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New MacBook Pro Keyboard Has All-Black Design, Full-Size Function Keys, and Touch ID Ring

I'm going to miss the TouchBar. I set it up as a launcher for my 12 most used apps + brightness/volume, and hid the dock for more screen area. Pressing Fn still allows access to the Function keys, which I never use.

The TouchBar was a funky gimmick in its default form, but with a little effort, it's quite useful. Now I'll have a top row of 12 static keys, 7 of which are useless to me. Oh well.
 
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blodyholy said:
Good ol' Apple w/the carrot and the stick move. No one wanted TouchBar, everyone wanted MagSafe, more ports, and and again --- no TouchBar...and here we are.

I feel sorry for everyone stuck w/a TouchBar who did not enjoy the experience. I did not, and have not upgraded since it's introduction. This may be the iteration of MBP's where I finally do.

I'll edit this by saying perhaps there are some that were happy w/TouchBar. But I don't believe I could have ever gotten used to it in my current workflow.
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Same, held out with my 2014 model waiting for this exact outcome, and it finally happened.
 
It's a shame the Touch Bar didn't live up to it's potential, a lot of people seemed to reject it out of hand from my perspective but I guess it's not the end of the world that they decided it had to go. I think if Apple had put more effort into tweaking the software or iterating it then the touch bar may have had a chance to catch on.
Then again, they tried iterating the Butterfly keyboard and the people who hated it from the start just continued to hate it anyway. Even after they brought back the scissor switches people continued to moan. One YouTuber commenting on this new MacBooks Pro release commented that it was great to have an actual esc key even though they had already returned the physical esc key to the MacBook Pro along with the scissor switches.
 
840quadra said:
Removal of Touch Bar is frustrating (for me). I was hoping it would be larger / more useful. Regular function keys are so antique in appearance, though I know a subset likes to use them.

Just wished Apple provided the option for customers to BTO one or the other. Use the bar on a few apps I love, and the function keys would be nice when using terminal.
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Wonder if most of the backlash was from how they forced it on anyone buying higher-end models. Personally I would've been fine with it had they kept physical volume and escape keys, which are pressed frequently enough to deserve real buttons. I've had both the high-end 2016 and 2019 MBPs w/ touchbar at work, and both occasionally lagged while trying to mute.
 
I would have loved magsafe + 4 TB ports.

HDMI sometimes makes sense to connect to projectors (e.g. at a clients side) but then usually you have to carry a cable as well (as only vga is used onsite) and then the adaptor is not a problem.
The SD is not that useful as it is mostly micro SD these days.
 
unobtainium said:
That’s why the price is so high.

I’m not sure why Apple went for the black abyss look. Having some aluminum separating the keys looked nice IMO. Is there a functional reason for this change?
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probably component reuse from the stand-alone magic keyboard
 
joecomo said:
I would have loved magsafe + 4 TB ports.

HDMI sometimes makes sense to connect to projectors (e.g. at a clients side) but then usually you have to carry a cable as well (as only vga is used onsite) and then the adaptor is not a problem.
The SD is not that useful as it is mostly micro SD these days.
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I am still surprised how the HDMI port earned its slot there. Magsafe + 4 TB ports would have been ideal.

I would have taken a type-A USB port over HDMI, I haven't used an HDMI port in about 7 years.
 
I find the black on black keyboard in the middle of the silver to be hideous. Such a disappointment and step backwards as far as design goes, with the keyboard and increased size and weight overall. Tech specs all seem great overall and although I prefer to have the option of the touchbar, i can and will have to live without it. I’m not fussed either way about the ports as I learned to live without them for so many years but really sad to have to spend so much on a computer I find really UGLY. This looks like a 10 plus year old computer looks wise and the black inset keyboard makes it so much worse and worsens usability. But I’m one who prefers white over black hands down and still laments the loss of the white bezel option on the iPhones and iPads. I was happy to see the white bezels on the new iMac and was hoping this new lighter design color scheme would somehow translate to the MacBook Pro, but no luck. Would much rather prefer silver keyboard behind keys or white or white keys even. The black is just such an eyesore and is not something I want to see everyday. If my screen on my late 2016 MacBook pro wasn’t broken I would be tempted to wait another year to upgrade, but they probably wouldn’t change the design within a year anyway considering they keep they new designs for years. IMHO, the 2016 - 2020 MacBook Pro design is much more modern than this new one. Ugh. Sadly aesthetics matter to me especially when spending so much money. And this is actually the first MacBook I’ve ever thought was just ugly. Never had a problem with the air, MacBook, MacBook pros from years past. There were some I preferred over others but none I thought were just plain ugly like this one. I just don’t know what the hey were thinking and wonder if Johnny Ivy was involved.
 
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The black on black is gorgeous - makes the backlit keys pop. But you know what would have been cool? Putting the touchbar to the left of the keyboard (touch strip). Would have resulted in far less accidental touches, and you could still slide your finger up and down for volume etc.
Miss it, but not really. Should have been on ALL Apple products for faster adoptability. Oh well, time to move on.
 
Seems a bit of a waste to have a dedicated spotlight key when cmd+space or the menubar cover that already. Same with Siri. But then again I do like a dedicated DND button. Do others of you find the idea useful to have those? Other functions you would have preferred to see?
 
