What kinds of professionals is the new MacBook Pro designed for?

[Rkuda]

Serious question: what kinds of professionals is the new MacBook Pro designed for?

Touch Bar

I can have useful and customizable controls in XCode or other apps that actually do something. Instead of absolutely useless F-keys?

No SDXC card slot

No USB-A

No HDMI

There are already lots of USB-C hubs in existence for over a year that have all these ports and more. I could plug four of those in and have more ports than the supposedly "Pro" 2015 MBPs do. Plus i'll have more bandwidth to do more, faster on my TB3 ports.

 

[T5BRICK]

"Pro" is a marketing term, it doesn't mean anything other than +$300-500.

 

[el-John-o]

I'm a 'professional'. Nothing about these new machines would prove unfavorable for my own uses other than it being rather expensive for such a modest upgrade.

I could also get by on a PowerBook (which I did) if need be, or even an iPad. The Pro is largely a marketing term anyway, and has been for a very long time.

But I get why some of their design choices on the new MacBook Pro would be problematic to creative professionals. I think like most things of this sort, it's being blown out of proportion by much of the fanbase. This is hardly the first time Apple has done this caliber of, whatever this is. I do believe USB-C/Thunderbolt 3 is the way of the future and in 4 to 5 years it'll be pretty well standardized. At some point the jump was going to be made. If anything, the decision was made far too early and was coordinated poorly between their product lines. They could have solved a lot of headache by just shipping the thing with a single Type-A adaptor or offered a well made $50 dock with all the fixings.

There was certainly a time when I disliked the disregard for legacy formats. I still understand the position. I wouldn't use anything but ThinkPads for years because of how much I valued that sort of rugged utilitarianism and over engineering.

Not that people shouldn't care. Everybody has their own usage patterns and needs. I do think, there's a tendency to react negatively towards anything that might need a new workflow adapted to it. I don't disagree. Time is money and getting used to a new way of doing things (good or bad is another conversation), tends to make people rather annoyed.

I'm a "professional". I have a graduate degree specific to my field. "Professional" sort of means "white collar" these days but the dictionary describes it as "Having a profession for which one is qualified in that profession". Certainly any definition though, I am a "professional".

And I use a Mac, and I use it for work.

I, however, am not a "professional" creative person. At least, not "That" kind. My professional work means a lot of writing. I could EASILY do everything I need to do for work on an iPad Pro, though the multitasking isn't as nice as a multi-display solution. So then, a Mac Mini? As a matter of fact, that's what I use in my office.

I bought the 15" MBP both to do work on; but also for my hobbies; which include photography and some medium-duty video editing.

And honestly, I think that's what the MacBook Pro really is great at; the "Prosumer" market. Someone for whom iPhoto/iMovie isn't enough, but we don't quite need a full blown Mac Pro. And therein also lies the problem with lamenting that a MacBook Pro isn't "pro". Some of my friends are professional creatives and I do in fact do business with them on occasion (I don't have those talents; which means I have to pay someone else who does!). They use powerful desktop computers; augmented with something portable, like a MacBook Pro. They might come to my office with their MacBook Pro, sit down, and show me something; even work on it a little. Work on it from home on a MacBook Pro; but do the heavy hitting on a MacPro. I know there is and always will be a niche who would be just fine with a 3" 9lb dual-xeon powered MacBook Pro; but Apples strategy is clear moving forward. Sitting around waiting for that to change is just bad business. It's probably best to start making the transition to Windows now; where you'll find the laptops you need. And I don't mean that in a snooty way; I'm serious. If people are holding their breath for Apple to release some super high powered "portable desktop", this announcement should've solidified what's been clear, to me anyway, since the killing of the 17" MBP. It ain't happenin', folks. The MBP is going to continue to be a mid-high end productivity / content creation laptop. It's not going to be a mobile desktop or a super-high end laptop. Never. Windows is getting better and better, there are some great laptops out there; and most software that isn't made by Apple themselves is available on Windows now. Not since the PowerPC days have the major creative software developers shunned Windows. And in fact, those that never did release a Windows version, are no longer in business...

