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New Images Offer Even Closer Look at New 14-Inch MacBook Pro

I think people really just like physical buttons on laptops, especially function keys. We waited years for the Touch Bar to go away and now we wait for the notch to go.
 
mielie said:
Sigh. Again we have the 'pro' argument. For every 'Pro' you give me that hated the old design I will give you two that loved it. This new design is a cross between a terribly bland Huawei chassis and an enormous compromise on the screen in the form of a notch. I've read through all seven pages of this thread and not a single person has said they love the notch, people either think its ugly or they attempt to justify it on a function over form argument.

But this laptop has M1 Pro/Max so will sell very well because a lot of people, professional or otherwise, will overlook the fact their laptop looks like it should be cemented into a wall and get on with their day to day business with these faster chips.
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+1. I've used quite a few MacBook Pros over the years and really loved the design minus the Touch Bar. If all apple did was remove the touchbar and added the mini-LED display even with the notch to the old MacBook Pro 13in chassis, and the pro processor, I would've been very happy.

Going to compare the baseline MacBook Pro 14in vs an upgraded refurbed 16gb/ 512 gb MacBook Air to see which fit my needs better - been without a personal laptop for a while while waiting for this upgrade (wasn't ready to pull the trigger on the non-pro M1 until I saw the pro redesign and came away disappointed in the aesthetics but impressed by the performance and features even in the base model.

Price isn't the main issue but I think it'll come down to weight and size vs. the mini-LED screen and performance for some of my more intensive use cases.
 
Those that own an iPhone X and later should not complain about a notch you’ve had for years now. Those that are complaining about the WEIGHT should not be complaining either. What you all should be complaining about is the PRICE on these laptops.

Single core only a bit better than current MBA/P M1’s but price is way more. You’d think with apple owning their own chips now they can price it much cheaper than with intel but of course that ain’t gonna happen.
 
Superhappytree said:
I love Apple products but a lot of people on here are completely brainwashed by Apple. So many trying desperately hard to justify the notch, going out of your ways and jumping through hoops defending their every decision as “the right thing”.
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Hear hear. It’s amazing how people are now so far up Apples backside that the notch is now “critical branding”. Give me a break. Same group will be elated when Apple eliminates it.
 
Shalev said:
lost the SEX.
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You obviously haven’t used a 2001 G4 PowerBook when Steve Jobs said that. And I’m sure the 2021 MacBook Pro is way lighter and svelte than those that were released between 2001 to 2012. Remember, this is about function over form, if you need something sleek and compact the Air is available and 2020 M1 MacBook Pro is available. But let Pro’s have a moment to rejoice.

It still has an intended purpose instead of being just a status symbol.
 
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ghanwani said:
The looks don't evoke any emotion, good or bad, for me. However, these devices are a hard pass for me because of weight and form factor. The limit in terms of form factor for are the current 13" MacBooks. The limit is terms of weight is 3 lb. I hope the MBA is released sooner than later and it doesn't have a display that causes headaches for me.
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They're equally portable. Even a disabled person can handle a fraction of a pound.
 
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It's pretty amazing to me just what an optical illusion the tapering creates. I'm not sad to see it go though. All the portable devices with tapering are harder to hold on to. Not such a biggie on iPhones because almost everyone uses a case but that's not so common for iPads and MacBooks.

They certainly don't look as sleek but... I mean seriously... whatever. From a design, the laptop isn't going anywhere. It's a solved problem. There's a screen and a keyboard and some ports. Okay.

I'm looking forward to seeing these in person or at least a side-by-side with the 13" machines.

Can't tell if I like the keyboard better but again, this is a thing I see people getting really worked up about like Apple made it... puce or something. I figure in a year anything else will look weird again. Such is fashion.
 
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I really hope they don’t kill off the wedge on the next Airs

That is a really under appreciated ergonomic design element.
 
If they're going to use white for the menu bar items, why not make the background black? That way the notch goes away. Hopefully that's a normal-mode* option in the OS for those who find the notch visually intrusive (*in dark mode, it should disappear automatically).


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ghanwani said:
The looks don't evoke any emotion, good or bad, for me. However, these devices are a hard pass for me because of weight and form factor. The limit in terms of form factor for are the current 13" MacBooks. The limit is terms of weight is 3 lb. I hope the MBA is released sooner than later and it doesn't have a display that causes headaches for me.
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That is the part I miss from this, emotion. Yes the notch allows for more screen real estate, but we use these devices everyday. To hear people say design doesn’t matter baffles me as an Apple user. We are entering pc land where it’s only about specs vs the experience imo.
 
