Some things we learned about MBP 2016 after WWDC

[aevan]

- The "terraced battery that was supposed to be in there, but they ran out of time" was a myth.

- The battery issues were way overblown and battery life, in fact, turned out to be comparable to previous MBPs and better than most of the competition.

- No matter what some people claim, the keyboard is, most likely, the same in the newer models. Some people have issues on both 2016 and 2017 models, most people have no issues, a lot of people here feel like there are widespread issues and that is perfectly understandable (I sympathize) but not true.

- The CPUs in 2016 were not "old technology". As expected, Kaby Lake (unavailable at the time) turned out to be a minor improvement over Skylake that most users won't notice, unless they encode 10-bit HEVC 4K videos.

- "Wait for next year's model and get 32Gb RAM". Of course, we knew that wasn't going to happen before Coffee Lake, so not a surprise.

- The MBP 2016 can play HEVC 4K videos with High Sierra. 8-bit hardware and 10-bit sotfware decoding (2017 get 10-bit hardware too)


Some people will disagree, but I feel the need to say this too:

- It is not a beta-rev 1-alpha-whatever product. Apple put a lot of thought and work into it.

 

[macintoshmac]

What, really, are the practical benefits of 10 bit HEVC for a normal home user who downloads videos from you-know-where?

 

[Karnicopia]

One negative was they didn't come out with a touch bar keyboard, I'm pretty bummed about that because if they don't make it available to everyone it will not be seriously supported. I'm holding out hope that they just don't want to bundle it with iMac's but are holding it out for a holiday gift type item and release them at the same time as the iMac pro. I really want a space black keyboard with touch bar.

 

[William Payne]

I just noticed that now that the 15" MacBook pro is just 2 versions with different video cards so you don't have to choose as many options to"max it out" it is actually a decent chunk cheaper to get a high spec model now here in new zealand as what you had to add on before is now standard.

 

[Abazigal]

But guess what? Whiners are still going to whine. You think they are going to let facts get in the way of that?

 

[mcpryon2]

So does this mean my 2016 still works and I can keep producing shows for work on it?

 

[aevan]

So does this mean my 2016 still works and I can keep producing shows for work on it?

No. You have to get the new one and complain immediately. That's the only way you can continue your work.
[doublepost=1497078446][/doublepost]

I just noticed that now that the 15" MacBook pro is just 2 versions with different video cards so you don't have to choose as many options to"max it out" it is actually a decent chunk cheaper to get a high spec model now here in new zealand as what you had to add on before is now standard.

Yeah, that's a bummer as I could just get the stock and no upgrade at the time I got mine (would have to wait quite longer and pay much more than $100 for the upgrade in my country) - stock configurations are also easier to get and it's nice to get a maxed out gpu in one. Good for new owners. Still, other than that - I see now there was no real reason to "wait for the next one" like a lot of people were claiming.

 

[William Payne]

No. You have to get the new one and complain immediately. That's the only way you can continue your work.
[doublepost=1497078446][/doublepost]

Yeah, that's a bummer as I could just get the stock and no upgrade at the time I got mine (would have to wait quite longer and pay much more than $100 for the upgrade in my country) - stock configurations are also easier to get and it's nice to get a maxed out gpu in one. Good for new owners. Still, other than that - I see now there was no real reason to "wait for the next one" like a lot of people were claiming.

Well for me I'm quite happy as I was planning on getting one but my budget hasn't been high enough just yet. I want one for when I'm out in the field and need to do data management. Not so much for editing but a bit.

 

[The Mercurian]

- The "terraced battery that was supposed to be in there, but they ran out of time" was a myth.

- The battery issues were way overblown and battery life, in fact, turned out to be comparable to previous MBPs and better than most of the competition.

- No matter what some people claim, the keyboard is, most likely, the same in the newer models. Some people have issues on both 2016 and 2017 models, most people have no issues, a lot of people here feel like there are widespread issues and that is perfectly understandable (I sympathize) but not true.

- The CPUs in 2016 were not "old technology". As expected, Kaby Lake (unavailable at the time) turned out to be a minor improvement over Skylake that most users won't notice, unless they encode 10-bit HEVC 4K videos.

- "Wait for next year's model and get 32Gb RAM". Of course, we knew that wasn't going to happen before Coffee Lake, so not a surprise.

- The MBP 2016 can play HEVC 4K videos with High Sierra. 8-bit hardware and 10-bit sotfware decoding (2017 get 10-bit hardware too)


Some people will disagree, but I feel the need to say this too:

- It is not a beta-rev 1-alpha-whatever product. Apple put a lot of thought and work into it.

Never heard any of these points mentioned at WWDC.

 

[Brookzy]

Was always sceptical about the terraced battery because isn't the whole point of it that you can make a wedge-shaped battery?