 

[Queen6]

"Pro" is a marketing term, it doesn't mean anything other than +$300-500.

Truthfully as someone who is using Mac`s professionally it`s just comes across as tacky. Personally I was happy when Apple depreciated the "MacBook Pro" moniker from the bezel, now they have put it back marketing for the kiddies

Q-6

 

[tubeexperience]

I can have useful and customizable controls in XCode or other apps that actually do something. Instead of absolutely useless F-keys?

...except that you normally won't be looking down on the keys anyway.

At least I don't.

 

[Rkuda]

I would say I am a "pro" user by almost any definition. Apple and Adobe have been my sole source of income for 25 years! What I saw at the roll out:

1. Emphasis on "thinner/lighter". (Not sure why that matters, especially to a Pro user? I have never had to slide my laptop under a door - thickness and weight not an issue)
2. Touch Bar is "cool" has some possibilities, but Emoji's for the big demo? (I am in business with over 100 business clients and corporations and have never used an Emoji in my life! Pros don't use Emojis in business correspondence!)
3. The Photoshop demo - she mentioned it was a lot like learning to play a musical instrument now between the touch bar and track pad (That is what I am looking for - something else to "learn"! I am ready to take the challenge using key commands and my Wacom vs that method demonstrated)
4. Skylake chips - (All that one can expect since the timing was probably rushed for the XMAS season?.
5. Soldered (and not the best) RAM - not acceptable. (a Pro machine should always have user upgradable RAM. Soldered-in should be reserved for cheaper disposable machines).
6. User swappable SSD Drive - this may not be an issue based upon the OWC report?
7. Loss of dedicated built-in MagSafe connector and extension cord. (Mystery)
8. Obvious missing built-in ports over what I have now in my 17" Macbook Pro w/DVD. (But this is apparently the new Apple philosophy - even with the Mac Pro trash can - make everything as small as possible, solder everything in and then have an octopus of cables and wires all over the desk)?
9. Then what every Pro needs - Siri integration. (What Pro does not want to shout at his computer just to annoy anyone else in the vicinity (aka Smartphones).

In spite of all this, I was ready to pull the trigger at the announcement, but just could not justify the price all things taken into consideration. Maybe next time.

1. It matters to me immensely because I have to carry it potentially many hours a day on my shoulder. Why should I have to carry needlessly heavy gear?
2. Actually pretty much every developer team i've worked with have made liberal use of emoji on internal communication channels, (i.e. Slack, GitHub etc.)
3. Don't like it? Don't use it. Not every use of the touch bar will require coordinating your hands like that.
4. Sure in a perfect world we would have Kayblake - but with Intels recent history we'll probably have to wait 6-9 months for Intel to get their **** together and release 45W KabyLake chips. People were already going insane waiting for the past year+ for the update. KabyLake doesn't provide enough to be worth waiting for IMO. The next node shrink etc. should bring a lot more to the table.
5. I mean sure more than 16GB would be great, but not that necessary for even most Pro users, despite their insistence that they can't get absolutely any work done at all with less than 64GB. Used to be many years ago just updating the OS made you double the ram just to do basic tasks, but the past 5 updates haven't really moved the needle in that respect. Lots of Pro apps have gotten more efficient with memory over time, and macOS has many sophisticated ways to use and free up memory.
6. Like you said maybe not an issue. For me personally the 512GB is more than enough for my needs for the foreseeable future.
7. The griffin one will probably be updated (or description updated) to support the 85Watts on the 15" Pro if you really need magsafe. I think the power charger's design is a lot better now, no need to replace the whole charger if the cord frays, the ability to choose a cord with a longer, or shorter, or more robust one. Having never used the extension cable that came with my previous systems I'm not upset about it not being included now.
8. I can plug in a hub and have many as many ports as as I need - that is IF i really wanted to. Fortunately i've been investing in the future and have no need to plug almost anything into my MBP when it arrives. Just a USB-C to Lightning for deploying builds to iOS devices.
9. Then don't use Siri. Not sure why this is in your list of things you dislike about the new MBP since Siri isn't tied to the MBP in any way. If there was still no Siri when Sierra came out then people would just bitch and say Apple was behind Microsoft, etc. I don't use Siri when in my current office environment (especially because it's a horrible "open floor plan" type) but do - occasionally - when at home.