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I generally run most of my apps in full screen mode and keep one screen for messages and some other small app windows so I would only have the notch visible on one screen. I’m still not getting one Though because I could never use that performance in my workflow.
 
ItachiSBT said:
Ok I'll say it. The design is important.

Sorry, I know that technically are probably terrific but the 14 is juts wrong, in every sense. The big menu bar, the notch, the thickness, the weight, everything.
It's just ugly, the old 13 design seems a futurist computer.

I know that it's superficial talking about design over functions but honestly we are speaking about apple and I except at least a minimum effort on the eye side. This is just a raw machine for work that like I said is probably fantastic but I simply don't think was necessary to do it so ugly.
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Dont have to say sorry for speaking the truth. The 2016-2020 models just looked better overal. Slimmer and sleek. Everything was more even.
This does seem like a step back into the past and the design to me is a step back from previous models. Design wise it looks like a 2010 model.
 
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ThisBougieLife said:
That's true. No one likes the notch. It's something that, when it's gone, everyone will be glad it's gone. No one is going to say "I miss the notch" the way some miss the TouchBar or the thinner design.

The iPhone notch could be argued to be a compromise. It's a way to fit FaceID components while also maximizing the phone screen space. The alternative is a hole punch, but there can't be a hole punch when you have FaceID. But there's no need for it on the MBP. It's purely an aesthetic choice. They chose a notch over having a "forehead". I personally would've preferred the "forehead" any day, since that's what we've always had and it's effectively there in full-screen mode anyway. The notch is just ugly and unnecessary.
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It’s also just cleaner and uncluttered without the notch. Reason I fell in love with macOS years back when I was using windows previously.
 
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Mr. Dee said:
You obviously haven’t used a 2001 G4 PowerBook when Steve Jobs said that. And I’m sure the 2021 MacBook Pro is way lighter and svelte than those that were released between 2001 to 2012. Remember, this is about function over form, if you need something sleek and compact the Air is available and 2020 M1 MacBook Pro is available. But let Pro’s have a moment to rejoice.

It still has an intended purpose instead of being just a status symbol.
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I get the function over form, but why make it look like a 2001 design? where are the curves, the lines, the shape? and what is that notch??? the menu bar is way bigger just to accommodate her.

it is just a box with rounded top and bottom.
 
JamieLannister said:
Those that own an iPhone X and later should not complain about a notch you’ve had for years now. Those that are complaining about the WEIGHT should not be complaining either. What you all should be complaining about is the PRICE on these laptops.

Single core only a bit better than current MBA/P M1’s but price is way more. You’d think with apple owning their own chips now they can price it much cheaper than with intel but of course that ain’t gonna happen.
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It’s the same performance core, just more of them, plus more gpu cores and more ML cores, plus more ram, bigger display, mini led backlight, bigger battery, faster storage, more speakers… but sure, it should be only a few dollars more than the Air ?
 
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MacATDBB said:
I don't know whether the departure of Ive has led to some infighting between the design teams, but this seems to be a chimeric design. There are a bunch of changes I like that seem to fit well - mostly the return of classic MBP features, but then there's the integration of the iPhone webcam notch that really makes little design sense. In the iPhone it could fit in with the menubar space, but here we're looking at doubling the size of the menubar and making it into an obese extension of the bezel. Seems like design by committee - if Steve had been shown this, maybe there would have been another dent in the wall.
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Steves design sense would of barely approved larger phones let alone the notch in iPhone X. I don’t think it would of happened if he was around personally. He would of needed to be talked into a larger phone to begin with, He was very design focused.
 
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vaugha said:
The new design is inferior to the 2016 macbook pro design. The only things I like are the thinner bezels, the removal of the touch bar and return of the magsafe. I don't like the raised bottom feet, fat rounded design, the black keyboard well, the vent cutout on the rear hinge, and obnoxious macbook pro logo on the centre of the rear panel. The 2016 era design w/ tapered bottom and top was in a league of its own. They need to bring that design back for the next redesign.
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It will most likely come back. Rinse and repeat i very much see apple doing with a lot of their ideas. Also keeps sales coming in
 
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