Yet the MacBook Pro isn't a wedge shape...

 

[vipergts2207]

What, really, are the practical benefits of 10 bit HEVC for a normal home user who downloads videos from you-know-where?

Assuming you mean torrenting, unless they're 4K HDR videos, nothing. Even if they are though, it will only be the ability to play them, you won't actually be seeing 4K HDR.

One negative was they didn't come out with a touch bar keyboard, I'm pretty bummed about that because if they don't make it available to everyone it will not be seriously supported. I'm holding out hope that they just don't want to bundle it with iMac's but are holding it out for a holiday gift type item and release them at the same time as the iMac pro. I really want a space black keyboard with touch bar.

I'm a little surprised by this as well. My first guess is that they couldn't get decent battery life from them. The current keyboards get days (weeks?) of battery life. Doubt you'd be that with a screen on it.

Never heard any of these points mentioned at WWDC.

To be fair, the title says after WWDC, not at WWDC.

 

[Fancuku]

- The "terraced battery that was supposed to be in there, but they ran out of time" was a myth.

- The battery issues were way overblown and battery life, in fact, turned out to be comparable to previous MBPs and better than most of the competition.

- No matter what some people claim, the keyboard is, most likely, the same in the newer models. Some people have issues on both 2016 and 2017 models, most people have no issues, a lot of people here feel like there are widespread issues and that is perfectly understandable (I sympathize) but not true.

- The CPUs in 2016 were not "old technology". As expected, Kaby Lake (unavailable at the time) turned out to be a minor improvement over Skylake that most users won't notice, unless they encode 10-bit HEVC 4K videos.

- "Wait for next year's model and get 32Gb RAM". Of course, we knew that wasn't going to happen before Coffee Lake, so not a surprise.

- The MBP 2016 can play HEVC 4K videos with High Sierra. 8-bit hardware and 10-bit sotfware decoding (2017 get 10-bit hardware too)


Some people will disagree, but I feel the need to say this too:

- It is not a beta-rev 1-alpha-whatever product. Apple put a lot of thought and work into it.

Hi Tim, nice of you for participating in this forum.

 

[macintoshmac]

Assuming you mean torrenting, unless they're 4K HDR videos, nothing. Even if they are though, it will only be the ability to play them, you won't actually be seeing 4K HDR.

I will not be seeing 4K HDR unless I output it to a 4K HDR television set, say, right? Or, are you saying that we don't even have 4K HDR output ability via USB-C?

And, this is with 2016 only or 2017 as well?

 

[vipergts2207]

I will not be seeing 4K HDR unless I output it to a 4K HDR television set, say, right? Or, are you saying that we don't even have 4K HDR output ability via USB-C?

And, this is with 2016 only or 2017 as well?

They don’t even have the ability to output it. The best protocols that TB3/USB-C support is HDMI 2.0 and DP 1.3, neither or which support HDR, though they will comfortably output plain old SDR 4K.

 

[MrGuder]

- The "terraced battery that was supposed to be in there, but they ran out of time" was a myth.

- The battery issues were way overblown and battery life, in fact, turned out to be comparable to previous MBPs and better than most of the competition.

- No matter what some people claim, the keyboard is, most likely, the same in the newer models. Some people have issues on both 2016 and 2017 models, most people have no issues, a lot of people here feel like there are widespread issues and that is perfectly understandable (I sympathize) but not true.

- The CPUs in 2016 were not "old technology". As expected, Kaby Lake (unavailable at the time) turned out to be a minor improvement over Skylake that most users won't notice, unless they encode 10-bit HEVC 4K videos.

- "Wait for next year's model and get 32Gb RAM". Of course, we knew that wasn't going to happen before Coffee Lake, so not a surprise.

- The MBP 2016 can play HEVC 4K videos with High Sierra. 8-bit hardware and 10-bit sotfware decoding (2017 get 10-bit hardware too)


Some people will disagree, but I feel the need to say this too:

- It is not a beta-rev 1-alpha-whatever product. Apple put a lot of thought and work into it.

I agree with most of this except when you say
"No matter what some people claim, the keyboard is, most likely, the same in the newer models."
There is a user who just reported on here that key travel feels a bit deeper when pressing not huge but it felt different. There is also Lisa from MTR who had the 2016 and just reviewed the 2017 and she feels that the keyboard feels different than the 2016, she talks about it twice in her video and she knows her tech stuff.

The other reason I disagree with what you said is that just like when you ask for proof or facts to back up a change Apple has implemented you are also not providing any facts or documentation that Apple didn't change some part or mechanism. So it really goes both ways. All I'm saying is sometimes in cases where we will never know how Apple changes parts or how their assembly line works for production...sometimes we have to rely on user input and customer reviews to tell if Apple did make some kind of change or enhancement.

