Single reason I don't want Touch Bar, despite its appeal

[ghanwani]

It has crossed my mind that the brightness of the touch-bar is not manually adjustable. (Not the same as losing the ability to quickly adjust screen brightness.)

I'm mainly interested in seeing comparison tests between touch-bar and non touch-bar models with respect to CPU/GPU performance and battery life. I'm willing to live with slightly less performance if battery life difference is substantial.

 

[Capt T]

It has crossed my mind that the brightness of the touch-bar is not manually adjustable. (Not the same as losing the ability to quickly adjust screen brightness.)

I'm mainly interested in seeing comparison tests between touch-bar and non touch-bar models with respect to CPU/GPU performance and battery life. I'm willing to live with slightly less performance if battery life difference is substantial.

That will be interesting to see, between two similarly spec'd 13"MBPs one with and one without the touchbar.

 

[ThE.MeSsEnGeR]

Even though the OP's concerns could be valid for him, what I don't seem to grasp is why people are freaking out about the usability of the touch bar when they haven't even used/seen one in person. For the sake of everyone's mental health, people should wait a couple of weeks and see it in person and THEN start making your judgments.

 

[maratus]

Even though the OP's concerns could be valid for him, what I don't seem to grasp is why people are freaking out about the usability of the touch bar when they haven't even used/seen one in person. For the sake of everyone's mental health, people should wait a couple of weeks and see it in person and THEN start making your judgments.

It's macrumors, sorry, not gonna happen

 

[Skika]

That will be interesting to see, between two similarly spec'd 13"MBPs one with and one without the touchbar.

Dont forget that the non touchbar mbp uses a 15W chip and the touchbar will use a 28W chip.

 

[Queen6]

FWIW there is a keyboard shortcut to adjust the brightness on the SP4. FN-Backspace/Fn-Delete.

Same on the Surface Book, no need to enter settings etc.

Q-6

 

[Fozzybadfeet]

Am I alone or wrong in thinking along these lines...

I intend to buy the new 13" MBP, but don't think the TB version is for me.

It's not the cost. Here in Canada, it's roughly $450 more with tax, but then you also get a better processor, GPU, and more ports.

And I'm not a developer; but even if I were, the Touch Bar still keeps the escape key in roughly the same spot most of the time. (Or in every setting in every pic I've seen.)

The reason I don't want the Touch Bar is that I'm obsessive about screen brightness (mainly) and the brightness of the keyboard backlighting and volume. I'm *constantly* tweaking screen brightness -- at least every 10 ten minutes, no matter where I am, and often playing with the other two settings.

One of the things I like most about the Mac -- over a Surface Pro 4 I use some of the time at work -- is that I have direct access to brightness. The Touch Bar would take this away.

From what I can glean watching clips of the event online, it appears that most if not all the time, the Touch Bar will truncate the core function keys (volume and brightness) to two or three buttons to the left, so that any adjustments are at least two clicks away: first to bring up the control, then to adjust it. The fact that the Surface buries these controls (in the Control Panel) drives me crazy, and I suspect that it would do the same with the Touch Bar.

In short: the Touch Bar might offer new functionality, but it would do so at the cost of burying -- even if only one level deep -- the things I want constant access to: brightness and volume.

I know I'm OCD on this, but am I wrong? Missing something?

No, you're not alone in thinking that. I feel the same way. I don't need a touch bar for my needs.

 

[teidon]

1. The brightness button in the default view when you press it will turn in to the brightness slider under your finger. So you can just simply start sliding the brightness button to adjust brightness.
2. You can set the Touch Bar to always show the normal Mac keyboard function buttons (brightness down, brightness up, Mission control...)
3. You can set the Touch Bar so that when you press and hold the FN key, it will show the normal Mac keyboard function buttons.

 

[brewmonkey]

Even though the OP's concerns could be valid for him, what I don't seem to grasp is why people are freaking out about the usability of the touch bar when they haven't even used/seen one in person. For the sake of everyone's mental health, people should wait a couple of weeks and see it in person and THEN start making your judgments.

Extensive use of tactile function keys for a great many entertainment and professional uses goes back to the dawn of personal computing. These uses go very far beyond the relatively convenient adjustment of brightness, volume, etc. I don't know about "freaking out", but I definitely understand consternation over a feature which summarily executes that time-tested tactile key functionality.

That said, as you suggest I'm definitely looking forward to reviews from heavy F-key users.

 

[soulreaver99]

One of the things I like most about the Mac -- over a Surface Pro 4 I use some of the time at work -- is that I have direct access to brightness. The Touch Bar would take this away.

What are you talking about? On the a surface you can adjust brightness right from the keyboard. Or on the screen you swipe left and tap on the brightness setting. Could not be any easier than that!

 

[uiop.]

I guess part of my reasoning for going with the non-Touch Bar version was because I feel it would involve more interaction than physical keys do. You have to look down and hunt for the touch buttons, whereas the physical buttons can be felt.

It reminds me of Ford. Ford/Lincoln did away with all physical buttons on many of their vehicles' center stacks between 2010 and 2013. People were outraged at the lack of physical buttons, having to look at where buttons were located every time they needed to press one. They've since put physical buttons back in their cars.

I appreciate the versatility of the the Touch Bar, no doubt. But for those of us who are simpletons and enjoy the tactile button, the base configuration suits our needs. TouchID would be nice though!