The Touch Bar always struck me as a solution in search of a problem. Without widespread adoption across a majority of apps it wasn’t going anywhere.
It’s not like I’m in love with hardware function keys either. There are only a couple of apps that have ingrained their use of function keys into my muscle memory. Other than those rare cases I rarely touch any of the other function keys.
The Escape key on the other hand is permanently burned into muscle memory. Losing the Escape key would be like losing a body appendage.
I guess I’m saying that I see function keys (other than Escape) as a vestigial keyboard artifact that’s survived from the CPM, DOS, and VT220 terminal days. If they went away I wouldn’t miss them very much. When the Touch Bar came along and didn’t really add any more universal utility than something I’m willing to live without … I’m not going to miss it either, despite the fact that it was kind of flashy and cool.
I admire Apple for trying to put that chunk of keyboard real estate to better use, but it was an experiment that didn’t succeed. Going back to the legacy hardware keys was a safe and non controversial move until they come up with another approach, or just punt on the whole concept for the foreseeable future.
Spot on review! I just picked up one of these new laptops and love it!
Not only was HDMI with dongles a royal pain, it was almost impossible to find a dongle that could deliver true 4K60 444 video. Most defaulted to 4K30 for me. Now I can get full 4K60 HDMI.
The new MagSafe design is pure genius: The power adapter itself is USBC, and comes with a USCB to MagSafe cable. AWESOME!!! If I lose the MagSafe cable, or if it gets damaged, I don’t need to buy a whole new brick, or even another MagSafe. I can just use a USBC cable and my Mac keeps going. Or, buy the new cable and keep the old adapter, because the cable is detachable from the charger! And I can still plug in a powered dock or standard USBC charger to any of the three USBC ports if I want.
I’ve been on the road without my MagSafe charger before, and finding a replacement was inconvenient and expensive. Apple put the customer first with this design, and I appreciate it.
And the keyboard!! OMG, a real keyboard. How can you not fall in love with this laptop? Great job, Apple!
The additional ports, legacy ports, and MagSafe don’t really matter to me when I’m looking for a personal computer for home use. Using dongles and docks on a notebook computer that stays close to home is not a big deal at all.
On the other hand, for work use in a corporate environment the MagSafe and legacy ports like HDMI and SD are still kind of “expected” for office and development productivity and their omission was sometimes seen as a negative mark and conveyed a certain sense that the machines weren’t really well suited for “real/corporate work” environments other than PowerPoint engineers. Heck, in some industries “work” laptops were expected to have RS-232 serial ports for many years beyond these ports being featured on consumer focused laptops.
My take is that Apple is simply trying to gain marketshare in the corporate sector where cutting edge design, aesthetics, and fashion statements don’t hold as much sway as practicality, bottom line ROI, and as a fundamental tool to enable productivity workers to get stuff done with as little friction as possible.
Nobody is going to feature a Dell Latitude in all of its plasticy glory as a backdrop in a flashy tv show or movie, but Dell is going to sell boatloads of these things to corporate customers. Apple wants a piece of this action.
I agree. The culture in the Windows world is nobody will be left behind unlike here there are many self-serving naysaying people. The IT department will try hard to prevent any complaint to happen. Imagine a VP prepared a PowerPoint on a MacBook to be given in a meeting. At the meeting, he needs a special HDMI cable. Are we going to expect the VP has it with him? Imagine the IT guy trying to find one.
The Touch Bar always struck me as a solution in search of a problem. Without widespread adoption across a majority of apps it wasn’t going anywhere.
It’s not like I’m in love with hardware function keys either. There are only a couple of apps that have ingrained their use of function keys into my muscle memory. Other than those rare cases I rarely touch any of the other function keys.
The Escape key on the other hand is permanently burned into muscle memory. Losing the Escape key would be like losing a body appendage.
I guess I’m saying that I see function keys (other than Escape) as a vestigial keyboard artifact that’s survived from the CPM, DOS, and VT220 terminal days. If they went away I wouldn’t miss them very much. When the Touch Bar came along and didn’t really add any more universal utility than something I’m willing to live without … I’m not going to miss it either, despite the fact that it was kind of flashy and cool.
I admire Apple for trying to put that chunk of keyboard real estate to better use, but it was an experiment that didn’t succeed. Going back to the legacy hardware keys was a safe and non controversial move until they come up with another approach, or just punt on the whole concept for the foreseeable future.
I capture screen shots often. The new function keys should make this task easier. I never use the esc key, I do not know when it is needed.
The original iMac was a hit 23 years ago in spite of the hockey puck mouse. It's not like Ive wasn't making some boners all along the way really, but his designs still won hearts.
The Touch Bar always struck me as a solution in search of a problem. Without widespread adoption across a majority of apps it wasn’t going anywhere.
