying that everybody ought to like it. Every change is going to mess with someone's workflow - just look at the removal of Firewire or more recently of card readers. But what I am saying is that no amount of pushback will make a company like Apple backtrack -- they thought long and hard about this before and that's their way, I'm afraid. But hey, plenty of other laptops on the market!

We'll see...

 

[JPNFRK7]

Ive had a similar touch bar on another laptop (Dell Studio). That was a POS. Apple's version is much better than that, but not ground breaking. Having sliders and certain keys on the bar is nice. But most of the commands that are up there are easier to just use keyboard shortcuts for or click on the screen because your hands are already there. For example, in Word they put the bold, italicize, and underline keys on the TB, but its much easier to do Command + (B, I, U).

 

[Super Xander]

I see your point on touch bar, but I’m been one of the users where touch bar improved my daily tasks a little.

My favorite feature using the touch bar is in word with focus screen where the touch bar then works as the tool bar and gives more screen to use.

Also I use the bettertouchtools, witch can be recommended to anybody who don’t see the use of touch bar. You’re able to create buttons, sliders, folders on the touch bar very easy.

 

[Dave245]

I really think it depends what you do with your machine, from what i've seen and experienced with a friends MacBook Pro with Touch Bar it is great in apps like Final Cut Pro especially when doing things like trimming a clip or looking through the timeline. It really does depend how much of a chance you give it and implement it into your work flow. Personally i prefer this method to that of a touch screen laptop or something like the Surface.

I don't see Apple removing the Touch Bar it's part of a much bigger plan for them i think, also look at it this way the touch bar adds more functionality that wasn't there before.

 

[BluAffiliate]

4 months later, I never use it.

 

[LV426]

The fingerprint reader is great. I use the padlock icon a lot to lock the machine. The loudspeaker volume control is much clearer than using the hard keys. When I do code development in a virtual machine, it's handy to have the Windows function keys available.

I could live without it, but for the reasons above I'm glad to have it.

 

[Super Xander]

I really think it depends what you do with your machine, from what i've seen and experienced with a friends MacBook Pro with Touch Bar it is great in apps like Final Cut Pro especially when doing things like trimming a clip or looking through the timeline. It really does depend how much of a chance you give it and implement it into your work flow. Personally i prefer this method to that of a touch screen laptop or something like the Surface.

I don't see Apple removing the Touch Bar it's part of a much bigger plan for them i think, also look at it this way the touch bar adds more functionality that wasn't there before.

Agree. I think it will be better implemented when apps between platform will be available. Some iOS touch based functions will then be useful with touchbar maybe.