Tried the new MacBook Pro 13" and WOAH!

[therealseebs]

Could you outline how exactly (using available components) higher performance could have been achieved with the previous size?

Better keyboard (the super-thin design is not as pleasant for most people to type on, key travel is important to touch-typists usually). Much longer battery life. We could have kept some of the ports we still want access to, and while that's not exactly "performance", it's certainly a feature that most of the people I know who buy super fancy laptops would like and would pay for. We could easily have gotten a 32GB RAM option, and there'd have been space for enough battery to feed it.

Or they could go back another size or so, and give us our gigabit ethernet ports back and things like that, and make a high-end machine which doesn't need its weight in dongles just to keep doing the stuff a couple-year-old machine could do.

Also, on the MBP of late, performance is usually capped at least partially by heat. A slightly larger machine could have had more heat sink, and more airflow, without needing larger or more powerful fans, and thus run cooler at a given workload. So that'd improve performance.

The "thin no matter the cost" thing is really hurting a lot of the things that used to make these machines great.

 

[Rkuda]

Better keyboard (the super-thin design is not as pleasant for most people to type on, key travel is important to touch-typists usually). Much longer battery life. We could have kept some of the ports we still want access to, and while that's not exactly "performance", it's certainly a feature that most of the people I know who buy super fancy laptops would like and would pay for. We could easily have gotten a 32GB RAM option, and there'd have been space for enough battery to feed it.

Or they could go back another size or so, and give us our gigabit ethernet ports back and things like that, and make a high-end machine which doesn't need its weight in dongles just to keep doing the stuff a couple-year-old machine could do.

Also, on the MBP of late, performance is usually capped at least partially by heat. A slightly larger machine could have had more heat sink, and more airflow, without needing larger or more powerful fans, and thus run cooler at a given workload. So that'd improve performance.

The "thin no matter the cost" thing is really hurting a lot of the things that used to make these machines great.

Are you seriously suggesting that Apple bring back the Ethernet port? They dropped that thing almost half a decade ago on their laptops and you'e still pining for it?

Both the CPU and GPU in the new computers are much more power efficient that before so throttling shouldn't be as much of a concern even with the thinner chassis.

I'll take Apples thin, best balanced based on actual engineering constrains over your Fat no matter the cost MBP.

 

[wegster]

I actually think that Ars is too down on their overall assessment of this model. This is exactly the machine that the 13" MBA owners have been asking for, minus a port or two. The price is perhaps a bit higher than people had hoped, but my bet is that Apple is going to sell a ton of this model - more so than the fancier versions.

Exactly (bolded part above) - it's a great Air. Not a great MB Pro.
Different market segments (with some, but not anywhere near complete overlap).
Love the screen upgrade, TouchID.
Ashamed they're still on 720p webcams, which I actually do use for work for some conf calls.
No hands-on yet with the keyboard, but expect they used the wrong formula, as the 'old' MBPs had decent KBs as do Thinkpads - anything like the retina MB means = not close, even if some can get used to it. Most indifferent here as I'm usually using external everything.
Indifferent on the touchbar itself but unlikely to be buying a split mechanical keyboard with embedded 'Magic Touchbar' any time soon; can see it may have potential for others, though.
I understand the limitations on currently available chipsets, and am overall 'OK' with the new models, but waiting 32GB Ram option suitable for a Pro, not Air, line.

Air line: Portability > Battery Life > Performance
Pro line: Performance > Portability > Battery life
Therein is the issue.

 

[BenTrovato]

Are you seriously suggesting that Apple bring back the Ethernet port? They dropped that thing almost half a decade ago on their laptops and you'e still pining for it?

Both the CPU and GPU in the new computers are much more power efficient that before so throttling shouldn't be as much of a concern even with the thinner chassis.

I'll take Apples thin, best balanced based on actual engineering constrains over your Fat no matter the cost MBP.

Some moves are stupid. I still need Ethernet despite Apple removing it long ago. HDMI isn't disappearing in the next five years. USB C is good but still a bit early - can live with that one.

 

[mujtaba.mir]

Man o'man. Just got my hands on the non touch bar macbook. Feels amazing. The display is out of this world and the keyboard is definitely an improvement over the 12 inch model. Cant wait to get my hands on the touchbar one in a couple of weeks.

 

[mrex]

Praising the butterfly keyboard lolz

i was just testing it - it is much, much better than in 12", but not perfect.. I made lots of mistyping but i think you can get used to it... maybe...

otherwise... the laptop wasnt any special, and didnt buy it, atleast now.. maybe if they cut the price. i felt that i would be stupid if i paid the price that are asking...

 

[stockscalper]

The battery may be smaller, but Apple has optimized it and it does very well. I've read a couple of reviews where it was tested hard and got the 10 hours life Apple claims. In the same tests against some of the Windows laptops that advertised 15 hours, they came in at 8 and 10 - less than advertised. The MBP delivers as advertised and 10 hours should be enough to get anybody through a work day without having to plug in the charger.

 

[Seed101]

Anyone compared the screen to others on the market such as the Dell XPS 4K?
Not had a look yet...

 

[wheelhot]

If Apple just kept the thickness the same and actually gave us better thermal (less throttling), better GPU like the 1060, it'll make many people really happy and don't mind the increased in price. Problem is, it's thinner (which no one has a problem with the current rMBP) and it's not any more powerful then the one it's replacing.

So echoing like what many others said, Apple could've done better especially with the competitors offering these days but sadly they chose to play it safe and hoping their brand name will do the sales for them. Which it'll probably do (and those developing for iOS has no other choice), but keep this up and eventually a chunk of the creative market users will just abandon the brand forever when it comes to computer related.