It’s not like I’m in love with hardware function keys either. There are only a couple of apps that have ingrained their use of function keys into my muscle memory. Other than those rare cases I rarely touch any of the other function keys.
The Escape key on the other hand is permanently burned into muscle memory. Losing the Escape key would be like losing a body appendage.
I guess I’m saying that I see function keys (other than Escape) as a vestigial keyboard artifact that’s survived from the CPM, DOS, and VT220 terminal days. If they went away I wouldn’t miss them very much. When the Touch Bar came along and didn’t really add any more universal utility than something I’m willing to live without … I’m not going to miss it either, despite the fact that it was kind of flashy and cool.
I admire Apple for trying to put that chunk of keyboard real estate to better use, but it was an experiment that didn’t succeed. Going back to the legacy hardware keys was a safe and non controversial move until they come up with another approach, or just punt on the whole concept for the foreseeable future.
It’s a nice addition that didn’t got the support it deserved.
I was shocked to see the new MacBook Pro. It really looks fat. Heavy.
Some of that extra volume is for internal airflow. The larger the airflow volume the less the fans have to work, saving battery life.
Still no bigger than older Retinas. I think people also exaggerate the thickness mainly because the change of its look. You don’t have round bottoms anymore and the sidewall is twice as thick.
Now thinner doesn’t necessarily means hotter, most notably servers, though that’s way too loud. The current gen simply have larger fans, which also means larger heatsinks, and thanks to the SoC design, you have a symmetrical layout so both side will get optimal airflow when needed. Retina 15” most likely less than 80W combined where the M1 16” will be over 120W.
I really miss the touch bar and I found it a lot more useful than the function keys. Had the touch bar been included in this MBP, it would have been the perfect machine.
Apple would make some folk happy by also adding back in the optical drive and a VGA port. That is not reason to do it. Apple has always led the way with adopting new standards, dropping current ones and in doing so dragged their customers and the rest of the industry with them. However, the extra heft and size of the the 2021 MBP is more about having industry-leading performance/battery life ratios slipped under the cover of putting back some legacy ports.
This has nothing to do with Jony Ive. Intel forced Apple to go minimalistic because of the generous heat it produces. Give it more enclosure it would retain more heat. Now that Intel has gone, with Apple Silicon you can make it as large as you want because the heat is minimal.
By adding MagSafe,HDMI, and the card reader back Apple insured success because many like I have held out upgrading.
Of course this also leaves open the question if Apple will ever go to touch screens now that they dropped POS TouchBar (touchID is great).
Touch screen does not make creating information or browsing information more efficient. That is a task that should be left with iPads. I saw a video that said iPad is a very good accessory to the new MacBook Pros.
False argument
It's not a question of "efficiency". It's a matter of functionality: without a touch screen (and pencil) there are necessary functions MacBooks are incapable of performing. It's like a 2 seat automobile without a trunk: it can look great and go fast -- just don't try carrying more than one person much less a bag of golf clubs.
The issue and the problem was essentially one of ideology.
Ideology can be a valuable guidepost. But, when it becomes the sole criteria to the exclusion of reality it becomes dangerous.
In this case, the ideology was "Sleek, thin and light minimalist design" -- computer as a form of art.
The reality it excluded was functionality. People may be attracted to the great looking design, but they are buying a laptop for the tasks and jobs it can perform. It's not a work of art, it's a tool.
Ive's ideology of minimalist design had always been tempered and balanced by Steve and his realization that a product's job was to make people's lives better while looking great. Under Steve Macs were both a tool and a work of art. But, when he passed, that balance was lost.
I just replaced my 2019 MBP 16.0 2.4GHZ 8C/32GB/5500M/2TB with a 2021 MBP 16 M1Max/64GB/2TB.
This may sound silly to most but my primary motivation beside the performance boost was to have a MBP that I could connect to my 2 LG 5K displays w/o having to hear the fans run constantly. The 5500M must have been one seriously inefficient GPU b/c the fans would constantly run when doing nothing. Now I finally have peace and quiet like the older MBP use to be.
What I don't like is the style and weight. The 2019 was slightly thinner but besides that the edges were angled up to give it a nice look. Now I have a large slab of aluminum that reminds me of early MBP. My Leveno ThinkPad has more style than this.
As for the MagSafe, HDMI and SD ports they are completely useless for ME. Myself and everyone else who has had a MBP for the last couple of years have the dongles we need.
The only reason for HDMI is to attached a cheaper and/or lower quality display or TV which make sense for a Mac Mini or MBA but a not MBP. We might think it useful for a video producer but the port is limited to 60Hz and does not support 120Hz. So even that use case doesn't fly as a port for reviewing video.