 

[vipergts2207]

I agree with most of this except when you say
"No matter what some people claim, the keyboard is, most likely, the same in the newer models."
There is a user who just reported on here that key travel feels a bit deeper when pressing not huge but it felt different. There is also Lisa from MTR who had the 2016 and just reviewed the 2017 and she feels that the keyboard feels different than the 2016, she talks about it twice in her video and she knows her tech stuff.

The other reason I disagree with what you said is that just like when you ask for proof or facts to back up a change Apple has implemented you are also not providing any facts or documentation that Apple didn't change some part or mechanism. So it really goes both ways. All I'm saying is sometimes in cases where we will never know how Apple changes parts or how their assembly line works for production...sometimes we have to rely on user input and customer reviews to tell if Apple did make some kind of change or enhancement.

Generally the burden of proof is on the one making a claim, i.e., those claiming Apple changed the keyboard to a v3. Additionally, the few pictures available indicate otherwise.

 

[macintoshmac]

They don’t even have the ability to output it. The best protocols that TB3/USB-C support is HDMI 2.0 and DP 1.3, neither or which support HDR, though they will comfortably output plain old SDR 4K.

Great ... that means if and only if the keyboard is better in 2017 I might be tickled to make the upgrade... otherwise no, not at all.

 

[smallcoffee]

What, really, are the practical benefits of 10 bit HEVC for a normal home user who downloads videos from you-know-where?

There isn't. But there is for pro users who are doing this kind of work. Are we going to complain when they are catering to the pro users now?

 

[macintoshmac]

Are we going to complain when they are catering to the pro users now?

Never have, never will.

 

[smallcoffee]

Never have, never will.

Your previous post seemed like a complaint. But perhaps I misjudged. Apologies. Too many people complaining about every little thing.

 

[macintoshmac]

Your previous post seemed like a complaint. But perhaps I misjudged. Apologies. Too many people complaining about every little thing.

Was just a simple question to know more about the possible benefits of 10 bit Kaby on downloads from torrents, is all.

And yes, too much negativity for no reason at all, lately. No reason at all.

 

[maflynn]

- The "terraced battery that was supposed to be in there, but they ran out of time" was a myth.

I don't think it was supposed to be there, but rather people were hoping it would be there. The fact remains that Apple shrank the battery size and early reports were out about how Apple was looking to use a terraced battery. The lack of a terraced battery in the 2017 MBP does neither refute and reinforce that issue. The simple fact is that they opted not to touch the battery in the 2017 model.

- The battery issues were way overblown and battery life, in fact, turned out to be comparable to previous MBPs and better than most of the competition.

I don't think the issue was over-blown, when the problems arose, people were only getting 3 or 4 hours. That's a major problem.

- No matter what some people claim, the keyboard is, most likely, the same in the newer models.

I've heard conflicting reports on this. Some say it is different others say its not.

Some people have issues on both 2016 and 2017 models

That's disappointing so 2017 model is incurring the keyboard problems

- The CPUs in 2016 were not "old technology".

Sure they were, because Intel already had Kaby Lake out.

 

[vipergts2207]

I don't think it was supposed to be there, but rather people were hoping it would be there. The fact remains that Apple shrank the battery size and people early reports were out about how Apple was looking to use a terraced battery. The lack of a terraced battery in the 2017 MBP does neither refute and reinforce that issue. The simple fact is that they opted not to touch the battery in the 2017 model.


I don't think the issue was over-blown, when the problems arose, people were only getting 3 or 4 hours. That's a major problem.

I've heard conflicting reports on this. Some say it is different others say its not.


That's disappointing so 2017 model is incurring the keyboard problems


Sure they were, because Intel already had Kaby Lake out.

http://www.pcworld.com/article/3157...d-the-macbook-pros-terrible-battery-life.html

The battery issue was not overblown, at first, because part of it was caused by a macOS bug where both GPU's ran at the same time. This has since been fixed. The rest of the battery complaints were overblown, however, because some of it was people comparing battery life to the 2015 model, which had a 99.5 Wh battery compared to the 76 Wh battery of the 2016/2017 models. Additionally, some people were doing things on their laptop where they could not reasonably expect 10 hours of battery life. Per the linked article, the author got almost 9 hours of battery on 4K video. Apple's specs for 10 hours is on 1080p video, leading me to believe that the 2016 models can probably go for the 10 hours Apple says they can on 1080p video.

As has been mentioned back when the 2016 models originally came out, the Kaby Lake chips appropriate for the MBP were not out yet. Unless for some reason you wanted a 15W processor in the MBP.

https://www.macrumors.com/2016/08/30/intel-kaby-lake-mobile/

Read the last paragraph.