 

[Royksöpp]

They should have just added the metal hinge and touch bar to the previous body and left all the ports. A complete redesign wasn't necessary. It's certainly a case of form over function.

 

[Rkuda]

...except that you normally won't be looking down on the keys anyway.

At least I don't.

How often do you touch type the F-keys?

I only have the very edges (audio and screen brightness keys) in my muscle memory, anything else I have to look at those keys. I bet the vast majority of people look, because they keys are already small, a bit out of the way and not used often enough to become part of muscle memory.

I work with a huge variety of software other than stuff like Xcode and I've never used the F-keys for any of them. If even one or two support the touch bar then it's already a win.
[doublepost=1477816657][/doublepost]

Is it included in either the iPhone box or the Mac box? No?

My definition of dongle includes anything you need to buy separately in order to make things connect.

Words mean things, you don't help anyone by making up your own definition for words. If you want to say Apple makes you buy an additional cable then say that. Don't call a cable a dongle when it's not a dongle.

Kids these days...

 

[Easttime]

I'm a non-IT, non-graphic design professional. I need a laptop because an iPad is insufficient for some of my mobile work. I also want a backup for my desktop Mac for redundancy. I want to stay in the Apple ecosystem because I like iOS and macOS - very efficient software infrastructure for my work. The new 2016 13" touch bar MacBook Pro is the kind of device I would like to have, but the price and dongles issue has given me pause and I don't need a touch bar. I am uncomfortably thinking that I might have to bite the bullet. Wish the decision was easier.

 

[AdonisSMU]

I'm a non-IT, non-graphic design professional. I need a laptop because an iPad is insufficient for some of my mobile work. I also want a backup for my desktop Mac for redundancy. I want to stay in the Apple ecosystem because I like iOS and macOS - very efficient software infrastructure for my work. The new 2016 13" touch bar MacBook Pro is the kind of device I would like to have, but the price and dongles issue has given me pause and I don't need a touch bar. I am uncomfortably thinking that I might have to bite the bullet. Wish the decision was easier.

TBQH if you dont want the TouchBar the base 13" MBP Late 2016 is more than suitable. I would suggest trying it out in store. You can save some money. I tried it out and the display is fantastic, sounds great and its actually a pretty solid performer. You wont regret it.

 

[Easttime]

TBQH if you dont want the TouchBar the base 13" MBP Late 2016 is more than suitable. I would suggest trying it out in store. You can save some money. I tried it out and the display is fantastic, sounds great and its actually a pretty solid performer. You wont regret it.

Thanks, but the price for the same specs is almost the same as the touch bar model that I am looking at, and it only has two ports.

 

[Queen6]

Thanks, but the price for the same specs is almost the same as the touch bar model that I am looking at, and it only has two ports.

Also the non Touch Bar model only has a 15W CPU versus the Touch models 28W. The non-touch is more akin to a 13" MacBook Air.

Q-6

 

[Geert76]

Donald Trump for his speeches?

 

[AdonisSMU]

Thanks, but the price for the same specs is almost the same as the touch bar model that I am looking at, and it only has two ports.

I almost cancelled my 15" MBP order to buy the machine in the store but stopped myself as I figured Id regret it later.

 

[MH01]

Rich ones.

And lovers of dongles. I hope people realise that a "pro" needs another £150-£200 in dongles , even more if the go dock. And if they have multiple sites, they will have to replicate that setup.