For ME I charge my MBP using the LG 5K over Thunderbolt so the MagSafe isn't useful and fast charging at 100W vs. 140W is not a benefit for me. So that cable will stay in the box b/c it's a specialized cable that I don't need to be carrying around when I travel. I'd rather carry a high quality UBC cable that can charge at 100W and carry data, oh, right I still have my 2019 USB C power/data cable.
The SD port doesn't support newer cards and for Professional photography SD isn't even used anymore.
Oh, I've never used function keys and the touch bar looked better and at least provided some functionality.
This has nothing to do with Jony Ive. Intel forced Apple to go minimalistic because of the generous heat it produces. Give it more enclosure it would retain more heat. Now that Intel has gone, with Apple Silicon you can make it as large as you want because the heat is minimal.
The Touch Bar always struck me as a solution in search of a problem. Without widespread adoption across a majority of apps it wasn’t going anywhere.
It’s not like I’m in love with hardware function keys either. There are only a couple of apps that have ingrained their use of function keys into my muscle memory. Other than those rare cases I rarely touch any of the other function keys.
The Escape key on the other hand is permanently burned into muscle memory. Losing the Escape key would be like losing a body appendage.
I guess I’m saying that I see function keys (other than Escape) as a vestigial keyboard artifact that’s survived from the CPM, DOS, and VT220 terminal days. If they went away I wouldn’t miss them very much. When the Touch Bar came along and didn’t really add any more universal utility than something I’m willing to live without … I’m not going to miss it either, despite the fact that it was kind of flashy and cool.
I admire Apple for trying to put that chunk of keyboard real estate to better use, but it was an experiment that didn’t succeed. Going back to the legacy hardware keys was a safe and non controversial move until they come up with another approach, or just punt on the whole concept for the foreseeable future.
Agreed - it was never even fully supported on all the laptops, much less on desktops. What was a developer supposed to do? I'll miss being able to fast forward through ads on YouTube, but that's about it. The other problem I've been having lately is my Touch Bar will go black and non-functional, meaning I don't have an escape 'key' at all, forcing a reboot. At least the function keys were consistently functional.
I was shocked to see the new MacBook Pro. It really looks fat. Heavy.
Some of that extra volume is for internal airflow. The larger the airflow volume the less the fans have to work, saving battery life.
Still no bigger than older Retinas. I think people also exaggerate the thickness mainly because the change of its look. You don’t have round bottoms anymore and the sidewall is twice as thick.
Now thinner doesn’t necessarily means hotter, most notably servers, though that’s way too loud. The current gen simply have larger fans, which also means larger heatsinks, and thanks to the SoC design, you have a symmetrical layout so both side will get optimal airflow when needed. Retina 15” most likely less than 80W combined where the M1 16” will be over 120W.
The overall size hasn't changed that much, it's just apple was quite adroit at visual illusions via tapered edges, etc. The new machines are thicker at the edges making the difference appear greater than it is. of course that allows smaller bezels and a higher resolution camera (and hopefully FaceID in the future,) so we're getting something for the loss of an illusion. Personally, I'll take it.
Not only was HDMI with dongles a royal pain, it was almost impossible to find a dongle that could deliver true 4K60 444 video. Most defaulted to 4K30 for me. Now I can get full 4K60 HDMI.
This was definitely a problem with the old dongle system. Some worked fine, some did not. Many had inconsistent capabilities, weren't recognized by the computer, quit working, etc. By having the HDMI port built in you ensure function and compatibility.
This has nothing to do with Jony Ive. Intel forced Apple to go minimalistic because of the generous heat it produces. Give it more enclosure it would retain more heat. Now that Intel has gone, with Apple Silicon you can make it as large as you want because the heat is minimal.
You have it backwards. You're confusing heat with temperature. If you go minimalistic on a device that generates a lot of heat, that heat will be 'concentrated' on a smaller volume, causing temperature to be higher, and it is temperature that damages internal components. The key is to think in terms of heat dissipation not heat retention. A larger enclosed volume (all other things equal) would have better heat dissipation especially if a lot of that enclosed volume is empty space that can be used for airflow to cool the internal components.
RE HDMI, I'm guessing it's more about Hotel rooms then it is office environments. Every hotel room TV on the planet would have HDMI. Most corporate offices would have a slew of dongles in each conference room already. Shoot, they'd probably still have VGA adapters too!
In case anyone is confused about what the escape key is for, it's used extensively in AutoCAD and other Autodesk products. But let's get rid of it, like the HDMI port, SD Card slot, etc, because you don't use it.
I’m sure many will disagree but frankly I hate the new MacBooks.
