Why You Shouldn't Buy the Next MacBook Pro

[ikramerica]

As a daily user of both a 90Hz OLED-equipped notebook (2944 x 1840, 500 nits, 239 PPI) and an IPS-equipped MBA (2560 x 1600, 400 nits, 227 PPI), I don't find the 'don't buy because OLED' argument particularly compelling.

I think it’s more “does it matter?” than anything.

 

[ikramerica]

I definitely do.

I have a by now almost 5 year old Razer laptop with an OLED screen, and that is still more vivid and has far better contrast than the LCD screen with Mini LED backlighting in my far more recent MacBook Pro. The MBP's screen has an admittedly higher maximum brightness, though.

So is color saturation turned up on the Razor? I mean, windows always tends to overboost color and contrasts unless you tone it down, and “vivid” is an unnatural state.

I spent decades calibrating CRT televisions using color patterns looking through filters and contrast patterns using even the basic brightness/contrast and sometimes blackpoint tweaking, and the final result was always less “vivid” but much more color accurate, and once your mind adjusted to that, everything looked more natural and detailed.

 

[AppleMega]

My 16-inch M1 Max MBP is still going strong. That being said, I will certainly skip the M5 and consider the M6 greatness.

 

[NeekonMike]

Obviously, if you're a rumor mill site (as opposed to "serious work" site), M5 is "just another chip update" but a "definitely maybe" OLED or touchscreen are major deals.
Some of us may consider M5's GPU Neural Accelerators (quadrupling AI inference performance versus M4) kinda important, if not epoch making. Even if the results are delivered in "low contrast" and "untouchable"...

 

[Janichsan]

So is color saturation turned up on the Razor? I mean, windows always tends to overboost color and contrasts unless you tone it down, and “vivid” is an unnatural state.

I spent decades calibrating CRT televisions using color patterns looking through filters and contrast patterns using even the basic brightness/contrast and sometimes blackpoint tweaking, and the final result was always less “vivid” but much more color accurate, and once your mind adjusted to that, everything looked more natural and detailed.

No, it's not the colour saturation. I in fact adjusted that from the default settings. It's the significantly better contrast range of OLEDs.

 

[Tagbert]

Phones/tablets are one thing, desktops/laptops are another thing. The latter are likely to be used for longer hours straight and with more static elements on screen, whether at the studio, at the office, or at home.

No so true of an iPad in a keyboard holder. There the screens are on for hours straight often with static elements. The usage pattern is not that different than a laptop.

 

[SpotOnT]

Counter argument: buy a MacBook now, while they are still good!

1) OLED has worse color stability.
2) OLED has a shorter “quality” lifespan.
3) OLED has PWM issue.
4) Touchscreens loose display quality over non-touchscreens.
5) A touchscreen based user interface for a desktop sucks big time for productivity.
6) Apple *might* go back to a thinner design, that sacrifices thermals and features.

The current MacBook Pro design is about as good as a design for me as possible. I plan on upgrading with the Spring refresh and then holding out as long as it takes for Apple to get rid of this touchscreen nonsense.

I sat out the horrible, thermally throttled, butterfly keyboard, jokes that Apple labeled as a “Pro” MacBook. I can sot out this touchscreen monstrosity too.

 

[hans1972]

Two days later “why you should buy a MacBook Pro”

14 days later: Why I regret buying the new MacBook Pro.

3 months later: Why the new MacBook Pro is the best computer I have ever owned.

1 year later: How is the MacBook Pro holding up? 1-year review.

7 years later: One of the best MacBooks I ever owned is now obsolete.

 

[mdorais]

I'd rather have the last model of a design where all issues have been fixed than buy into the very first release of a redesign where there are a bunch of undiscovered bugs. Same as buying a car.

And I also don't care about touchscreen and I can definitely live w/o OLED.

 

[Tagbert]

I don’t know how I’d get on with this.

I’d sever a person’s hand if they touched my Mac’s screen.

Well that would get icky blood all over your screen and keyboard. is that what you want? 🙃

 

[lusty]

I've had a Dell XPS windows machine for work for the past 6 years or so. Love it so dont want to let it go.
It has a touch screen.......and I have NEVER used the touch screen for anything. In fact I only realised it was a touch screen after a couple of weeks ownership when I went to wipe some dust off of the screen! In my use case, I can't ever see a need to touch the screen of a laptop for anything at all......

Thanks for letting us know you don’t need a touch screen. I’m sure Apple will use this information to cancel their plans and Microsoft will also bin theirs.