This is tuning into another Mac Pro.....clean design with stupid cables and a real mess once setup.

 

[AdonisSMU]

Rich ones.

And lovers of dongles. I hope people realise that a "pro" needs another £150-£200 in dongles , even more if the go dock. And if they have multiple sites, they will have to replicate that setup.

This is tuning into another Mac Pro.....clean design with stupid cables and a real mess once setup.

I rarely if ever use dongles. Im actually very happy with having the 4 USBC ports tbqh I have a dongle I bought in 2015 that I can use if I need it. Otherwise id prefer to skip the dongles and just use the a usbc to lightening cable. problem solved without a dongle.

 

[MH01]

I almost cancelled my 15" MBP order to buy the machine in the store but stopped myself as I figured Id regret it later.

I've got one ordered to I can try it during the holiday season, but given the pricing and how much I would need to invest in dongles here is my choice.

2015 MacBook Pro top spec second hand £1600-£1800 ( maybe cheaper once new machines are available) 2016 top spec £4000+

It's a no brainer.

My plan is to get 2015 machine, I have a sonnet egpu with a gtx 1070 which when docked to will blow the 2016 machine out of the water.

I'd be recommending anyone look into a egpu set up, for £4000 to get the AMD is a joke.

The 2015 rMBP top spec is going to be my 2012 Mac mini.

Currently my Mac mini is connected to the sonnet, and it kicks ass!!! With 2x2TB ssd, for a less than apple charges to install 1x2tb ssd in the new MacBook

 

[exexs]

For the ports, I get it, whe have to move on to better technology at some point. But come on… 90% of the people I know they use their macbook pro to get their pictures or videos out of their cameras… "creative" pro's, all use cameras and need SD card reader on the go! We don't need super thin macbook pro's… we have the macbook and macbook air for that! This move doesn't make ANY sense to me.

 

[macintoshmac]

... Assuming that's even an option.

There's no iPhone that connects via USB-C, for example. I don't know of any USB-C audio interfaces for recording devices (such as those that all the YouTubers/voiceovers use). I don't know of any cameras that connect using USB-C.

There are entire segments that do not have USB-C as an option at this time, unfortunately.

.. Not that you'd want to have to replace perfectly good gear for the sake of connectors anyways, of course.

Exactly. This alone means that for all our perfectly working peripherals, we will be forced to use dongles, if we were to buy this new 2016 "pro" machine.

This machine is definitely a "pro" at making us pay through our asses for basic-to-the-point-of-essential connectivity, is all.

 

[maflynn]

I think the lack of certain ports affects some classes of "professionals" and not others. For my profession, I don't need a SD port, but for my hobby I do. So the laptop has short commings that the prior generation didn't. For my profession, I need to use the function keys, but not for personal user, so there you have a feature that was removed.

I understand I can get them back, with the touchbar, but now I have to look down each time I need to hit the F2, F5 or F7 key, As a touch typist, I'd rather be focusing on my work, rather then where a key is.

For other people the changes are not as drastic and the new laptop may very well be a good fit.

 

[cyb3rdud3]

There's alot of sexiness out there. The xps laptops with no bezel and a touchscreen. The hp spectre series. The yoga laptops. Hell...ALL of the surface computers are quality products. So i dont know man. This is the first year in a long time i'm gonna give windows a shot. Wish me luck

Good luck - I've been doing that for the last 1.5 years with a Microsoft Surface Pro 3 i5/8GB/256SSD. The short version is that I'm on my way back to the Mac. It is not any cheaper when you have a truly comparable model, and all the irritants of Windows are still there in my opinion.

 

[Ghost31]

Good luck - I've been doing that for the last 1.5 years with a Microsoft Surface Pro 3 i5/8GB/256SSD. The short version is that I'm on my way back to the Mac. It is not any cheaper when you have a truly comparable model, and all the irritants of Windows are still there in my opinion.