I haven’t missed HDMI, or SD cards at all, in fact the addition on them takes away from practicability as everything I use is usb c/thunderbolt due to how convenient it is. I’ll now need an adaptors because of the removal of the forth thunderbolt port, which is bloody annoying. For those wondering my usb c/thunderbolt setup daisychained whilst travelling or working from home looks like; power and/or external monitor, external ssd, 10g Ethernet, iPhone charging, iPad tethering/external screen, Jabra dongle for audio or usb c headphones if in a high RF interference area plus charge - I could use Bluetooth but loose functionality, charge mouse, usb c to displayport (this daisychains unlike hdmi) for external video, GoPro connection, osmo gimbal charge, Logitech external webcam, so I’m short everything is usb c / thunderbolt which daisychains - with enough power, removing a port and making the device thicker doesn’t help with my mobility and yes I could remove the sdxc card from the GoPro get an sd adaptor and use that and yes I could get a hdmi cable and change the routing so my monitors don’t pass through my external drive but for what? This is a step backwards to legacy ports for people stuck in the past and not wanting to change in my opinion but aware the masses disagree and I’m likely proven wrong. Hard to say about the notch until I use one but I like having the screen space and not needing to use it than not have it in the first place. People would likely say the same with ports but this has impacted on the size and thunderbolt ports so becomes an issue for me.
TouchBar I’ll miss but didn’t use it overly heavily so can understand it’s removal but it was great for improving my workflows.
For me this new MacBook Pro, as an entire package, is about as good as I could ever have wished for. Personally I wanted to have gigabit ethernet back too, but you can't have it all I guess.
I expect this 16" monster will last me for a good few years. I don't miss my 2019 16" one bit.
At home I can just plug into a dock and off I go, but when visiting offices/other locations dongle town was an absolute pain in the arse!
Why did Apple back track on the MacBook Pro? Well, customers kept telling them that they were not buying a new MacBook if it does not have the ports they need and a keyboard they can type on. Why don't you ask why Apple did not listen to customers before they made the previous MacBook? Secrecy is killing this company. You shouldn't have to release a product in order to figure out what customers want.
Comments
Not only was HDMI with dongles a royal pain, it was almost impossible to find a dongle that could deliver true 4K60 444 video. Most defaulted to 4K30 for me. Now I can get full 4K60 HDMI.
The new MagSafe design is pure genius: The power adapter itself is USBC, and comes with a USCB to MagSafe cable. AWESOME!!! If I lose the MagSafe cable, or if it gets damaged, I don’t need to buy a whole new brick, or even another MagSafe. I can just use a USBC cable and my Mac keeps going. Or, buy the new cable and keep the old adapter, because the cable is detachable from the charger! And I can still plug in a powered dock or standard USBC charger to any of the three USBC ports if I want.
Now thinner doesn’t necessarily means hotter, most notably servers, though that’s way too loud. The current gen simply have larger fans, which also means larger heatsinks, and thanks to the SoC design, you have a symmetrical layout so both side will get optimal airflow when needed. Retina 15” most likely less than 80W combined where the M1 16” will be over 120W.
This may sound silly to most but my primary motivation beside the performance boost was to have a MBP that I could connect to my 2 LG 5K displays w/o having to hear the fans run constantly. The 5500M must have been one seriously inefficient GPU b/c the fans would constantly run when doing nothing. Now I finally have peace and quiet like the older MBP use to be.
What I don't like is the style and weight. The 2019 was slightly thinner but besides that the edges were angled up to give it a nice look. Now I have a large slab of aluminum that reminds me of early MBP. My Leveno ThinkPad has more style than this.
As for the MagSafe, HDMI and SD ports they are completely useless for ME. Myself and everyone else who has had a MBP for the last couple of years have the dongles we need.
The only reason for HDMI is to attached a cheaper and/or lower quality display or TV which make sense for a Mac Mini or MBA but a not MBP. We might think it useful for a video producer but the port is limited to 60Hz and does not support 120Hz. So even that use case doesn't fly as a port for reviewing video.
For ME I charge my MBP using the LG 5K over Thunderbolt so the MagSafe isn't useful and fast charging at 100W vs. 140W is not a benefit for me. So that cable will stay in the box b/c it's a specialized cable that I don't need to be carrying around when I travel. I'd rather carry a high quality UBC cable that can charge at 100W and carry data, oh, right I still have my 2019 USB C power/data cable.
The SD port doesn't support newer cards and for Professional photography SD isn't even used anymore.
Oh, I've never used function keys and the touch bar looked better and at least provided some functionality.
Yes, we have stepped back but not in a good way.
The overall size hasn't changed that much, it's just apple was quite adroit at visual illusions via tapered edges, etc. The new machines are thicker at the edges making the difference appear greater than it is. of course that allows smaller bezels and a higher resolution camera (and hopefully FaceID in the future,) so we're getting something for the loss of an illusion. Personally, I'll take it.
This was definitely a problem with the old dongle system. Some worked fine, some did not. Many had inconsistent capabilities, weren't recognized by the computer, quit working, etc. By having the HDMI port built in you ensure function and compatibility.