I am not happy about removing the Touch Bar and not happy about not having 4 USB C connectors anymore. I would have preferred 6 USB C connectors and a nicer Touch Bar (or buttons with LCD screens on the top). Fortunately, I bought the good version of Macbook!
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New MacBook Pro Keyboard Has All-Black Design, Full-Size Function Keys, and Touch ID Ring
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F1 and F2 are screen brightness. In the past, Apple had F5 and F6 as the keyboard brightness keys. They removed that with the M1 Air and made them the Siri and Do Not Disturb keys.
You have to now either add it to the menu bar, use it in the control center, or use a 3rd party program to reassign the function keys to control the keyboard brightness.
Exactly, as soon as I saw it I was like "Hey! But it's my good old Powerbook G4 17"!"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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Uh yes it is. I'm looking at my wife's M1 Air and the keyboard brightness keys have been replaced with dictation and do not disturb. You need to look again.
Really disappointed that they completely removed the Touchbar, I was hoping they would make both options available to satisfy both the people who hate it (for some reason?) and the ones who love it.
Touchbar was a huge productivity boost for me and it looks really sleek.
and the black keyboard background? Looks so cheap to me... It looks like 90% of PC laptops that came out in 2010 🤦♂️
a huge downgrade in my opinion both for style and productivity.
Touchbar was a huge productivity boost for me and it looks really sleek.
and the black keyboard background? Looks so cheap to me... It looks like 90% of PC laptops that came out in 2010 🤦♂️
a huge downgrade in my opinion both for style and productivity.
The case curves remind me of the 2005-2008 era pre-Unibody MBPros.
Really don't see why we could not have the Touch Bar as an option. Keeping mechanical ESC button and Touch ID separate, like they were on the previous generation, and optionally replacing the function keys in between with a Touch Bar. Given the new full-height function row, a Touch Bar area of that size would also open new possibilities.
I'm guessing most users were more or less indifferent about the Touch Bar, some Pro users hated it with a passion and some loved it. Everyone could be happy with a 300 $ option to have it.
I'm guessing most users were more or less indifferent about the Touch Bar, some Pro users hated it with a passion and some loved it. Everyone could be happy with a 300 $ option to have it.
I'm honestly surprised they got rid of it all together. Apple is essentially saying they think they touchbar was a mistake, which is something they rarely do.
Come to think of it, this entire new MacBook Pro is almost like Apple is saying their entire 2016-2019 design choices were a mistake. There's literally nothing left of that previous design.
They were certainly real mis-steps: Lack of flexible ports, lack of mag-safe, persistent keyboard issues, and inclusion of Touchbar that ranges from limited use to annoyingly distracting.
I'm working on a 2020 Intel 13 inch MBPro, and I have to say I find the lack of built-in SD and HDMI ports/magsafe, and the inclusion of Touchbar really annoying for day-to-day use. Kind of galling that I won't be able to justify the cost of an upgrade for at least 3 years. Keyboard is OK...(not a butterfly type)...but even so one key has already gone "squishy" feeling...
I'm not a fan of the new keyboard frame, I think it looks dated, but hear me out... I think the black frame around the keyboard is part of the new design language more so for the upcoming redesigned MacBook Air. If the rumors are true, and we look to the 24" iMac for design clues, the MacBook Air will come in colors and potentially have white bezels. Now picture it with the same keyboard and frame as the new MacBook Pros, but in white. I think this is what is going to happen.
Yeah, I think I would have liked to have a Touch Bar, although I’m not sure how one could innovate on it. I don’t know enough about current materials science to know what is possible.
You put it very well and succinctly. Exactly my thoughts. When I saw that new design, I was like ”Yuck! We going back more than a decade now?”
This is really astonishing. The grey space surface is in so great condition. Look at this BoD MBPro 15” only 2.5 years old.
Does this mean that the keyboard is an actual REPLACEABLE module on these MacBooks? That was something everyone hated on the previous lineup was that the keyboard was permanently attacked to the chassis and if it broke, the whole top chassis needed replaced (not cheap)
The Touch Bar was a side effect from using a separate T2 security chip for hardware level security. The T2 was basically a baby iOS SoC and the Touch Bar was its screen. Now there's no need for that because the whole system is an M1 chip with all that security built in.