Can you tell me a bit about your experience with the surface book?

 

[brock2621]

Serious question: what kinds of professionals is the new MacBook Pro designed for?

Touch Bar

No SDXC card slot

No USB-A

No HDMI

For professionals like me.

I organize and manage a team of professional photographers, graphic designers, video production team and motion graphics artists. I have meetings an hour or two away and need a portable version of my iMac that can handle as much as possible on the go. It needs to integrate seemlessly into the entire rest of the MAC office with shared calendars, Logic, Numbers files, fcp-x, in design, photoshop and DaVinci files synced via Dropbox.

So when my animator tells me on Slack he just exported a new version of a company logo for a commercial, i open Dropbox, watch it and then FaceTime him with notes on some tweaks.

When one of my graphic designers uploads a PDF to Dropbox and slack and asks the team's creative input on the cover photo for a brochure. They all weigh in and decide my photographer needs to go shoot something. So he runs out, takes some photos and throws them on Dropbox as the team jumps in and starts editing, color correcting and integrating them via indesign and posts a v2 Dropbox link on Slack for me to review in my car via my phone hotspot before my meeting.

If my editing team needs my input on a commercial I simply open the fcp-x file via Dropbox and tweak it and close it as it syncs for them to see.

If a needy client demands some web updates over the weekend and nobody (including myself) is in the office, I'll take care of it at home by opening after effects, changing an animation, export a looping gif, and then open dreamweaver and code the changes. Those changes sync to the client's server and all the after effects files sync to our Dropbox. When everyone arrives in the office Monday all of their iMacs already have the .aep file and the exported gif on their computer and they will be using the most recent version if they need to do any work.

I've ordered 2 new MBP's so far...

 

[Ghost31]

For professionals like me.

I organize and manage a team of professional photographers, graphic designers, video production team and motion graphics artist. I have meetings an hour or two away and need a portable version of my iMac that can handle as much as possible on the go. It needs to integrate seemlessly into the entire rest of the MAC office with shared calendars, Logic, Numbers files, fcp-x, in design, photoshop and DaVinci files synced via Dropbox.

So when my animator tells me on Slack he just exported a new version of a company logo for a commercial, i open Dropbox, watch it and then FaceTime him with notes on some tweaks.

When one of my graphic designers uploads a PDF to Dropbox and slack and asks the team's creative input on the cover photo for a brochure. They all weigh in and decide my photographer needs to go shoot something. So he runs out, takes some photos and throws them on Dropbox as the team jumps in and starts editing, color correcting and integrating them via indesign and posts a v2 Dropbox link on Slack for me to review in my car via my phone hotspot before my meeting.

If my editing team needs my input on a commercial I simply open the fcp-x file via Dropbox and tweak it and close it as it syncs for them to see.

If a needy client demands some web updates over the weekend and nobody (including myself) is in the office, I'll take care of it at home by opening after effects, changing an animation, export a looping gif, and then open dreamweaver and code the changes. Those changes sync to the client's server and all the after effects files sync to our Dropbox. When everyone arrives in the office Monday all of their imac'a already have the .aep file and the exported gif on their computer and will be using the most recent version if they need to do any work.

I've ordered 2 new MBP's so far...

This sounds like a great endorsement for Dropbox if anything

 

[jackoatmon]

I work in branding / design / advertising and I can tell you that darn near everyone in the field is going to want one.

Sure a lot of work goes on on more powerful desktop machines, but the nature of the business is a lot of presentations and working on the go, and having something you can get work done on and also present on (nice screen) is huge, as printed-out presentations get less common.

I can see a lot of people getting one with a big screen to dock at. I'll personally probably stick to my powerful desktop + cheap lappy on the go, but Im certainly the outlier.

So yeah: machine is absolutely perfect for all the graphic designers, screen writers, film directors / DOPs, illustrators, etc. in my line of business.