Well, as someone already mentioned I too find this new design ugly and think that this is the first MBP ever I don't like.
Looks like it's 10 years old. I wouldn't mind the size or weight, but the overall design, the notch and most of all the keyboard makes it look so generic. The keyboard especially - those black keys in the middle of silver used to be like the signature thing - what made a MacBook the MacBook. Just look at the photos - compared to MBP 2015 which I have at the moment - the shape of the chassis itself is so much prettier than the current one. Don't get me wrong - I loved my first Mac ever - Powerbook G4 from 2005, but it's 2021 and this isn't unfortunately a laptop I would like to look at on my table.
As long as my 2015-NoTouchBar-AllThePorts MBP works I'll stick to it. ;)

BTW - I never really liked the TouchBar, but I understand some people did. In this case Apple could've made the function keys less tall (like they used to be in the old days) and put the TB above them. There would definitely be room for that.

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nquinn said:
Does anyone have a space gray colored macbook from 2016 or so? I read that the silver color may last longer because it is the base metal, while the space gray is an coating on top of it the bare aluminum. Curious how the coating has held up for 5 years.

I keep my macbooks for a LONG time so wanted something durable and ordered silver for this reason. With the ugly black keyboard though I think I would have preferred space gray.
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I’ve 2018 15”MBP no issues. Bare in mind that silver is also anodized, which is a chemical processing treatment of the surface against corrosion and not a simple paint coating.
 
Beautiful machines, ahead their time, no doubt as it was the original retina macbook pro (which I’m going to substitute for this one)

only hope the 4 main problems I had wont repeat again
-ghostling effect (warranty covered)
-gpu failure (warranty covered)
-battery failure (warranty covered)
-wifi/bluetooth interferences (big pain for 2years until OSX fixed)
 
Rafterman said:
I think it looks ugly, compared to the old Macbooks. The silver/gray key separation of the old Macbooks made the keys stand out. The old Macbooks looked modern. The new keyboards look like something out of a 1970s Wyse data terminal.
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Totally agree, but when I see what has been done to iMac, maybe it’s not bad they went retro on this one…
 
nquinn said:
Does anyone have a space gray colored macbook from 2016 or so? I read that the silver color may last longer because it is the base metal, while the space gray is an coating on top of it the bare aluminum. Curious how the coating has held up for 5 years.

I keep my macbooks for a LONG time so wanted something durable and ordered silver for this reason. With the ugly black keyboard though I think I would have preferred space gray.
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I have a space grey version back from 2016 and I can tell that it is absolutely durable. I have zero issued with it, it looks like new.
 
Finally, an appealing keyboard. Keep it at least for another year, Apple, before attempting to break.
 
bruno7 said:
Well, as someone already mentioned I too find this new design ugly and think that this is the first MBP ever I don't like.
Looks like it's 10 years old. I wouldn't mind the size or weight, but the overall design, the notch and most of all the keyboard makes it look so generic. The keyboard especially - those black keys in the middle of silver used to be like the signature thing - what made a MacBook the MacBook. Just look at the photos - compared to MBP 2015 which I have at the moment - the shape of the chassis itself is so much prettier than the current one. Don't get me wrong - I loved my first Mac ever - Powerbook G4 from 2005, but it's 2021 and this isn't unfortunately a laptop I would like to look at on my table.
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The new one really does look like like a brick in comparison. The overall heavy looking shape and the strange keyboard island is bad design in my book. I'm also waiting to see how they solved menus and icons getting behind the notch. Fortunately, my next purchase cycle falls somewhere around 2024, so here's hoping they'll change some things.
 
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Everyone looks like happy to have it back, but it was interesting to be able to set up it with the options you need, now back in old age where keyboard luminosity is gone, launchpad too, etc...
 
I liked the touch bar, especially that I can customize it for certain apps (which I think what was missing). I didn't like how it was implemented in Safari, but I do think it's the step forward. Now I'll have to act like a robot and should know what Fn key does for app X 🥴.

I also hope they fixed the coating because my current MBP now has some letters scraped off on the most used keys.
 
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Sometimes, Apple releases something that seems designed to fail.

The Touch Bar is one, and 3D touch on mobiles was another. They release the new feature to some models, but not on others, so that developers are likely to not bother putting much effort into the implementation. Then, as apps don't really make use of them, they get dropped.

It was obvious from the start that the Touch Bar wasn't going to last long, but maybe it was only obvious to me as I'm still bitter about the loss of 3D touch :)

As an aside, in photos the new all-black keyboard looks cheap and nasty. Looking forward to seeing one in-store.
 
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bruno7 said:
Well, as someone already mentioned I too find this new design ugly and think that this is the first MBP ever I don't like.
Looks like it's 10 years old. I wouldn't mind the size or weight, but the overall design, the notch and most of all the keyboard makes it look so generic. The keyboard especially - those black keys in the middle of silver used to be like the signature thing - what made a MacBook the MacBook. Just look at the photos - compared to MBP 2015 which I have at the moment - the shape of the chassis itself is so much prettier than the current one. Don't get me wrong - I loved my first Mac ever - Powerbook G4 from 2005, but it's 2021 and this isn't unfortunately a laptop I would like to look at on my table.
As
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I had a similar feeling when I saw the form factor. It just reminded me of the iBook. Ugh. Then someone mentioned the titanium PowerBook and it looked even more like that. Yuck. Looks dated.

I don’t mind the notch. I’ll miss the Touch Bar
 
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