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New MacBook Pro Nears Mass Production, But Four Bigger Upgrades Expected Next Year
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MBA buyers just constantly whine for more at lower cost, which is a dumb boring argument. MBAs already are great value low end devices.
However IMO it is reasonable for those willing to pay for high end devices to seek thinner and/or lighter from those high end devices.
I've always argued for less at lower cost, which is why I've been happy that the rumours of the A* Series MacBook keep going
Apple has lots of computers they could make... And even more if the M* Quadra ever comes out:
While I am an avid dongle user, there are advantages to special purpose ports. I would not what to give up MagSafe for a USB-C port, and the mini microSD adapter lets me leave an SD card in my Mac without worrying an SD card wil catch on something. Plus, having a bunch of dongles in my bag is bit of a pain vs ports.
I don’t understand why people don’t want options? (Assuming touchscreen is a BTO option)
People use devices differently, so it may not suit your use case, but suit others who can hopefully use their Apple Pencil for more than just their iPad.
One can carry just a MacBook Pro instead of two devices.
Doesn't titanium heat up? Like the reason they stopped using it on the iphone?
I think if you are opting for a MBP over the MBA, you’ll benefit from the big boost in GPU performance.
Maybe scrolling on a webpage works for you. That's good. But I never found it easier on a Windows laptop. A mouse under your hand with a scroll button is less work/effort.Speaking personally, I've had Windows laptops that have had a touchscreen and I've really enjoyed being able to scroll through a webpage with my thumb at the side of the screen. Being able to easily sign secure documents with my finger tip has been useful too (ie I actually did a decent version of my signature). Small use cases I now, but I still found them nice to have.
I would imagine the extra cost to build a touchscreen into a laptop is minimal now with the tech being mature, so it's not going to be adding a huge amount to the purchase price. Apple has likely done their research and concluded that enough people would like a touchscreen to make it a worthwhile business decision to employ, along with MacOS becoming more aligned with iPadOS (and vice versa) over the years to make the UX & UI interactions more fluid too.
Most people seem to cope with finger prints on phone and tablet screens okay, I would think the larger part of the Mac buying population will be the same with finger prints on their laptop screen too. Obviously there will some who would prefer a pristine, fingerprint free screen, and that is totally fair enough too
To be honest, just like the video functionality in 'stills' cameras. Just don't use it if you don't like/want it.
Phones and tablets are touch devices so people are used to fingerprints on them.
And less screen area to clean when you do.
If Apple ever do a touch screen, I hope they make a touch and non touch version and charge more for the touch function. Then we will see how many are actually willing to pay for the interaction.
After years deeply immersed and generally satisfied with the various MacBook Pro and MacBook Air models, I must say the interest going forward has been dampened.
The entirety of iOS 26 / iPadOS 26 and macOS 26 has been a discouraging look at Apples priorities. Seemingly designed to appeal to the easily amused via animations and other window dressing, thus far productivity has been squandered.
No thanks comes to mind.
I don't like touching the screen of my laptop so the touchscreen feature wouldn't matter to me. I would rather pay less and not have touchscreen on a MBP. I used Windows laptops with touchscreen and it just isn't as natural as touch on a tablet or phone. Besides, I am quicker with a mouse and keyboard shortcuts anyways without having to smudge up the display. Lastly, my MBP is often in clamshell mode connected to a 48" 4K LG OLED, so even less need for touching the screen.
Agreed. The question remains: how much costly and heat producing power do we need "to run some LLM queries locally for privacy or sensitive data protection reasons?"
I would argue Apple should give a Studio or a Mac Pro at least a TB of RAM and the processing power to go with it. But I would suggest that we do not need that much power to be mobile.
I don’t want a separate device to be my main way of connecting to the internet when I am using my iPad or my Mac. Besides, my iPhone gets very hot when I use it as my hotspot for my PC for a long time (1 hour or longer) unless there’s very little internet activity (such as browsing websites).
Oh and iPhone battery would take a huge hit from running warm/hot long time anyways.
A BTO would be difficult unless all Apple did was add a touchscreen. If they did that, you would not have both devices since the screen is still attached to the keyboard, eliminating the Pad portion of iPad. If the screen is detachable, Apple would basically have a reengineered limited production device, something I doubt they would do as it likely would not make enough money to warrant the costs of development and manufacture. It also would make the supply chain more complex for little in return.
So the question remains, what is the value to having a touch screen laptop? How does it make using the device more productive?
My anecdotal experience, running an iPhone 14 12+ hours a day to stream TV and get email, web surfing, etc., is that the battery doesn't get hot and I have it connected to a charger most of the time. I agree having a modem could be useful, now you are trading one battery life for another. In addition, as cellular technology gets updated you will fall behind vs using a replaceable external hotspot. Personally, I find using the phone or a separate device more convienent and likely less expensive than as an option on the Mac. YMMV.
Cellular tech does evolve but I think for most of uses newer tech doesn’t really mean much for I’d say “traditional devices” (laptop, mobile phone, tablet) other than speed boosts and maybe efficiency boost. I much prefer each device having its own modem rather than sharing with one modem so I don’t have to always carry two devices out and about. My cellular iPad Pro saw tons of use outside independently I will always get the cellular version no matter what. So, if MacBook Pro in the future also have cellular connection it would be incredible. I may not use it, but I welcome the idea to have it depending on how much money Apple decides to charge.
There's actually no reason why Apple couldn't provide upgrades at a later point in time in a manner that is perfectly compatible. They would simply offer an upgrade service similar to the battery replacement service. They could for example offer to swap out a M1 logic board with a M4 logic board. And it would be much cheaper than buying a replacement device. Absolutely nothing preventing Apple from designing these parts to be compatible across generations so you don't have to buy the same unibody chassis again with the same keyboard and trackpad.
But Apple would still charge the same upgrade prices and people would still complain that it's too expensive. What they ultimately want is cheaper Macs and that's not happening. Macs actually became way more powerful for the same money ever since switching away from Intel.
It’s less the touch in the UI, but rather the ability to use with an Apple Pencil for marking up PDF’s. Additionally I sketch out comps and ideas and send them to clients and team members. I’d much rather have a full MacOS and do without extra devices (iPad/Magic Keyboard).
Essentially a Lenovo Yoga 2 in 1 but running MacOS. So the question remains, why are people so adverse to having options?
The extra dimensionality ("fat") required for fans is a totally valid observation. However what is most important for the [high end] Macbook Pros is the pro performance that must not be compromised even a little. If that means fatter to facilitate fans, so be it. Certainly the fan tech in MBPs has evolved to where it works very, very well.
The [low end] Macbook Airs should be and are compromised to achieve thinner/lighter/cheaper.
You ask "why are people so adverse to having options?" and the answer is that options cost money and require engineering compromises. Some options require shifts in engineering direction, sub-optimizing other things. And always adding cost. Designers cannot do everything at once.
That is not to say that your wishes are not appropriate, because they are for some users. Personally I do not want to mark up on a laptop display unless it was to convert to full tablet mode (e.g. Wacom), which would be a major shift in engineering direction, sub-optimizing other things.
As of today IMO Apple is better pursuing concurrent iPad/iPhone usage for markup. My personal wish is for iPhone Pros to support Pencil markup and to operate real-time concurrent with Macs.
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Yes I know about everything you said and others about USB A being dead. It’s my dream. I don’t believe any of this will ever happen.