The new and less "pro" MacBook Pros

Communities Blog
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I think it goes without saying that Apple has been neglecting its pro audience, but I think these machines are an absolute exaggeration and embodiment of that statement. I will now go into why and what reasoning and I have for that statement

Ports

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4 thunderbolt enabled USB 3.1 Type C ports and a headphone jack.

I think this is shit.

Lets talk audience for these machines that Apple keeps talking like its appealing too. A lot of these users are Video and Photography professionals. People that shoot video, using cameras with SD Cards, Desktop SSDs, or proprietary SSD media. Find me a way to plug ANY of that media into a 2016 MacBook pro without an adapter. Frankly, it just doesn't exist yet.

Have fun plugging in your iPhone 7 without buying a special USB Type C to Lightning cable

The cheapest USB C to Lightning cable you can get is $25 from Apple HAHAHAH

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I'm going to make a bold statement about Charging the laptop via USB Type C. I think its utter shit. You have essentially 4 (or 2) ports capable of data on these machines, but if you want to charge the thing you now get 3 (or 1). Say you want an external card reader, an external hard drive, a mouse, and a keyboard (all via adapters of course). Well, your going to have to axe one now because your laptop is on 3% and you can't charge with all of those things plugged in.

These are pro machines, but fuck now you need docking stations and adapters out the ass to use them. Say your a photographer thats using an SD card based camera with a wireless mouse, not too unreasonable right? That's easy on the 2015 pro, just plug in the usb dongle and stick that SD card in there. If you don't have two separate adapters now, you can't do both of those things. UGH.

Also, I thought Apple hated Headphone jacks?

The 13 inch Pro

The 13 inch macbook pro, is not at all pro. The top of the line 13 inch macbook pro, isn't even a quad core processor. Your stuck with a dual core I7 at maximum. Let me also mention its an extra $200 to go from 8GB ram to 16GB, which is ridiculous.

The model with the traditional function keys and only 2 USB Type C ports is a fucking joke with a pro tag. Come the fuck on. Enough said.

The 15 inch Pro

I think its shit that you can't configure 32GB of ram with these machines. 8k Support just came to Final Cut and 4k is becoming the standard for video professionals, and damn your going to eat up that 16GB fast with a 4k or god forbid an 8k workflow. I heard that 32GB can't be done because of power draw, which I sincerely hope is an Apple fanboy saying and not an official Apple stance. That's a fucking joke.

Price

Ridiculous. Would be justified if these were proper work machines and not an excuse for one. Really only the 15 inch models deserve the pro name, and still its a tad much although not as offensive as the 13's pricing.

Try adding more storage. Go now. You'll cry.

Rumor based complaining

If the power button that's integrated into the touch bar breaks, HAHHAHHAHHAH good luck with that. If you know anything about replacing a iPhone with Touch ID's home button, you'll know why this is fucked.

Update

The SSD's have been confirmed to be socketed, BUT, they're 100% proprietary. The connector, is aids.

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The New SSD in the Pros.

I want Apple to not be like this. Its only a matter of time time until other manufactures will copy apple, and its going to be a rough time for prosumers.

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Great post.

I have a 2015 MBP, 2.5GHz i7, 16Gb, 512Gb SSD and the ATi 370M card. This is my only computer as I like to have everything with me at all times (software and files) opposed to swapping between two systems - I also work away a lot.

I've personally been waiting on this machine for a while and to say I'm disappointed is a bit of an understatement.

The MagSafe charger that has saved me a few times - gone.
SD card reader that gets used daily - gone.
Logitech USB dongle for my MX Master - adapter req.
Display port cable to my monitor - adapter req.
Ext. TB2 RAID and portable USB hard drives - adapter req.
iPhone - New cable required

So I'm looking at £3329 for a MBP with top processor, GPU and 1TB of storage. Add on the required dongles/docks/adapters and that is pretty much what I would expect to pay for a good zBook or Precision not a MacBook Pro running consumer grade parts...

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Excluding price which is always expensive. It kinda sounds more like a chicken and egg problem. 3 ports is maybe to few, the older gen had 4 + an arguable SD slot (not even going to acknowledge a hdmi), so it does at times have one less port.

But im pretty much every way this is an upgrade from the previous gen as far as i can tell. On the Type-C side.. someone has to start somewhere.

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I had an alternative port layout that I meant to include in the original post. I had wanted:

Right Side

  • Magsafe charger
  • 2 Usb Type C 3.1 Thunderbolt

Legt Side

  • Headphone jack
  • 2 Usb Type A 3.1
  • SD card reader

That way you can still get a couple of those neato thunderbolt ports, but you still get the legacy A type USB and SD card reader that people want and need. Yeah maybe it has to be 3mm thicker. I don't think pro users are going to care about that little size difference. I still think Type-C charging is a bitch. Really its more of a problem on the 2 Type C port version of the 13 inch pro, but then again, that machine is a glorified facebook browser with a dual core and 8gb ram.

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Since Caveman and all of you guys covered all that's wrong with this concept I'm going to say what I think about the touchbar.
I think it's a pretty cool feature but it's useless as a supercar with no wheels: makes a lot of sound but doesen't go anywhere.
I've thought about this scenario and please correct me if I'm going crazy: I'm working on something on my notebook, looking at the screen, one hand on the mouse and the other on the keyboard for shortcuts and stuff. Why would I ever stop looking at the giant highres screen directly in front of me to go and move something on a tiny tiny screen? If I'm editing something I scroll the time line or sliders with mouse that's surely a lot more precise than my finger and a capacitive touchscreen. Also those virtual buttons screw with the muscolar memory that allows people to memorize pattern movements to actuate something without even looking at it. You can make the argument that you can look at that tiny screen with you peripheral view. I'll agree with that but the peripheral view is not as good as being focused on the screen and can't be used to read stuff off of it or do precise scrolling and moving things.
One more thing I think it's crazy is the keyboard: the force touch on the iPhones and iPads has more key travel than those keys. On top of being almost flush with the chassi they're almost flat so I think makes the typing on them even worse. This race to make something marketed for professional users thinner and thinner is just plain dumb.