Oh, wait, you’re just one person with one limited use case…

 

[mithrandil]

I also do not use the touchscreen of my windows work laptop. Controlling it with a mouse feels much more efficient. In fact I have an iPad pro 13 inch and I also like to control it with a mouse. I see no big usage benefit of touch on macOS and also no advantage of OLED. The MacBook pro is just fine as it is now.

 

[Ethosik]

I really don’t understand the insane obsession with touch screens. I have had them for years on Windows devices. I only used the touch screen for 5 minutes. Having my hand on the mouse or trackpad is always faster.

 

[Ethosik]

MacOS will be ruined if they make a touchscreen mac. Look at what happened to Windows when they tried to make a UI that works for both a mouse pointer and a fat finger? Goodbye elegant UI elements and tightly clustered information and hello huge clunky UI with big buttons etc.

I'm still rocking my M1 Pro 14" MBP and I still don't see any reason to update. I will eventually but I'm in no rush.

Yep agreed. Windows 8 was better for touch. It was the best. Windows 10 and 11 just are horrible.

 

[darngooddesign]

I too bought a 14" M1 when first released, because other than the change in chassis, and the introduction of Apple Silicon, I was confident in the screen, and other built if features, that were rolled over into this. This device, will have a new screen, where the jury is still out on whether it's reproducible in mass scale,

Tandem OLED is already being delivered at scale. First in the iPad Pro and then in laptops by Lenovo and other companies.

and adding in touch screen (and we al remember how it first was in iPhone),

Touchscreen was great on the first iphone

and then cellular, (remember antenna-gate)

Antennagate was caused by holding the phone where the palm of your hand bridged the two antenna parts; and antenna gate was fixed the very next year. Really can't see how that applies to a laptop.

, is a potential recipe for disaster. Battery life will take a hit, because it has too. Apple will mitigate that, with some 'distorted reality' marketing. No thanks...

Battery life will be helped with OLED, and apple will just say all-day battery life like they always do.

As we so often in these forums, users want consistent, safe, easy to use products, that just work! Yeah sure we'll have the early adopters, who will castrophise within here, if even the slightest thing is wrong. And as someone else pointed out, MR will no doubt publish, in the very near future, another article, espousing the opposite argument.
Sadly we see in most media these days, a drive to publish to increase traffic, ad revenue etc.

Based on the great experience with my M1 Pro, I will have no problem buying the new MBPs. The only reason I wouldn't is if they pull an Apple and remove MagSafe or the SD slot. In that case I will happily get an M5 based one because I still like the existing design.

 

[darngooddesign]

Yeah I don't see a problems with 1st gen too (unless it's a new keyboard 😀). Still happy with my 14" M1 Pro.

But it's different. Personally I had few laptops (Dell XPS I believe) with touchscreens and never used them. OLED - just no. Good for media consuming, bad for non-media work.

I used the touchscreen on my Lenovo for some things and the trackpad for others. With one job I had two laptops, one with and the other without a touchscreen. I would catch myself trying to dismiss modals with my finger on the regular laptop.

So this "don't buy" signal is kind of nonsense anyway because it's not better - it's different. So it's more like If you would like to have OLED screen then you should not buy this non-OLED model and wait for OLED model.

Just the standard cycle of buy and dont buy articles on MR.

 

[Madonepro]

Tandem OLED is already being delivered at scale. First in the iPad Pro and then in laptops by Lenovo and other companies.

You forget the unique differences of Mac’s screens, compared to that of pc’s, and it’s well noted the scalability has been an issue.

Touchscreen was great on the first iphone

Recollections may vary. The first touch screen was amazing, and awful at the same time.

Antennagate was caused by holding the phone where the palm of your hand bridged the two antenna parts; and antenna gate was fixed the very next year. Really can't see how that applies to a laptop.

I know what Antennagate was, so thanks for the mansplaining!
Cellular capability relies on modifications to much of the internals to accommodate it.
And as is clear in the market, is a very niche feature, which won’t find much use in top end users.

Battery life will be helped with OLED, and apple will just say all-day battery life like they always do.

So as you stated, Apple will spin it regardless.

Based on the great experience with my M1 Pro, I will have no problem buying the new MBPs. The only reason I wouldn't is if they pull an Apple and remove MagSafe or the SD slot. In that case I will happily get an M5 based one because I still like the existing design.

Which until they announce them, you won’t know! And by then, the M5’s will be pulled from Apple stores

 

[junior]

I really don’t understand the insane obsession with touch screens. I have had them for years on Windows devices. I only used the touch screen for 5 minutes. Having my hand on the mouse or trackpad is always faster.