My score for the touchbar on top: IGN 10/10 any hipster would buy to make anyone know he's the coolest kid on the block!
Ports: are you f****ing kidding me Apple? Again? The 12" Mac didn't teach you anything?
Price: sell half of your organs on the black market if you have and average income and family to buy one.

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I think I have a slightly less negative view on the touch bar. I think its a more useful pro feature than a touch screen. Taking your hands off the keyboard to go to the touch pad or the screen is a farther reach than to the touch bar. Think about this; your an editor adding captions to a video. You have to type a lot so your hands are on the keyboard, but now you need to advance the video to the next bit so you can add more captions. Being able to interact with the timeline in touch bar could be more efficient than using the mouse for some editors.

I know I'm reaching, but I think there are at least some non-gimmicky uses for the touch bar. That being said, yeah its not ground breaking, although I also personally think that a touch screen laptop is equally pointless at times. I've got an HP Spectre X360, one of IMO the best convertable laptops out there right now. It seamlessly transitions and the touch screen is great, but I only ever use it with the pen input and even that has fallen off for me.

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Sure, that's an interesting point of view. But I'm still skeptical about the precision that guarantees that thing over a mouse. Touchscreen on standard notebooks (14-17" notebook) I agree is a pretty useless feature. A touchscreen display makes sense on convertible or those Lenovo Yoga things for example.
I still feel that the touchbar is something that just looks shiny and new but only a really really small amount of actual users will get use to it and use it on a daily bases for they're work.

On a general note Apple wants to push too much the foot on the gas because can do it, but I think it's not a good move. Tech needs to evolve at a reasonable pace dictated by us users and not only by companies.

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This is the age of the iPhone and iPad man, everybody's a touch screen expert :>

Eh, I guess for some users maybe. Its not my cup of tea on the Spectre X360 though which is a yoga style 13 inch machine. I don't find many uses where using it as a tablet is better than using it as a laptop tbh.

Agreed, there is no way the majority of people will use this a ton. Maybe for spotify or itunes controls.

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Sure, can't agree more. But the precision is also not all the hands of whoever use the touchscreen. Depends also on the "resolution" of the touchscreen matrix itself. I'm using on and off an iPad Mini 2 and, if the touchbar on the Mac Pro is anything like that, people will have a really hard time scrubbing timelines precisely.

Side note: wow, they implemented the touch ID with proprietary silicon in it to make it work. Yeah, something never seen on a notebook (sarcasm). My HP has a fingerprint reader that has never ever missed a touch (it's one of those that require to sroll the finger on). Surely useful but fingerprint readers on notebook are nothing new dear Apple.

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This WAS a thing for a while:

http://www.cultofmac.com/410809/ios-9-bricks-iphones-with-unauthorized-homebutton-repairs/

Apple apologized and released a patch to un-brick phones, but I wouldn't feel very confident if in getting my MacBook pro with Touch ID repaired but anyone besides apple with this precedent once being a thing.

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It's spelt Louis Rossmann. Aside from that, everything about this post is true, and I completely agree with you on this. These new Macbooks are going to be shit. I'm thinking of buying a second gen i5 Macbook Pro now.

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At least Apple putted 4 ports and not 1 fcking port.

Yeah, I never understood the thinner = better philosophy and how it's taken to such extremes worst of all, it's bad enough I carry a couple of USB Hubs and a couple of external microSD cards since my SSD isn't upgradable (it is, but it's so ridiculously hard and risky, it's not worth) with my Surface Pro, I can't imagine what the hell I have to carry with this thing.

People normally don't buy Apple for professionalism, they buy it for brand name really (and it's Operating System). Wouldn't be surprised if Apple told us that we should download more RAM.

I have people calling me Microsoft fanboy for comparing their hardware to Apple's, even though I HAAAAATE that Microsoft turned their OS into an Anal Probe.

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Bringing back the touch bar mouse.

GG I'll buy it 8 million dollars

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EDIT:
I genuinely do not have a USB 3.1 Type C device at home. So I would have to buy an adapter for my mouse, external HDD, Xbox controller, Flash card reader....everything. This is the most useless computer made right after the Macbook Air.

I will get more out of My £250 Thoshiba laptop from 2011 than this overpriced turd painted in silver.

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Getting rid of MagSafe is a terrible idea. Just awful. Why invent decent tech to help protect expensive machines that need to be attached to a wall socket and then get rid of it purely for the sake of looking cool and using just USB type-c. The touchbar shit also annoys me. Sometimes, yes, people do use that escape button and having a physical button when programming is kind of important. Other buttons I would like to be permanently there as well, but I guess whatever they want to make it more "cool" and less functional. As is their way.

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Wait...what?? does the silver turd not even have an Esc button?

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Nope

Thanks @SpaceCat for the grammar catch :>

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Wow I... don't even know what to say anymore.

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S O F T W A R E B O Y S

Yeah. Fuck this.

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Well... Apple never invented this... small appliances had this feature for years long before Apple even thought of using it and calling it their own.

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