Always faster? How could it possibly be faster if, say, you wanted to zoom into a specific part of a photo in Photoshop?
There are definite benefits with touch screens. But it's certainly not for everyone.

 

[mdcmdcmdc]

• Controversial: hope they ditch all the ports most people don’t use most of the time, and you can get cheap-ish adaptors/docks for, and just go with 4x thunderbolt 5 USB C

While most people remember the touchbar and unreliable butterfly keyboard, the last Intel MBPs also got skewered for not having HDMI. People said "How can you call this a 'pro' laptop if I have to bring dongles when I do presentations to customers?" That's not my use model and I don't have much use for HDMI, but that's what happened the last time Apple removed it.

 

[macduke]

Personally, I'm waiting for the M9 Pro at a minimum. Doubt I'll need the Max chip again the next time I upgrade. I think we should be on the 1.4nm nodes by M9, and that is supposed to be around 30% more power efficient than 2nm, which is already supposed to be 25-30% more efficient than 3nm. Should enable some completely new classes of thin and lightweight but powerful devices, as well as ultra thin MacBook Air and iPad Pro.

However, I'm less interested in our current devices getting thinner, than I am in completely new devices being feasible. Everything from computer vision glasses being more common and powerful to all kinds of exotic foldables. The 2030s are gonna be fun, if we can make it there in one piece!

 

[unblocktheplane]

I can't see much use for "cellular capabilities" in a laptop. Besides, your iPhone is in your pocket.

However, I want to be able to make phone calls from my iPad. Now that would be a really useful upgrade!

 

[Luftkopf]

Personally, I'm waiting for the M9 Pro at a minimum. Doubt I'll need the Max chip again the next time I upgrade. I think we should be on the 1.4nm nodes by M9, and that is supposed to be around 30% more power efficient than 2nm, which is already supposed to be 25-30% more efficient than 3nm. Should enable some completely new classes of thin and lightweight but powerful devices, as well as ultra thin MacBook Air and iPad Pro.

However, I'm less interested in our current devices getting thinner, than I am in completely new devices being feasible. Everything from computer vision glasses being more common and powerful to all kinds of exotic foldables. The 2030s are gonna be fun, if we can make it there in one piece!

I used to be excited about tech, and the future possibilities, but now I just see chatbots being shoved in everywhere without regard for utility, and stalker glasses obliterating whatever chance for a skerrick of privacy we have left, and whatnot, and I’ve become a bit skeptical.

How do I signal my desire to not be recorded by your Meta Glasses (a hypothetical you, not the real you)? I do not consent to being recorded!

 

[Ifti]

Thanks for letting us know you don’t need a touch screen. I’m sure Apple will use this information to cancel their plans and Microsoft will also bin theirs.

Oh, wait, you’re just one person with one limited use case…

Great - now go and spread your wise words to every other person in this thread who individually says they don't want a touch screen too.

 

[darngooddesign]

You forget the unique differences of Mac’s screens, compared to that of pc’s, and it’s well noted the scalability has been an issue.

What are the unique differences of tandem oled in a Mac compared to tandem oled in the iPad? Are there reports that apple's supplier cant meet their production goals?

Recollections may vary. The first touch screen was amazing, and awful at the same time.

How was it also awful?

I know what Antennagate was, so thanks for the mansplaining!

You don't get to claim mansplaining when no one knows you're a woman, that's just lazy. Considering it hasn't been an issue since the 4S, how does it apply to a MacBook.

Cellular capability relies on modifications to much of the internals to accommodate it.

You are correct that modifications are needed, but if Apple can fit cellular in an Apple Watch they can probably figure out how to fit it in a 14" laptop.

And as is clear in the market, is a very niche feature, which won’t find much use in top end users.

So as you stated, Apple will spin it regardless.

"All day battery life" for something that lasts all day under normal use isnt spin. Apple has been saying that since the M1 and no one has really pushed back against it.

Which until they announce them, you won’t know! And by then, the M5’s will be pulled from Apple stores

There are many places I will be able to buy an M5-Pro MBP after Apple stops selling them as a new item.

 

[Madonepro]

You don't get to claim mansplaining when no one knows you're a woman, that's just lazy

I get to claim, whatever I want to claim, as long as it does not breach the appropriate rules of the place I am claiming said remark. Definition of ManSplain - (of a man) explain (something) to someone, typically a woman, in a manner regarded as condescending or patronizing. Note typically, but not exclusive too.